Camping at Pace Bend

During Spring Break we went camping at Pace Bend.  Last year Ry was barely a year old and was just learning to walk.  This time he was off wandering on his own, playing with rocks, dirt and toting his dump truck everywhere.  He especially loved rolly pollies and would scream 'BUG!" every time he saw one.  My parents had a new camper this year, which Ry made himself quite comfortable in (actually we all did), especially in the early morning when it was cold out.  He had a ball and slept great at night in our tent.  I think he slept better than us.  Unfortunately there was a burn ban this year so no wood fires, which meant no s'mores!  Waaaaahh!  That's OK, we enjoyed awesome dutch oven cooking and the weather we perfect!

Camping at pace bend 3/14-3/16

our camp site

playing '31'





I like long walks along the beach...

warming up with Juju

Pace Bend Camping

For spring break we decided to take the kids, dogs and grandparents to Pace Bend for a weekend of camping.  This was Ry's and Josie's very 1st camping trip!  Opa and Juju went out the day before us to reserve a spot at the improved campsites.  Their site was huge so we were able to set up right next to them.  The area was beautiful!  We were about a 5min walk away from Lake Travis, and we had enough tree coverage around us that it blocked the strong winds.  The weather was great the entire weekend.  We feasted on s'mores, dutch oven cooking and more s'mores!  :)  

It's a dogs life 3/16/2012

Opa and Juju's home on wheels ;) 3/17/2012

On one of our daily walks 3/17/2012

cottage cheese!

pineapple upside down cake - dutch oven cooking

lasagna - dutch oven cooking

Ry had his very own camping chair 3/18/2012

buddies 3/18/2012

Family road trip to Pokagon and MI

#15 – Home cooked meals (camping meals count!) (95/143) √#23 – Camping at least once a year (2/3) √#40 – Read more books √#52 – Take a road trip √
#88 – Horseback riding √
We had an absolutely fabulous vacation!  I'm so glad we had the Routan, it made the LONG 22-23 hour road trip so much more comfortable and enjoyable.  The kids played Wii and watched movies the entire time, Malek drove the majority of the time and I read 4 books!  :-D  That's right, 4 of them; 2 by Chelsea Handler - "Are you there Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea" and "My Horizontal Life" and 2 by Emily Giffin - "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue".

Pokagon was an awesome camping state park.  During our stay we went on several hikes, Evan went fly fishing, Emma and I went horseback riding (#88), spent some time on the beach/lake and we even explored an Amish town/flea market in Shipshewana.  There was only one evening that it rained on us, during that time we all piled into my parents camper and watched Tremors (LUV this movie), The Princess Bride and Ice Age.  AND finally we were able to experience dutch oven cooking, my parents have been bragging about it for years.  We sampled a variety of recipes, including desserts - Dutch oven cooking is amazing!  We even made Evan a chocolate cake in the dutch oven for his birthday.  Happy Birthday Evan!

After camping we drove the remaining 2.5 hours to my parents house in Lake Orion.  We enjoyed a mouth watering steak dinner that night (great grillin' Dad!), then Malek and I met up with a HS friend of mine at BW3's for drinks.  The next day we enjoyed ricotta cheese pancakes with lemon curd for breakfast.  The kids even loved it and there was nothing leftover.  For lunch Malek & I and the kids went back to BW3's to catch up with some more HS friends.  Afterwards we relaxed at home, the kids just loved the basement and were down there constantly playing Wii and various other games.  For dinner we went to my parents favorite pub at Canterbury Village (on Thursdays they have an awesome pizza special), wandered around the village for a bit and even managed to take some nice family pictures at the gazebo.  Then it was back to the house where the kids made banana parfait with my mom for dessert and then we packed up the car for our early morning departure.  OMG I'm sooooo full from all the food!

The trip home felt much longer, probably due to our jam-packed week of activities.  We were all extremely happy to arrive back at the house Saturday afternoon so we could unpack and unwind.  On Sunday Malek and I actually went for a morning jog, then took the kids to Pluckers for lunch and then over to the pool for a couple of hours, followed by a volleyball game later that night.  Can you say EXHAUSTED!  I think Monday back at work was our actual recovery day.