Camping at Chattahoochee Bend State Park

Prompted by a "list of questions to ask your spouse," Davey and I asked each other the following question the other day... "what do you look forward to the most?" Besides spending time with my family, my next obvious answer was "camping." Why? Lots of reasons, but basically I'm crazy about it. Is it leaving technology behind? Abandoning the fast pace of life and returning to the basics? Is it because everything tastes better outside? Or is it the quiet at the end of the night, when kids are tucked into sleeping bags and all you can hear is the crackling of a campfire and the crickets. Well, and the rest of the GA bugs who sing at night. I think it's all that and much more. Add in the fact that we haven't gone in well over a year, and I was more than ready to get back in a tent. See, we prefer to only camp in the spring and fall to avoid the heat. Last fall, Maddox was only a couple months old and this past spring he was still a bit too little for me to be comfortable taking him to sleep outdoors. But, the closer we got to fall, I was itching to go. Davey wasn't sure, but I convinced him, and he's so glad I did.

So, a few days before, I began the packing process. I consider myself a pretty good packer, and usually I'm able to pack only what we need to save space. It's a good thing I did, because this was what we "needed!" 

With kids it's tricky because forgetting something can literally ruin your trip somewhere. But somehow we fit it all and had room for the kids. 

DAY 1:

We arrived at the park and headed to the Visitor's Center to check in. This is the newest state park, and if you didn't know that upon arriving, you would as soon as you entered the Visitor's Center because it still smelled like a very new building. While checking in, I asked if the campground where we had reserved a site had any shade. She said they didn't but the walk-in sites did, and they were not a far walk. She was happy to change my reservation and I was happy to get a $5 refund per night since those sites are cheaper. How nice! When we arrived at the campground, Lailey and I walked about a hundred feet or so from the parking lot and picked site #217. 

Looked perfect. We unloaded the car, met some fellow campers, then drove a short way down to the river where they were having "water games." I knew there was about a 50% chance of rain, and sure enough, when we got to the river, we heard rumbling and it started to sprinkle. But before it got too rainy, we had to play a bit in the water. Maddox was so excited he almost jumped out of my arms to get in!

 We headed back to the playground where the unexciting water games were taking place. The kids played on the swings and then Davey set up in the pavilion to eat some lunch. The rain cooled everything off a bit and the kids didn't even seem to mind having wet clothes.

After lunch, we went back to the campsite where Davey had been very smart to put anything that didn't need to get wet in the tent and cover the picnic table with our tarp. I was crossing my fingers hoping the kids would take a nap in the tent and not goof off together. Naptime was my only real worry about this camping trip. If it didn't go well we could have some cranky and tired kids. Hmmm. Let's see how that worked out...

Ha! They were both very happy despite not sleeping. Davey pulled out the bubble sword I had bought a few days prior and they loved it. It came with "premium" bubble solution and this is the best stuff I've used in awhile. All the bubble solution I've bought in the last few years is junk. Bubbles don't blow or pop almost immediately. This stuff rocked! I want to try making homemade bubble solution with glycerin to see if it works better than the soapy-water-that-does-not-make-bubbles-yet-is-still-being-sold. Anyway, I digress on a bubbles rant.

 For dinner we had homemade chili. I always make a crockpot of chili before camping because it's a quick meal to heat up on the camping stove and camping and chili just go together. Add in blueberry muffins and we were so stuffed!

 As the evening started in, Lailey made some new friends one campsite over. We shared s'mores stuff and they shared their play dough and accessories. Good times.

 This was Maddox's first camping trip and it's easy to see how much he enjoyed it. He loves his Daddy and getting tickles too.

Here he is giving Daddy a hug before getting ready for bed. It was not cold the first night and the kids did well going to sleep. I let Maddox go to sleep first and then afterwards tucked Lailey in her sleeping bag. Davey and I read by the fire for a long time and then curled up as well. One problem...our fellow campers were not very quiet. Maddox thankfully sleeps through anything, and Lailey was able to go to sleep too, but their noisy talking and music made it difficult for me to go to sleep. What was the ONE thing I forgot to pack? Ear plugs. But I finally did drift off to sleep.

DAY 2:

Sometime in the early morning, I woke up to two strange things. The first was someone whistling. It was a beautiful melody that the whistler repeated over and over and took awhile for my half-asleep brain to register. The second sound was Davey snoring. I reached over and gently touched his face to rouse him enough to get him to turn over. Except I realized it wasn't him. Okay, weird. It took me a minute, but I realized it was coming from another campsite. A few minutes later, it got louder. And louder. And louder. Pretty soon it was horrendous. Imagine the worst snoring you've ever heard then multiply it times 10. I heard Davey stir. "What IS that?" he whispered. "It's somebody snoring, but it sounds like a bear in active labor" I whispered back.  He had to slap his hand over his mouth to stifle the laughter. Pretty soon it woke up Lailey. "Mommy, what is that?" she asked fearfully. She probably thought it was a monster, and rightly so, because it sounded awful. I quietly explained, praying Maddox wouldn't wake up and then we'd all be up. Before dawn, mind you. Soon we heard footsteps outside our tent. One of the teenagers from the campsite had come over and was asking if we could call 911. Apparently, the guy making the awful nosies (who we'd met the night before) was not conscious and not doing well. We quickly got up and Davey headed over to help. They somehow got a cell phone signal and called out. I had Lailey in bed with me by this time, and oh great, now Maddox is awake too. I fumbled around in the dark to fix his bottle (thank the Lord I knew where I'd packed everything!) and tried to listen to them talking outside the tent. It didn't sound frantic, but still, it was hard not to worry. Then, after the guy repeated something a bunch of times in slurred, stroke-like speech, I heard them all have a revelation: "low blood sugar!" Davey went on a search for food. He told me later that no one knew what to do and they were all just sitting there kind of confused. They found something for the guy and then the ambulance pulled up. So the sun was just breaking the horizon and there we were, peeking out our tent window from our air mattress, checking out the scene. The EMTs did not have to take him to the hospital, thankfully, but he hadn't told anyone he was with that he was diabetic, and when one EMT heard that he said "guess the cat's outta the bag now, huh?"

So after all that, it was time to get up and get breakfast going. I inwardly groaned and refused to look at my cell phone to see what time it was since it would be futile anyway. We had oatmeal and pop-tarts in true camping fashion. Then I took a short walk to take advantage of the morning light and take some nature pics.

 After breakfast, clean up, and laying out wet clothes to dry, it was hiking time. Another camper had told us that there was an observation tower a short hike away, so we headed off. It was a beautiful trail that was almost completely shaded and not too long for Lailey. Maddox really liked being carried in the pack. This was an impulse buy when they were hugely discounted on zulily.com a few years ago, but I'm glad I got it now.

 We walked and walked and had a really good time. I helped Lailey walk up this long low tree and her face is priceless! I believe she wanted down.

 We finally made it to the observation tower, climbed up, and ate lunch: pita bread, hummus, and bananas. While sitting up there, several other families climbed up to check out the view. Lailey greeted each one and promptly invited them to eat lunch with us. None of them took her up on it but she tried very hard to persuade them.

Where's Lailey?

Funny family photo!

We walked down to look at the river and I looked over and there's Lailey, pants down, ready to take a pee. Problem was, she was going at it boy-style! "Stop stop stop! Wait! I'll help you!" I yelled, rushing toward her. She held it, then I held her, and Davey was quick to grab the camera mid-stream. Haha! Yes, this is how we roll out in the woods. She loves to pee outside by the way, TMI. After that incident, it was time to hike back to the campsite for naps. 

Shot from the hip. This captures Lailey perfectly: running with the wind in her hair and having a blast.

Bump on a log (I crack myself up!)

Maddox fell asleep while heading back so he didn't really nap once we got back to the tent. But Lailey slept very soundly.

These were about as tiny as the end of your finger. It looked like a miniature forest.

While Lailey napped, we had some playtime with the little man. I just can't resist those rosy cheeks and blue eyes. The weather was so lovely in the shade he just played in his diaper and enjoyed it. By this time all the other campers had cleared out and we were the only ones left. I was looking forward to a good night's sleep, without whistling, snoring, or ambulances!

After Lailey woke up, we all had a snack and then they played awhile. It was such a beautiful day.

Guess she didn't want her picture taken, but I think she was faking the pout.

 For dinner we ate black bean burgers that I had frozen previously, Pirate's Booty, our favorite cheese puffs, and s'mores for dessert. Maddox was pretty tired so I put him to bed and Lailey hung out around the campfire for a bit. After she was in bed, Maddox got really fussy and I was really glad there were no other campers because he would have woken up everyone. I finally gave him some Tylenol and rocked and sang him to sleep. I can only guess his teeth were bothering him.

Day 3:
I love waking up outside, all cozy and warm in a sleeping bag. The temperature had dropped quite a bit from the night before, but it was not too cool. I slowly realized that the sun was already up. "Hallelujah." I was so thankful we got to sleep in without incident. We slowly got up, putzed around in the tent, and then we had pop-tarts and more muffins for breakfast. At one point, after we'd been up about 45 min, Davey looked at his phone and told me it was almost 9:00! We had probably slept until 8:00 that morning, which was great.

Lailey got a hold of Davey's Camelbak (hydration pack) and starting running around the tent, drinking the water, and saying "I'm gonna run 5 miles. Now I'm gonna run another 5 miles." It was hilarious! The video is only a clip, but she went on and on impersonating Davey on her own. So cute! I think it made him proud.

 The kids just played while we cleaned and packed. I really wanted to stay one more night, but we would have run out of diapers and Davey was celebrating his brother's birthday the next day, so it wouldn't work.

While packing, we found a stick bug and a butterfly in the tent. We rescued both of course, but not before checking them out. That was fun for Lailey to get to see up close.

 We finally packed up everything and headed home, carrying less food, more dirt, and tons of great memories. We had such a good time and I know we'll be going again as soon as we can. Davey commented that it wasn't as much work as he thought it would be with the two kids. I agreed. Life is messy and crazy already, might as well take it outside where you don't have to vacuum.