Camping

We headed off to Lake Michigan on Thursday for a long weekend camping trip! It was a great time overall..the biggest issue was the swarms of mosquito's! Seriously, where are they coming from!?! These are the buggers who do not rest up during the day, they are ALWAYS there! And when I say SWARM.. it' s not an exaggeration! This is our 3rd time camping at this place (our favorite spot that we found on a post high school trip, and couldn't figure out where it was until a few years ago) and never been nearly carried away by the pesky insects! Luckily the beautiful shoreline of Lake Michigan was a short walk away and the mosquito's didn't hang out at the beach! :) Here are some pictures from our trip!

Setting up the tent is always fun!

After our camp was situated we headed down to the beach! Ahh! So wonderful!!
Gwen wasn't afraid of the icy cold lake.

buried in the sand, just long enough for a picture

We took a nature hike, and saw this beautiful doe - she never ran away from us, she must have known that we love animals and would never hurt her! :)

Shaun and Gwen looking at the deer.

On the drive to the dunes we saw this at a dairy farm! Babies everywhere! I made Shaun turn around so I could get pictures and see the little cow nursing from her momma! It was the sweetest thing! I don't think I've ever seen a baby allowed to nurse - Beautiful!!

Gwen started climbing sleeping bear dunes before we did! She was so excited! I thought she'd get lazy, but she kept going and going! whew!

Shaun and Gwen chilling out for a moment

We were excited because I actually was able to climb the dune too!! In my lazy, achy pregnant state, I wasn't sure it could be done! ;)

We could have used more water.. little fishy drank it all!

Gwen gives Delaney a kiss and tells her about sleeping bear dunes!

Shaun RUNS down the dune. Lucky he didn't fall on his face!

There was a scenic drive we did after the dunes, it was really nice.. so we had someone take a picture of us!

Pancakes for breakfast... I think my belly looks so small in this picture - Shaun thinks I'm wrong!

We spent all of Saturday at the beach - here are Shaun and Gwen setting up our area!

daddy and Gwen kayak! She thought this was pretty amazing!

It was such a perfect beach day!

Shaun does some more burying.

Gwen is showing her booboo and sad face. Shaun was getting the camera to take a picture of Gwen and I in the water together. Gwen snuck behind him and laid down in the sand, Shaun was looking for her and stepped right on her hand! After one of those long drawn out breath's she howled in agony.. Shaun was concerned that it was broken and wondered if we should take her to the hospital. All she really needed was a bandage and some time.. then she was good as new! :)

We went to the zoo last week and Gwen SO wanted a butterfly to land on her hand. We saw a few at the beach and decided to try. Eventually we gently put our hand in front of the butterfly and it walked on her hand.. she was SOOOO excited!

We were surfing on some driftwood.

Momma and Gwen kayak too!

A really juicy peach! MMM!

Shaun was being a sand monster to Gwen (her invention) and she started to cry and informed him that he wasn't supposed to get HER.. they were supposed to be sand monster daddy and baby TOGETHER!

Here they are getting their sand monster bodies ready by rolling in the sand.

and one of my favorite pictures EVER! The sand daddy and baby attacking mommy!

playing in the sand.

After a full day at the beach, covering all of our pasty bodies with sun screen (50SPF) SHAUN still managed to get a burn! He was applying sunscreen as often as Gwen.. she has NO burn at all, he's back and arms are lobsterish! I've got a mild burn, but I wasn't applying sunblock as often as Shaun! Crazy, eh?

So, after returning to our campsite we decided that we'd make veggie dogs and then drive into town for ice cream before coming back to see the sunset. I pulled out the veggie dogs, and they just seemed weird, like squishy, so we decided to not take a chance by eating them.. the mosquito's were swarming and attacking us like crazy and Shaun knew his burn was not going to feel great on a sandy sleeping bag - so we decided to come home a little early. (I think Shaun just wanted to make sure he got a good father's day breakfast in bed!!) ;) hehe We had a GREAT trip and can't wait to go back! (hopefully next time the mosquito problem won't be so bad.)