Last weekend, the girls (Jennifer and Courtney) had a D-Now weekend at church, so they were gone the whole weekend. We decided to take the boys and go camping. However, I was concerned about the cold. So, Dale's solution was that we head South for warmer temperatures. So, south we went..all the way to Jackson, GA. It wasn't really that far from here, but we ended up sharing a cabin anyway so it didn't really matter. We had a blast just enjoying each other and God's beautiful countryside. We stayed at Indian Springs State Park. The cabin was fine (2 bedrooms with 2 double beds each) and on the lake. It had a screened in porch, so the first night the boys slept out there in the tent. They were very excited. It rained some that first night, but Brandon slept right through it. I'm not sure if Justin ever fell asleep in the tent as he was awake at 5 am reading his book and playing gameboy.
We had dinner at Mellow Mushroom on the way down as we hit some traffic. After we arrived, we got settled in and played some "Chicken foot"(the boys played some other games) and made some cookies that disappeared rather quickly. On Saturday, we awoke to Tina making homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. That is one of Dale's favorites that his Grandma Mayfield used to make all the time. It was yummy!! Then we had to go hiking to hike off some of that breakfast. We went down to the main area to find the hiking trail and talk to the ranger. He told us about a really cool place nearby where we could take the kids since it seemed most of the things there were closed( the museum, the boats, the beach, etc). The leaves were still gorgeous and we found lots of neat places. We hiked through the woods and found a place where a natural spring came out. There were some beautiful structures and a big stream that was flowing quickly. We got some good pictures of the boys and each other-it turned into a photo session. Then we drove over to High Falls State Park about 10 minutes away and enjoyed some waterfalls (not so much vertical, but horizontal). Another beautiful place!! Then the highlight was Dauset Trails. It was about 5 minutes away and was ABSOLUTELY FREE. They had a ton of animals, kinda like a zoo, where you just walk through and look in the cages and see all kinds of animals. Here is a link if anyone is interested: www.dausettrails.com
The animals were just as interested in you as you were them. There was hardly anyone else there and the animals were very interactive. The cougar was actually playing with Tina and the boys. The bear stood up for us and the otters were playing some. It was so cool!! We couldn't believe there was no charge for this. We had a great time here. Then we headed back to the cabin for lunch. A friend of mine, Angela, brought her kids down to play for a few hours. She lives down that way, so we don't get to see them too much. The boys were out fishing so we went to the playground. Unfortunately, the boys didn't even get a bite. We then went to play putt-putt, but got there as they were closing down. The boys were so disappointed, so we ended up going and inspecting the course then going for ice cream. Ice cream always makes things better, right?
The boys really wanted to make a bon fire that evening, so we tried. But in reality, we didn't have much luck with the fire outside or inside in the fireplace. We had brought wood, but it was having trouble burning and the wood outside was too wet from the rain. We got a fire for a little bit, which the boys enjoyed.
We played games after dinner that evening and started packing up as we had to leave early in the morning to make it back to church for the worship service as Chris was getting baptized. We were there in plenty of time though.
We had a wonderful weekend with our good friends, the Koehlers, as usual. Thanks to them for more happy memories. We can't wait to go back down with the girls and get to do some other things that we didn't have time for.
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