Day 29

Since we got in so late the night before, I told the kids we could hang around and play with the cousins today until lunch.  After showers all around - there are feet underneath all that dirt! - we had some delicious bagels to fuel us up for play.  We played soccer and bean bag toss, went to the park, and enjoyed the beautiful day.

After lunch we said goodbye and headed out to a history stop I was very excited about - Washington's Crossing State Park.  Brayden sort of knew what the story behind this park was but had no idea of the significance of the event in our history.




After stopping by the visitors center and watching an excellent movie, we headed out to see and walk in the footsteps of history.  Our first stop was the Johnson Ferry House - quite a big house by 18th century standards with an 18th century kitchen garden right outside. We heard the history of the house as well as what role the people here played in the story of the night of the crossing.  We toured the house and the kids also got to try out some toys from the time period.  They couldn't believe the kids of that day made toys like these!

  

We visited the bedrooms of the family - 12 kids with 6 in each room!

We went outside and ran in the soldiers' footsteps up the hill!

We visited a replica of a ferry used to transport the artillery and horses across the river.

And here's the spot of the crossing.  The kids thought it was so neat to see the area and walk just where George Washington did so many years ago!

I think we all left feeling a little more patriotic than when we arrived.  We got back on the road to stay a few days with our Cadenas friends once more but this time at their house!  My gps thought the quickest way would be through Pennsylvania and back to New Jersey so I did get a picture to show we were actually there!

The kids were very excited to see each other as it had been a whole week since their last visit!  We were staying here along with Amy's dad and step mom so while the adults visited on the front porch, the kids played and played protesting at bedtime!

After the kids were quiet, we played cards until we could barely keep our eyes open.  I headed to bed with the sound of the train outside and 3 snoring little people inside.  I'm not sure I'm going to be able to sleep in a quiet house ever again!

Day 16

We started the morning a little different.  I'd packed up everything possible excluding the tent the night before and had breakfast-to-go ready in the cooler.  It was always easier to have a non-cooked or eat-out breakfast the morning we leave campgrounds as it would always take at least an extra hour to cook, eat, and clean up even the simplest thing.

Within a half hour from the kids waking up, we were leaving our spot and headed down to the lake for breakfast.  There we had our bagels and bananas and talked as we swung in the swing admiring the view. We wondered where the alligator was.  We watched the fisherman up early to find the day's catch.  We admired this guy as he landed in Laney's hair.  Ryan, the animal-whisperer just had to hold him.

This is the coveted log-rolling contraption at the playground.  Ever since having multiple kids I've been adamant about only purchasing one of a toy to encourage sharing, but this one I would definitely have to have 3 of.

After some time on the playground in the cooler morning air, we set off for a park I thought all the kids would enjoy, General Coffee State Park.  Not only would this be our 15th cache find (redeemable for a bronze coin for each of them), there was a heritage farm, several playgrounds, and a swamp to hike through.  We stopped first at the visitors center to grab a trail map and look over the items for sale as we are getting close to the end of the trip and the money Dave has given the kids is burning a hole in their pockets.  The park ranger there asked me if we liked cereal.  I'm completely sure this guy had no idea he was talking to the cereal consumer who at one point in time had 17 boxes of cereal in the pantry.  Of course since we've been trying to eliminate a lot of processed foods we rarely buy cereal anymore, but I answered yes and the kids' ears perked up.  He pointed to the side of the store and told us to grab a box as he had 150 cases of grape nuts to give away.  Hmmm....sounds like trail food to me!

The kids played on the playground for a few minutes while I prepared us for the hike.  It's interesting to me that all the state park playground equipment has been vastly different.  The kids enjoy exploring new structures every time we stop.  I'm hoping this doesn't make them playground snobs.

The cache we were going for this time was a multi-stage hunt that took us awhile to get going.  Once on the trail we found it pretty quickly.  This one was definitely uniquely hidden!

See it way up there?!

That is quite possibly the largest magnolia tree I've seen.  It was beautiful hidden away in the middle of the forest.  Ryan kept count of all the wildlife we saw - 1 lizard, 2 butterflies, 8 spiders (these guys were as big as my hand with giant webs), 1 egret, and 8 frogs.  On our way back to the car a quick, but soaking downpour started.  We made it back to the car drenched, but quick and cooled off.

We stopped by the heritage farm on the way out and saw all these guys.  

This pig followed us out to the parking lot!  While I've called Ryan the animal whisperer, she is definitely not a pig-whisperer.  She was underfoot the entire time he was behind us!

We opted for ice creams on the way out and hit the road to where we'd be staying.  It was a nice, backroad drive most of the way and we began our next audiobook, "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew".  This is an oldie so there is a lot of explaining to do during the reading, but we've read Little House before so they're familiar with some of the language and times.

We rolled into the park just at check in time and who did we find checking in, none other than Papa himself!  It was perfect timing for us to find camping spots together.  Brayden was excited to see all the tanks and planes on display next to the visitor's center - something we'll do in a cooler part of one of the days we're here.  The kids submitted their Junior Ranger books for a patch and nice pin.  The ranger told them they could keep going on to the next level if they wanted to get another pin.  I'm not sure we'll get to that before we leave, but with that motivation you never know!

 

After setting up, we had a quick dinner and headed to find the swimming beach while they made a trip to Walmart.  Still not like our beach, but in this hot weather with all the persistent gnats, it will definitely do.

Day 15

The girls were up early playing on scooters this morning while Brayden slept in.  It was definitely the early morning quiet before the storm.

During a large breakfast of pancakes and fruit, Ryan found some evidence that we had had a visitor in the middle of the night.  I'd given the kids each a couple ping pong balls to invent games with and up until now they have had fun little competitions with them.  A visitor surprised me as usually when I'm alone with the kids I wake up to the slightest noise so at first I dismissed it away as change in elevation.  Until I noticed the teeth marks.  Here is the untouched control group of ping pong balls.

And here are the ones Ryan found.  The two yellow ones in the back?  That is actually one ball that was bitten in half.

 

We took a few minutes to discuss wild tales of what could have come into our screen enclosure and tried to eat them.  Of course there was a bear, then a possum, an alligator, and a raccoon.  The kids decided they would take the balls down to the visitor's center and ask the park ranger.

But first we jumped in the car to visit another state park that was pretty close - Gordonia-Altamaha - for a hike and some time on the playground.  Playground time quicky turned sour so we headed for the trail.  This was a pretty short hike so we sat down for some family time after to talk about problem resolution.  

The kids decided to leave the park after that and have sandwiches in the car for lunch.  They were anxious to visit the splash pad - especially in this heat!  

 

After cooling off, the kids decided to find the cache in our park.  It was another short hike, but the gnats where out in full force so we only stayed for a short time.  Moods were quickly going downhill so we decided to have a quick dinner and head to the pool.  It's funny how water affects my kids - an instant mood changer.

By this time it was getting gray toward the dusk so we headed back to our site to call dad and head to the playground before getting ready for bed.  The kids finally got to show dad their magic tricks Grammie had bought for them in Helen.  It's hard to demonstrate to a computer, but overall they did pretty well.  They all miss him dearly and ask how many days until we get home at least 3 or 4 times a day.  They all are trying to figure out ways for him to come along the whole time on the next trip.

We headed to the playground for a little while and as the kids fought over whose turn it was on the coveted log roller, I headed to the lake to find the source of the chorus of animals and check out the view.  While I never found any frogs or crickets, I was treated to a beautiful sunset over the water.

Seeing something like this always makes me think about how the bickering and whining really don't matter in the big picture.  We're here to enjoy the beautiful places and wishing those moments away will undoubtedly make me miss these as well.  Within a few minutes I was joined by my crew and we sat silently enjoying the view.  Ryan and Laney spotted Blueberry and all his friends from our first trip who always joined us on our walks in Louisana.

We talked about swimming in the morning, playing on the playground, and having a picnic breakfast by the water.  And we talked about our visitor from the previous night.  Then I showed them this guy who'd been watching us the whole time.  (He's just a small blip in the sunset picture above)

 Although we were on a dock over the lake with multiple railings and protection, they all ran screaming down the walkway to the protection of land.  I couldn't convince them to go swimming in the morning anymore.

After 4 more chapters of "Because of Winn Dixie" and much giggling, we fell asleep.  Everyone is ready for the our next park where we'll meet up with mom's grandparents, Nana and Papa!

Day 28

We all didn't quite sleep as late as I'd hoped, but the kids were in pretty good spirits so we headed out to breakfast and to see Dave's Uncle Terry and Aunt Judy.  We would be fortunate enough to be staying in their cabin near Old Man's Cave for a few days.  Oh how I was looking forward to being somewhere for a few days but more importantly a hot shower, bed, and walls!

The drive to the cabin was beautiful with rolling hills and thick forest.  The cabin itself was even more beautiful than we had ever expected even after seeing photos earlier this summer.  It would be the perfect place for us to spend a few days and relax.  After getting the tour and operating instructions, Terry and Judy left us to relax and explore.

We headed to Ash Cave for a short hike to the waterfall.  As with so many place on our trip, there hadn't been enough snow melt or rain to fill the water source, so the water fall had been reduced to a drip.  It was still an amazing place to be walking around in and of course, the kids enjoyed climbing and sticks as usual.

Look, there's Dave!

We had a busy day planned the next day and were already working on a lack of sleep, so we thought this would be a good night for an early bed time. After a quick dinner and a little play, we headed to bed super early and were all dozing by 7:30.

Day 22

I am thankful we had the rough windy storm a few days back.  The wind with the storms out here is just crazy!  Of course, it doesn't help that we're sitting in a room made of thin, canvas walls.  I had been asleep for about 30 minutes when I was awoken by the familiar signs of a storm coming so I hopped up and zipped up the tent windows.  The same tent windows that were giving us some relief from the heat.

Within 2 minutes, the walls of the tent were noisily popping in and out.  The rainfly was fluttering so violently I thought it was just going to fly off at any moment.  This went on for 2 solid hours. The campground host had just talked to me earlier in the day about storms and mentioned the fact that they have a land line in case the sheriff's office needs to call to warn about a storm. After about an hour, I finally had to sit up and pull up facebook to keep my mind off listening for the train sound of a tornado.  And just has quick as it came, it left.  The crickets started chirping again, so I knew it was okay to fall back asleep.  Unbelievably the kids slept through the entire thing.  They actually slept until 9am!

Shortly after breakfast we said goodbye to Lake Scott State Park and headed further east.  We stopped just short of our campground to check out Mushroom Rocks.  The kids of course loved climbing all over them and throwing rocks off the top.

Once we got set up at the campground we immediately headed toward water.  We were so thankful we could swim today!  The water was about 80 degrees so it was very refreshing with the breeze and 97 degree heat.  The kids created a rock band and sang to me.  Watch for their debut songs "I'm a person" and "I love the outside" coming to stores near you.

After dinner and a check in with daddy we headed to the playground which had a very cool interactive music feature - the Neos 360.  I would envision this in a large city or children's museum, not in a small city campground.  The kids had a blast and were completely worn out and desperate for water after finishing all of mine.

There were serious light saber battles as I watched and photographed the sunset.  All in all a pretty calm end to a stressful beginning!

Day 22 - wind and calm.