Camping in North Georgia 2012

We once again headed north to camp over the long Labor Day weekend. After meeting Ben’s new preschool teachers, we came home to pack up then head to Elizabeth and Joel’s for the night.

We always feel so welcome there.

Rosemary, Grandma P, and Oliver

Ben and Ian

Charlotte was enamored with Oliver.

She kept wanting to kiss and hug him.

After a great pancake breakfast, we loaded up and headed to Helen, Georgia and stopped at Hofer’s.

We’ve been enough now that pretty much everyone other than Charlotte has a favorite they look forward to eating.

From Hofer’s, we headed to Unicoi where we’d be camping through the weekend. We try to get there right around when the sites open and most year’s we’re the first ones there. This year was different and a lot of sites were already taken so we got the two that were next to each other. We started setting up then Janice and I headed to Cleveland to get our groceries for the weekend. The Ingles we shopped in had a Starbucks right inside the doors. It was quite an enjoyable grocery trip.

We have a new first meal of any camp weekend, rotisserie chicken and store-bought pre-made sides. It made that first evening at the campground so much easier.

That night we went to the community campfire and roasted marshmallows for s’mores. Rosemary met a little girl who was also in first grade and enjoyed playing with her a bit. Then we headed back to the campsite and soon were in bed.

The next morning we got ready and headed over to Anna Ruby Falls.

Charlotte enjoying the campsite before we loaded up.

Rosemary found a butterfly before we headed up the trail.

Charlotte enjoyed her ride on daddy’s back

The entire hike up is paved

Enjoying the falls

At one of the lookouts

The whole gang

Sweet boy

Sweet girl

Anna Ruby Falls

Rosemary and Grandma P

By the time we got back to the visitor’s center, Charlotte was asleep.

After our hike, we headed to the camp for some lunch.

During lunch, it started to rain. Thank goodness for the dining canopy, umbrellas, and tarps!

Ben and Rosemary watching the rain.

Our campsites started to puddle up, so Janice and Jonathan dug trenches to drain the water. They came in handy as this wasn’t the only bit of rain we got.

Later we went on a hike around the frog pond then headed to a session on snakes. Both Rosemary and Ben touched the albino corn snake. At first Rosemary said she wasn’t going to touch a snake, but she did.

Enjoying time with Grandma. Little Charlotte was so busy around the campsite, but truly she did well even though naps were really tough. Right before dinner, Janice and I took the kids to a leaf rubbing activity while Jonathan got the fire going.

For dinner we attempted aluminum foil packet meals over the coals. They turned out great! We used ground beef, canned mixed veggies, cream of chicken soup, some garlic, and a seasoning that Janice brought. So good. And the clean up could not be beat! We’ll add these into our camp meal list for future trips. We even used the same foil method the next night for our baked beans and carrots.

After dinner we went to the lodge to hear some music. We stayed for a bit, but as it was getting late we headed back to the campsite to get everyone ready for bed.

The kids needed baths that night. Charlotte and Ben got theirs in the tub we brought from home. Rosemary took a shower the next morning because she couldn’t fit in the tub. (About five years ago we bathed Rosemary in a five gallon bucket at Unicoi).

The next day we got up and headed to breakfast at the lodge.

Down by the creek with Grandma before heading to breakfast. There was a little creek beside Janice and Richard’s site that the kids enjoyed playing in.

Enjoying the meal

They decided to pose exactly alike for the pic

Two of my favorite guys

After breakfast, we headed into Helen for a bit.

Heading into town

Enjoying some treats from the fudge shop

And before heading back, we stopped at Hofer’s…again. This time we all got something different.

This was some cupcake…and it was thoroughly enjoyed.

When we got back, Jonathan and Janice took the kids to the lake to swim. Shortly after they came back as we were getting dinner ready, the heavens opened again and the rain hit. We managed to get most everything covered, including the fire so we still ate our roasted hot dogs, baked beans, and carrots. We didn’t cook a single thing on the camp stove the entire trip.

Jonathan and Richard added a tarp to the end of the dining canopy. As it was getting late and the rain showed no sign of stopping, Jonathan and Richard devised a plan to fashion a large tarp over our two tents as they’d been leaking a bit from the earlier rain. So in the middle of a downpour the two of them tied up the tarp; Jonathan bear climbing up a tree to do so. But it made a difference. As a result we were dry through the very rainy night.

In the downpour.

Sleeping snuggly. Although the night before this one, Rosemary had stolen Ben’s sleeping bag in the night and put it on the other side of the tent while she was asleep. Ben came over and woke me up looking for his sleeping bag. Rosemary found it up by her head.

With the rain likely lasting through the next day (remnants of Hurricane Isaac), we decided that we would head out a day early so in the morning we began packing up.

Rosemary with her new friend, Ariel. Her family ended up spending the night at the lodge to get out of the rain the night before.

While we loaded up the camp site, Charlotte spent the morning quite content in her pack and play. I think she was tired of getting dirty and it really made packing up much easier.

On our way out, we headed over to Dahlonega to enjoy lunch at the Smith House before driving home.

A standard pic of Rosemary.

Grandpa and Charlotte

Charlotte with Grandpa and Grandma

Hands up! (A game that Charlotte gets us all to play at the dinner table) And enjoying the good Smith House food.

The mine shaft in the Smith House

Then on our way out the kids wanted their photos taken with this little chef.

And a quick visit with the scarecrows out front.

From there we loaded up and headed home. We hit rain on the way back so it took a bit longer than expected but we made it.

Back home. Late. And everyone was passed out.

I’m not a huge camper, but we did have a great time on this trip. I know Jonathan looks forward to it every year and so do our kids and because they have fun, I have fun too.

A few past camping trips:

Unicoi 2007

Vogel 2009

Standing Indian 2010

Vogel 2011

A Week at the Condo

At the end of August, the kids and I headed down to Orlando to spend a week with my mom at a condo just off of 192. We had a few small activities planned during the week, but we also spent lots of time relaxing and swimming.

Monday

Our first full day there, we spent the morning at IKEA, enjoying their free Monday morning breakfast and 90 minutes of playtime for Rosemary and Ben. Charlotte spent the time snoozing in her stroller while Mom and I shopped. We came home with a trunkful.

Monday night I went to visit Janey and her new baby, Camille. I was pretty excited that it worked out timing-wise to visit them. I didn’t take pics, but she was a beautiful little baby.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we headed to International Drive to see visit The Titanic Experience. We’d gotten a coupon back in April for homeschool families and we were finally able to use it. As the little Titanic buffs that they are, Rosemary and Ben were both so excited about this. Ben kept asking how many days were left until we went to the Titanic exhibit. I was a little unsure as to what it would actually be like, but since we had a coupon, figured it was worth it to see.

It ended up being a really interesting exhibit. There were at least 100 actual artifacts from the Titanic itself including a deck chair, a still-corked Champaign bottle, and a fairly large piece of the hull. There were several reconstructed rooms to view or walk through. We were all given names of actual passengers and towards the end of the tour we found out whether we survived. All four of the girls survived, Ben’s passenger was the only one to perish in the disaster. And while having Charlotte on the tour made things somewhat more difficult, I think everyone really enjoyed our time there.

We couldn’t take photos once the tour started, but we snapped a few outside and in the lobby.

They really wanted this photo in front of the grand staircase. We couldn’t take pics in front of the reconstructed one inside.

She looks happy enough here, but once that tour started with the ship’s baker, not so much. :-)

There was a mock-up of a ship’s bow in front of a green wall. The kids went crazy with that.

She has not seen the 1997 Titanic movie.

Chillin’

Wednesday

The next day we visited some of the outlet malls for some shopping. Since we had the kids with us, Mom and I didn’t do too much shopping, but we hit the stores we wanted to before heading back to the condo.

Thursday

We spent Thursday at the condo and enjoyed the pools. We’d been swimming most every day, as long as it wasn’t raining.

There were two very fun slides for the kids.

Even though Ben didn’t technically meet the height requirement, he enjoyed the slides too.

The living room of our condo

Mom walking with Charlotte and Ben to the ice cream party

The ice cream party consisted of just us. :-) But it worked and the kids enjoyed looking through the pamphlets.

That night, Jonathan and my dad arrived to spend the long weekend with us.

Friday

We visited SeaWorld on Friday. It was a hot day, but we still hit our favorite shows before leaving in the mid-afternoon. And Ben got to ride Shamu the rollercoaster (as we call it) for the first time that day. He and I were seated in the second to the last row and he did not make a sound the entire ride. He talked about doing it again so he must have enjoyed it.

After our barbeque lunch, we got a few family photos.

This was supposed to be our silly pic.

The matching girls

Non-matching boys

We checked out the stingrays too.

I think both of the kids got to touch them this time. I did too. So slippery.

Saturday

On our last full day, mom and I went to Winter Garden Village to shop while the kids swam with my dad and Jonathan. That night, Jonathan and I went out on a date to Houlihan’s for dinner.

The next morning we loaded up and headed home. We had a few days to recover before heading out for another trip on Thursday. Even though we had started school, it still felt like summer and it was a great way to end the season.

Ben’s First Soccer Team

This fall, Ben is participating in Upward soccer. It’s his first extracurricular activity and he was very excited to start. (Rosemary wanted to play too, but when we told her that she’d have to drop something else, she decided she was content to watch her little brother play).

The first day of soccer fell on the last day as Rosemary’s gymnastics class. The time overlapped too so Jonathan and I had to do some switching of kids to get everyone where they needed to be.

This little boy was VERY excited to be a soccer player.

A bit hot, but still practicing.

Out with his daddy.

Ben’s team, the Red Raiders, originally didn’t have a coach. They do now, but it’s been fun watching the parents pitch in to coordinate the kids. I’m just happy that Ben is having a good time playing and looks forward to the practices and the games so much.

The Full Chip Jar–Bowling

Over a year ago, a friend of mine mentioned a reward system that they used in their home involving poker chips and an empty icing tub. In an effort to encourage good behavior, we decided to try something similar. Last fall was our first try and it was a tremendous success. We originally had two jars, one for Rosemary and one for Ben, but that just created competition so we condensed to one. Our kids get poker chips added to the jar for various things…obeying right away, having a great attitude when it’s easy to have a bad one, helping a sibling…really any kind of behavior that we want to see repeated. The only rules are that they don’t get a chip if they ask for it and that they can’t lose chips. Chips are only rewards, we don’t take them out as a consequence for bad behavior. Well, in the fall when their jars were full, we took them to Chuck E. Cheese. This time, they decided that they wanted to go bowling as their reward.

Amazingly, it ended up that we chose to go bowling on National Bowling Day. The kids were already going to get to bowl for free, and Jonathan and I ended up bowling one game for free as well, we just had to pay for the second game and our shoes.

Even Charlotte bowled. Her little bowling shoes were super cute.

Rosemary threw the ball on her own. She did really well. We had the bumpers up, but for a first timer she threw pretty straight.

Ben got a little help with the ramp too. Originally he was throwing his ball, but it took SO long to reach the pins.

We were there a while so we had dinner at the bowling alley. The kids had a blast and so did we.

They tell us that they want to go rollerskating for their next trip. I’ll take pictures. Jonathan can handle that trip. :-) I would end up in the emergency room.

The YMCA

I feel it would be remiss to go through the entire summer without any mention of our local YMCA. We spent so much time there this summer. We watched our kids blossom in their swimming skills and all just thoroughly enjoyed the membership. We swam in the day, at night, took advantage of the gym (and the childcare), and Rosemary did a gymnastics class. Some weeks we swam almost every day. And it’s just a few minutes from the house.

As Rosemary and Ben’s swimming skills improved, so did my confidence in taking the three kids swimming on my own. Earlier in the summer I would drop Charlotte off in childcare, but when Rosemary was big enough to take her swim test I decided to see if I could handle all three. And it worked out! It was also nice that there were two lifeguards on duty so I really was never alone.

Relaxing a bit before heading home.

And a few pics from Rosemary’s last gymnastics class.

I could see an improvement in her gymnastic skills over the summer. And it was fun to take them during a summer Olympic year.