Camping at PJ Hoffmaster State Park

We spent last weekend in Muskegon at PJ Hoffmaster State Park. This was Carson's first camping trip and I think he loved it! But what kid doesn't love getting to stay up late, be near a fire, get dirty, do some of his favorite things - hiking, biking, playing in the sand, and swimming, and just being outside? :) He did get a little bored once or twice - mostly when he had to wait around for us to clean up after eating a meal. But other than that, he was usually always having fun.

We had been planning this trip for over a month with our friends, Ben and Kati. Kati's parents were generous enough to let us take their pop-up camper, which made it so nice! Camping in a tent is fun, yes, but I am definitely more of a camper/motorhome type of gal. :) The pop-up is a lot of work to set up and take down, but its worth it, in my opinion. Maybe someday we'll be ready to buy our own camper... we like the hybrid models, though.

We had some rather questionable weather on Friday which did make us hesitate to make the trip, but we decided to go through with our plans. We are glad that we did. We drove through some bad storms, but the line was just barely south of Muskegon, so we were safe once we got to the campground. And we had beautiful weather on both Saturday and Sunday. It really ended up being the perfect weather for camping.

We went on many different bike rides, hikes, walks, explored the beach, played in the sand and water, and just hung out at the camp site. Camping trips are so relaxing. We're hoping to find the time to go once or twice more this summer - but in a tent. Carson is anxious to go tent camping. :)

Comedian, gardener, traveler, sweetheart

Carson sure keeps up laughing. The things he says sometimes just crack us up. Here are a few examples...

- A few weeks ago, I was working in the kitchen and Kevin was outside. Carson had gone with Denver (our cat) into the 3rd bedroom and had partially shut the door. They were being pretty quiet in there. So I went and peeked in the door. Carson was lying on his stomach in front of Denver with his chin in his hands whispering to him. When they saw me at the door, they both jumped up, startled. Carson then says to Denver "kitty, don't tell Mama!" It was too cute!

- Last weekend, I was wearing some flannel leopard print pants as PJs that I rarely wear. When Carson saw my pants that morning, he immediately came running up to me while exclaiming, "Mama, those are NICE pants!" He was being serious, too. :)

- He quite often will come up to you, out of the blue, wanting to shake your hand. As he's shaking your hand, he'll then say "Nice to meet you, Mama."

- Last week, I picked up some cereal at the health food store and brought it home. We've been out of cereal for a couple of months now and I just haven't bought anymore. Carson has been asking for it the last couple of weeks, so I figured I'd go pick up some organic corn flakes for him. When we got home, I told him I had bought him some cereal and showed it to him. He then put his hands up to his cheeks and exclaimed, "Oh my word, Mama, you're AMAZING!"

Carson has already been helping us a lot in the garden and orchard. He is so interested in it and just loves to help. He has helped Sara plant raspberry and blueberry bushes, lettuce, spinach, rainbow chard, and asparagus, and helped hold the new fruit trees straight in the hole while we filled them in with dirt. He loves to take the vegetable seeds and put them in the planting row that Sara has prepared and he is actually quite helpful in helping to cover the seeds with dirt. He's very careful and precise about it. And he asks so many questions about everything. He's trying to figure out how the seeds are going to turn into the vegetables that he loves to eat. He also loves to see how much the berry bushes have grown and is already looking for berries. :) We keep trying to explain to him that we probably won't see berries on our new plants this year. We have some mature raspberries growing in another part of the yard that he'll see berries on this year, which he thinks is pretty neat, but he still wants the bushes that he helped to plant to grow berries. :) We think it is so fun to see his innocence and joy from watching things grow and are so glad he is so interested in it.

Carson is still a great eater and loves to eat healthy things. A couple of weeks ago, we had asparagus for the first time this year. Carson hasn't had it since last spring/early summer. He loved it then and he still loves it now! He devoured it! Although he doesn't like the tips (which I think is the best part!), he prefers the stems. He ate 12 spears with his dinner that night. He kept asking for more and more and more. We finally just had to cut him off! He also is loving the fresh baby spinach that Sara has been getting at the farmers' market in Lansing. He likes salads with fruit and cheese on them - without any dressing. He LOVES fresh fruit. We always have to make sure we have lots of fruit variety in the fridge to choose from. Carson definitely gets all of his fruit servings in each day. Of course, he likes plenty of junk food, as well - chips and chocolate especially. But he will quite often choose fresh fruit over the junk food, so that is definitely a great thing!

We have some fun things coming up this summer that we're really looking forward to! We're hoping to get away for at least one weekend each month. We did Cleveland in April. In May, we're headed to P.J. Hoffmaster State Park in Muskegon for a weekend of camping with our friends Ben and Kati. We're still working on our plans for the following months, but we're looking at either going camping in Boyne City or South Haven for a weekend in June, to Colorado for a week in July, camping in the thumb for a weekend and also a weekend in Baldwin/Big Star Lake in August, and to taking a vacation with Sara's extended family in September (location TBD). We'll see how everything plays out, but we're looking forward to having lots of fun outdoors this summer! We'll be doing lots of day trips around the state, as well. We're looking forward to taking our bikes for some day trips to some of the Metroparks and up to Midland this summer. Carson absolutely loves to ride in the bike trailer and go for rides. He thinks its so fun to load up his "trunk" in the back of the trailer with snacks, drinks, and toys and then hop in for a ride.

A Weekend in Cleveland, Ohio

Last weekend, we went on a weekend getaway to Cleveland, Ohio. This wasn't my first trip to Cleveland, but it was my first trip to the Cleve where I actually got out and saw the city and did some fun stuff. Cleveland is compared to Detroit a lot. And it really did remind us of our own Motor City. The downtowns are of similar size and look, but Cleveland has been more successful at developing its lakefront with the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Center, Browns Stadium, other attractions, and hopefully soon an Aquarium (if they raise their funds). Driving away from the city center, you see similar sites as you see leaving Detroit - blighted neighborhoods mixed with some working class neighborhoods. You also see some very industrial areas - huge areas, for as far as you can see. They look just like Zug Island in Detroit, only they're not just contained to a one area, they're set down low in the valley and cover a vast expanse of land surrounding downtown. But once you get past that, it starts looking like the suburbs of Detroit again - lots of nice areas and some more areas hit by blight. Overall, though, its a nice city and surrounding area.

We decided not to stay downtown, which we were very glad about once we got there. Cleveland isn't a place you can go and not have to drive everywhere, so it didn't really make much sense to stay downtown... plus the downtown hotels didn't have pools. So we stayed out in the suburb of Richfield so that we had easy access to the highways and were also very close to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

We arrived in Cleveland early on Friday afternoon. We headed straight to the Great Lakes Science Center. We got in for free with our Impression 5 membership. What a cool place! And its huge! Three levels of fun exhibits, from bubbles to a huge ball pit to doorways filled with fog to flight simulators. We spent a few hours at the science center checking everything out. All three of us found lots of super cool exhibits to check out! Carson kept wondering when his buddy Vayla was going to show up in her purple coat since we normally go to the museums with her. :)







After the GLSC, we headed out to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park for some waterfall finding and hiking. We found the Brandywine Falls, which are the largest in the area at 60 feet tall. Carson was so excited to see some waterfalls and thought they were so cool! He has been talking about waterfalls for the last few weeks, so we were excited to be able to show him some in person. We did a good bit of hiking on Friday, as well. Carson LOVES hiking and just being in the woods. He keeps asking us to go on a good hike every day. Then we headed to dinner at a local mom 'n pop type restaurant. After dinner, we headed to the hotel to check in to our jacuzzi suite (also free using some of our hotel points). We headed straight to the pool for some swimming. Carson is still a fish and did very well at remembering the things we learned in swim class last fall. He had a blast and did not want to get out, even after swimming for almost an hour.






On Saturday, we headed out to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Rainforest first thing in the morning. When Carson heard we were going to the rainforest, he asked if it was the Maui Rainforest in Hawaii. He said that's where he wanted to go. :) But he was okay with it when we told him it was only at the Cleveland zoo. We were able to get in free with our Potter Park membership. It was quite a large zoo (we were there from the time they opened at 10am until about 1:45 and didn't end up seeing quite everything). It also involves a good deal of walking up and down huge hills with pretty decent grades. You definitely get a good workout! We got to see lots of animals. Carson loved them all. He is still talking about all the animals he saw and about how he had "never seen a camel before."





We took a drive when we left the zoo so that Carson could get a quick nap in. We headed east over to the North Chagrin Cleveland Metropark Reservation. We just drove through it for awhile and then parked near Squire's Castle and waited for Carson to wake up. He was so excited to see a real castle and walk through it once he woke up and saw it! This was another free thing to do. We then did some hiking in the woods near the castle for about 45 minutes. Then headed back to the car and over to the Buttermilk Falls. From there we took another hike (for about an hour) and found the nature center and lake. Carson had so much fun on this hike - and yes, he actually does the hiking, too... he only asked to ride on Sara's shoulders for about 10 minutes... not bad for such little legs. Carson got to climb down by the river under a huge fallen tree and stand on the (dry) river rocks. He thought that was so cool. But he also had just as much fun finding sticks and going fishing for leaves in the woods. He just loved it!












After our hikes in North Chagrin, we stopped for a quick dinner and headed back to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We made quick drive through the Bedford Cleveland Metropark Reservation. We stopped to see the Bridal Veil Falls and did a short hike. Then we took the Scenic Byway drive through the National Park. We made a few stops along the way at scenic overlooks and such and for another quick hike. We ended at the Blue Hen Falls and took another longer (and vertically challenging!) hike. Carson did it all and refused to be carried! Then we headed back to the hotel for some swimming and relaxing.





Sunday morning we got up with plans to ride the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Train through the National Park, but Carson had other ideas. He just wanted to swim, lounge, and relax. So that's what we did. It was nice! We'll come back in the fall sometime and bring our bikes to bike the Tow Path and ride the train to see the fall colors.

After our relaxing morning, we headed out to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for a quick visit. We took a drive through Rockefeller Park on our way - what a beautiful park! Lots of amazing bridges and great gardens that are probably fabulous in May or June when things are blooming! We spent a little time at the museum (again, it was free with our Impression 5 membership), checking out the dinosaur skeletons and lots of other cool stuff. We grabbed a quick lunch and then hit the road for home.






It was a great trip! And it was just what we needed - a weekend away - since both Kevin and I have been having very busy and stressful weeks/months at work lately. Cleveland is a perfect weekend getaway. Only 3 1/2 hours away and a perfect mix of city and wilderness! There is something for everyone! You could definitely just do one or the other and there is so much that we didn't do. I'm sure we'll go back sometime in the future. And we'll definitely take our bikes next time!

Easter 2010

We celebrated Easter this year by going to Good Shepherd Christian Reformed Church with Kevin's family in the morning. We then headed over to Sara's parents' house for dinner and a family party. Carson, Mackenzey, and Cayden all got to go on a fun easter egg hunt and got lots of goodies in their eggs. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to spend the day outside. We even had a family softball "game"... more just hitting and throwing the ball... no bases or anything.