Day 5

You would think after all the times Dave and I have instructed Laney to be careful on her scooter, it might have sunk in just a little bit.  

Just kidding!  Laney put me up to that one - funny girl.

Our day began with a nice southern breakfast of eggs, toast and cheese grits.  We headed to Macon to enjoy a summer morning indoors at the Georgia Children's Museum.  The kids had fun doing different jobs as usual - doctor (Brayden and I were the doctor in the picture above), grocery store clerk, veterinarian, and chef. 

We ventured upstairs to dress up as bugs, knights, mermaids, clowns, and airplanes.

Next the kids put on a hilarious puppet show for me with a cast including a native american indian, construction worker, pirate, stingray, chef, twinkle star, cat, queen, unicorn and octopus.


There were several science exhibits we cycled through before leaving and heading for a stock up trip to Walmart.  We were in desperate need of bug bite anti-itch stuff!

Once we got back to the campground we quickly changed into bathing suits and headed to the pool.  I wished we'd gotten there a little earlier as you have to pay quite a premium to use a pool for 7 hours in Georgia!  I actually made Brayden stay a little longer than he wanted to so I at least feel like we got our money's worth!

I had a wonderful helper this afternoon as I started the laundry and pre-pack process.  Laney was glued to my side doing the dishes & laundry, taking down the tent over the picnic area, cleaning & organizing all our essentials, and packing up.  She actually said it was her favorite thing to do.  I think the heat or the chlorine may have gone to her brain.

We worked on trip journals and read two chapters of our book, then headed to bed.  The kids are all so very excited to be picking Grammie up at the airport in the morning!  I'm just excited to get out of here before Honey Boo Boo shows up!

Day 4

We started our day lazily with a pancake breakfast and a show.  The girls were so inspired by their new capes and seeing a Looney Tunes show that they decided to do one for me and Brayden.  Of course Brayden, being the superhero encyclopedia, felt he had to step in and run the show once Ryan (Superman) said she was born on the planet Earth.  We were entertained and allowed to ask questions to the cast for about an hour then we decided to get on our way to the state parks.













Our first stop for the day was our park headquarters since we hadn't officially checked in.  We got the scoop on the pool and minigolf and hopefully will be doing both on Tuesday.  Brayden was also excited to spot Junior Ranger books that we could so during our whole trip and turn in once they were finished.  Ryan started working on hers right away!  Working independently on things like this are really enoucouraging her to read more and boost her confidence.  All too often she defers to Laney to read everything for her so this is great!

Next we hiked through a nice trail in Indian Springs State Park.  Brayden found the geocache and placed it back just as he found it for the next person.

On our way back we stopped at a very neat (and free!) wildlife refuge. Our first stop was to feed the turtles and fish.  They all loved seeing the alligator snapping turtle - he was HUGE!

They didn't enjoy the alligator so much!

Actually, as we rounded a corner Ryan spotted this fiberglass guy, froze, and whispered, "Momma, momma, momma, momma."  Once I assured everyone it was not real, they came up with a plan for this picture. It's all about drama today!

We headed back to our campsite to check the weather and refuel for the next hike.  This time we stayed in our own state park to a cache that Ryan found.

After filling our water cups with ice (it was hot!) we then went down toward the waterfall we could hear from the trail head.  The kids were really surprised by how big it was and definitely thought it was beautiful.  There were teenage kids walking around the slippery rocks which concerned Brayden after he'd just read a warning sign about injuries and fatalities at the falls for just that.  It turned into a good opportunity for a discussion about warnings, teenage egos, and taking risks.  Of course, I won't show him the picture of me doing the same thing with Dave last year in Asheville!

We ended the day with a snack and another short superhero show before reading another chapter of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.  The kids are really enjoying this book as it just so happens to address typical behavior issues kids have which we have no shortage of!  They loved tonight's chapter, "The Won't Pick Up His Toys Cure", and are looking forward to the next one, "The Answer-Backer Cure". Personally, I'm looking forward to reading the chapter "The Fighter-Quarrelers Cure"!

Day 3

Dave and I woke up to the sounds of geese this morning and began to quickly pack up so we could make it to the huge playground and then off to Six Flags.  We were able to roll out of the campground by 8:30am and set off for the playground.  The kids were quite sad the last time we left this park so we promised we would let them play this time around.  And wouldn't you know it, they were done after about 15 minutes.  So we were off to Six Flags!

After paying the exorbitant parking fees we turned in our free (except for Dave's) tickets we all for for reading so much, grabbed a map, and made it to the first roller coaster.  Dave and Laney opted for riding the fast, wooden Georgia Cyclone and I took the other two to ride some other rides.  We rode the sky buckets, then Brayden and Ryan rode a bunch of smaller rides.  I was very impressed with how brave Brayden was riding a roller coaster by himself after the tragic Legoland coaster ride of 2011.

After about an hour, we met back up with Dave & Laney just in time for all the girls to ride the splash ride.   It was originally Ryan's idea, but she lost her courage on the way up.  Another lesson in commitment for Ryan!  She cheered back up after a few minutes and we were off to ride some more rides.

The weather was nice and overcast, but still pretty hot so we headed to the water park area and watched as the kids got soaked.  They didn't want to stay quite as long as we thought - those kids are hard to figure out!!  Next up was shopping at the store (capes for the girls and a baseball for Brayden) and a Looney Tunes show.

By the time all that was over we were all completely exhausted!  As we were leaving the park it started to pour - what perfect timing!  We took Dave back to his car, said a quick goodbye and headed off to our next spot.

I was about an hour drive so I was hoping that would mean we'd be out of the rain once we got there.  We checked in and there was quite a commotion going on at the host site.  It turns out they had just received news that Honey Boo Boo - some reality show - with their crew would be arriving to camp for a few days.  Personally, I was more excited to see there were laundry facilities available!  There couldn't be more perfect timing as we'll be leaving Wednesday when the tv show people arrive.  Phew!

It was beginning to get quite windy so we set up the tent in record time and hopped back into the car just as the downpour started.  I opted to have dinner out and the kids chose Waffle House. Could be worse I guess.

When we returned to our site, it was still raining quite a bit so we jumped in the tent, colored, and read "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" before turning out the light.  The kids were out in 30 seconds flat and I wasn't that far behind them!

Day 2

I don't know if it was the wonderful shade or the gentle hum of the fishing boats in the lake, but we all easily slept until 7am!  Normally when we camp, Dave and I are up around 5am impatiently waiting on the kids to get up so we can play.  We had planned to hike up Stone Mountain in the morning before heading out so we had a quick breakfast and loaded up with snacks and water.

I'm not sure the kids understood exactly how difficult this hike was going to be for them.  Yes, we drove by the mountain and informed them we'd be at the top in an hour or so.  Yes, we told them close to the top their are handrails because it's so difficult and steep.  The trail takes hikers up to just under 1700 feet climbing through about of mile of granite boulders.  About 45 feet into the hike Brayden saw a row of flags and asked if we were already at the top.

Since it was Saturday there were tons of people out to do the same hike so for our little people watchers it kept the climb interesting.  We even saw people multiple times who enjoyed the climb so much there were doing it again!  We hiked and stopped and hiked and stopped, but we made it! We happened to meet some boy scouts with their family at the top who encouraged Brayden to stay with Cub Scouts because Boy Scouts was so much fun.

Our original plans were to head to Six Flags after our climb, but after our slow start to the morning we opted to switch our days and head to the Atlanta Zoo instead.  We'd been keeping a close eye on the new baby pandas through the internet so the kids were excited to see the teenage pandas again.  The zoo does a really good job of education on animals, conservation, and the environment in general that I love and the kids don't even realize they're learning.

We stopped by the new splash pad for a few minutes before we decided to split because of a looming storm.  The storms were all around our campground and it was getting windy so I cooked quick in anticipation of some rain, but it never came.  After a swim for the kids and cleanup for me, we headed to the Stone Mountain village to walk around and ended up having some giant ice cream cones, playing frisbee, and staying for the laser & fireworks show.

The kids are exhausted.  Dave is exhausted.  I am ready to head to another camp with not quite so much planned every day!  Off to Six Flags and another park tomorrow...

Day 1

I am a pretty superstitious person.  I have a couple weird things that I just don't do and I've been that way for so long I'm not even sure what the reason behind some of them are.  I'm careful with mirrors, I don't walk under ladders, and I don't look forward in page-a-day calendars.  Bad things do seem to happen to me in threes.  It might be that I am looking for that third thing to happen, so it is inevitable.  And so the day goes...

I was very tired and completely unmotivated to pack and get ready for the trip after going to the baseball game the night before so I made the very smart decision to go to bed and get up before the sun.  I wanted to hit Walmart before the crowds and sans kids & dog so I could have a record-setting shopping trip.  I was totally on target until I reached the check out line and noticed I'd forgotten my wallet.  At home.  Bad thing #1.

I recovered gracefully and returned home to pack.  Things were going entirely too smooth as we were out a full hour before I'd hoped and more like 2 hours earlier than I assumed would really happen.  We were on the road.  I kept looking around wondering when the hammer was going to drop.  Well, I actually felt it in the form of a hunger pang.  Ugh, I'd left our smoothies on the counter.  Bad thing #2.  I debated with myself and ended up going back to get them as Dave would be quite angry once he found them (or smelled them) once he got home.  Ok, so at least we were still early.

After several stops we ended up at my mom's house to drop Brodie off to play with his dog friends for the weekend.  Seeing the flushed faces of his grandchildren, Peepaw offered them all what looked to be a 256-ounce Powerade which they so happily tucked under their arms.  Bad thing #3. I know, how could that be so bad, right?  They were hot and thirsty and giving him those irresistible pouty blinking eye faces.

Well, lets fast forward to 2 hours later in the trip when we are stopping every 15 minutes for the kids to pee.  Only once in my life have I ever had to stop so much for a passenger.  They were attempting to finish a case of beer though, so at least it was a little bit entertaining.  This was just painful.  We ended up stopping 8 times.  It got to the point where the kids would say "Really?" in that sharp, patronizing tone when the next offender would ask me to stop.  That is until they realized they needed to go too.  I"m surprised Dave (who left more than an hour after us) didn't catch up to us!

So I used to pride myself on being able to make long trips without stopping.  My 20 year streak starts over today though.  By the time we got to the campground it was time to quickly unpack and setup before dinner. The trip was so long I forfeited and let the kids play while I did most of the setup.  They'll get their job assignments at our next stop.

They were very happy to see Dave and even happier when we said it was pool time!  I'll take my 3 bad things any day with happy faces like this!

Off to walk up the mountain tomorrow!  

On to a new adventure....

It's hard to believe it's almost been a year since our first road trip adventure!  Well, we're on to another one, this time it's the state parks of Georgia.  During the days between Christmas and New Years this past year we stayed at a cabin in North George hoping to see some snow.  We didn't, but we did really enjoy our time spent up there in the woods, so I decided to make it our next trip.  We'll be visiting around 30 parks in the 21 days we'll be on the road.

I'm especially excited about this trip because we'll be staying at each parks I've chosen for at least 2 days so we'll have some time to relax and really enjoy what the parks have to offer instead of unpack, setup, sleep, pack up, and on the road again.  While that was pretty exhausting, it was necessary to be able to make it to our destinations last year without being on the road more than 5 hours each drive.

So this trip we'll be enjoying mostly middle and northern georgia parks with another possible trip in the spring to visit the southeastern coast parks.  We'll be doing a lot of geocaching, exploring, and learning along the way.

So read along with us and enjoy!

Special Thanks

There were a bunch of people, things, etc that deserve a special thanks for making this amazing experience happen for us.  This list is by no means complete, but simply all my brain can handle in the middle of teacher planning week:

• Dave - for way too much to list here
• Mom - for encouragement, support, and making the crazy trip to be with us for a week
• Other friends & family - for support and encouragement through texts, Facebook, and blog comments
• National Park Service - for managing and protecting some amazing, breathtaking, beautiful places 
• Phillips - for manufacturing our portable dvd player
• Redbox - genius idea for travelers
• Leapster and Nintendo DS - for hours of fun, education, and entertainment
• Google Maps - for getting me where I needed to go most of the time
• J.K. Rowling - for creating Harry Potter
• Honda - for manufacturing a car that can withstand all the elements, but more importantly the harsh treatment by 3 kids and a stressed mom
• Coleman - for making a tent I can put up in less than one minute
• Crickets - for serenading us to sleep each night no matter where we were
• Twizzlers and Reeses Pieces - for giving me the energy and positive attitude to make it through all the hours of driving
• Musicians of the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, & 10s - for dependable tunes and lots of replays
• Hoppy (our mascot who rode on the dash) - for protecting us and guiding us through thousands of miles and conditions

Until next time....