You Know You're in Georgia When...

You pass a giant butt...er...peach water tank.

As many of you know, Mike's Dad passed away last week. Since he didn't have a funeral, Mike decided to do something that reminded him of fun times he had with his dad. So, we went camping. I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous. I love camping, but the thought of 3 kids around a fire pit and wooded areas they could wander off and get lost in was slightly terrifying. But, we went, and not only did we survive the trip, we had lots of fun. Jacob even announced that he wants to live in a tent forever. :-D

Camping that particular weekend was kind of tricky because there was pretty much a giant rain cloud covering the whole state. So Mike had to find us a place out of state where it wasn't raining. On Monday morning we headed to Tallulah Falls, GA. It was about a 5 hour drive (took us more like 8) to get there. We stopped at Target on the way there to buy Lizzie some camping appropriate shoes and saw these swords in the dollar section. I love dollar toys that can entertain kids for hours on end!

We got there and started to pull into our assigned spot, only to find it was RIGHT by the main road. Um, no. I don't think so. So we drove around and found a spot we felt was more appropriate for young kids and then I made Mike go back to the front building to get a new reservation. It really was the perfect spot. Right next to the bathrooms and a playground. Awesome. What more can a pregnant mother of young children ask for in a camping spot.

Our first evening there was a little rough. We pulled in, unloaded and started to set up. I decided it would be smart to tie Jimmy to a leash to prevent him from wandering off while we were setting up. Unfortunately, he kept getting tangled and falling. At one point he totally face planted it in the gravel and skinned his poor little nose and elbows. So, at that point I figured it was a pointless effort and the kids and I headed over to the playground while Mike finished setting up camp. When we got back we started up a fire and got going on dinner. I had planned to roast hot dogs, but as I started to get everything out, I discovered that I packed everything BUT the hot dogs. Brilliant! So, we had sandwiches instead. While we were were getting stuff out for dinner, Jimmy was climbing on the cement table. He took one wrong step and slipped, hitting his eye on the rough surface. Totally skinned his cheek and eyebrow. He was struggling.

Not wanting to waste a perfectly good fire we decided to roast some marshmallows and make s'mores. It was going well, until Jimmy tripped and caught himself on the side of the fire pit, burning his hand. We were in the middle of taking care of his burn when the down poor of rain began. So...the kids and I ran to the shelter of the van, while Mike inflated our air mattresses in the tent. Jimmy was screaming the whole time. It's a good thing it was a week day and there were not many other campers around. And the ones that were there were in trailers so the sound of his screaming was hopefully muffled. Luckily his burns were mild and only left slight red marks. Still, I was ready to call it quits and head home.

It rained all night long. But the tent held up well and we stayed warm and dry. The next day was much better. We got out the pack n play for Jimmy when the fire was going, and let him wander all he wanted when there was no fire. He was one happy kid. He did start going a little stir crazy once the evening fire was started though. I saw him doing this a lot...

And this...

Mike thought it was weird that I stuck a few buckets and sand shovels in the van, but he was thanking me later. They got played with A LOT!
We fit quite a bit in on Tuesday. After the kids finished school (one of the great things about home school, you can go on vacation and not get behind. :-D) Mike took Jacob and Lizzie on a mini hike while Jimmy napped and I vegged. They took a trail down to the waterfall and then to the museum they have there. The kids LOVED it. When they got back, Mike showed Jacob how to properly use a pocket knife and how to whittle. Was I a bit nervous about that? Um yes.

Later, Mike drove all of us down to the museum and we walked to the waterfall from there, because he wanted me to see it and I didn't want to walk a mile to see it. (Or however far it was. How's that for being lazy.) It was still a walk to get there but it was worth it. It was a really pretty waterfall.

Here's Jacob and his walking stick that Mike "made" for him.

Jimmy didn't really nap well in his new environment, so he was pretty tired by the end of our walk.

After driving us back to camp Mike decided to take Jacob on another hike down to the lower falls. This is Jacob's camera smile.

By the time they got back, Mike was carrying Jacob. He really tired him out.

Luckily, there was a walmart close by, so Mike went and got us some hot dogs. We also tried the s'mores again. It worked out much better with Jimmy safely in his pack n play.

After dinner, Mike broke out the glow sticks. Is it just me, or does he look a lot like Goofy here?

I just had to post some pictures of Jimmy here. I let him color with markers while the kids were doing school. He ended up coloring himself more than his paper. He even colored in his ears. Between the scratches on his face and the marker, he was lookin' pretty good.

But he was happy. :-D I think we built some fun family memories with the kiddos and I think the trip was pretty therapeutic for Mike. So, overall, the trip was very successful. I'm glad we stuck it out and stayed.