Evelyn's 4th of July 2008

Have you been on the edge of your seat waiting to hear about Evelyn's 4th of July 2008? Probably not and if by chance you were I am sorry to say this, but you shouldn't have been! Our 4th of July turned out to be more tame and less eventful than we thought it might be.

We attempted a camping trip to Manistee. Our 3 hour drive on Thursday the 3rd was easy and stress free, until we reached our destination deep in the Manistee National Forest. Upon our exit from the car we were RAVENOUSLY ATTACKED by thousands of man eating mosquitoes. Our camping trip in Manistee lasted all of 2 minutes before we jumped back in the car, trapping ourselves with 50 more mosquitoes! All three of us became cranky from the constant slapping at the blood sucking bugs, our voices raised and Evelyn cried. Our exit from the forest was quick, but the post traumatic stress disorder related to this incident will remain with us for awhile.

From this point in our trip we had driven too far and it was getting too late to drive home. Yet we needed a plan, fast. We drove back to Cadillac praying that Mitchell State Park would somehow have an opening on a holiday weekend. Our minds told us this was a huge long shot, most likely to end in them laughing at us and suggesting we get a motel! Andy went into the registration building while Evelyn and I stayed in the truck. Andy reappeared a couple minutes later to happily inform us that we were given the very last camping site in the park (which was also a handicap site, meaning the whole area was paved around us). In record time and with great relief, we set up camp for the night. We had dinner, visited the lake, had a campfire and Evelyn played at the playground. The next day we had to pack up and be out by 1pm.

We arrived home around 2:30pm - to the surprise of our family. We took quick showers and left for the St. Johns Park to let the girls (Evelyn and her two cousins - Shelby and Katie) play for awhile. We had an evening picnic and then watched fireworks at dusk. Evelyn had asked all week long about getting to see fireworks, yet when the first one went off the boom appeared before the visual display which scared Evelyn so much she covered her face the rest of the show! On our way home, Evelyn told us her head hurt. We are thinking this was a combination of the loud fireworks and a sinus problem she developed that day. After giving Evelyn some pain killer for the night and placing her in bed, the next morning I was greeted with the following words, "Mommy, my head feels better now." Yeah!

On July 5th we spent most of the day with Andy's parents, his brother Dan, his wife Cat, and their son Owen. After a nice dinner of steaks, Grandma Barb watched Evelyn and Owen while Andy, Dan, Cat and I went to a Lansing Lugnuts baseball game. We had a nice time and it was great to spend some time with Dan and Cat.

Sunday the 6th we spent at home, relaxing and doing laundry. Fun! Monday the 7th, we also had off of work, so we spent the day doing a little shopping in the summer clearance sections and finishing laundry. Fun!

Although Evelyn's 4th of July 2008 was not as magical as we were hoping it would be, we still enjoyed our family time together.