Camping on Colombus Day weekend

Me and the Boys at High Falls Campground.
Last weekend our family took the opportunity to go camping. The boys had a week off of school starting with Colombus Day, and Steve got that day off of work also, so we planned a trip.
First thing I did was call Jessica. She has been saying she wanted to go camping, and we really wanted her to come with us, and she agreed! So, she flew in Friday night, and we headed out to High Falls Campground which was about 2.5 hours away the next morning.
Our adventures started right away. We needed a little more room in the van, so Steve and I discussed tying stuff to the top of the van. He was uncomfortable about it, but I assured him that Dad always did it, and things would be OK. So he tied all the camping chairs and then two tupperware bins to the top. One tupperware had ALL the food in it, and the other had ALL the cooking camp stuff which included flashlights, the water pan for over the fire, all utensils, cutting board, knives, etc, etc, etc. All the important stuff to make eating at the campground bareable. Well, when we took off ,Steve said he was not comfortable with how the bins were tied up there, and said we needed to go to a store and get bungee cords. I of course was irritated because I thought he should have been able to do it with rope, plus Steve makes us go to the store almost EVERY time we go on a trip. I just wanted to get on the road, and not have to take an extra half hour plus to go to Walmart. So, we happily headed down the road, and about 20 miles in to our drive we hear this weird sound. And Steve says, "There goes all the stuff!" Sure enough, we looked behind us and there were cups, tableclothes, marshmallow scewers and that big water pot bouncing all over the freeway. It was terrible. Jessica and I told Steve to back up a little and we would see what we could salvage. Now remember we are in Georgia. There are just not that many people in Georgia, so don't picture a California highway when I tell this story. It was a pretty mild freeway, but had enough traffic that people were running over the stuff spread across the road. So, while Steve took down the other stuff from the top, Jessica and I ran up and down and across the freeway to see what we could save. Amazingly we saved about 70% of the stuff. Most of the dishes, some of the flashlights, the tupperware bin and some other stuff we were able to pick up and take with us. The water pot was smashed and we were very concerned about what that had done to someones car. Steve eventually got nervous about us running around on the freeway, so we left.

The rest of the camping trip was basically a normal trip. Very nice weather, great company having Jessica there, the food was Fabulous, and we all had an awesome time. Jessica mentioned how much easier camping seemed with our family than it did when we were growing up and this was a very easy camping trip. Tents went up quickly and easily and other than the trip to Dollar General to replace some important items it was pretty easy. I forgot to mention earlier that the food tupperware bin did not go anywhere. For some reason it stayed put on the top of the van, so that saved us a bunch of money.

Now, Here is our camping trip in pictures:

{Jessica and the boys setting up}
{Steve bought a hammock for this camping trip, and it was a hit!}

{It is so nice to have Jessica around. They are headed off for a potty break.}
{Jessica brought Diary of a Wimpy Kid for Steven to read, and I haven't ever seen him absorb a book like he did that one. He loved it.}

{The next morning, of course we had Eggs in a Frame. Steve and Jessica made a great cooking team, and made some delicious breakfast.}
{We had to keep a close eye on this little terror during the trip. He was in his time out chair most of the time.}{After breakfast, we headed over to a hike of the falls and had a wonderful time. It was a beautiful area, and a very nice day.
Nathan found this tree that he thought was interesting. He thinks it looks like a 4}

{While on the path we came across a black snake. Steve knows a lot about snakes because he used to catch them all the time when he was growing up. So, he was excited to pick it up and show it to the boys. He carried it on the hike with us for a good ways, and then found a sunny spot to put it down.}


{Jessica, by one of the scenic look outs.}


{Brandon chewing on a piece of pine straw. Otherwise known as a pine needle. Depends on where you are I guess.}{The second and last night of our camping trip it rained a bit during the night. Enough that Jessica, who was sleeping "under the stars" had to get up and go to the van to sleep. So when we got up in the morning, we started to take down camp. If you remember my last camping blog you will remember that we got rained on pretty hard, and Steve and I had to take down camp during a down pour. We learned our lesson this time, and cleaned up while we had that break in the clouds. It drizzled on us a little, but we got it cleaned up just before the down pour. Then we headed to Shoneys for breakfast and some hot chocolate.}