Our Weekend Camping!

We had such a great weekend camping!  It was Melissa's last weekend here, before she heads back home to Texas, so we decided to spend the weekend together and go to our favorite campgrounds; Old Orchard Park in Oscoda, Michigan ~ off the AuSable River.  George and his family went camping there through the years while he was growing up, and we also took our kids camping there through the years as they were growing up.  

This was the first weekend, this summer, that we went camping and took our boat out.  The weatherman said there was a 30% chance of spotty showers.  As we were driving up north it began to rain a little bit... Then, as we were setting up our tent, it started to POUR!  No fun setting up a tent in the rain. (I'm not big on sleeping in a tent either... Yay for air mattresses!!!!)  Anyway, we quickly set up the screen over the picnic table, so we would have a dry(er) area to sit and wait out the rain. Once the rain stopped (quite a bit later) we found that a 'mini lake' had formed around, and was seeping under, our tent... So we had to move it.  Our tent leaked a little and most EVERYTHING was soaked and dirty!  Including our dogs!! 

 Emmi, waiting for the rain to stop... 

Izzie is under the picnic table all curled up!

 We definitely picked the wrong spot to set up the tent! :)

We began to think the weatherman didn't know what he was talking about and that it was going to rain most of the weekend, but thankfully it cleared up nicely and by Monday it was gorgeous!  After moving our tent, the rain died down enough that we went out on the river, on our boat, for a little while... The kids even caught some fish!  Melissa's friend, Emily, came up and spent the first night with us.  It was so nice to have her there.  She, Melissa and George had a great time fishing, swimming and playing in the sand dunes!  George and his Dad competed against the girls each time they were out on the boat, fishing.  I just enjoyed watching, and taking care of the dogs on the boat.  They are fantastic 'four legged camping/boating/fishing' friends, and were quite worn out by Monday afternoon.  As far as fishing went, Melissa caught the biggest fish, an 18" Small Mouth Bass, her dad came in second catching an 17"!  All four of them caught various sizes of Small Mouth Bass, Perch, Blue Gill, Sunfish, and Rock Bass, and we even had some keepers for a dinner!  When the clouds began to clear away, we got sunburned... Right through the sunscreen!  Sunburns and all, it was a lot of fun, the weekend went by fast and now we are back to 'the real world' ~ I Thought you'd enjoy seeing some of our pictures...

 Our Campsite, after the rain dried up a bit...

Getting Ready to launch the boat! Yay!

The Sand Dune that the kids walked up and

ran down!  Then they jumped in the river to cool off!

 Emmi got SO excited when a fish was caught, 

she had to check out each and every one!

 Izzie, watching all the action from her 

favorite spot at the front of the boat!

Melissa's 18" catch... The biggest of the weekend!

 This mama duck and her four little babies 

hung around us for the longest time!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Old Orchard Park and The AuSable River are just beautiful.  We enjoyed the scenery from the boat, and as we took walks around the beach and through the campgrounds. It was especially beautiful at sunset.

All tired out at the end of a great weekend! :)