Cloudland Canyon, Cloudland TN with the Williams April 2019

The 4th Annual Williams-Clayton camping adventure finally made it here!  This trip was scheduled originally for October; however, we had to postpone til the Spring.  Everything worked out great! We love having our friends over for a camping weekend!

Everyone arrived somewhere between 5:00-6:00 Friday evening.  We set up camp and the kids began playing right away. Since the Williams now live in Georgia, it was a reunion of sorts and something our kids were very excited about.  We did the normal hangout, ate well, let the kids stay up later than they need, had good conversation around the fire, and then retired for the evening. Carter's birthday was actually the first night of the trip!

Saturday brought the normal great breakfast that has become a tradition of this trip.  Fortunately the playground was nearby so the kids went up there a pretty good bit. This was our first trip with walkie-talkies and they got put to good use.  The kids had bikes and scooters so they were having a blast. After playtime we all decided to go out on an adventure. We heard there were waterfalls in the park so we figured it would be fun.  We discovered that the waterfalls were too far away for the tiny legs so we just followed a normal trail. The kids enjoyed it even if dad got a little nervous as everyone got next to the edge. Yikes!!

That afternoon/evening, we ventured into Chattanooga to do some exploring.  We played for a little bit and then walked across the bridge. The kids had a lot of fun walking across and looking at the water.  They made up a lot of games. At the end of the bridge we found a really good ice cream place and treated ourselves well. Despite the late hour the kids did really well.  We ended up driving back, letting the kids fall asleep, and then putting them straight to bed.

 

 

Saturday morning the Williams had to pack up and head out.  They played a little while longer and then got on the road around lunch.  We were actually scheduled for one more day at Cloudland so we went in search of the waterfalls.  Fortunately we found them this time. They were a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way down in a hole.  The first one seemed like 400 steps down and once we found it we were pretty excited. We got to play around a little and basically enjoy the scenery.  It was pretty great. Carter wanted me to go with him to the lower waterfall and I agreed. It was another 500 steps down, which wasn’t that bad until we realized we would have to climb another 900 to get out.  We took lots of breaks on the way up but finally made it. The family enjoyed a lazy evening, went to bed, and then headed out the next morning. All in all, it was a great trip.

 

***Important Add-on... when we got home we went straight to see Gretel at Mayfair (Dr. Russell) and then from there to the ER as she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on April 29th, the day we got back. Katelyn was talking about how Caroline had really lost all of her baby fat, then as we were talking about it that afternoon I feel like God gave me a lightbulb as I added up other symptoms and I was thinking maybe she had it. She had previously been having extreme thirst, snacking, potty breaks during the day and at night, delirious at night, and now this. I called Katie and thought she would think I was crazy but said no you should take her in. So we did just that. These hiking pictures of her here were tough on all of us... she was NOT wanting to do this and I was having to rotate which girl I was carrying while the boys explored the other trail!