Camping Halloween Style

This past weekend we had the opportunity to fit in one last camping trip.  We've been looking forward to this particular trip for months since it was the Halloween Weekend at the campground.  We've never camped in the cool fall before so it took some extra planning but we did it and had fun in the process!

We arrived on Friday night.  In order to make everything work, Darryl took the camper to work on Friday morning and left for the campground from town.  This put him there almost an hour and half before the kids and I .  Why?  Well, we hit rush hour traffic AND a homecoming parade which caused to have to turn around and head into the campground a different way.  Once there, we got everything all set up and a great fire started  . . . .just in time for the rains to start!  It rained . .. and poured . . all night long.

Saturday was the day for all of the Halloween activities and we woke to still more rain.  I really thought it was going to be a total wash but it wasn't!  The first activities started at 11:00 and at about 10;45, the rain stopped.

 We started with painting pumpkins.  I thought it was awesome that the campground provided pumpkins for all of the kids to paint.

 Nate and I getting a photo together :-) 

 There were also games set up like the marshmallow on a string game - Josh loved this one! 

 These crazy glasses are my favorite - Josh looks so funny! 

 There was also pumpkin bowling. 

 Nate with some of his prizes.  

We headed back to our camper for lunch and to get costumes on for the Costume Parade.  Amazingly, the sprinkles stopped again in time for the parade. 

 We walked around the whole 2nd loop and saw some really great decorations. 

 The boys got to meet Smokey the bear.  Lets keep it real, they had zero clue who he was HA!  The joys of homeschooling - we don't always get introduced to these fun characters. 

Our fun campsite!  We got a fire going again and guess what, the rain came pouring down.  Rain, Thunder and Lightening caused the Scavenger Hunt to be canceled and I actualy thought the Trick-Or-Treating would be a wash too BUT . . .at 4:10 the rain stopped and Trick-or-Treating was from 4-5!!!  So the boys got a HUGE amount of candy and had lots of fun. 

Are you ready?  As the clock struck 5:00, the rain started again!  And it rained and rained.  We ended up going out for dinner because I couldn't cook in the rain.  We spent the evening hanging out in our camper.  The storms rolled in about 10:00.  Truth be told, we had considered going home for the night because of the forecast - 50-60 mph winds.  Riding out a storm like that in a pop-up is not fun.  We made the decision to stay and in the end, it wasn't too bad.  Yes, the wind was literally whistling through the tree tops but, thanks to those trees and the direction of the wind, the camper hardly moved.  

Saturday dawned rainy and windy.  After enjoying a relaxing morning in the camper, we went to lunch at McDonald's that happened to have play land so the boys could play for awhile.  We headed to Lake Michigan to see the waves and they did not disappoint.  The wind brought in gigantic waves! 

 There were Kite-Surfers out on the water and they are amazing to watch.  

 For the record, the boys put their toes in the water on October 15th!  It was cold!! 

 I plan on framing this photo and putting it in our living room!  

 Ok, funny story.  We then drove down to an area where we were right by the sea wall and the waves were splashing up over the road.  We parked there for awhile and Nate opened his window for fun.  Darryl also opened the sunroof.  Well, have you ever seen the insurance commercial were the couple is sitting in their car by the ocean and a HUGE wave comes up and floods their car including an octopus that opens the door?? Well . . .it can really happen HA!  All of a sudden, a HUGE wave came over the truck and we were soaked HA!  There was water everywhere; my hair was dripping; the LED lights on the radio quick working for awhile . . .it was just crazy.  We laughed and laughed and laughed.  What great memories!  

 On the way back to the campground we saw this beautiful sight with the sun breaking through the clouds and shining onto the lake. 

The tempature had really dropped but at least it wasn't raining!  We enjoyed dinner at the campground and Darryl got an amazing fire going. 

 So, of course we roasted marshmallows!!  

We were able to enjoy the fire until dark and then, the rain started again.  So, we gathered back in our camper for the evening. 

 We do not "unplug" when we camp.  Everyone enjoys a little bit of electronics in the evening and it really helps pass the time on rainy days.  I bring books - book real and electronic to read !! 

This little guy was our best friend on Sunday night because it got really cold and damp.  This kept our little canvas home nice and cozy all night! 

After a night of heavy, heavy rain, we woke up to a beautiful Monday morning with tons of sun and the perfect temps.  This was the weather I had hoped for all weekend and none of us really wanted to leave but, we had to pack up.  The camp ground was empty and the boys loved it - they found sticks and created the best games ever.  It made me wish for a huge backyard with trees, sticks and leaves!  Our backyard is quite boring, truth be told!

We were all loaded, the camper was hooked up and we were ready to go get lunch when . . .we discovered that the van wouldn't start.  Thankfully we had jumper cables . . ..

 We did get the van started and then headed to lunch before heading home and unloading.

A look at the campground.  There were maybe 6-8 campers in the whole place.

We really did have fun despite the rain.  We ate away from the camper much more than I had planned so we came home with about 3 days worth of meals to use this week.  We have to open the camper up to air it out and make sure it is dry before packing it up for the winter.  But otherwise, we just had a great time!!  I'm hoping to make this trip a yearly tradition :-)