Camping, Day 5

Today started out just like all the others-with Pierce making a delicious breakfast; today it was pancakes and sausage again! Then we headed to Rutledge Falls. These falls are on privately owned land, and the owner generously lets everyone enjoy them. The trail was really steep, so Jedi, PJ, and I stayed at the top overlook, but Pierce, Draven, & Brody went all the way to the bottom. You can swim in the pool made by the waterfall, but we decided it might be a little cold this early in the season!
The area around the waterfall was beautiful. The house was an old, brick, civil war era home, and they had this cute red barn in one of the fields. The sun was great today and as we were walking back to the car I just thought this scene was really pretty...
Then, because it was so much fun yesterday, Pierce took D & B back to the rec center water park. Again they had a great time, and got to show off what they could do (going down slides and such) to their DAD! After PJ's nap they came back and we all went to the pool here at the campground. It has a slide and a jacuzzi, so it was fun too. PJ did not like the water at all! I don't know if it was too cold or too big or what, but he cried and held on for dear life.
The boys are totally exhausted! So exhausted that we can't get them to go to sleep. Urgghh!

Now We're Camping

For dinner on Day 4 we finally made a fire, roasted hot dogs, and made s'mores! As you'll remember, Pierce is very particular about what constitutes "camping." You have to be in a tent, you have to have a fire (even if it's 90 degrees outside), you have to have roasted hotdogs, and you have to have s'mores. The last one was just added two years ago, when my brother, Jason, and I finally introduced him to this delicious camping treat. So...the boys loved it! They helped roast hot dogs and marshmallows, and loved eating it all up. Thankfully we can really say we went camping this week!

Camping, Day 2

Here are some pictures from Day 2....and we posted some pictures on Day 1 as well.

So, today was much more fun than yesterday. We didn't do anything special, but I think that is why it was so much fun. Pierce made blueberry pancakes and sausage for breakfast (yum!), and then we spent the rest of the day goofing off. We played at the playground three times, took a walk on the Nature Trail, read books, the boys watched a movie, etc, etc. We did end up staying in the cabin one more day because it was suppose to thunderstorm again. Did it? No, of course not :( We hope to be in our tent tomorrow which will be good, because according to Pierce we aren't camping right now. This is just a hotel where you have to walk across the pavement to use the restroom. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I was all excited to be in our tent and doing the whole camping thing.

Tomorrow we are planning to visit Cumberland Caverns in the morning. The boys seemed to think it would be cool to be underground!

Camping 101

Rain
Our Cabin
1. Get to the camp site before the rain starts so you can get the tent put up.

2. Talk to someone who has stayed at the location where you are planning to camp.

3. If the pictures look too good to be true, they probably are.

4. No matter what, have fun anyway!

There are no pictures today, but I'll be sure to get some posted tomorrow. This has not been the picture perfect start to our vacation that Pierce and I dreamed of, but we are still excited and the boys are too-tired, but excited. Before I give you the dreary details, let me started by telling you a cute Draven story. I was in the bathroom with Brody for his 20th trip today (he had a lot of water on the trip), but Pierce just told me this...He and Draven were in the cabin-I'll get to this next-and Draven excitedly told Pierce, "come here, I have to show you something!" So Pierce went into the boys' room and Draven said, "This is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life!" And showed Pierce his sleeping bag and his bed and was really excited. Doesn't that melt your heart?! It makes all the craziness worth it.

OK, to the details...The trip was uneventful except for the 5 stops we had to make before we could really get started-eating lunch, Pierce's work, Pierce's other work, pee pee breaks, etc. Why is it that when you're trying to get somewhere with a car full of kids you have to stop a dozen times? It always happens! Draven also asked every five minutes how many more minutes it would be before we got there-his version of "are we there yet," and Brody kept asking when we were getting to Nana's house?! So, we finally get to Manchester, TN and we are all excited, driving down the interstate, spotting the exit sign, when we notice the KOA sign just off the interstate on the left. Yes, just off the interstate. Who ever heard of a "campsite" that has the calming sounds of 18 wheelers 200 feet away? Then, I went in to register and the kid at the desk asks if we want to upgrade to a cabin for the night, because it's suppose to rain. Nah, we say...it won't be that bad. Just as we got the tent laid out on the ground the lightning started and the clouds opened up! We sat in the humid car for an hour hoping it would let up soon. It finally did, but our campsite was so water logged that we couldn't set up the tent. So, after sitting through an hour in the rain, I went sheepishly back into the office and asked if we could upgrade to a cabin. I think that should have been Pierce's job, but he did the driving instead. Then we went to the highclass eating establishment, Walmart, for dinner because everything was so wet we couldn't start a fire. While at Walmart, the KOA man called and said he had made a little mistake. The cabin he had put us in was rented for tomorrow and could we please move all our stuff to another cabin?! So, we are spending tonight in the comfort of a 2 room cabin, all in beds, and thinking about staying here tomorrow too, as it's suppose to rain all day again. The weather.com people had it all wrong!

We are still optimistic though, and the boys can't wait to get to the playground and the fishing pond, which really are very cool. I think they have to have something awesome to put in the pictures to lure you here. While sitting in the rain Pierce said he wanted to have a real Griswald family vacation...he may just get his wish!