#howlingmoon

We’ve been spending a lot of time having fun at home, but as the weather has been so nice lately, we thought it’d be a good idea to go on a camping trip...especially before it gets too hot! Marc has been spending a lot of time working on his Land Rover Defender (well, his and Brett’s) and while Marc, Ross, and Jackson went on a camping trip last year, we hadn’t taken a trip as a family yet. 

So, we booked a campsite within a couple hours drive and started getting things ready! 

Camping seemed like a good option to be able to get out while still maintaining social distancing and not worrying about running into too many other people. As things in Georgia started opening up again, parks and campsites were booking up pretty quickly. There were still some restrictions on amenities/activities, but most of the parks allowed camping and had regularly cleaned bathrooms and common areas. We picked Vogel State Park, in a nice area in the Chattahoochee National Forest. We decided to just do a one-night trip (just in case it went horribly and no one slept) on a Sunday night, hoping things might be a bit less crowded. 

We packed everything up -- a LOT of stuff for only one night and were on our way!

Temps had been a bit warmer in the week or so leading up to our trip, but about 10 degrees cooler in the mountains, so things were looking pretty good for our trip. However, we were a bit worried when we saw the rain clouds in the forecast! We had a nice drive up, but it started raining when we were about 20 minutes away. Of course! Thankfully, the rain subsided as approached our site and while things were a little wet, we were able to get things setup without any additional rain. Things did get pretty cold though and temps were in the low 70s and into the 50s overnight, which was great!

We bought our rooftop tent when we were in Mozambique and it has treated us very well over the past several years. It definitely made camping with kids easier - having the comfortable mattress to allow them to sleep a bit better. It was a little challenging getting them up and down the ladder, especially in the dark, but they did well.

The rooftop tent could probably have fit all of us, but the kids move around a lot, so Steph slept on top with the kids and Marc slept in the tent on the bottom on a nice, comfortable ground pad. 

The kids were a bit impatient as we were unpacking and getting things setup, but they played with a soccer ball, did some coloring, and ate lots of snacks. At one point, we just let them sit in their chairs with their kindles so we could get a few things done and start on dinner. 

After dinner, everyone was excited for roasting marshmallows and making s’mores!

One of the other exciting parts of camping was peeing in the woods. There were very clean, nice bathrooms just around the corner, but the kids definitely preferred to pee in the woods. It was easy enough for Jackson, but I’m glad that we decided to bring the training potty for Riley. It also came in handy at 4am when she woke up and had to pee. 

The kids were excited to stay up late on this trip, so we didn’t really start getting them into bed until around 9pm, about 2 hours later than normal. We got them settled in the tent and they were chatting until close to 10pm, but finally went to sleep. At 4am, I woke up to Riley sitting up in the tent and looking out the window. Jackson woke up shortly after that and everyone decided they had to go potty. I had a gatorade bottle that I was planning to let Jackson use and Riley had a pull-up on, but I had to go to the bathroom too, so we all got up and made our way out of the tent. Jackson fell back to sleep pretty quickly, but it took Riley a bit. I was hoping that this would mean they’d sleep in a bit later, but they were both wide awake at 6:30am as the sun was starting to get brighter. They played in the tent for a bit and then we climbed down and had breakfast. 

We didn’t have to be out of our campsite until noon, so the kids played for a bit and then we went for a walk, throwing rocks and sticks in the nearby creek, checking out some of the RVs, and we found a playground. The playground was open and no other kids were on it, so they played for a bit. As we were driving out, we stopped by the lake, and then started our drive home. It started raining maybe 20 minutes after we left the park, so we definitely lucked out on the weather! We took a slightly longer, more scenic drive home and thankfully Riley got a short nap in!

I hope you feel better soon!

SHHHHH SHHHHHH

ok you’re right, and she probably wouldn’t enjoy being in Nine Muses anyways :< 

I have 6 419 posts saved as drafts right now. Even more oops