We are back....

We were all excited to go camping for the Fourth of July. We have always enjoyed going to Wilmington for the Battleship Blast. I is something that we look forward to all year long. When we arrived at the campground, we were very disappointed that they did not have a site quite big enough for our cabin tent. Before I made the reservation, I called and specifically asked if they had a site big enough for us. They said that they did, but they didn't. We ended up finding a spot that was ok. The main problem was the bugs. They were horrible. I understand that when you go camping that you have to put up with bugs, but these bugs were something else. We had to reapply bug spray every hour. You could not put any food down without at least 10 flies landing on it. We ended up spending the entire first night in our tent. The next day we spent the morning playing in the pool. We went to downtown Wilmington after having pb&js for lunch. We spent part of the day walking around all the stores. We ate at the most amazing place.. Front Street Brewery! It was $25 for a family of 5 to eat dinner. It was the best shrimp that I have ever tasted. The fireworks display was spectacular. I would have to say that it was the perfect end to the day.

We're back

We are back!

We ended up coming back Friday night. Dh & Tracker were getting sick and there were some nasty storms heading our way. We were surrounded by rain on all sides. We decided that the best bet would be to pack up everything while the weather was ok. We woke up Saturday to a beautiful day and everyone feeling a little bit better.

I wish that I had pictures of all the river frog tadpoles and the fish that dh caught, but I don't. I left the camera sitting on the desk.

Even though we were only there for about 32 hours we had a blast! We found an alligator, we saw hundreds of river frog tadpoles (they were HUGE), we caught some minnows, watched the storm clouds from the overlook and came up with some new games.

We talked with the ranger about weather patterns, snakes, birds and trees. We stayed in the field and watched the jets from the base train. Tracker was in 7th heaven. We were completely entertained without electronics. It was wonderful.

We are going Camping...

We are leaving in the morning for a camping trip.


We are going to go hiking...


The boys will be fishing....


Squirrel will draw....

I am going to kick back and read a little....


But most importantly we are going to be doing all of this as a family.



We have been through a lot in a short time. I personally feel like the world is spinning out of control. We are going to be taking the next few days to just be with each other.



I will catch you on the flip side. :-)


Photos are courtesy of freeclipart and Clipart For Free.

Where Have I Been??? Part 1

I was here.
I was in the middle of the woods enjoying electronic free fun. We spent 4 lovely days in the woods. The first day we set up camp and we explored a little. The kids found this GREAT open field that was right across the little dirt road between campsites.
Did I mention that we had the ENTIRE campsite to ourselves?? The kids could make as much noise as they wanted. Dragon created his own little world in the field. There was the caves (spanish moss hanging from the trees), Land of the 7 Trees, and the stone circles (I think). He had a blast. We were all excited that he could walk around without his crutches or his brace.

Waking up the next morning to the birds was just amazing. It was so refreshing and so relaxing. I can't say that sleeping on the ground was great, but it was worth it to wake up to the fresh air and the birds singing. We all got up and had breakfast burritos over the campfire. This time I pre-made the majority of our food. I cooked it at home and then vacuum sealed it. It made packing the cooler a little less difficult.
After we ate and showered we headed to the zoo. We were only an hours drive to the zoo. We picked a bad day going there. They had 8 tour buses visiting as well as their summer intern staff. We still had a blast. We had to take it easy since Dragon had just gotten the ok to walk without the crutches and his walking cast. You can find some amazing pictures of our recent trip here or go here for some old pictures. We just LOVE that family membership.

To be continued... part 2

Where Have I Been??? Part 2

On our last full day at the park we decided to enjoy it to the fullest. Tracker & Hubby went fishing after we had breakfast. They came back with 2 bass. Hubby said that Tracker did most of the work. Tracker looked exhausted. We ate a very simple lunch..sloppy joe pizzas. Hubby & I noticed that Tracker & Squirrel weren't themselves. The weather had turned HOT. We decided to go for a drive to cool them off. We ended up at McDonald's getting ice cream. We learned that the temperature was 100º and the heat index was close to 106º. After we cooled off we went back to the campsite and went for a hike. We had alot of fun. We hiked up to a place called lookout point. Just an amazing view.


It made me homesick for Wintergreen and the mountains. We went there at least 2x a month when I was in high school. We would stay there during school breaks and 2 weeks in the summer. While we were walking we found some critters.


Can you spot the lizard in this picture?

Or in this one??
After the walk we went to the lake that was at the park. We couldn't go swimming because there is a 5 foot alligator in the water. There were also lots of other creepy crawlies in there. It didn't matter. It was beautiful. It had a ton of frogs. I have never heard so many in my life. We learned that some of the frogs were river frogs. It was very unusual to find them so far north. The ranger also told us that the river frog eggs are actually bigger than the actual frog. He said that in another couple of weeks the lake shoreline would of been covered in river frogs and bull frogs. He said that the whole shore is just jumping. We also found a turtle trying to get some sun.

We also learned that the park dates back to pre Revolutionary War. There were parts of am old mill there.

All in all we had a blast. We can't wait to go back in the fall.

Another Trip to the Zoo

Here is a slide show from our trip to the zoo. We went to the zoo while we were camping.