Camping 4th of July

To take advantage of my super long weekend over the 4th of July I decided to go camping with my parents and bring the boys. We camped up by my uncle's place near Tawas and Oscoda Michigan in Old Orchard Campground. The boys had a blast though they really enjoyed their freedom sleeping in a big bed instead of their cribs. So we didn't get much sleep but they had a lot of naps during the day and had fun during the day so that's all that matters right?

One night I took a shower and left my parents with the boys. Every time they thought they were sleeping they would hear another giggle. So my dad went in to check on them and Alex had escaped and was on the bench next to the bed. My dad said, "What-are-you-doing?" and FREAKED Alex out. My mom said it was the first time that either of my kids really cuddled with her. On the first 2 days we went to my uncle's cottage. His entire family was up this weekend. So it was a full house. They have a sand hill in the back of their property so I took the boys up there to play and they had a blast. They just kept filling their buckets and dumping them out. Then I taught them how to knock down the sand castles... Whenever Alex is playing in sand he gets this hysterical giggle/screech thing going. It is just too cute for words. But I haven't been able to tape it yet. Everyone also rode on their four wheelers. So I got the boys' out and they rode for a little bit but they were more interested in playing in the dirt. Alex was in front and Trevor started going and got caught behind Alex. Since Alex wasn't moving Trevor just spun his tires. Then gave up and got off. The last time I used these were in the winter in the house. I CANNOT believe how much they've grown...On Saturday we had a fun packed day. In the morning we hiked the Iargo Springs. Which has about 270 steps. Going down was a breeze and once we were down there we let the boys run around. They were on our backs for a lot of the hike. I had Alex and my dad had Trevor. Now my boys are probably around 35 lbs each. So you can imagine the extra resistance we had during this workout. The trip back up was a little rough. We took many breaks and my mom dropped her camera so we waited, but at that point I had the dogs too and they helped pull my momentum up a little bit so they actually helped me going up.

While I was walking with Alex and he was bouncing he was humming or moaning or making his cute little baby noises in my ear. It was cute, I thought he was going to put himself to sleep in the backpack.

Apparently that hike was a little too much for Trevor. This was minutes after we were on the road.

After their nap my mom and I went into Tawas and visited the lighthouse and the downtown. The boys had fun they actually wanted their picture taken here. I set them on the rocks but I had to pry Alex away when I was done. Then we went into town and I let them pick out some books at the bookstore. I also bought some books for me because I can't go up-north without looking for some cool "Michigan" books. I'm working my way through the "Legends of..." books.

Then what is camping without getting Ice Cream at the camp store. When I was going to Higgins Lake every year I would ALWAYS get Blue Moon Ice Cream. And this camp store actually had it too. I was chicken though so the boys just got French Vanilla. But they also had a new flavor called Black Cherry. It was awesome. So I didn't get my Blue Mooon this year, but their is still time this summer.After our ice cream my dad and I walked with the boys and the dogs down to the boat launch. We showed the boys the lake. I didn't let them out of the stroller though so I don't know what the temperature was like. This lake is actually part of the Au Sable River. It looked really clear but I don't think I saw a single fish while I was there. Makes me think it's so clear because it's infested with zebra muscles...