Port Sanilac

July 3rd through July 13th, 2008

Thursday, July 3rd - 71/50°, Mostly Sunny

    Tara worked this morning, so the kids and I spent our time putting the final items in the trailer and getting the house ready to leave. Dad, Mom, and Steve showed up with the truck and several of their items around 12:30pm, so we got to work transferring items at that time. We got everything moved from the truck and into the camper, hooked the truck up and were ready to roll by 2:00pm. Dad, Mom, Tyler, Drew, and I hit the road around that time while Tara, Samantha, Jayden, and Steve stayed behind (Tara had a hair appointment at 3:00pm that she was unable to reschedule). We made a quick pit-stop at McDonalds for lunch before heading on to the expressway.

    We had a smooth leisurely drive, making only one stop at a rest area. Since we took Drew with us but no change of clothes or diaper bag for him we figured we better make sure he tried to go to the bathroom since this was his first “long” trip since we started potty-training him.

    We arrived at the campground around 4:30pm and checked in both campsites. We parked our camper on site #291 backwards so that our camper doors would face each other once Dad and Mom set theirs up. I was amazed at the amount of “help” we were offered as we studied the best spot to park and still make all of the hook-ups. I know that the help was offered with good intentions, but the one lady in particular who pointed out that we parked backwards was particularly annoying. We did manage to pick a spot that worked well for us (note to self, check into another section of sewer hose in the future) and got the camper leveled out.

    Once we had electric, water, and sewer Dad and I headed into Deckerville to Rick & Shirley’s to pick up Dad & Mom’s camper to bring out. We had a brief chat with Rick while we loaded up the firewood before we hooked up and headed to the campground once again. This time it was much easier for us to pick the spot to park because it was parked in the proper direction, of course. We got it leveled and everyone went to work transferring items from our camper to theirs. It was shortly after this that Tara arrived with the girls and Steve. After everything was transferred we started the process of organizing the insides of the campers and getting the outsides set up the way we wanted.

    By this time it was getting too late to start a campfire to cook on, so we decided to take advantage of the “Campfire Pizza Café” that the campground has and ordered two pizzas to be delivered to our campsite. It took a little long to get to us, but it was hot and tasted pretty good once it did.

    Once dinner was finished and the dishes were done (paper plates and plastic cups are easy to take care of) Dad & Mom took Steve in to town to stay with Grandma. Tara & I took the kids into the camper to get everyone ready for bed for the night. The final TV went off around 11:15pm tonight.

Friday, July 4th - 68/45°, Sunny

    Boy, does it get chilly at night! With the outside low of 45° and the furnace not on in the trailer, it did get a little cool while we slept. Drew also woke up in the middle of the night screaming, so that was fun for us. He ended up in our bed with me while Tara went down to the bunk end to sleep with Jayden, who was sleeping on the step when we got Drew down from the top bunk. We did end up falling back asleep, only to be woken at 8:00am by Tyler & Sam talking to each other (they slept on the pulled out couch together). I tried to get them to turn the TV on quietly, but that didn’t work too well. Drew woke up shortly afterward, although Tara and Jay did manage to sleep until 9:00am.

    We didn’t have a big breakfast today, instead feasting on cereal and bagels. While working on the outside I received a phone call that showed up as “P” on the caller ID. Of course, per my policy I didn’t answer, figuring that if it was important I would have a message waiting for me soon. Sure enough, I did this time – it was our friend Jeff calling to see if we were planning to meet them in Port Austin for the Fourth of July parade (the same one we met them at last year while we camped in Caseville). While I was explaining to Tara about the call, her phone rang with a call from “P”. By this time we had a good idea who it was, so she answered.

    We decided to go ahead and meet them, so that meant that we had to hurry up and get ready to go. A couple of quick showers later and we were on the road (after also getting dressed, of course). It took a good 50 minutes to get there, but we managed to arrive just before the 1:00pm start. Jeff, Becky, Thomas, and Andrew were there along with the rest of Becky’s family. They were kind enough to save us a spot along the curb, and even brought along a blanket for us to sit on. It was a long parade this year (well, at least in comparison to last years) thanks to all of the politicians, and that meant that the kids got lots of candy.

    After we said our goodbyes, we piled back into the minivan to head back south for the remainder of the day. We gave Dad & Mom a quick phone call to see if they were interested in meeting us at “William’s Inn” for the Friday night all-you-can-eat fish buffet that was mentioned to me prior to leaving for the parade. They agreed, so we made the drive towards that goal. Of course, no trip through the area would be complete without stopping at the “White Rock Roadside Park” to take pictures of the kids on the fallen tree that lies on the beach (this is something we have done for the past several years – neither of us are really sure how it became an annual tradition). When we arrived at the park the kids had fun trying out the drinking fountain, which is attached to a hand pump (if you don’t pump, you don’t drink!). Everyone smiled nicely for pictures, except Jay. She didn’t get a nap, and none of us ate lunch, so by this time she was mighty cranky. We did get a picture or two of her, but none with a smile on her face.

    Just as we were heading up the stairs from the beach, Dad & Mom arrived at the park as well. The kids wanted to walk the nature trail that is at the park, and since it was only about 10 minutes to 4:00pm I thought it would be a good opportunity to kill some time before trying to eat the buffet (no sense arriving at a buffet only to have no food on it yet). The trail wasn’t very long – just a little loop through a wooded area – so we were back on our way to the restaurant shortly.

    All eight of us ended up eating off of the buffet tonight (if you can call what Drew and Jayden ate “eating”). Dinner was good, as usual, and the service was some of the best that I can remember here. After eating, I walked outside to take some pictures of the old abandoned house (at least it looked abandoned to me, there was a for sale sign in front of it though, so maybe it wasn’t as abandoned as it appeared). There was just something about it that struck me as interesting. Once I finished up, we were on the road once again – this time we did manage to make it back it to the campground.

    Once we were back, we started and campfire and hung around for a while. My sister Erica, along with her kids Donovan and Marissa arrived a short time later, sometime around 7:00pm. The kids all ran around for a while before they started to drive us nuts. Once that began to occur, Dad and I took them up to the playground area to burn off some energy. The kids all had fun playing here, but there were so many kids running around out of control that it started to drive me crazy. There was even one little boy in his pajamas (and no shoes) who sounding like he was going to hack up a lung. Nice. I finally had enough of the madness, so we rounded up the kids and headed back to the campsite to begin winding down.

    We tried to keep things pretty mellow at the campsite – the older kids did play some ladder golf, but otherwise it was just a bunch of people sitting around. Around 9:30pm we decided to start heading inside because we were planning on attending what used to be the Fourth of July picnic at the cottage. While no longer held on the Fourth, or at the cottage, the idea is the same. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow. By the time we got everything ready inside the camper, it was 10:30 when our heads finally hit the pillow.

Saturday, July 5th - 75/45°, Sunny

    We woke up today with plans to go to what used to be known as the Gough Family Fourth of July Breakfast. It has been held at a relative’s house (Jim & Renee) for the past several years (I am not sure how long for sure, probably since the cottage was sold). We ended up leaving the campground around 10:00am to head towards Lexington and the party. We made it by 10:40am or so, just in time to finish up the breakfast that was being cooked. We enjoyed pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, cinnamon rolls, and other assorted treats.

    After eating, the kids all went to play on the variety of playthings in the yard – there was a teeter-totter, swings, and a trampoline. Once they got bored on these toys, it was time to don the swim suits. Tara ended up being the only one of us brave enough to join the kids. Tyler, Samantha, Drew, & Jayden were joined by Donovan & Marissa in the water for fun. Drew leaned in to get something near the steps once and fell in. He managed to get himself up and out without any assistance. He was alright, but he was pretty scared. Of course this was topped later on by Tyler, who was convinced that if he went down the slide that Tara and Steve would work together to catch him. Of course he held up his end of the bargain, but the adults didn’t do their part. Tyler came down, went under water, and swam to the edge. He was shaken up about having to swim so long underwater, but he did just fine swimming if he would have been able to calm down and realize what he actually did.

    Later on Tara had Drew and Jayden on a raft floating around. This was going well until she turned to do something else – this was when both kids came tumbling off the raft and into the water head first. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but thank goodness they were close to the edge so that I didn’t have to jump in when I fished them out. Both kids cried for a couple of minutes, but no harm done. Of course it wasn’t but 10 or 15 minutes later that the exact same thing happened again. Needless to say, this was the last time that the little two kids got onto the raft. The rest of the kids continued playing for a long time.

    The kids also eventually convinced Renee to let them go into the hot tub. This was when I decided to get my suit on and join them (I did briefly think about getting in the pool, but the water was way too cold to get into). Part of the reason that I had to get my suit on to get in was because Drew was not going in unless an adult went in with him. Tara was still in the pool with the bigger boys, so this became my parental duty (yeah, that’s what we’ll call it). Anyway, the hot tub felt nice and relaxing, but that too had to come to an end.

    After the kids got back into the pool and played some more, it began to become apparent that we needed to hit the road back to the campsite to work on some lunch/dinner. By the time we got everyone dressed again and gathered up our assorted things, it was 3:00pm before we got out onto the road. The drive added another 30 minutes or so to our time, meaning that it was going to be dinner we ate when we arrived.

    Once we were back at the campsite, Dad took Jayden for a walk in the stroller to see if she would fall back asleep (she fell asleep just prior to leaving the party and slept all the way home, but woke up when we got out of the van). Mom, Erica, and Tara started working on making dinner, and I started to figure out which of the “dining tents” we were going to assemble and try out (Dad & Mom had bought two since they were unsure how they would work out). The kids all found things to keep them relatively busy – the boys played with the little green army guys while the girls colored. Dad returned with a wide awake Jay, and he helped assemble the tent with me.

    We finished the tent just in time to eat. We figured out how to get two picnic tables inside and still manage to move around (actually, there is a lot of room on either side, just not enough to switch sides of the table without going outside). We had tacos for dinner tonight, which suits me just fine but is not at the top of any of the kid’s lists I am sure. I can guarantee I ate too much though!

    After dinner was finished and the dishes were pretty much all taken care of, Dad, Tara, and I took five of the kids for a bike ride. We made a nice large circle around the outside of the campground. Near the back along one side there is a trail in a wooded area that crosses over a stream that connects with the cabin area of the campground. Tara was in the lead, and she headed down the trail. This seemed like a good idea (at least I thought so, do some exploring with the kids), but the trail went down a fairly steep hill leading up to the bridge. Tara, with the trailer and Drew & Jay in it attached to her bike, and Tyler made it down the hill fine, but Sam was up next and she wasn’t slowing down at all going down. I yelled for her to hit her breaks, but it was too late by then. I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but I heard the loud thud and the screams. Right at the bottom of the hill, where the bridge starts she wiped out – at a rather high rate of speed too. I came to an almost stop and jumped off my bike and ran down to her. I picked her up to make sure she was OK – nothing broken, no major gashes, everything seemed to pass the boo-boo test. We walked our bikes across the bridge before eventually finishing our bike ride. It wasn’t until our ride home that we noticed a nice rug-burn type mark on Sam’s elbow that was bloody.

    Back at the campsite once again, we had some time to kill while waiting for darkness to set in and the fireworks to start here at the campground. Tyler & Donovan played some more of the ladder golf, eventually convincing their Grandma to join them. She convinced me into playing the next game against her, and then I did the same thing with Tara.

    After we each took a turn playing a game, it was time to settle in at the campfire. Tara & I did some reading before I headed in to get the computer to get a start on the diary. That is when I realized that the NASCAR race was on TV. Dad and I worked on getting the TV set up to watch that while waiting for the fire-pops, as Drew has called them this year. Soon enough the fireworks show started and we had a great view from our campsite. Jayden slept through them all, as she was given a bath and put to bed earlier. Mom took Marissa inside to watch them from their camper, as she is afraid of the booms. The rest of us sat by the campfire and watched from there. The campground does a very nice job with the show – there were a lot of fireworks, and it lasted a long time.

    After the fireworks were finished, pretty much everyone headed inside to get ready for bed. Dad and I toughed it out to finish the race (stupid Toyota won again) before calling it a night ourselves around 11:15pm.

Sunday, July 6th - 79/49°, Mostly Sunny

    Today was the first of what I hope will be a few days of relaxation in the park. We woke up between 8 & 8:30am this morning and ate a quick breakfast (for those of us who chose to do so). Tara took her turn showering first, so I stayed outside with the kids playing the washer game. Tyler & I started off, while Sam beat Donovan in the second game. After they got bored and moved on to other things I headed inside for my turn at showering.

    By the time I got myself cleaned up it was time to get lunch ready, and today was our turn to have sandwiches – subs for the adults and PB&J for our kids. All morning long we watched the steady parade of vehicles heading out of the campground. Checkout time is technically 2:00pm, but the flow was pretty constant from the first time we came outside all the way until after 5:00pm. After eating, Mom & Erica took Tyler, Samantha, Donovan, and Marissa to the beach here at the park. I stayed behind to do some reading, as did Dad. Tara stayed at the camper too, but to take a nap with Jayden & Drew. I must admit that I may have dozed a time or two while reading – it was hard not to do that once I got two chairs facing each other, my feet propped up, and my head tipped back in the sun. It was just the right combination of silence and relaxation to hit the spot.

    Dad and I did walk down to the beach to take some pictures of the kid’s sandcastles, but I couldn’t take too many as the camera battery started to die on me. We walked back to the campers to start a fire to start dinner on. We spent some more time relaxing while the fire got warm.

    Mom and Erica returned with the kids, signaling that it was time to get dinner going. While dinner was being prepped, I took off on a bike ride by myself to take some pictures. I hit the trails around the lake to see where they went (not any place different that where we were last night, all of the trails end up in the same place eventually). When I returned, the food was ready to get cooked. Tonight we made steak and baked potatoes. Dad & Mom had borrowed a tripod device to cook on, and that is how we made the steaks tonight. It seemed to work out well, as the steak tasted pretty good tonight. While dinner was cooking, Erica played “Sequence” (an old board game that Mom dug up to bring camping with her from our old collection) with the kids while Mom & I played a game of washers (which is much more difficult than the golf game).

    After dinner the kids wanted to go to the playground. With the campground almost cleared out we were able to let them go by themselves because we have a clear line of sight now. They didn’t stay long, however, due to bathroom breaks. Tara took off to the clubhouse to do a load of laundry with Drew and Jayden. Dad & I took off on a bike ride to drop off the trash. We headed straight back to the campsite with the intention of taking the kids with us for a longer ride. Tyler, Sam, and Donovan joined us for a ride, while Erica took Marissa for a ride on the paved part (she has training wheels on, and they are difficult to use on the rock that lines the campsite roads). All of the kids pooped out pretty quickly, so the bike rides were pretty short. Dad, Erica, and I ended up taking the kids back to the campsite and heading back out. We rode around the campground one more time, and headed around the lake near the cabins as well before we returned to the campers. The oldest four kids ended up back at the playground while we were out for our ride.

    The kids came back to the campsite around 9:00pm (we called them back on the walkie-talkies), at which time we headed in to our respective campers. Tara gave our kids a bath before we settled in for a movie (we watched “The Bucket List”), and I believe the same thing happened in the other camper. Jayden went to bed after her bath, but the other three kids made it to various points of the movie before they crashed. After the movie was over, Tara & I carried the kids to their beds and then headed that way ourselves.

Monday, July 7th - 84/55°, Mostly Cloudy

    One thing I hate about sleeping in the camper is the unbelievable amount of light that comes in through the closed blinds and the ceiling vent. I have woken up way too early every day on this trip, and today was no exception – a 7:30am wakeup call thanks to the light and Tinkerbell’s desire to go to the bathroom. I got back in from letting her out, but there was no getting back to sleep for me. It was shortly after 8:00am that Tyler woke up, and the others weren’t too much behind. We ended up getting up and having breakfast in the trailer once again – cereal and bagels, depending on the mood.

    The time between breakfast and lunch was pretty much lazy time for us. We hung around the campsite just relaxing, watching the other campers roll out once again. As it got closer to noon, it was time to get out the fixin’s for sandwiches. Today was another day of subs for the adults and PB&J for our little ones.

    After eating, we loaded up the truck (and van) and moved to Beverly… no, actually we headed out to Croswell to experience the world famous swinging bridge (okay, maybe not so world famous). We got to the park where the bridge is located and took some pictures of the kids before starting across. I imagine that when the bridge was first installed and there were no handrails installed it would have been much scarier, but as it was the kids found it nerve-wracking enough. Tyler was the only one of the bunch that actually enjoyed walking across it, all the rest cried at one point or another (especially when someone jumped or tried to get it swinging side to side). When we finished the trek across, we took the kids over to the park that was located on the opposite bank. They played around for a while, and I even got on the swings with several of the kids to see if I could swing higher than they could! Erica began to sound the sprinkle warning alarm. I never felt any, so I wasn’t too concerned. Unfortunately a minute or two later there was a pretty good flow of rain coming from above. That meant that we had to run across the bridge to get back to the cars – but that also meant that the kids didn’t have an opportunity to get scared.

    Once we got back to the cars, we headed back out onto the back roads to make our way to Sandusky to do some shopping. There were a few things that were needed for the campers as well as some dinner items. We left the local Wal-Mart with our items and headed off to DQ – the Dairy Queen Grill & Chill. This month is Thin-Mint Cookie Dough Blizzard month, and Erica and I have been dying to try them. I must admit I was a little disappointed – it reminded me of the mint-chocolate chip ice cream we used to eat as kids more than the thin mint cookies I loved from the Girl Scouts (besides, I have moved on to the peanut butter patties more in the recent years). When you got a chunk of cookie in the Blizzard it wasn’t so bad, but otherwise it was too much like the ice cream. I think I will stick with my tried and true Blizzard preference of cookie dough.

    We left the DQ and headed back to the campground. We didn’t do to much exciting with our afternoon (as it was, it was close to 4:00pm when we got back). Donovan was feeling under the weather, so the kids weren’t real active. Besides, I think you could see signs of them spending too much time together – lots of back and forth bickering and impatience with each other. We eventually got around to working on dinner – tonight it was grilled chicken (barbecue for the adults and plain for the kids), rice, and ranch potatoes. Donovan slept through dinner, but the rest of us enjoyed it. I commented at the end of dinner that there is no way I will be losing weight this week – every meal I end up overeating… it’s just too good.

    After dinner the kids headed inside to watch a movie, while Tara & Erica had to watch the “Bachelorette” finale. Dad, Tyler, & I generally hung around the campfire, but we also took a bike ride around the park once again (I was hoping to get a picture of the sun going down, there was a nice shot from the campsite but the electrical lines ruined it for me). We stopped on our way to peek into the new park model trailers that are going in here at the campground as well. They seem pretty nice, but they aren’t much bigger than a regular camper (especially when you factor in the slides that a camper has). I couldn’t see having one personally, but I am sure they will do well with them.

    We returned to the campfire after we finished our bike ride, and Tyler went at making himself some s’mores. Mom joined us for a while and taught him how to roast a marshmallow without burning it, but we’ll see if he remembers the next time we go camping. After a little more time at the campfire (including setting ablaze a Coke 24 pack box for Tyler’s amusement) we headed back inside. Tyler & Sam finished up “The Bucket List” that they fell asleep during last night, and Tara finished up her “Bachelorette” after-show special, while I worked on the fabulous work of art that you are taking the time to read. Once the movies and show was over, it was time to call it a night.

Tuesday, July 8th - 81/70°, Partly Cloudy

    Overcast skies make an incredible amount of difference in my ability to sleep later in the morning. Everyone pretty much made it until 9:00am today (well, Drew did wake up earlier but Tara was able to go back and lay with him and get him to fall back asleep). Once everyone was awake, we did our usual routine of breakfast inside of cereal and/or bagels. Tara and I took turns showering, and the kids got themselves dressed. It was sprinkling off and on this morning, so we spent most of our time inside the camper.

    Things dried up prior to lunch, so we attempted to eat outside in the tent. The wind really was pretty strong today, however, and that meant that plates were blowing away right in the middle of eating. Lunch, which was sandwiches once again today, was finished up inside. After eating, the kids spent some time playing – inside and out – while the adults tried to enjoy some downtime. With the weather in question for the day (the prediction called for rain all day) Tara & I made plans to take the kids to the movies in Sandusky. I found coupons for the theater online (I had to print them on Mom’s computer because she is the one with the printer) that we could utilize. About 2:15pm we loaded into the van, along with Erica, Donovan, and Marissa, to go to the show.

    We arrived at the theater, and the kids were a little surprised at what we were doing (we hadn’t told them what we were doing, just going for a ride). We went in to see WALL•E. I don’t think that any of us thought that this was Pixar’s best movie, although I definitely thought it was a little better than Tara did. Drew didn’t sit still at all, but Tyler and Samantha both said that they liked it. After the movie we headed back to Wal-Mart to take care of some items that we needed (bug spray for the tent chief among them). With shopping complete, it was time to head back to the campsite.

    By this time it was pretty late, so tonight became spaghetti night. I don’t recall ever eating this while camping, but it worked out OK overall. Jayden also seems to have taken on an aversion to eating with others – the last two days she has done nothing but fuss while everyone ate, but as soon as everyone starts to put dishes away she finally starts to eat the food on her plate.

    After dinner Tara & I took Drew & Jay for a bike ride to take the trash to the dumpster. We also took a ride around the park while we were out. At 8:00 the older kids & I headed inside to Dad & Mom’s trailer to watch “Wipeout” on TV – man I love watching people uh… wipe out… on that show. I actually had Tara look it up to see if I could get on, but they were only taking people from California to try out. Oh well…

    We headed outside after the show (well, Erica stayed inside to give her kids a bath) to sit around the campfire. Tyler was determined to roast marshmallows, but we just couldn’t get the fire going good enough to do so. We did manage to get a couple done, but they were really more warmed than toasted. With the fire pretty much a disaster, we headed inside for the night. Jay was already asleep in her bed, but the other kids stayed up to watch a couple episodes of “The Simpsons” on DVD before calling it a night around 11:00pm. Tara and I caught some of the news before we did the same.

Wednesday, July 9th - 79/61°, Partly Cloudy

    This morning we woke up once again around 8:30am. We had a slow start to our morning, eating cereal and bagels once again for breakfast inside the camper to avoid the wind outside. We then took our own sweet time getting showered and dressed.

    Once we were all ready, we headed outside to meet Lois, Patty and her grand-daughters by the fire pit. We sat and socialized while the kids played with the toys around the campsite for a while. After a bit of this, we decided to head up to the swimming pool to let the kids get wet. Mom and Tara got in, along with Patty, with all of the kids. Tyler is doing a good job swimming around (despite his protestations that he can’t swim), and Sam is getting braver all the time. If they had regular access to a pool, I think they would be all over the place. Drew finally relented and went in, but he just clings to whoever is holding him at the time before begging to get back out. I would estimate his pool time today at around a solid 30 seconds. Jayden also got in, but she refuses to do much more than be held either. She actually did get bounced up and down some today and she didn’t get too scared doing it.

    Drew and I headed back earlier than the rest because he was cold after his brief swim and I was bored sitting and watching the others swim. Everyone else came back a short time later, however. Lois and Patty loaded up the grandkids and headed home, while we went about getting lunch started. We all had hot dogs and mac-n-cheese today, but we made them in our own trailers.

    Because we ate a late lunch, it was time to get dinner started outside already. We were making the garbage can turkey tonight, and that meant that we had to get the turkey in the can with the charcoal around the bottom to let it cook 2 hours before we could eat it. With the main part of dinner cooking, Mom and I climbed into the truck to head into Deckerville to Dick & Lois’s house to pick up some strawberries that Dick and Patty were nice enough to pick some for us this afternoon. While we were in town we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items that were needed at the campsite. We also stopped at the party store up the road from the campsite to pick up some rum for some drink that Tara was planning on making. While we were gone, Tara and Erica worked on making the rest of dinner (thanks!) and the kids spent their time playing around the campers.

    When we returned from running our errands, dinner was pretty much ready to eat. We got the turkey out of the can, and I cut it up while everything else was brought out to eat. We sat down to a meal of turkey, baked potatoes, rice, and muffins (along with a salad and some broccoli). It was another good meal, and another one at which I ate way too much.

    With dinner complete, Mom headed up to the front of the park to take the trash out. Tara and I loaded up all of our kids as well as Donovan and took off on a bike ride around the park. Tyler wanted to take some pictures at what he has named “Beaver Bridge” (he is convinced he saw a beaver there a day or two ago). This is the same spot that Sam wiped out at. Tyler got to take his pictures, and we finished our ride around the park.

    Back at the campsite, the fire was burning bright. Tonight Mom broke out the dowel rods and the crescent rolls to make the filled deserts that she has had before. The process is like this: 1) Take the premade crescent rolls and wrap them around the end of a 1” (or so) wooden dowel rod. 2) Cook the crescent roll over the fire until it is firm. 3) Slide the cooked crescent roll off the dowel rod and fill with filling (either lemon or cherry). 4) Eat and enjoy!

    We made several of these desserts before deciding that it was getting late. We cleaned up our mess outside and headed in for the night. Aside from Jay, the kids stayed up to watch some more Simpsons DVD’s before calling it a night around 11:00pm. Tara and I shut the TV off at the same time and went to sleep a short time later.

Thursday, July 10th - 79/62°, Mostly Sunny

    We woke up around 8:30am once again today. Samantha wanted a big breakfast yesterday, but Grandma Terry said no because Patty was coming with the kids. Today became the day for the big breakfast by default. We made eggs, pancakes, bacon, and sausage and also ate some of the strawberries we got yesterday. Homemade toast was also available if the desire was there.

    Since breakfast was ate so late today, we skipped lunch. That meant that we had the whole afternoon to relax and play. I headed in to the camper to lay down with Jayden around 1:00pm. I took a short nap with her, and then came out just as Mom, Tara, Erica, and the rest of the kids were heading up to the pool. Tyler dug out our pool toys (beach balls, swimmies, and a boat style tube) so Drew actually got in the pool and played some today. Tara said he did really well in the boat thing today, and enjoyed being in the pool with that. While Tara and Erica played in the pool with the older kids, Mom, Sam, and Drew walked back to the camper. Jay was awake by then and playing quite well by herself. Mom broke out the cookies, and that kept the other two occupied. The rest of the clan returned a short while later, and that signaled the time to start the fire for dinner tonight.

    With the fire going full force, it was time to get dinner going. Mom peeled potatoes and made hamburger patties for our hobo dinners. We also added carrots and onions, if you can stomach that kind of thing. The food was all placed into an aluminum foil packet and put on the fire, using the hanging grill that Dad & Mom borrowed. While dinner was cooking, I worked on the diary and website and the kids all played outside. When dinner was ready we all sat down to a nicely cooked meal. I am sure that it was the warmest one we have eaten this week – we were able to eat immediately as they came off the fire.

    With dinner over, we played around outside for a while – tossing the Frisbees around with the kids and Dad, running around like crazy. Once we tired of that, we all climbed onto our bikes for a ride to the front of the park for ice cream. We got there and… well; I guess you could say we were disappointed. It seems that they were out of almost every kind of ice cream and the delivery wouldn’t be until tomorrow. So, back to the campers we headed. We tried to figure out someplace close to get ice cream cones at, but when you are pretty much in the middle of nowhere that isn’t an easy task. The closest DQ is back in Sandusky. We weren’t certain of what would be available in Port Sanilac. Finally the idea of the old store in Forester Park was struck upon. It used to be a good place to get ice cream, but we weren’t really sure what to expect this time. They were open when we got there, which was a good sign. Unfortunately the selection wasn’t a lot better than at our campground. The kids all found something that they could eat, as did the adults (well, except me – I just could pay what they wanted for plain ole’ chocolate). Once the ice cream was consumed, the kids played around for a short while at the playground before heading down to the beach to walk around briefly. After a short walk around the beach area, we walked back to the parking lot to get into our cars.

    Back at the campground, it was a quick cleanup outside before heading inside. The kids got a bath/shower tonight before going to bed. Tyler and Sam watched one more episode of the Simpsons before turning off the lights. Tara crashed around 11:00pm. I worked on the diary and watched the news until 11:30, then called it a night myself.

Friday, July 11th - 80/63°, Mostly Sunny

    Last night was a long night – I woke up around 1:00am to bright flashes of light outside. Once I came to my senses, I realized it was lightning. I woke up Tinkerbell and we headed outside to check the awning – I was fully expecting it to be really windy out. To my surprise it was perfectly calm. Tink and I headed back inside and tried to go back to sleep. I laid there awake for a long time, listening to the storm approach. We got some rain, a lot of thunder and lightning, and little wind. I eventually managed to get back to sleep, because before I knew it 8:00am rolled around and it was time to get up once again.

    We ate breakfast inside – Tyler and Sam had leftover chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, Drew had a banana and a pop-tart, while Tara had a bagel and some cereal (that she shared with Jayden – she never eats her own food), while I had a bagel as well. After eating, we got the kids dressed and then took turns showering and getting ourselves dressed.

    We went outside and lazed around the campsite. The kids attempted to go for a bike ride, but once they were done unlocking the bikes they found that Donovan was gone. He had asked to go on a bike ride, but I think everyone assumed he wasn’t going on his own. Mom eventually found him after a semi-extensive manhunt for him (Tyler and Sam went out looking for him, as did Dad & Mom). Once he got back, the desire to go on a bike ride was gone.

    As lunch time approached, we debated on what to eat. I was kind of looking forward to the pie-iron pizzas, but we didn’t have a fire going. We were kind of waiting for Dad to return from his trip with Tom Rumble, but the “short drive” they went on turned out to be a little longer. We finally settled on sandwiches and chips once again. We ate around 12:30pm, and Dad got back around 1:30pm.

    After Dad had a chance to eat, I convinced everyone to pile into the van to go see the Sanilac Petroglyphs. Erica’s kids didn’t want to go – they preferred the pool – so she stayed behind with them. The rest of us headed out to see the petroglyphs for the first time. Once we got there we were disappointed by what we saw – the carved rocks themselves weren’t that bad, although initials had been carved in them at some point in their history. Perhaps the most disappointing thing was the lack of interest by the guy who worked there. Mom had asked him a couple of questions, to which he had virtually no response. Also, the carvings in the rocks have not been well preserved – the signs claimed that these are the only petroglyphs in Michigan, I would have thought more effort would have been put forth in saving them. The only thing protecting the rocks are a fence around them and a roof built over them. I just wish more had been done in the past.

    After we checked the rocks out, we headed out on the walking tour – a one mile trail through the woods. I really enjoyed the walk, but not everyone had the appropriate footwear for the trails. There was a couple of spots where the trail was covered in mud and there wasn’t a good way of avoiding it. Those with flip-flops on tended to get a little dirtier that those of us in tennis shoes. I took quite a few pictures while on the walk, but everyone was pretty happy when it ended. The mosquitoes could be quite bad if you stood still for too long.

    We headed back home once we completed the walk. Back at the campground we were approached by a couple of teenage girls trying to complete their scavenger hunt list. They needed a couple of pictures of things on our sites. We also tried to get a fire going to cook my pizzas on, which we were going to make for dinner. We had a very difficult time getting the fire started tonight for some reason, but we eventually managed to get it going enough to cook on.

    We made the pizzas with a choice of pepperoni, ham, bacon, onions, or mushrooms. Everybody got at least one to eat, and most of us had two or three times that much. Once we finished, Erica, Donovan, and Marissa loaded into their Trailblazer to head home for the rest of the weekend.

    The kids had wanted to go to the pool all day long (actually, they wanted to go to the beach at Forester Park). Tara decided to take all four of them tonight. After I cleaned up some things in the storage areas under the camper, I rode up to take some pictures and see if Tara needed any help. She was doing fine, as were the kids. Tyler was really swimming around tonight, under water with goggles on. Sam is doing well too, but she keeps the swimmies on most of the time. Drew is still a little more scared of the water, but he gets out there in that inflatable boat thing. Jayden is really brave, walking up and down the steps almost on her own. By 9:15pm we decided that it was getting pretty late for swimming, so we got the kids out and went back to the camper.

    Tara and the kids got into their pajamas, and Jay was put to bed. The rest of us headed outside to sit around the campfire. We ended up eating a bowl of ice cream since the kids weren’t willing to wait for the fire to die down to roast marshmallows. Once the ice cream was gone, we sat and talked until the Sam and Drew conked out. After I finished typing in my diary, we decided it was time to head inside to call it a night once again.

Saturday, July 12th - 79/64°, Mostly Cloudy

    I woke up this morning around 8:00am, and everyone else was up by 9:00am at the latest. We had the same ole’ same ole’ for breakfast today, except I didn’t eat anything today. I got up with the assumption that we were going to go home today, since it was our scheduled checkout day. Since we were to be hauling two campers back for a two-hour trip I figured we needed to get moving.

    I started out putting away the awning, since it was pretty windy anyway. I gradually worked on getting other things put away as well. There was supposed to be a car show in the campground as well, but with the iffy weather we weren’t really sure it was going to happen. Once we made some progress on the camper, we took a short break to walk up to the front parking lot where the cars were supposed to be. When we got there, there was a grand total of 6 cars. I joked with Dad that if we brought ours we would have increased the amount by 1/3! Needless to say it didn’t take long to walk through them all.

    Back at the campsite we continued putting things away, then taking a moment to have a sandwich for lunch before Dad and I headed out to take our camper home. Tara stayed behind with the kids, along with Mom, to take the kids to the pool. It was decided that we would haul our camper home, and stay one more night in Dad & Mom’s camper for one more night. It is certainly easier to drive back and forth two separate days rather than twice in one day. Anyway, Dad and I had an uneventful drive both there and back. We did make a stop in Deckerville at a friends house to see if he could help us out with the water heater (we were unable to get it to function using electricity – we had to use propane all week for hot water). We couldn’t find anything wrong with it there however; it seemed to be working fine. Once home, we leveled the camper out, ran out the slide, plugged it in and then headed back north.

    Meanwhile, back at the campground, Mom and Tara decided to drive the kids down to Lexington to see if they could spot any of the sailboats from the Port Huron to Mackinac race that started today. They didn’t end up seeing any boats, and from what I was told it was raining there at the time anyway. They ended up heading back to the campground, where there wasn’t any rain to that point, and going to the swimming pool. Mom did stay behind to take a nap with Jayden.

    Dad and I ended up getting back to the campsite just a few minutes after 6:00pm, and dinner was underway at that time. The original plans called for pork chops tonight, but the kids wanted hot dogs and mac-n-cheese again. We ended up cooking the dogs on the pokers over the fire, which Tara and Mom got going on their own tonight. We ate dinner outside – it never did rain here – and cleaned up for our last evening meal for this trip.

    After we ate and cleaned up, we climbed into the van to go back to Forester Park to walk the trail that used to be known as “Lovers Lane”. As a kid I walked and rode my bike here often, but it has changed a lot since then. What used to be a long walk in the woods has been shortened quite a bit by the addition of tent campsites along the first half of the walk. It is disappointing, to me at least. Once we completed the trail, we headed to the beach and made the walk back to the park that way. We got a glimpse of the old family cottage – man has it changed, and for the better. The kids wanted to play at the beach at the park, but the fly’s were biting like crazy and I couldn’t stand it any more. We piled back into the van to head to the camper once again.

    As we pulled into the campground we stopped at the store at the front for ice cream. We all ordered – singles for the kids, regular for the adults – but the guy scooping was nice and told the cashier that they were all singles. That was nice of him, as the singles were 99¢ versus $1.99 for the regular. We ate our ice cream and headed back. Drew drove Tara & I back, and everyone else walked back. Yes, Drew drove – Tara sat in the seat and let Drew steer the van. Back at the campsite, we sat around the fire and popped some popcorn. Drew asked to go to be, so most of us headed in then (it was 10:30pm already). Dad, Mom, & Tyler managed to sit outside for a while longer, but it was getting too cold for the rest of us to go back out. We stayed inside, but Sam quickly fell asleep waiting to go to bed. Tara sat around reading the newspaper from home, while I watched the NASCAR race and worked on the diary. Once the race finished up around 11:30pm, it was time to hit the hay.

Sunday, July 13th - 80/59°, Partly Cloudy

    We spent the night in Dad & Mom’s camper last night, and for some reason we were able to sleep in much later there than in our own… we woke up a little before 9:00am today. We weren’t exactly highly motivated in getting moving, spending a lot of time lazing around and watching TV while eating breakfast and taking turns using the shower.

    The wind was ungodly today, so I helped Dad fold up the garage (the room around the front of the camper) and the rug outside the door. We worked on packing up the van before heading out of the campground a little after noon.

    On our way home we stopped to pick up 50 pounds of hamburger for ourselves, Dad & Mom, and Dwayne & Erica. We headed to Wal-Mart in Sandusky to return the watch that Samantha bought the other day (the band broke yesterday while she was in the pool) and the folding clothes rack that Tara picked up to use (the dowels kept coming out of the frame – it was a royal pita!). We then headed over to Burger King to get food for Tara, Tyler, and Sam and then it was on to McDonalds to feed Drew, Jayden, and myself. The rest of our drive home was uneventful. We made it home a little after 4:00pm. Unfortunately, that meant it was time to do some unloading and to mow the lawn – it had been a full two weeks already and was way overdue! Until next trip…

Trip Summary

    Well, this trip was very nice. We got to spend a lot of time relaxing, which we sorely needed. We also got to see some things that we had never seen before, specifically the Petroglyphs (despite our disappointment in them). The campground itself was as nice as last time, although the first weekend was packed and very busy. There was so much traffic on the main road in and out of the park that I was ready to vow not to go back again. Of course once Sunday rolled around 90% of the campers left, and there was almost no activity in the park at all – that was the best part of the trip though.

    As for likes & dislikes, the access to the pool was a definite plus for the kids. They really took a liking to be able to swim all the time. The beach was also fun for them, even it isn’t like a real beach. The site sizes are very spacious, and if more space was needed they even have larger sites that you could stay on. Because we parked our camper on the site backwards, we had a lot of space on the back side to park both the van and the truck. We had enough room to put down both awnings and still had a lot of room for picnic tables in between. They even have trash pickup – just leave it out by the road. The only complain I have, and this is admittedly minor, was that the wireless internet that they advertise came and went pretty frequently. Although I could connect pretty much all the time, actual access to the internet was hit or miss.

    I imagine that we will be going back to camp here again in the future. Maybe even this year!