Maxwell-Gunter Military Campground with Cory, Gina and Amelia at Lake Martin

It’s late October and quite possibly no better time of year to go camping!  This trip was extra special because we had Cory, Gina, and Amelia with us. They recently joined the camping world and also recently moved from Del Rio, Texas to Montgomery, so the time was just right to have a joint camping trip.  Fortunately for us, Cory has military access to this awesome campground right on Lake Martin. He was able to book us some sites this summer and we headed down for a fun weekend.

Donald was flying back in town from a work trip and didn’t land in Bham until around 4:30.  Kelly and the kids drove on down to the campground to hang out before the camper arrived. I showed up about 7:30 and set up in no time.  From there, it was hang out by the fire and get ready for bed. The next morning came and it was pretty cold. We were able to stay bundled while we cooked around the campfire.  This campfire was pretty special because the coals were still warm from the night before and we were able to keep the fire going without having to light a new match. That’s good stuff right there.  We had bacon, eggs, cinnamon rolls, and the normal donuts for breakfast … it was a perfect start.

Each campsite pretty much had its own little fishing pier on the water, so we hung out down there for a bit, and also did some fishing.  After multiple trips to the playground and lunch, Cory organized us in an awesome scavenger hunt game! We partnered up randomly and then went out to see who could find everything.  It was a lot of fun with a lot of good memories!

Side note: somewhere about now Carter wanted to go back to the playground and throw the football.  Cora has become obsessed with carrying around a wiffle ball bat and ball, so Carter also decided to hit a few.  We were all playing when he smacked one out toward the wall. It went down the hill and Kelly went to chase it. When she got there all she could scream was “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!”  When I made it over the ball was floating slowly, and right out of her reach, out toward the middle of Lake Martin. Carter comes over and starts getting upset, so I urgently direct him to give his bat to Kelly so she can reel the ball in.  He throws it down to her and … you guessed it … the bat bounced out in the water and starting floating away too. Well, I was semi-content to let it go but then Carter ran off in tears. I remembered what it was like to lose something you really care about, and the thought of watching that thing sloooooooowwwwwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyy drift away was too much.  So………I went for it. I just jumped right out there in the freezing water and brought it back in. The water wasn’t so bad but my shoes were done for the weekend.

We got back to the campsite and starting setting up for dinner.  Everything went great and tasted great. We also had some s’mores before putting the kids down for bed.  Cory stayed up to watch the Texas game while Kelly and I took our portable fire pit down to the pier and hung out on the water.  It was pretty great.

The final morning moved quickly.  We had to get back for Carter’s baseball game so we started packing early.  The kids played a little more and we all hung out a little longer as well. All in all, it was an awesome trip and we can’t wait to go camping with Cory, Gina, and Amelia again!