Camping & Boating: Elk Lake & Grand Traverse Bay

We went back to White Water Township Park this passed weekend, where my mom and step dad have a seasonal pass for the summer. This was our second trip, but unfortunately for Bill, only Miss A and I were lucky enough to go. We had a blast!

This was our make shift cart we toted Miss A around at the campground. 

My sister Valerie and I hiked the trails until she passed out. 

Campfire

fire

She's rockin' her sunglasses as we head down to the boat launch!

Granny and Baby on Elk Lake!

My brother Bryce diving into the water! COOL picture! 

I taught him how to dive on our first trip up north. 

Bryce chilling on the bow. I took this picture through the cuddy window! 

Exhausted Boatin' Baby!

Glamor shot of my sister Valerie.

We tried to paddle in this raft all the way to the sandbar. Here, we are in the East Grand Traverse Bay. 

The water was so beautiful and fairly warm for the end of August! 

We got tired of paddling so we got towed to the sandbar. We brought Miss A into the raft for her first "tubing" experience! She wasn't scared at all. We were going really, really slow.

Miss A had a little snack station in the boat that consisted of blueberries and cherry tomatoes! 

Too funny.

There were four windsurfers on the shore line. These windsurfers are bringing their sail to shore via boat. They were super cool people. I watched them do a complete 360 on their surf board while windsurfing. It was awesome!

She loves loves LOVES water! (But she's afraid of sand.) 

UH OH.

Here is our boat. Not too shabby. SUPER FUN!

Beautiful scenery out on Grand Traverse Bay shoreline

East Grand Traverse Bay

Another beautiful picture of our beautiful 90 degree day

East Grand Traverse Bay shoreline

Boating always wipes Miss A out! All the fun in the sun and water wears her out.  

We made the coolest water slide! We flipped that big raft over and laid it over the back of the boat. My step dad said we looked like sea otters slipping down the slide! SO MUCH FUN! 

Make shift water slide on back of boat

I love Lake Michigan! 

(Technically this is the East Grand Traverse Bay still.)

Me!

My mom and brother

Heading back to the Elk Rapids Harbor

Beautiful Sunset

Here I am glowing in the sunset with my soaked shirt... No biggie!

Tired girlie in the sunset

My muddy feet!!

On the road home

Grandpa & Baby by the big fish!

Relaxing... look at those long legs!

Grandma & Baby on the bear downtown Elk Rapids

Elk Rapids clock

Grandpa carrying the heavy baby! Look at what my daughter has in her hands... grandma's wallet!! She's learning young.

Pretty scenery in Elk Rapids

Miss A walking around

We had a really great time up north. I love the Traverse City surrounding area. 

There is so much to do and I love the water! 

Another dream of mine is to have a permanent home up north in that part of Michigan. =)

My Baby is Afraid of Sand

Does anyone else have this problem? My baby is deathly afraid of sand, which means it is very difficult  to get her to play on the playground and at the beach.

I found out about this strange fear of sand when I let her go down a slide at the park. She slid down and plopped off the edge of the slide into the sand. She screamed bloody murder and scrunched her body into a ball, trying to get away from the sand. I picked her up and sat her in the grass... and like I guessed, she stopped crying instantly. I picked her up and tried to set her in the sand again but she was so afraid. There were other kids around who tried to show her that sand is not scary, but soft and fun to play in. She did not care. She didn't want anything to do with it. 

We, also, went boating this past weekend. We stopped along the Grand Traverse Bay and anchored the boat to swim and play at the beach. I brought Miss A to shore and set her down in the shallow water. She screamed! It was very awkward because there were several other boaters/swimmers around who turned to stare at us. Miss A is NOT afraid of cold water or getting splashed. The sand squished underneath her feet and it scared her. I had to put our skim board down for her to sit on so she could play in the water without touching the sand. 

My mom and sister worked with her on the fear for quite awhile. My mom got her to scoop the sand out of a bucket with a shovel. 

She was having fun until I put a handful of sand by her feet. Then she was done with the sand. She screamed and cried...

We have a long way to go on concurring this fear of sand! We are going to work on it a little bit at a time. I hope it will dissolve in time... Maybe by next summer she will be okay with sand?

Update the following summer: Miss A is no longer afraid of sand! We took her to the playground to test it out. She had no shoes and dipped her toe in the sand and said "EEWW!" I told her, "It's okay!" and she repeated "It's okay!" and overcame her fear just like that. =) 

Hudsonville Fair 2012

I love fairs... SO SO SO MUCH! I love seeing all the animals and dreaming about owning cows. Last night at the Hudsonville Fair, I decided I wanted a brown cow. In the past, I have always pretended that brown cows did not exist because in my mind all cows were black and white.

Look at this sleeping cow... so cute! 

Here is a really HUGE black, pregnant cow that we got to pet. 

pregnant cow

Miss A MOOOO-ed at all the cows! She loves cows now. 

She also really loves horses.

She even gave this sweet horse a kiss! (I didn't tell her to.)

Here are the goats!

Llama

Thirsty Pig

Sheep 

Sexy Boy- Standard Poodle

Oh fun times at the fair... :)