Our Cool Canadian Campout

Each year that we have been in Michigan we have camped up at the Pinery in Canada. It is located on the coast of Lake Huron, and it is breathtakingly beautiful with its white powdery beaches and dense forests with colorful wildflowers and lime green moss. I love how it allows us to have a gorgeous wooded campsite experience, as well as a terrific beach vacation.

Unfortunately this year, after weeks of 80 degree weather, the week we were up there the temperature dropped a bit and the heavens poured rain. Luckily we had plenty of tarps and rain-gear, and the kids didn't mind in the least.This year with two more kids in the family, we knew we wouldn't be able to fit everything in our van, so I ordered a roofbag for the top of the van. It worked really well! We ordered the 3 interior bags that you slide into it, and I think we'll just keep our camping gear in them for next year. With the addition of the bag on top of the van, we still barely fit everything. As you can tell the kids were extremely excited to get going!
Food is a big part of the fun of camping for the kids. It's when we have a lot of treats and snacks that we don't usually have. The menu this trip included hot dogs, hamburgers, fajitas, tinfoil dinners, breakfast taquitos, pancakes and bacon and eggs, "camping oatmeal" i.e. packaged instant oatmeal, sandwiches and wraps, and lots of hot chocolate, chips, juice boxes, licorice, crackers, granola bars, fruit roll-ups and cookies. Everyone was VERY excited to make smores. Sometimes we topped them with fudge cookies. The kids enjoyed toasting their own marshmellows.
Some of the other favorites for the kids were swinging in our 2 hammocks, playing in the "toy tent" (our old small tent that we just put toys in),
digging with the shovel (an unintentional, but highly effective form of entertainment),
peering in Daddy's mouth, nose and ears with their own flashlights,playing with the new magnetized dart game,getting piggy-back rides from mom & dad,hiking through the forest to the beach,
climbing Mt. Everest, otherwise known as the sand dunes of Lake Huron,
and, of course, playing in the sand and water.There is something so beautiful about watching your child snooze away. Their innocence reaches out and wraps itself around your heart, never to let go.