Camping at Hoffmaster

We were all so excited about the kids' first camping trip! We headed to Hoffmaster with the Nave pop-up camper, which had been set up at the end of our driveway for over a week. Olivia and Daddy rode in the truck pulling the camper and Ethan and I drove the Jeep. After getting the camper set up and everything unloaded we walked the trail to the sand dunes and beach. Unfortunately, as so often is the case, Ethan fell while running "super fast" down the trail. He gets going and is usually either watching his super fast feet or his shadow and usually ends up falling. When this happens and his knees get scraped up he never wants anything to touch them so he hikes up his shorts or, sometimes, just takes them off. So this is how he walked the entire way to the beach - when Daddy wasn't carrying him! Poor kid.



















Once we arrived at the sand dunes, Scott and the kids had a great time running up and down them! There was a fantastic view of the lake from the top of the dunes. The kids were not at all phased by the lake water temperature and were quite content to dip in a bit with their clothes on.














Back at camp we cooked hot dogs over the fire for dinner (Daddy in his glory), played at the playground for a while, and at some point the kids attempted to climb trees. Then it was time for jammies and smores.


















The next day we went to the beach where Olivia was such a little environmentalist pulling any piece of driftwood out of the water and Ethan took complete joy in chucking every piece back in! We also took a wonderfully long nap, went to the visitor's center (which Ethan kept calling "the stinky place" even though it didn't stink at all), had dinner at Fricano's on Muskegon Lake, did some exploring around the campsite, ate smores again of course, and hit the hay!



















The kids slept so well in the camper and loved the whole experience. We really had a great time and we are all looking forward to going camping again next year! In fact, Scott has many more camping trips planned...