Happy Independence Day! Ok, so yes, I know that was like 12 days ago, but hey, better late than never right? We had a fantastic 4th of July holiday! Both my husband and I had the whole week off from work, so we packed ourselves up and headed for a 4 day camping trip in lower Michigan at this lovely park called the Metamora-Hadley State Recreation Area. The campgrounds were lovely and nicely shaded. There were some nice hiking trails and a nice beach there as well. And the best part - my husband's brother and sister-in-law joined us for our camping trip! It was a really fun time.
Here we are getting ready to hit the road. My sweet husband was such a dear to drag all of the stuff out to the car and then load it into our roof top carrier while I chase Little Bear around.
The campground was about a 5 hour drive away and most of that driving was in Canada since its faster to go through Canada than around Lake Erie through Ohio. About 20 minutes into Michigan though, we had to stop and let Little Bear run around for a few minutes. He was quite happy to have grass under foot and not be stuck in the car seat for a few minutes.
We made it to camp in great time and went about setting up camp! Little Bear was quite the helper when it came to setting up the tent.
The 4 days we spent at the park flew by. We spent time at the beach splashing in the lake.
Oh and we spent more time at the beach building sandcastles and moving sand from one pile to another. We took Little Bear on his first canoe ride too! He spent 20 of the 30 minutes we were in the canoe expressing his dislike for being cooped up in a canoe....
We spent time hanging around camp as Little Bear played with his dump truck and red wagon.
We even went on several walks around the campground and a short hike through the woods. (Disclaimer: these two pictures are the one two we took where Little Bear wasn't crying as he wasn't too keen on the whole hiking thing.)
On one side of the campground, there was a small pier that stuck out into the lake. Early one morning Little Bear and I took a walk over to it to enjoy the early morning stillness over the lake. And we also spent more time playing with the red wagon around camp (pretty sure you can figure out Little Bear's favorite thing to do around camp by now).
I also learned just how fantastic an old, season, cast-iron frying pan can be for cooking over an open fire! We had some of the best french toast, scrambled eggs and sausage I've ever had.
On the second day of our camping trip, our air mattress sprung a sizeable leak and since it has served us well on many camping trips over the last 4 years, we decided to retire it and get a new one. While at the store, Little Bear was enthralled with the mechanical pony (which only took 5 pennies to operate!). After much time spent at the beach and exploring, Little Bear just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.
Little Bear's favorite passtimes at the beach also included running away from daddy and to mommy and stealing all of daddy's ice cream.
All too soon, it was time to saw goodbye and head home.
If only every day could be spent camping.
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