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.