Camping

We ended this past week with a camping adventure!  Our first of the year, the girls were so excited, as were we.  We spent Friday night through Sunday afternoon at Muskegon State Park Campground with the Sebrights, Uncle Andy and Jay & Becci.  It was a perfect weekend for camping, with temperatures in the 70's and tons of sun.

The kids spent most of their time either climbing and playing on the sand dune backed up to our camp site or riding their bikes in front of our camp site.  Alora tried her hand at tree climbing several times over the weekend, often getting "stuck" and requiring someone to talk or get her back down, but it didn't stop her from going back up another.

 Tierney occupied herself easily, tagging along when she could or entertaining herself when she could not.

Ezri just loved to climb up and down the dune, and many games were played fueled by her imagination. 

We rarely saw all of the kids except when it was time to eat.

On Saturday, we got in a group bike ride, almost 3 miles.  Ezri rode her bike the whole way with no complaints!  Alora fell asleep in the bike trailer behind Daddy while Tierney chatted away and dug into my back pockets behind me in her seat.  This was the first time we had ever tried to take all of our bikes along, and we had so much fun!

Of course, we enjoyed some S'mores too!

 Saturday evening provided us the opportunity to have kids in bed and sleeping before the sun set, so the adults spent some time on top of the hill beside our campsite (within sight and hearing distance of the kids) just enjoying the beauty.

 Sunday, the kids returned to their play for much of the morning.

 Then we headed down to the beach to check out the lake up close.  The water was much too cold for swimming, but Tierney got to put her hands in thanks to Uncle Andy.  After her brought her back to the beach, she immediately stuck her hands in the sand to get them dirty so he would have to bring her back to the water to dip her hands in and rinse them off.  She repeated this several times before her fun was ended with an "all done".  She did not take to that very well and threw quite a fit that took several re-directs to finally distract her from returning to the water.

 The kids enjoyed exploring the beach, walking up and down, making all kids of discoveries.

 Alora and Daddy took a little walk and then spent some time building sand castles together for a while.

 While Tierney discovered and collected lady bugs on a stick.

 And Ezri found and crafted a "pirate boat"

 Before we left the beach, the kids helped Tony toss a big log into the water.  They had been tossing sticks and debris in, calling them ships.  So, this log was a giant ship :)

 Then the big kids had a little fun with a chair on the beach, at the expense of Kathy's lap!

 On our way back to camp, we checked out some standing water between dunes.  It was filled with tadpoles, which really excited and intrigued our girls.

Alora wanted so badly to catch and hold one...

 So she did!

 We had so much fun camping it was a little sad to have to go home.  But, return home we did - with half the beach full of sand in our hair, clothes, shoes, blankets, car, etc.  Sand everywhere!  Worth every grain, though, for the memories we shared.