Sorry I left y'all hanging with the second Spring Break post, things got crazy once all the kids went back to school. OK, I left off with our hike down to the bottom of the falls. It was wonderful, I enjoyed it so much. There's no rest for the weary when you're camping though and we had no more finished lunch before a group was getting together to go horseback riding. I have always loved horses and so wanted to do this but didn't know how the boys would feel about it much less what I could arrange for SK. Once again our friends stepped up to the plate and knocked this one to the fence...wait for it...one of the dads volunteered to stay with SK...and fed her!! He acted like it was no big deal, but that's a huge deal, believe me. Men don't normally jump at the chance to keep other people's children. They're not really big on wiping the noses and mouths of any kids other than their own, at least that has been my experience. Our good friend Scott stayed behind and fed SK and hung out with her at the campsite so that I could take the boys horseback riding. I'm going to have to stop going on and on about it though cause he's not going to want people to know that he has such a soft spot, ha...but he's gotta know what that meant to me!
We went on a 2 mile trail ride.
The boys with their horses...
After the hike to the bottom of the falls and then horseback riding, I was totally exhausted. The kids however jumped on their bikes and were off again as soon as we got back to the campground. I checked on SK and found her on her cot by the campfire.
Underneath that top blanket is Sophie Kate's heating blanket, it went everywhere she went and kept her warm each evening. By the way, both of us fit on that cot of hers. Yep, I scooted her over just a bit and got underneath that heating blanket with her and dozed off as the sun went down that Tuesday afternoon.
The next morning we met some of our group for breakfast at the only restaurant around. I need to set the stage for you though...they take their last customer for breakfast at 9:45... at 9:30 we walked in with a party of 17 which included about six 10-12 year old boys. You think they were happy to see us? They were nice about it, but I can only imagine what they were thinking in the kitchen as they had to keep bringing out more and more bacon to replenish that breakfast buffet before those boys got their fill.
Grey had the best one-liner of the trip after breakfast that morning. Now, remember as far as he was concerned we were camping. We were cooking our own food, sitting by the campfire, doing all those things associated with "camping." After breakfast that morning he declared somewhat disgusted, "We're no longer camping, we're just living." I cracked up. By his standards eating at that restaurant had taken us out of camping and we were just back to regular living, too funny.
Just like when we went to Disney World, these two shared a bed once again. He is so good with her.
Speaking of Disney World, I have to say that we reached Disney level exhaustion each night. It only took us about 5 minutes to drive from the campground back to our cabin, but both Jacob and Grey would fall asleep. I mean out, don't touch me, just leave me here kind of sleep. In fact one night Jacob was almost in tears saying his eyes were burning, he was going to throw up and he was fixing to faint. I told him the cure for all that ailed him was to put on his pajamas and get in the bed and so he did and woke up ready to "get after it" the next morning.
I really loved the campfires each night. Remember now we had about 38 people with us so each night we had a kid campfire and a grown up campfire. We were all right beside each other but it was just too many people to try and all gather around one campfire. We roasted marshmallows, made s'mores and laughed a whole lot.
If you're wondering where SK was on those cold Tennessee mountain nights, let me put your mind at ease...
She was truly "roughing" it inside one of our friends 5th wheel, complete with its own fireplace...
and dachshund.
Sassy didn't feel like she was too far from home with this little guy to snuggle with each night. Could this set up have been any more perfect for us?
I really can't say enough good things about this trip and the people who were on it with us. Everyone took such good care of us since daddy wasn't able to make the trip with us. Folks helped with the boys and with SK, our friend Scott grilled all our food for us. Each night we would drive back to the cabin following the Ropers, who stayed next door to us and I don't think there was one night that they weren't walking to our cabin carrying something of ours. Whether it was Sophie, our cooler or SK's stroller, they always had something of ours in their hands carrying it in for us. I could not have done this trip without the Suhrs and the Ropers, hope we haven't scared them off from ever traveling with us again. Hanging with us is not for the faint of heart. It was a lot of work and I knew it would be going without Chad. I never want to have to go without him again, but I am so appreciative to our great group of friends who helped lighten the load and made possible what I thought impossible this Spring Break.
No comments:
Post a Comment