Manistee National Forest Camping Trip: Day 3

At around 5am, just about the guys awoke getting ready to their fishing trip to Tippy, the rain started falling. A heartbreaker for the guys.

The dripping sound of rat-tat-tat of rain hitting on the tents didn't bother Elle at all. She slept like a little piggy. At around 9am, the rain began to die down. Guess what the kids had for breakfast? MARSHMALLOW! I bet it's the greatest fond memory of this trip for them.
Elle met these two sisters Danielle and Izzy at the camp's playground on the first day we arrived. The big sister Danielle and Elle were clicked right away and had fun together. On the 2nd night, we saw Danielle at the lodge when we got out of the shower room. Danielle came over telling Elle they'll be leaving tomorrow and would like to meet her at the playground tomorrow morning after breakfast. Aww, how sweet of her. I totally forgot about the promise until these two sisters showed up at our campsite bidding farewell to Elle.
After breakfast, it's time for the least fun part of the trip - PACKING, especially when most of our stuffs were soaked by the rain. It seemed to take forever to clean and pack. By the time we got ready to head back to Kalamazoo, it started raining cats and dogs. We left with loads of fond memories.

Manistee National Forest Camping Trip: Day 2

At daybreak, the guys took off to Tippy Dam getting their "fishing fix" while the ladies and kids were sleeping in at the camp. Elle seemed to be a natural born camper. She slept so sound through the night as if the tent is as comfortable as the bed at home. She and I even took a long 2-hours nap in the afternoon. I felt so good to get much needed sleep to rejuvenate the mind and body.
Doing nothing is best nonetheless. We simply lazed the day off. Oh, the caterpillars were big hits and there're so many of them laying around. The kids killed much time looking for caterpillars in the woods and sprayed them with the waterguns. We're happy to find Elle enjoyed the simple fun so much at the camp, always found something to do and didn't get bored for one second.
In the evening, we headed to the river having some water and fishing fun. By the time we got back to the camp, it's getting dark and still no sign of rain. We were pleased to beat the weather forecast having two sunny days in a row.
During these two nights, I had lost count of how many times my poor baby had tipped over the ropes that held the canopy tent. Everytime we heard a thump noise followed by her cry, we'd find her falling face-down in the dirt. No matter how many times we warned her, she just never learn her lesson by sitting quietly next to the campfire at night.

Manistee National Forest Camping Trip: Day 1

The weather forecasted it would be rainny and stormy from late Friday till Sunday during our 3-days camping trip. Hoping for the best, we departed early in the morning trying to get the most fun out of this gorgeous sunny day.
This is Elle's first camping trip. She was very excited about it and had been kept asking us "Can you go camping yet?" weeks before the camping trip. We had no idea if she grasped the idea of what camping really is, we told her we'd sleep in the woods under the sky and she seemed okay with it.

August 2003, we had our very first camping and paddling experience in Manistee National Forest. It has never crossed our minds that seven years later, we'd bring our little one back to the same campground (Twin Oaks) and experienced the camping fun with her all over again.

It took us about an hour or so to set up our tents and off we went paddling in the Big Manistee River, the same stretch of river we paddled in Auguest last year.

Elle was so excited seeing this pink raft, thinking she was going to paddle in this pretty pink one. She even tried to haul it all by herself pulling the rope and got ready to onboard. It's pitiful to see her disappointed face when we told her we're getting a canoe instead. Away we happilly rowed rowed rowed the boat in the river.

By nightfall, the anticipated rain was not showing up so we lighted a bonfire and the kids had a blast roasting the marshmallows. It took only mere seconds for Elle to drift into her dreamland. We're happy campers.

Cherry u-pick

I finally accomplished my first attempt of making "Bak Zang" even though the dumpling festival had been overdued for a few days. We had them for breakfast before heading out for cherry u-pick.
All fruits are ripening about two weeks ahead of normal schedule this year. Again, we went back to the usual suspect place for cherry u-pick. There're two little pockets on each side of Elle's dress. It's funny to watch her stuffing the cherries inside the pockets and then taking them out for munching.

Playground

Even though Elle missed "the lady bug" playground very much, it's a bit too far away from our house. We're glad to discover a very nice playground at a elementary school nearby our neighborhood. Everytime we played at this playground, she would ask, "Can I go to this big kid's school?".