Warren Sand Dunes

Joshua took the day off work yesterday so we could made a trip out to Warren Sand Dunes State Park with our friends, the Larsen family. The Warren Sand Dunes are located in southwest Michigan along the Lake Michigan shoreline. It took us about 2 ½ hours to get there. Several families in our ward recommended this destination, especially for the nice sandy beaches, so we decided to check it out. We had such a great time playing on the beach and climbing the dunes. I was disappointed my foot wasn't healed enough to climb the dunes, but Joshua took the kids up and even Logan climbed the steepest dune all by himself, but with a lot of effort! Most everyone crawled the last few feet before reaching the top. They told me it was quite steep! Before we went home I tried to climb the sand dunes but didn't even reach the middle. You can see me, a little tiny speck of a person, in a couple pictures on the sand dunes below. See how tall they are? I can't wait to come back and climb them next time. I've heard that on a clear day, you can see the Chicago skyline on top (most likely with binoculars). We also want to hike the trails around the parks. Joshua and I love to hike.

It was so relaxing just laying around on the beach, talking to friends and watching the kids play in the sand all day. The water was very cold so the children spent the majority of the time playing in the sand. We were there from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm. The weather was great! It wasn't too hot - the high was only in the mid-80's.

After shaking all the sand off, as much as we could anyway, we went to dinner and then to "Culver's" for ice-cream before heading home. The Larsens reserved a hotel room and stayed an extra day because John had a "mandatory" week off work. They are still playing and sight-seeing around the area today. But Joshua needed to be back to work today so we went home on Monday night, getting home by 10:00 pm. I thought I did a good job putting sunblock on the kids and myself but everyone has a sunburn somewhere on their body today. We've been smothering aloe on ourselves all day. Hopefully it'll fade in a few days.

Here are some of the pictures we took ---