Step 2 Is Over/Camping In Michigan

Step 2 is OVER!! Yes....we are one step closer to being finished with Medical School. Vaughn took his board exam last Monday. It was an eight hour exam covering everything from his basic sciences to everything he has learned in clinicals. We are so proud of him and his hard work. He was glad to get the test over with and he was about brain dead when he got home.
We then packed for our camping trip up to Mackinaw in the Wilderness State Park. It is located at the top of the hand of Michigan, about 4 hours away. I have been waiting for this trip all summer long. I love to camp and couldn't wait to take the kids camping. We even bought us some new camping gear: tent, cooking skillet, air bed...etc.... (We needed a few things.)
Tuesday morning we packed the Edge and we looked like the Griswolds from Chevy Chase's National Vacation, because we were wall to wall stuff. We had the car so packed that we could barely see the kids in the back seat. HEE HEE So off we go to camp and we drove there in about 3 hours. Everybody else who drove there took anywhere from 4-6 hours. We didn't stop, that is why we went so fast. The kids fell asleep and so we drove and drove. It was a beautiful drive. Vaughn and I got to talk to one another uninterrupted for 3 hours. It was great to laugh and talk with him for that long and not hear "Mom!!!"
(A little side note. When camping in Michigan you have to book your camping site months in advance to your arrival and then you have to specify how big of a space you need to occupy and then pay for it. I have never had to PAY to CAMP, but whatever, this is Michigan not UTAH!)
As we "check in" to the camp ground, which was a little weird to do, we notice that all the camp sites are so close together that if you happened to fart in your tent, your neighbors are going to hear it and laugh at you......OH MY!
Our camping space was 20 feet by 20 feet. We barely had enough room to place our tent and the table and chairs. We had neighbors on each and every side of us. Luckily some of our neighbors were our friends who were camping with us, the Seficks and the Johnsons. It took us no time at all to erect the tent and set up the rest of our stuff. We had hamburgers for dinner and then it was a nice chat by the fire.
Bed time was another chore in itself. There was a lot of people around making different noises and Tyson thought we had monsters outside the tent. He had a hard time falling asleep. Taryn didn't sleep and so neither did I. Once the sun came up, she finally decided to take a sleep and so did I, for about 2 hours. No worries, we were camping and I wasn't going to let it dampen my camping trip; little did I know that something else was going to damper it.
That afternoon we were going to go down to the beaches but the storm clouds rolled in quickly and before we knew it we were under our makeshift lean to watching the rain fall hard and fast. It rained for about 1 hour and then drizzled for several afterwards. Our tent had water on the floor and therefore our stuff was wet. We loaded up the cars and headed into Mackinaw City to check out some sights. Then it was back to the camp site to air out our wet stuff and clean out the water from our tent. It took a better part of the day and evening to almost dry our stuff. That night Tyson and I braved the showers that they had at the camp ground and then wished we hadn't. This camping ground was like a 2 star hotel with showers and toilets and running water in sinks and electricity at your camp sight. It wasn't your "normal" Utah/Colorado camping.
That night it was SO COLD. I ended up taking care of Taryn the rest of the night, sitting in a camp chair inside our tent. I was warm on the front of me, but where my butt was in the chair it was frozen. My face was also frozen and if I could have pulled my hoodie up any more around my face I would have. (I looked like Kenny off of South Park)
By the time the morning came I was ready to go home. We were suppose to stay one more day, but I was so cold and tired that I was done. Luckily the time spent wasn't a total bust, I did get to spend time with family and friends and I also got some good camping cooking to eat, so I would say it was still an ok time. I have just decided that the next camping trip will either be without kids or we wait until they get a bit older.
(THE REASON THAT THERE ARE NO PICTURES TO SHOW YOU OUR TIME CAMPING IS THAT IN ALL THE PACKING, I FORGOT THE CAMERA, BUT AFTER THE EXPERIENCE WE DECIDED THAT IT WAS PROBABLY BEST NOT TO DOCUMENT IT THAT MUCH!)