Joe Wheeler State Park, Decatur, AL

In what has become a tradition, Kelly and I discussed where our next trip would be on the ride home from Meaher State Park, our previous journey.  We knew we wanted to find somewhere that could kind of be our family vacation … somewhere that had lots to do for the kids.  I looked around at a lot of places and landed at Joe Wheeler.  One may think that a state park is an odd place to go when the requirement is “lots to do for kids,” but Kelly and I already had some plans…

Since we had decided to do this trip over 4 days/3 nights we chose not to leave until Saturday morning.  It was nice not having to come home from work and do the whole rush-to-load-up-and-leave thing.  Plus, we had a Parents Night Out through the local Y set up and we sure didn’t want to miss that!  Having any time to ourselves is rare these days and we knew we needed it. 

Date night- we love The Boot! 

Saturday morning came and we were hoping to leave really early.  Instead we all slept a little later than normal and then lolly-gagged around while getting ready.  Eventually I got pretty stressed and restless, and then announced it was time for “everyone to get in the car!”  I was too my point and ready to go.  Once loaded up, we made good time to Joe Wheeler and pulled into our spot between 2:00-3:00.  We were ALL ready to be out of the car that's for sure! With all three sitting right next to each other in the truck, you never know what's going to happen next or who's going to be throwing a fit. Fortunately set up was good and didn’t take too long.  The spot was pretty nice and had a sweet trail down to the water.  

 

 

For the first evening, we made our way to the Lodge for dinner.  They were having a $20 seafood buffet but I put a block on that because there was no way we were dropping those kind of dimes on a state park dinner.  We ordered and the dinner was fine, but in all truthfulness, the dinner was not easy.  Cora was a handful and needed to be in my lap or running around the restaurant at all times. 

Putting a smile on for me:)

She couldn't take her eyes off the wedding! 

It seems that all three kids decided to be needy at the same time, and they planned it for when we went out in public.  There was a wedding going on on the dock so it was fun to watch, and to listen to Carter and Caroline scream “ewwwwwwwww” when they thought the bride and groom were about to kiss.  We closed our first night by walking around, checking out the pool, going back to get our suits, and swimming until everyone got tired.  Everyone slept well except for Carter falling out of his bed around 1:00am... "somebody help!!!!"

Sunday, other than being Father’s Day, was set up as our big day. 

We are incredibly thankful for this guy right here.  He leads us and loves us selflessly and is one funny dude! 

Kelly and I decided to take on quite an ambitious trip to Decatur in order to visit the waterpark at Point Mallard.  We had seen the attraction back in May when we went to the hot air balloon festival and decided we needed to take the kids.  Truthfully, I was quite worried we were about to bite off more than we could chew.  Lucky for us, due to the weather being overcast and it being Father’s Day, the crowds were low and we had free run of the place.  The kids loved the lazy river (especially Carter), the kids area slides, the wave pool, and pretty much anything they could find.  Carter was the only one old enough to tackle the slides and he really enjoyed those as well, even if one he rode with mommy was a little scary and happened to throw them both off. ***This might be my favorite memory with Carter this far! I got to be a 6 year old with him for about an hour while we road the slides, immediately got out of the water and raced back up to go again since there were no lines, laughing about how we almost fell off, or how scary the turns were! Except that last big slide we both flipped and I think I screamed louder than I do on roller coasters! He is a little scarred from that one! -Kelly

They CANNOT wait to go back!

Still can't believe the rain held off for us!  We needed this day!

What a BLAST!

It was a tiring day for sure, with us being in the sun and water from 10:30am until 5:30pm.  The weather was getting bad in northwest Alabama so we decided to move quickly home in order to close up shop in case the winds picked up.  We made it but the site was pretty soaked … ugh.  Everyone was extremely tired and managed to sleep a lot, which was a good thing.  I was up between 4:00-5:00am because a thunderstorm came through and I was monitored the radar and lightning strikes, but we made it fine.

Monday morning, our last day, was a little up in the air, which had Kelly and me nervous that we would have enough to do to keep the little ones busy.  We began by taking on the breakfast buffet at the Lodge and then walking around the Marina.  It was cool looking at the different boats and just taking our time doing basically nothing. 

This guy loves breakfast!

And this girl can't pass up a stage and a chance to dance!

Still smitten

On our way back we made our traditional stop at a store to buy goods and toys.  Since Wal-Marts were kind of scarce in this area (I know, where in the world are we if you can’t find a Wal-Mart?!), we stopped at a Dollar General.  I don’t see many of these around Bham and that must be because there was a franchise every two miles in these parts!  As always, we bought a lot of stuff we don’t need and headed back to the camper to play with them for a while. 

When you're camping you have to wear your ladybug eye-patch!  

Eventually we got restless and headed back to the pool for some fun.  The kids had a blast again and we played an awful lot. 

 

We always love finding our deer friends:)

Back at the camper we grilled some killer pork and veggies and then settled in for the night by making a fire and enjoying s’mores. Cora kind of had her first s’more … she really just wanted to dive in and get the chocolate. Carter also asked Mommy to go fishing and went and taught her each step and was very sweet. For some reason (probably fatigue and chocolate) the kids got a little crazy and we had a hard time getting them to bed.  Eventually they were out and we could end the madness.  Fortunately, everyone slept through til about 7:45am.  

Our last morning was a lot of sitting around and a lot of packing up.  We managed to go fishing one more time and managed to catch nothing once again.  But, it was a lot of fun.  The trip was once again successful and a great chance to get away as a family.  We are planning our next trip for July!

Caroline was throwing a fit bc I didn't pack her any dresses to wear and we were out of the skirts I did pack.  I was eventually able to snap her out of it.  This girl. 

Cora watches her Daddy like a hawk.  So curious about everything he does.  She loves to watch how things work and then tries to replicate it.  Really cool to see how engaged she is with all going on around her. And of course just wants to be right next to Donald.  The whole. entire. trip. 

Not making this up... Carter: "This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy was brown, this little piggy went to India and said weee weee weee."

Meaher State Park, Fairhope, AL

We’ve been home from India for two months and so far everyone talks about how well-adjusted Cora is, and how great Carter and Caroline are with her.  But ……………….. the true test of becoming a Clayton is whether or not you can handle camping trips!  So yes, Cora has done great, is sleeping well, is eating well, is smiling all the time, is attaching wonderfully … but none of that means anything until we see how she does a few nights in the camper.  Here we go!

In typical Clayton fashion, we jumped into this trip late in the process.  Our wonderful adoption agency, Children of the World, hosts an annual picnic in Fairhope for families who have adopted from India. It is a good time each year, and this one was even better since it was our first picnic since Cora has been home!  We had waffled back and forth about whether or not we would attend, but then settled on the fact that we really need to dedicate ourselves to attending this each year.  It’s good for our kids and it’s also important that we give back to the agency and other families who are in the process.  So, we booked a site at Meaher State Park on Thursday morning with plans to load up and head out Friday morning (by the way, it’s pronounced more like mayor than it is mee-hur state park).  

I did my normal thing at work on Friday morning and left somewhere around 1:00-1:15.  Kelly, rightfully so as she leads a house full of toddlers, wasn’t too interested in preparing for this trip (but I did get my bedroom makeover complete haha, whoops!;) -Kelly) during the day so we ended up doing some things later than usual and leaving about 3:30.  We crammed all three kids in the back of the truck and prayed that a majority of them would fall asleep at some point (that didn't happen really).  The trip was about three hours and 45 minutes and we rolled into Meaher at 7:30ish.  In February, Kelly and I had been in Fairhope to visit our agency and stopped by Meaher on our way home, so we were pretty familiar with the park.  We even went so far to pick the spot we wanted next to an open field and the playground … and it was the exact one we were able to choose!

Finally got that tooth out and proud of it!

Ohhhh the car ride

Great view!

I can't resist a camping shirt!  And these two are trouble!

Set up went great.  The kids played on the playground but we realized pretty quickly that you can’t just let Cora have at it on this particular equipment.  It was a little too advanced for her age and she remains a little too risky for her age … which meant Kelly and I were less relaxed than we wanted.  Eventually the sun went down and that’s when the fun began for us and the mosquitoes.  Let’s get the latter party out of the way first: they absolutely tore us up out there.  It was night so those stealthy little boogers had a field day with our bloodstream, and we really didn’t see it until the next morning.  As for us, we played a great game of hide-and-seek with laser-like flashlights.  We hid behind trees and then, very ninja-esque, hunted one another in the dark.  It was a lot of fun.  Eventually we settled down and loaded everyone up for bed.  Night one went great and Cora slept the whole way through (see no napping on the car ride)!  She did wake up around 7:00 in a full panic and basically flew out of the bunkbed- literally.  It was entertaining to watch, especially since we were working off of a full night’s sleep.

Carter's new bed, Caroline's in his old bunk and
Cora's in Caroline's old bunk!

Or at least I try to be:)  Possibly not always exceeding!

Demanding her nails to be painted

Our site that backed up to the playground and pavillion

Saturday morning we simply hung out a little, looked for alligators, and managed to play with all of our toys.  We finally started getting ready to go to the Fairhope Yacht Club at 11:00.  The picnic was a lot of fun … Kelly and I even got a chance to relive some quality Indian food, which was something we weren’t anticipating.  After the picnic closed we made our way to the swimming area.  Cora was now taking a nap in the jogging stroller so Caroline, Carter, and I played a lot in the bay.  It was a lot of fun and we all ended up staying at the beach area for about three hours!  The kids absolutely loved it and were hard sells when it came time to leave.  

Going on a Gator Hunt!  We realized later that we saw one but didn't realize at the time that's what it was.  The next morning we saw three!  No swimming in these waters!

 

Sweet girls!

She may not watch tv with them but she still loves being by them:)

Cora's first COTW picnic- she had a blast!

 

 

On the way home we stopped by Publix and got some fried chicken for dinner.  Random move, but a good one for sure.  We sat under a large pavilion next to our campsite and enjoyed the meal (another advantage of this site).  Kelly managed to find the movie Rock Dog at the Red Box so we did a movie night in the camper before bedtime.  Once again, everyone slept well.  We did have a couple of wake ups this time: Cora once with a random scream and Caroline a few times because a coyote was trying to bite her in the dream she was having.  In case you are not aware, Caroline has a very healthy fear of coyotes and wolves, so when one of these ferocious beasts show up in her dream it’s not a good night.  Alas, she and we survived.

I love my new shirt:)

On our final morning, we enjoyed breakfast and then basically played (and hunted for alligators) until it was time to leave.  Packing up was hot but it wasn’t bad at all.  We ended up leaving right at 11:00 and heading home!  All in all, it was a great trip even if it was shorter than usual!

Good morning to the gator!

 

Chomp Chomp

Which of these is actually awake???

Not this one!

Winner!