We have spent more time in tents the past six weeks than we have at home. The kids all love camping, so they have been pretty happy with that arrangement! For one week we went down to the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina! This is how I summarized our time there on facebook...
"Spent the past week primitive camping up in the mountains in the rain, sharing a campsite with skunks and raccoons, using the same shower as dozens of strangers and three little caterpillars, having no electricity, no cell phone service, no dry clothing. Spending my days alternating between tubing down a FREEZING cold river with all my kiddos, cliff jumping with my oldest child, hiking to waterfalls and standing under said FREEZING waterfalls with my kiddos to hiding under a canopy while thunderstorms raged around us. The campsite flooded, the mosquitoes feasted on us, the firewood got wet. We are bruised, blistered, bitten, and apparently a bit crazy because we call that fun, and now the real torture begins... unpacking the car and laundry!"
I'll share a few more details here. Froggie loved playing with his cousins. The Lincoln logs were a big hit!
What wasn't such a big hit with Kermit and Froggie was tubing down the river. This is us at the end of a run. What you can't tell from this picture are two things. First the river was running FAST! There had been a ton of rain and all tube rental places had been closed for the previous ten days due to how fast the river was running. This was their first day to reopen and they refused to rent to anyone who had kids with them. All the kids hid in the van while we got a few tubes. The second thing you can't tell from this picture is that Kermit and Froggie pretty much hated tubing. They cried the whole time and Froggie said this, "Mommy, this was supposed to be the best day ever. This is NOT the best day ever. Get me out of here!"
Felicity, on the other hand, LOVED it! She loves the water and was quite calm going down the river.
The get out point (where the pictures were taken) was pretty calm. There were some impressive rapids we had to get through. This little girl flipped out of her tube a time or two. She just hopped back in!
Each family brought a craft for the kids to do. The highlight of craft time was making Gak! The kids loved the gak. The grownups...not so much.
Each family was responsible for making dinner for everyone one night. We made barbecued "kickin' chicken," grilled corn on the cob, watermelon, and rolls. It was good, but nothing competes with the annual pig roast.
No family campout would be complete without some hiking.
We hiked to a waterfall where you could walk behind the actual waterfall and play under it. Beautiful!!
All in all it was a great trip. One the kids will remember for a long time.
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