It’s late May so it must be prime camping season!!! The weather is perfect and the woods are calling our name. Once again, we decided to take a trip to Oak Mountain State Park. Yes yes yes, we know this park has become a regular for us … but it is literally five minutes from our house and is one of the best State Parks we know … so get off our backs about it! (insert emoji that has a combination of a wink and an angry face) (or just see the pic below haha! #kelly).
Anyway, this trip was a little different for us because we came about this trip through a church small group (we call them growth groups) get-together. During one of our bi-monthly growth group meetings we all decided to go camping together and this was the weekend we chose. Since so many of us have small children (and no camper for relief), many couples decided to come for dinner and skip out on the overnight part.As a family, we were initially scheduled to set up Friday night; however, I was way too tired after a long work week to hook everything up and do anything. Instead we went to eat some bad Mexican food and to watch a bad movie (so not true! Who doesn't love Moes and the kids both loved Angry Birds and Donald got a nap- so why is he complaining?! #kelly) .... other than that I am good at this point. The next morning we woke early, loaded up, and made it to OMSP about 10:00am. We hung out as a family and did next to nothing before the Mowrys showed up!
They were our first community group guests and we were excited to see them get set up. The Mowrys were set up for some true camping with their tent, which happened to pop up (just as advertised) in 30 seconds! I’ve got to get one of those…
After the Mowrys were set up we all went to the day-use area and looked into renting some kayaks. The Mowrys jumped in while the Clayton kids passed on anything that would restrict them from being crazy. They are wise little kids that know being in a tiny boat fences in their freedom. Truthfully, mom and dad know that as well and choose not to get into a situation (in the middle of a lake) where they are done with their current activity, thus causing pain for everyone. Instead, we went to the beach area and let the kids play for about 20-30 minutes. It is also where Kelly and I love to do some people watching. By the way, it’s called a beach but it presents more as a landfill with water (ok it's not THAT bad! #kelly).
Next, we moved back to the campsite in order to meet Tim Shirley, who had just arrived for dinner. On the way back, we received a phone call saying that the Park Ranger was looking for the Claytons. Yikes. Fortunately for us they were just mad that we had not checked into the group site yet. I am about 99.5% sure I did everything correct earlier in the day, but I will not reveal any revenge plans here on this blog. To make it short, I let them know how irritated I was that they called me in for nothing, we had a few words for one another, and they let me go. No harm no foul, right? Finally we made it to the site, and that’s when everyone started showing up.Don't mess with this guy... Haha!
The Martins, Coggins, Mowrys, Shirleys, and Menards were all present for the 1st Annual Growth Group Camp-Out, and it was a blast!! Having so many people meant I had to work extra hard making burgers and hot dogs for everyone. It ended up being not that big of a deal as Tim helped me knock things out and get everyone fed.
The meal was really good and everyone seemed to enjoy hanging out for a couple of hours. Somewhere close to dark we got the fire going and began working on s’mores. :) The Menards and The Mowrys were all set up with their tents to stay the night, so we hung out around the fire until about 11:00 before calling it a night. As all great campfire conversations should be, this one involved lots of laughter and inside jokes.
It seems everyone slept well and when we woke Sunday morning the temperature was perfect. Kelly made some incredible pancakes that also happened to be as big as my face, and I managed to grill some sausage for everyone. We all devoured the breakfast and then made plans for the rest of the day.
It was decided that we should head over to the Bird Center so the kids could see all of the birds that are being nursed back to health. It was a lot of fun as we ended up taking a walk down a really nice trail as well. Everyone enjoyed being outside and taking advantage of the perfect temperatures.
Lastly, once everyone had headed home, we loaded up the camper and took a quick trip to the archery park. Carter has some nerf bow and arrows that were able to use. Everyone in our family now feels like Robin Hood or Katniss Everdeen…
All in all, it was another great trip! The camper was perfect and we are loving it more and more each day!
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