Are We Really Doing This???

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The 12 Days of Camping...(Part 4)

Phew,
haven't we had enough fun already?
Are we done yet?

NOPE!
We are just getting started good!
So far,
we have only talked about
the first 6 days!
We still have half a trip left!

When choosing our third and final
campground for our trip,
I wanted to make sure it was somewhere
with enough for me and the kids
to do.
It also had to be near Morganton,
since that is where daddy's class was.
So we were going to be solo
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
and
most of Friday.

There is a whole lotta nuthin
in and around Morganton!
So I broadened my search
and found an
AMAZING
spot
in Marion, NC.
It put daddy at a 20+ minute
commute to the class.
But gave us TONS to do!!

We decided we would give
Yogi Bear's JellyStone
Camp & Resort
a shot.

I was so excited to visit after
finding their website!!!

Since our return I have looked up
other JellyStone's in the area...
the owners of the Marion one...
really have a passion for this,
they know what they are doing,
they enjoy what they are doing
and you can tell!!!

It is owned and run by a family.
Mom (Mama Bear)
Dad (Chief)
Oldest Son (Running Bear)
Younger Son (Happy Feet)

We had a FANTASTIC time!
I had us booked Mon-Fri
ONLY
because they didn't have room for us to stay
past Friday.

When we arrived,
it was actually VERY disappointing...
it looked so dirty!
Everything was covered in mud!
The lake
(that looked beautiful in all the pictures)
was the color of mud!
The grass was covered in mud,
the boats
(that looked so neat and clean on the web)
were all flipped upside down
and dirty
and partially submerged.

I was really confused!

We later learned that there
had been a record rainfall
two days before.
(Saturday - didn't rain that bad in Balsam Mtn 1 hr away!)
It literally washed out the ONLY bridge across the lake
that took you to the camp sites.
Mud came down the mountain
and
washed right into the lake.
The lake flooded horribly!
It came up on to the grass
(bringing mud with it).

It messed up the boats,
the foot bridge across the lake,
the pump on the water slide,
quite a few lakeside campsites...

It was just a mess!
And they did their absolute best!
BEST!
To get the campground back up
and running
and looking
like they built it to look
and kept it looking!
I was BLOWN away
by how diligently
and
quickly
the "Chief"
worked
ALL DAY,
the entire time we were there,
to get his campground
back to the condition
that they kept it in!

I honestly can't give enough kudos
to the hard work that family
put into getting the place
"back together".

Within a day of our arrival,
I was begging them to find room
for us to stay through the weekend.
I wanted Daddy to enjoy some of the
campground that we were enjoying
while he was in class.

Luckily,
they found a spot for us!
It was a little tight,
but
we got to stay.

So we were all happy.

We are anxiously waiting to find another
time to hike out there...
its a 4 hour drive...
so unfortunately,
its not a weekend trip...
not a frequent one anyways.

But we are definitely ready to do it again.

This campground it 100% geared around families.
And most of the activities are geared toward
the school aged crowd
elementary to middle school aged.
Which works perfectly for us.

They have a schedule of activities
every day...
all day!

So you can be as active
or
as relaxed
as you want to be.

Our first day there,
We got a SMALL glipse of the
flooding mayhem
when the rain started again...
I am certain everyone was holding their breath...

You can kind of see the slope on the

driveway,

we were pretty high up

and the lake was at the bottom...

We had to find something to do,

inside,

to keep entertained during the rain.

The next day,

the boys gathered firewood.

We asked permission to

scavenge through the woods

and gather the fallen branches.

Over the next few days,

we stayed QUITE busy!

We tried out the boats:

Daddy and Lex in the canoe

Rico rocking the kayak like he knew what he was doing!

Jackson chillin in the paddle boat

(cause he was extremely apprehensive of all

of the other boats!)

And Mr. T

quite HAPPILY

keeping his feet firmly

planted on dry ground!

(tough job havin a kid this cute!)

We tried out the playground...

Mr. T giving daddy a push...

Sort of!

This is the only boat

we could get Tony on...

Playing a couple of rounds of putt-putt

with some new friends.

Watering the flowers

with Cindy Bear

Hitting the pool and waterslide:

Rico forgot to take his shirt off,

so he rode down with it in his hand...

and it didn't get wet!

He was so proud!

This water was COLD!

Tony and I sat and watched

and everyone coming out

was commenting on how COLD

the water was!

It was a chilly day,

but the water was all new

water.

They had to empty the slide,

and replace the pump due to all

the mud that had made its way into the slide pool.

I opted NOT to go down the slide,

luckily

SOMEONE had to stay with Mr. T.

The sacrifices mommies have to make.

sigh...

(wink, wink)

See,

doesn't he look like its chilly outside??

The boys had been BEGGING

daddy to go on the waterslide with them,

but by the time he got back

from class and chilled out a minute,

the slide was closed!

So we finally had a chance to get daddy

on the slide on Friday.

Once Lex finally got on the slide,

it was almost impossible to get her off!!

Look at that happy girl!

Daddy finally made his way down the slide!

He makes it look like such a fast and exhilarating slide,

doesn't he?

After watching everyone else having so much fun

on the slide...

Mr. T decided he was willing to give it a shot.

Daddy attempted to stay in the seated upright position...

but the shear force of the speed slide (har har)

he was on...

knocked him and little man back.

Then my sweet husband,

did the noble thing

and

held our precious

baby boy child

up above his head

as he plunged into the ice cold water!

Baby boy hardly got wet!

What a good daddy!

I have no great caption for this next photo...

I just loved it!

Daddy is grinning because I saw this and

wanted to get a picture,

so I ran ahead of them and turned around

and started taking pictures.

And if you look REAL close,

you can see daddy is stepping

a little unusually high with that left foot...

he had a blow out with his flip flop

and had to walk rather

awkwardly back to the site.

We had quite a few flip flop blow outs on that trip!

(Note to self: Next time we go camping take atleast

TWO pairs of flip flips for everyone!)

The big boys hit the boats for a second time,

and this time Jackson got brave!!

He started out in the canoe with Rico...

Then Rico wanted to ride the kayak,

so Jackson decided to man the canoe solo!

Then I turned around and he was in a kayak

by himself!!!

Oh what fun stuff we are going to do

when these littlest ones get a little older!

We are gonna do things I never thought

I would do:

canoeing to a campsite

kayaking down a river

(p.s. - see all of the yucky in the lake -

that is NOT normal there)

So those were some of the things we did that I actually
took pictures of.
There were a TON of other activities that we either
didn't participate in,
didn't photo graph
or chose not to show include.
I got tons of pictures of
the kids in the pool...
chose not to add those cause
that is "every day" stuff. :)

Some of the activities that they had that
are not pictured:

Hey Rides around the grounds
Nature Hike around the grounds
Lunch with a character
Breakfast with a character
Roasting smores with Yogi
Daily Organizied Games
Daily Arts n Crafts
Story time complete with milk & cookies with Yogi
Dance Parties

(me and Mr. T at one of the dance parties)

We had an absolute ball
and
can't wait to go back!
Daddy has already been notified of the dates
for the next class he has to take
out there...
he is ready for me to book our trip already!
For NEXT August!!

On Sunday mornings,
they have Yogi come around the campground and say good-bye
to the campers.

We were busy packing up
when he stopped by our site.

We had a cooler propped
up on a set of sets to drain.
Yogi,
thinking he was helping...
came by and
helped speed up the process...
he dumped our cooler
and
all of its contents all over the place!

Much to his surprise...
it was FULL
of drinks!

Yogi was so embarrassed

and

his escort was playing the disappointed

"helper" well.

He even gave Daddy a hug

as an apology.

We were laughing at the accident.

Mr. T watched the chaos from afar.

He was a little apprehensive

about getting too close to that

big brown bear.

We got packed up

and

were able to leave without any further incident.

Here are a few random pictures:

Pb&js outside for lunch!

My baby boy and his curls!

Playing with bugs!

And Rico made himself a coffee

one morning when we went

up to have muffins with BooBoo.

He *thought* I was going to let him drink it.

I let him take a sip because I knew he wasn't going

to like it...

Sure enough - he didn't.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

The 12 Days of Camping... (Part 3)

Our trip got

and

exciting

as the days ticked by...

We left the KOA in Asheville

and

had another spot lined up.

We figured we would

campground hop our

way through the

Asheville/Morganton

area...

Our next destination was

in Balsam Mountain.

Just outside of Waynesville, NC.

We stayed at a

the best named campground I have heard of yet...

Moonshine Creek Campground

Once I saw the name of this place...

we HAD to stay!!

We arrived Friday afternoon....

we were staying through Monday.

We were literally in the middle of NOTHING!

Yet, managed to find things to do!

We wound up being creekfront again...

The kids made fast friends,

like they always do

and

it took all of about 5 minutes

for the littlest person in our family

to get wet...

SOAKING WET!!!

But -

that's what camping is all about,

right?

I am pretty sure we just hung out at the campsite

Friday afternoon

and

evening.

We got a little rain

so we dried the youngins off

and

hunkered down inside for a bit.

This is one of the BEST toys

Santa brought this past year...

and it travels so well!!

The next day,

was more exciting.

We went exploring!

We started out by

taking a hike

around the campground.

There were a lot of butterflies

hanging around...

daddy was able to pick up one up!

So for the next 15 minutes,

we watched as each of the kids attempted to pick one up, too.

Then since I brought my camera

and saw this neat bridge over the creek,

I thought it would be a good picture

opportunity...

and as the norm with kids...

I took quite a few

and this is the best I got...

I have NO idea why Mr. T was showing off his belly!

And as it goes with any hike or walk with kids...

someone always has to be held

carried...

I am just thankful they are

getting too big for me to do

the carrying

holding!!

We got back to our site and decided to build our first

fire of our camping trip thus far.

And we roasted marshmallows...

for brunch!!

See what the hubs is doing?

His marshmallow caught on fire

and

he is trying to blow it out.

Got it.

We will revisit this in a bit...

After we filled up on marshmallows,

we headed out of the campgrounds to

explore our surroundings.

We had passed an apple orchard on the

way in

and I insisted on stopping by!

It was a farm stand

and

bakery

as well!!

We grabbed a couple of things:

apples

corn on the cob

and a couple of

homemade apple treats!

Including an apple turnover

two.

They were just ok

and the apples weren't ripe yet.

So I was a little disappointed.

But it was a nice little stop.

We ventured on in to Waynesville

and walked around downtown.

Super cute town!

They have done well with keeping up the

Main Street area.

It was rather busy too.

Even though we had been eating all morning,

we hadn't had lunch.

So we started checking out the restaurants.

We saw this menu

and it immediately

took me back to when I was a child.

Like less than 5 years old kinda chid...

Corn Bread -N- Milk!

Are you kidding me?

I have never seen that on a menu...

ever!!

I have very vivid memories

of climbing in my

grandfather's lap,

after Sunday lunch,

while he was sitting in "his" chair.

We would share a big ole mug

of cornbread in milk.

The cornbread was fresh made

by my grandmother

and

even though we had just had lunch,

there was always room for that

after lunch treat!

I can see the room,

the chair,

the mug...

He died not long after that...

Ok,

nostalgic moment is over,

kinda...

While we were in Waynesville,

my folks showed up!!

I had been talking to my mom

about joining us on our camping adventure.

She grew up doing family camping trips.

My dad, however,

was not too excited about camping.

He lived as if he were camping

most of his childhood,

so he chose not to intentionally

camp

if he didn't have to!

So they stayed at a cute little hotel

down the street from us

at the

Balsam Mountain Inn

(source)

We teased my dad a little because he wanted to stay

in a hotel instead of our camper with us.

(which is honestly fine)

But...

his hotel didn't have A/C,

nor did they have a TV in their room

and the bathroom in their room

was about as big as ours in the camper...

We had A/C

and TV

and a potty!

But I am sure it was way more comfortable

to have their own room

rather than squeezing two more people in with us

in the camper.

I get it.

We ventured back to the campgrounds

and

relaxed!

We had a little fire starting challenge

for the boys...

Papa and Daddy were their coaches.

Luckily we had snacks to munch on

cause it took them a while...

So we decided to take some pictures while

we were waiting...

I wish this one had turned out better,

it looks like a GREAT picture!!

Mr. T then got wet again...

imagine that.

So after he got cleaned up,

we attempted to entertain him

with his race track again.

See all the clothes on that table?

That is because I didn't have a clothes line up under

the awning

and it was raining so much

clothes could not dry as

quickly as these guys were getting them wet!

And

YES

we brought bathing suits!!

We attempted to move the underwear and shorts

from the table so that we could actually eat dinner.

After dinner,

dessert!

And we are camping...

so what could possibly be for dessert?

Yep,

more roasted marshmallows.

Dad/Papa decided to chill inside a bit

and the rest of us were all around the fire.

Remember that picture I told you we would revisit?

This one?

Well, typically,

when your marshmallow catches on fire,

you bring it close to your face and blow it out,

right?!?!

Well apparently MY marshmallow

got too melted

when it caught on fire

and I brought it up to my face

too quickly...

and

thanks to Sir Isaac Newton

we know

that an object at motion

tends to stay in motion

unless acted on by an outside force...

or something like that.

On the 4th Day of Camping

I gave to me...

I literally

FLUNG

a flaming hot,

molten

marshmallow into my

EYE!

It landed right in

and

around my right eye.

We all kicked into panic mode.

Including my kids.

That was the worst part!

I was still more worried about

them and that fire

than I was about me

at the moment.

Once we all calmed down,

and attempted to assess the situation

including calling my two favorite nurses...

mom and I decided to go back into Waynesville

to find an Urgent Care.

It was IN my eye afterall.

I couldn't see,

couldn't blink,

it hurt...

bad!

We couldn't find an Urgent Care open

and I wasn't up for the additional 30+ minute

drive to Asheville hoping to find an

Urgent Care open.

So we went to the only open store,

grabbed some supplies recommended

by the sister nurse.

And hunkered down for the night.

I didn't sleep very well

and

mom and dad were back over

early the next morning

so the hubs could take me into

Urgent Care.

He did some funny stuff to my eye

and put some funny stuff in it,

one of which was numbing drops.

He wouldn't let me take those with me,

no matter how hard I begged!

He did send me home with some meds,

then the hubs and I got to have an early

anniversary date

at a bakery we saw on Main Street the day before.

City Bakery

Oh.My.Goodness!

Why hadn't we discovered tried this place the day before??

I decided on another apple turnover.

This one was MUCH different than the

one from the orchard...

this one was AMAZING!

Nothing like lots of calories and sugar and butter

to make your eye feel better!

I pretty much laid around the rest of the day resting my eyes.

I was pretty worthless.

But daddy and Nana took the kids on another hike

and let them swim some more.

This is one of the BEST pictures of the trip!!!

My crew was running out of clothes!

I had packed enough for us to

MAYBE have enough clothes...

especially if they lived in the bathing suits

and if I could get clothes to dry outside.

We should have been fine,

but I brought laundry stuff...

just in case.

Boy am I glad I did.

I had gone up to get change earlier

in the evening,

once I decided to join the living again.

I decided I needed to wash and dry some of

our wet clothes.

Unfortunately,

as you can imagine,

the laundry facilities at a campground...

in the mountains...

were lacking.

I did two loads of wash at the same time.

Then came the fun part...

the drying...

OH.MY.STARS!

Those dryers didn't work for NOTHING!!!

I spent every last quarter I had

and literally HOURS

walking back and forth to the laundry facilities

(luckily that were right across the creek from us).

I finally ran out of quarters

BEFORE the clothes were dry!

And again...

it was raining.

So I couldn't hang them anywhere outside.

Couldn't fold them up either...

so what did we do?

Dried them inside...

I opened every door,

every drawer,

hung clothes on every

surface I could find...

that would allow them to dry.

I figured the A/C would dry them...

it kinda worked.

Most of them were ok the next morning.

Again,

bright and early,

we headed back to Urgent Care for a follow up.

Luckily they had told me that the eye regenerates

and heals itself within 24-48 hours.

Well, apparently, I fell into that statistic

because the doc who did my follow up

couldn't find any damage to my eye!

Whoo hoo!!

Now I could quit putting "healing" drops in

that made me not be able to see!

And keep up with the antibiotics

and we were good to go!

We said goodbye to Nana and Papa

and headed back to pack up the camper.

While daddy and I were packing the camper...

guess what the kids were doing...

yep,

taking

one.last.dip

in the creek.

Sigh...

more wet clothes...

Right before we pulled the slide-out in,

we had Rico climb on top of the camper to sweep

any limbs and leaves and debris

off of the slide out.

He got a kick out of that task!!

We hooked up,

navigated our way back to the highway

and

were on our way to stop #3...

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The 12 Days of Camping...(Part 2)

On the First Day of Camping...

my true love gave to me...

A car full of kids

and

a 29' camper in tow!

We headed west on Tuesday afternoon,

after the hubs got off of work.

Before that,

we had to load,

and if you took notes from my last post...

you will see that we had just over 3 days

to completely clean and pack this bad boy

and get it ready for travel!
With 4 kids

for

12 days

(have I mentioned that yet?)

First step is to take everything out,

inventory,

then put all that stuff back

and load up everything else we might

or might not need...

One of the kids' tasks

was to refold the the gigantic outdoor carpet

that came with the camper

a little more neatly...

NOT to make human

burritos with it!

(a little homage to Texas right there)

The kids were so excited about this camper,

that they just wanted to hang out in it.

So while daddy and I were cleaning

and packing,

we popped a movie in for them.

Mr. T was already making himself at home

and passed out on the couch!

Good to know he was relaxed in there.

Tuesday afternoon,

we had the kids loaded,

camper hooked up...

and

it only took us 20 minutes

to get out of the cul-de-sac

because I kept remembering

things I had either forgotten

or forgotten to do...

- make sure all the doors were locked (for the 4th time)

- turn thermostat way up so we weren't paying to

cool a house we weren't using

- make sure the $25 automatic fish feeder was hooked

up so it could feed our $10 worth of fish