Claire entertained us with her usual antics on the way up. If it isn’t stacks of chips she tries eating, it’s pasting candies on her face.
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| No, Jack does not spit fire. However, that would be handy. |
We arrived to the campsite later than anticipated from a combination of holiday traffic, road work and our GPS flat out lying to us. But, we’re becoming more efficient in our set up. Jack had the tent up and a fire going in a matter of minutes while I drug the sleeping supplies inside and prepped dinner.
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| Have to hold your marshmallows a little closer girls! |
We ended with the usual roasted marshmallows and crashed. For some reason, Kate stayed up later than all of us, jabbering and scratching at the tent walls. Eventually, she fell asleep just in time for me to discover I’d brought the air mattress with a hole in it. By midnight, my hip was firmly on the ground. By the wee hours of the morning, we were flat on the rock-hard ground. It wasn’t like I was sleeping much from the drunkards who were very loudly and obnoxiously talked right outside our campsite but being sore made me a bit crabby. The children slept right through it and them getting a good rest is most important.
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| I think Claire would’ve kept sleeping had her sisters not jumped on her. |
They may be watching too many crime-fighting cartoons lately. Claire kept doing her karate moves with a loud, “Hiya!“
Lake Michigan was a lot like the ocean only it didn’t stink, there weren’t piles of seaweed washed ashore, no salt, no jellyfish, no sharks and still plenty of waves and soft sand (can you tell I prefer lake swimming to the ocean?).
We dug in the sand, collected rocks, played in the waves, had a crunchy lunch (that soft sand gets in EVERYTHING whether you intend to or not) and had a generally good time.
Jack waded out to catch a few waves while the girls and I watched. Other than a few boats in the distance, the lake was fairly deserted.
I considered climbing the formidable dunes surrounding the lake but the thought of dragging and carrying three children in sinking sand was more than I could convince myself to do. Maybe when they’re older…
Before the girls got too cranky from all the excitement, we walked further down the beach and tried fishing for salmon. Of course, there were none swimming in the waves but the girls were happy just to try.
Before long, dark clouds gathered and we could hear thunder rumbling over the crashing waves. The park rangers made an announcement urging swimmers to wait out the storm in their cars so we took it as a cue to head home.
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| Claire watching the storm gathering. |
It wasn’t long before everyone drifted off–Kate didn’t even make it out of the parking lot before she was snoozing. It made for a quiet drive home for me.
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| Kate is definitely a water baby. |
