Camping at Red Top Mountain 2013

My blogging as of late has no organizational sense except which pictures I feel like editing first. I haven't even blogged about Christmas! Yes, that was four months ago. Oh well. I'm not too worried about it. One thing at a time. Since I had a lot of picture-taking fun on our recent camping trip, that was what got tweaked in Lightroom first and that's what is going on the blog...

My aspiration for an extended family camping trip became reality last week. We were supposed to leave a day earlier, but bad weather (rain ALL day and in the 40s, no thank you!) required us to postpone one day. Thankfully, we just added that night to the end of our trip, rounding out a 3 night stay. The extended family (as you'll see in pictures) included Amy, Tim, and Matthan (my nephew); Christy, Jason, Sadie (4 and 1/2) and Titus (2 and 1/2); Grandpa Jim; and our family of four. Camping - particularly tent camping- is a lot of work, and we knew that with 5 kids under 5 it was gonna be CAAAARAAAAAZY! It did not disappoint. But a lot of the craziness came from unanticipated situations: the temperature getting into the 30s the first night (NOT in the weather forecast), Christy getting a stomach virus the first morning, and oh, did I mention 5 kids under 5? Right. Talk about an adventure. But nonetheless, it has not discouraged me from wanting to go camping again.

Sadie and Lailey

One of the best parts of the trip for Lailey was this HUGE bunch of boulders between our campsite and Amy's. Unfortunately, as I was weeding out pictures I realized I did not get a shot to show how high they were when they were on top. I would guess the rocks were 9 to 10 feet high. Lailey, always the adventurous climber, made us nervous several times as she scaled them fearlessly.

Amy, Matthan, and Tim

Titus enjoying a biscuit

Another highlight of the trip was all the kids (at least the four mobile ones) playing together and hanging out around the campfire at night. Unfortunately, this only happened one night since Amy headed home early since Matthan wasn't sleeping well, and Christy did the same since she was sick. But it was still fun while it lasted.

Crazy cousins

And thank goodness for Grandpa! He helped watch the kids while we were cooking or washing dishes, or anything else. That was a huge help.

Matthan and Grandpa

If it wasn't for Tim snapping this one shot, I wouldn't have been in any pics all weekend!
 Gotta get Davey behind my camera!!!

Maddox

Jason and Titus

Sunday, our third day, was Lailey's birthday! To celebrate, she had a Pop-Tart with a 4 candle in it at breakfast. She loved that! After lunch we walked down to the lake and she got to play around the water a bit on Lake Allatoona.

Lake Allatoona

Always in the mud

That evening, Grandpa said goodbye since he had to work Monday, and we were the only ones left for the last night. We walked down to the lake again and this time enjoyed the sunset.

My loves

Getting shoes off

Where'd Lailey go? (comes out: "Weh Nay-nee doh?)

My dirty hobo child

Monday we came home with a lot of dirt! I had to mentally release any obsession over thinking I was going to keep Maddox clean. At all. He was filthy, and since he HATES getting his face, hands, anything wiped or cleaned whatsoever, I had to pick my battles. The kids soaked in the bath for probably an hour. They were then given the most thorough washing ever. 

Hopefully next time we go camping it will be a little more relaxing. And hopefully we can pack less! I'm tired of dragging a pack 'n' play and a high chair!