Our Family Camping Trip - May 2009

In May this year, our family went on a little camping trip a few hours north of here (near Gladwin). It was so nice to get out in nature and spend time all together, without any distractions from the everyday hustle and bustle! This was Arianna's first time to go camping (how did that happen??), and she was very excited.

Arianna slept for the first hour or two of the drive, which was very nice (especially since she does get car sick sometimes). I thought she looked so cute the way she rested her head on her hand! (Notice her motion sickness bracelets - they work everytime! She's never gotten car sick when she's wearing them; only when she takes them off.)

A yummy ice cream cone treat in the car. Arianna was just introduced to ice cream cones this summer, and she loves them! :)

Excited to be on vacation!!


At the campground, having a delicious strawberry snack.

A little messy, but oh so good!

Trail Mix. We made this large bag of trail mix for our trip, and if I remember correctly, we ate almost the entire thing during our 3-day vacation. Wow!

Arianna's clothes and carseat cover, hanging up to dry. Why? Because she did indeed get carsick. We were AT the campground, had already chosen our campsite and were just filling out the form....and that's when she threw up all over. Poor girl.

There were a lot of these webworms around....

My Dear. :) (That's a bug repellant band around his neck.)

These terrible chemicals saved our vacation. Once we got to the campsite and started setting up, Arianna started majorly freaking out whenever any flying bug came near her. We tried working with her and explaining that she was okay, but she seriously was having downright near-panic attacks, screaming and crying with sheer terror. We normally wouldn't want to use any chemicals, or kill anything, but our natural methods weren't working to repel, so we broke down and bought this Raid at the little general store nearby. Arianna was fine once the mosquitoes weren't flying around her head anymore... I felt a little guilty, but mostly just relieved.

Making dinner. Tofu dogs and baked beans. Yum! :)

A Catterpillar Adventure

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Arianna loved the tent!

Arianna in her very own chair.

Heating up water for hot chocolate.


A neat tree stump nearby.

Writing in the dirt road.

During a nice walk.

Arianna being a cutie on a stump...

Pondering the intricacies of a Morel mushroom.

Some Daddy-Daughter love.

Dandelions...

Another yummy dinner; cheesy broccoli noodles, and cheeseburgers.

Arianna playing with her toys.

Hot chocolate!

"Bacon" sizzling over the campfire. This was the most delicious "bacon" ever!

Getting ready to go home...

Arianna enjoyed playing in the tent before we took it down.

Ever since she's been able to manipulate objects with her hands, Arianna has lined things up like this.

The water pump.

Enjoying some last moments in the beautiful surroundings before going home...

The lake. We went on some great walks around this lake.

Mommy and Daughter.

Another view of the lake.

On the way home, we stopped so I could take a picture of these lilac bushes. This is probably only about half of them. They were huge and beautiful, and looked so cool growing all by themselves out in the field!

We stopped off at Frankenmuth on our way home to have a little more fun before our vacation ended. To our surprise, they were having some huge dog celebration. It was pretty cool, and we all enjoyed seeing a lot of neat dogs. Arianna saw this inflated climbing/slide thing, and got VERY excited, so we forked out the $2 (or whatever it was) to let her have some fun. I kind of enjoyed it myself... :)

Jeremy and Arianna, enjoying Frankenmuth (Arianna is

probably looking at some dog).

All in all, it was an awesome family vacation, and made us all want to be able to go camping more often. It was so relaxing to be out in nature, away from all of the "noise" (literal and figurative). Whenever we're able to get out to someplace like that, it makes me wish we lived out in the country, away from the busyness of city life. Some day.....