Good times...

Ok, here goes...

We had an awesome week! We got back from our vacation yesterday afternoon, tired and covered in bug bites! Here is basically what we did: We left first thing Monday morning, packed up the car to the ceiling with food, and sleeping bags, and camping gear and headed north. We go to the Alabama Gold Camp http://www.alabamagoldcamp.com/ in the early afternoon after stopping for lunch. The website says "primitive camping". They were NOT kidding. It's a good thing I had 6 years of Girls' Camp under my belt! It was just a quaint little place that had once been a functioning gold mine but they now have it set up so that you can gold pan and dig for gems there. So we drove down the long dirt road to find a spot to put up our tent. Primitive, remember? So, eventually we found a spot along the river, where you pan, under a bunch of large trees. We thought it looked really nice and shady so we set up camp. We had bought our tent almost a year and a half ago so it was high time we break it in! It was very nice and went up quick, thankfully! Then daddy went and got us some water (they did have a bathroom and shower house, but it was about an uphill mile from our camp). So he went for water while I took tons of pics of the boys and got out the rest of our provisions. I honestly thought they would at least have had tables at the sites, but well, there were no sites so therefore no tables. I could have kicked myself for not having a table! I ended up using the cooler as a table and that wasn't so easy. Anyhow, then he took the boys down to the river and they started panning while I stayed up and started the fire and preparing food for dinner. We had steaks and beans and the boys had hot dogs (by choice). It had been awhile since I cooked over an open fire. I LOVE it. Yes, it is very hard work, and yes, it was VERY hot, but I still enjoyed it. I actually think I may have surprised my hubby. He kept apologizing that it was so primitive (there's that word again), but I really do get into it. I still don't like squatting in the woods, but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do! Anyways, we holed up in our little tent all together and Isaac began to freak out. So he ended up on the air mattress with me while daddy took the floor and sleeping bags with David. Sammy was in the porta crib. There is no way I am going anywhere without that thing! It got kinda chilly during the night, but I had the boys trained that if they kept the tent zipped up during the day there would be less bugs, so we were primarily a bug free tent! We slept okay and got up and had cereal for breakfast. I had thought about making pancakes on the fire but didn't pack the stuff for it. I kinda wish I had. Oh well. The boys spent the day gold panning with Daddy while I scorched in the heat. We swam in the river and then went digging for gems with Daddy later. Then we made dinner and drove up to the shower house and got cleaned up and did some laundry. Who would think you would get so dirty after only 2 days of camping!? Then next day we packed up and drove to Atlanta. We were ready to leave. Nathan and I pretty much decided that camping is great, but we aren't doing it again like that until the boys are older. Primitive camping and gold panning is not much fun when you are spending most of it trying to chase your 15 month old around!

We got to Atlanta around lunch time and checked in at the Naval Air Station where we were staying. Military has it's perks ($38/night for a suite!) Anyways, it's a nice place but I still get squeamish in certain hotels and such. It's just not as clean as I would normally like. You know? Anyways, we went and saw Nathan's cousin and dropped Hercules and the boys off with her and Nathan and I went to the Temple. It was nice. The next day, we did the Atlanta Aquarium which is supposedly the largest in the world but I could have sworn I had been in bigger (also a military perk... cheap tickets to otherwise overpriced venues). But we saw lots of cool stuff and David really enjoyed seeing all the things he had just learned about in school. ($36 to feed us in the Aquarium cafe! UGH!)

That night we found a little Brazilian place to eat. It was yummy!

Friday we went to Stone Mountain and had a BLAST! It was so stinking HOT! But we loaded up on water and gatorade and had so much fun!! We didn't even get to do everything before they closed, but we had fun getting in what we could and it left us wanting more. We decided not to stay for the Laser Show since we were all pretty much beat.

All in all it was a really nice time and we enjoyed visiting with Nathan's cousin and her family. She was so sweet to watch Hercules for us and our boys so we could go to the Temple.

Sammy started sleeping through the night just a few days before we left so I was very worried that he was gonna get all messed up on the trip, but he slept through every night while on our trip, even camping! YAY! Moving him into his own room was a GOOD MOVE!

Anyways, now I'll overload you with pictures!!

Our Camp Site


Sammy Camper

Ike Ike Camper

Playing in the tent

Big Dude Camper

Daddy Long Legs (HUUGE!)

Daddy Pans for gold... yes, he found some!

Coming back from peeing on the corn.

Whose dirty children are those!!?!!

Hercules hated the gnats.

A High Banker, helps you pan quicker.

"Is this gold??"

Miner Mike

Sam having a snack.

Funny Miner

East Alabama (Talladegga National Forest)

Naval Air Station cool radar planes.

Mom n boys at the aquarium

Sammy got tired and bored.

And the Whale spewed mommy forth...

David and the jellies.

Garden Eels... These things are SO cool!!!

After the aquarium.

On top of Stone Mountain. The boys LOVED riding the cable car to the top! Mommy, not so much...

Chasin' ducks in the pedal boats.

Our turn!

Sammy on Stone Mountain.

Waiting for his boat to come in.

After Stone Mountain.

Good traveller

I have tons more but these are the highlites for now!