We. Went. Camping.
It's been way too long since I've blogged. But it has been a crazy year. The crazy year post is for another date and time. But for now, I'm just going to share one little adventure in the life of our family. And let's be honest - with 4 kids ages 6 and under, every single day is an adventure. But this time, our adventure had a new setting.
We were planning to go to Tweetsie Railroad this weekend. Starting last week I'm now on call Thursday - Saturday, so I have Sundays off call! So we were going to go on Sunday morning, spend the day there like we usually do, and come home on Sunday night. But... for some strange reason, I thought it would be fun to go camping in the mountains and then do Tweetsie too! I'm not sure what made me want to do this, but I'm the kind of person who makes FAST decisions. Seriously fast. Deciding what college to go to, where to study abroad, what house to buy... I made all those decisions in less than an hour... So making the decision on a whim to go camping wasn't unlike anything else Ray and I do in life.
So by 8:30am I had decided that we were going to go camping for a night over the weekend. The kids were still in their PJs, but I was drinking my coffee and Googling away on the hunt for a place to stay. Apparently everyone else in North Carolina also wanted to go camping for the Labor Day weekend because every campground was full except the Boone KOA. And the only night that they had a tent site available was that night - Friday night. So... I booked it! And we were set... except for the fact that we haven't gone camping in 3+ years and I couldn't even wrap my head around everything I needed to pack for a family of 6... but we were committed. No turning back. The kids were going to be thrilled. I just knew it. And then I told James, "We're going to go camping!" and he said "But I like my bed." Um.... ok... I decided to press on and pack anyway.
The kids helped me pack, James moved firewood from the backyard to the van, and we got everything ready. Ray came home from work early after lunch and went to the store and then finished helping us pack. By 2:00, we were on the road on our new adventure! Anna and Silas slept on the way there and James and Luke just looked out the window at the pretty drive to the mountains. Ray and I just talked... In this season of life, we savor car rides together because it allows us sweet uninterrupted talking time.
When we got there, the kids helped set up our tent and they were SO excited to be there! We explored the campground and played on the playground there.
After a bit, we decided to go out to eat. We decided to go out to eat dinner since we didn't really plan this in advance. We went to Mellow Mushroom in Boone and the kids loved it. We don't go out to eat often these days, but I'm finally at a point where I feel like our kids can handle a restaurant most of the time (as long as it's food they like and not a fancy place).
Then we headed back to camp. I nursed Silas and then put him to sleep in the pack n play. The tent was about 20 feet from the fire pit and I just knew he might have issues going to sleep since James, Luke, and Anna were all talking and excited about making a fire. But he didn't care... he babbled to himself for a few minutes and then went to sleep (he's the textbook easy fourth kiddo).
The kids loved looking at the fire and building it. We do fires sometimes in our backyard, but this time it was just very special. They sat on slats of wood so they wouldn't get their bottoms wet. They roasted marshmallows and we made smores. It was great!
When it was time to go to bed, we all crawled in the tent and they did a great job of not saying anything and going to sleep quickly. Ray and I were the ones who had trouble going to sleep! Our air mattress must have a small hole in it because by the time we laid down, it wasn't inflated well and by the time morning came, we were laying on the ground. It's all just something to laugh at now though! We decided to toss the mattress at the campground dumpster.
Silas woke all of us up at 5:30. Yes... 5:30. He usually wakes up at 7:00... but we were in a different place and he was probably a little cool. So... we had an early start to our day. Ray made another fire and we heated some bacon over it (we cooked it at home before we came). And we had bacon and fruit for breakfast.
By 9:00, we were packed and on the way to Tweetsie. We arrived at 9:15 and were able to get on the first train of the day. We usually stay there about 6 hours, but they kids (and adults) were a little more tired than normal so we decided to leave at 1:30 and go to Chic-fil-a for lunch before heading home. The kids love Chic-fil-a. Apparently I only took videos of Tweetsie today, so these are pics from our trip there about a month ago...
The one pic at Tweetise I took today was Silas who was sleeping so hard his mouth was hanging open. Apparently he couldn't hang since he woke up at 5:30am.
At 2:15 we were on our way home. The kids all slept ALL the way home. They were totally exhausted! We got home at 4:15 and everyone went straight to the bath. What a crazy 24 hours we had! But the kids LOVED it. I asked them what they thought of camping and they all said "It was great!" So... here's to more spontaneous camping in our future!
We were planning to go to Tweetsie Railroad this weekend. Starting last week I'm now on call Thursday - Saturday, so I have Sundays off call! So we were going to go on Sunday morning, spend the day there like we usually do, and come home on Sunday night. But... for some strange reason, I thought it would be fun to go camping in the mountains and then do Tweetsie too! I'm not sure what made me want to do this, but I'm the kind of person who makes FAST decisions. Seriously fast. Deciding what college to go to, where to study abroad, what house to buy... I made all those decisions in less than an hour... So making the decision on a whim to go camping wasn't unlike anything else Ray and I do in life.
So by 8:30am I had decided that we were going to go camping for a night over the weekend. The kids were still in their PJs, but I was drinking my coffee and Googling away on the hunt for a place to stay. Apparently everyone else in North Carolina also wanted to go camping for the Labor Day weekend because every campground was full except the Boone KOA. And the only night that they had a tent site available was that night - Friday night. So... I booked it! And we were set... except for the fact that we haven't gone camping in 3+ years and I couldn't even wrap my head around everything I needed to pack for a family of 6... but we were committed. No turning back. The kids were going to be thrilled. I just knew it. And then I told James, "We're going to go camping!" and he said "But I like my bed." Um.... ok... I decided to press on and pack anyway.
The kids helped me pack, James moved firewood from the backyard to the van, and we got everything ready. Ray came home from work early after lunch and went to the store and then finished helping us pack. By 2:00, we were on the road on our new adventure! Anna and Silas slept on the way there and James and Luke just looked out the window at the pretty drive to the mountains. Ray and I just talked... In this season of life, we savor car rides together because it allows us sweet uninterrupted talking time.
When we got there, the kids helped set up our tent and they were SO excited to be there! We explored the campground and played on the playground there.
After a bit, we decided to go out to eat. We decided to go out to eat dinner since we didn't really plan this in advance. We went to Mellow Mushroom in Boone and the kids loved it. We don't go out to eat often these days, but I'm finally at a point where I feel like our kids can handle a restaurant most of the time (as long as it's food they like and not a fancy place).
Then we headed back to camp. I nursed Silas and then put him to sleep in the pack n play. The tent was about 20 feet from the fire pit and I just knew he might have issues going to sleep since James, Luke, and Anna were all talking and excited about making a fire. But he didn't care... he babbled to himself for a few minutes and then went to sleep (he's the textbook easy fourth kiddo).
The kids loved looking at the fire and building it. We do fires sometimes in our backyard, but this time it was just very special. They sat on slats of wood so they wouldn't get their bottoms wet. They roasted marshmallows and we made smores. It was great!
When it was time to go to bed, we all crawled in the tent and they did a great job of not saying anything and going to sleep quickly. Ray and I were the ones who had trouble going to sleep! Our air mattress must have a small hole in it because by the time we laid down, it wasn't inflated well and by the time morning came, we were laying on the ground. It's all just something to laugh at now though! We decided to toss the mattress at the campground dumpster.
Silas woke all of us up at 5:30. Yes... 5:30. He usually wakes up at 7:00... but we were in a different place and he was probably a little cool. So... we had an early start to our day. Ray made another fire and we heated some bacon over it (we cooked it at home before we came). And we had bacon and fruit for breakfast.
By 9:00, we were packed and on the way to Tweetsie. We arrived at 9:15 and were able to get on the first train of the day. We usually stay there about 6 hours, but they kids (and adults) were a little more tired than normal so we decided to leave at 1:30 and go to Chic-fil-a for lunch before heading home. The kids love Chic-fil-a. Apparently I only took videos of Tweetsie today, so these are pics from our trip there about a month ago...
At 2:15 we were on our way home. The kids all slept ALL the way home. They were totally exhausted! We got home at 4:15 and everyone went straight to the bath. What a crazy 24 hours we had! But the kids LOVED it. I asked them what they thought of camping and they all said "It was great!" So... here's to more spontaneous camping in our future!
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