Ramblings of a Wife and Mother: LifeWalk Camping Weekend

In true Cross Bridge Church style, the idea of a group campout sort of evolved "organically" in our small group. We have talked about it on-and-off since our campout two years ago, but then, at our last gathering, some dates were thrown around and a weekend in March began to look like it would work for everyone. As the date approached and the weather looked like it was going to cooperate, we decided to invite our "sister" small group as well. As the emails started coming in, I was amazed to see that almost every family from both groups was going to be able to make it out to Oak Mountain State park to enjoy some or all of our camp out.

Originally, Marcus had planned to take that Friday off so he could help me with the kids & setting up the campsites, but we had a last-minute change in plans, so I ended up being at the campsite at 8:30 am on my own with the kids and all our stuff :) Add to that the fact that I had gotten very little sleep the night before due to a double-bed-wetting-and-double-bad-dream night at our house. Thankfully, one of the men from small group called me and offered to come over and help me set up, which was very much appreciated. The boys and I spent the rest of the morning enjoying the beautiful weather at Oak Mountain, and then headed home for Ethan's nap and to pick up the food and other items that didn't make it into the first load. (Normally, we sort of hover around "set" in the "ready, set, go" trajectory of going camping all spring and all fall, so it is not that hard to get everything in the car and out to the campsite. But this time, since there were so many first-time campers joining us, I packed a lot of extra essentials to share, and that made for a lot more stuff.)

The kids and I made it back to the campsite around 3:30 and were joined shortly after that by Marcus. Other families trickled in over the next couple of hours. Marcus got a great campfire going, and we took turns cooking hot dogs on my new Coleman propane skillet. Soon after, we brought out the marshmallow roasting forks and the kids and adults all enjoyed some well-scorched dessert :). The two families that just came out for the evening headed home when the kids got tired, and the three who were camping out started putting their kids down. I was totally exhausted at this point, and, when Ethan fought bedtime and appeared interested in everything but going to sleep, I happily volunteered to take him back home for the night. Ethan and I were home and in bed by 9:30 and we slept soundly until he woke up at 5:45. Feeling much refreshed, we jumped back in the car and headed back to camp to cook breakfast for all of us.

After a sumptuous meal of bacon, eggs, toast & orange juice, and a few more roasted marshmallows around the campfire, everyone started getting ready for our morning hike. Three more non-camping families came out that morning to join us, so there were six families (including ten preschoolers) on this adventure. Marcus played the part of trek guide and took us on a combination of the red and yellow trails, to total about a 2.5 mile hike. We went pretty slow, with lots of stops for exploring, collecting "treasures," and throwing things in the fast-flowing stream that flanked most of our hike. The highlight was a long stop at Maggie's Glen, where there was a little bridge, lots of sunshine, and plenty of rocks and sticks to throw in the water. The low point of the morning was hiking up the sloped trail out of Maggie's Glen, especially since we were all already tired. but we made it back to the cars and then the campsite.

After lunch, the the three families that just came for the morning headed back home to let their kids nap, while the three of us who were camping took our kids down to the camp beach to play in the sand. It had warmed up to the mid-70's, so our boys put their swim shorts on and enjoyed a little wading and water play as well, though the water was still pretty cold. After an hour or so at the camp beach, the idea of driving up to the top of Oak Mountain (so the kids could take a little car nap) and then hiking down to Peavine Falls was proposed. I was pretty beat from the morning hike, but I figured I could go for the ride and see how I felt at the top.

Less than a quarter of a mile into the hike, I hit a wall. We sat down on a cluster of benches, and I seriously doubted whether or not I could get back up. I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions all afternoon, and I started to worry that I was going to push myself into early labor at 35 weeks. So, anyway, long story shortened, we decided to drive back down the mountain, pick up the food from our campsite, and head home for an evening of rejuvenation and sleep in our own beds. We have never "bailed" like this in the eight campouts we have enjoyed as a family, if that gives you any idea how utterly exhausted I was. We got home a little before 6:00 pm, took baths, ate carry-out pizza, and watched Toy Story 2 with the kids (the promise of this treat is how we coaxed them home from the campsite). I was asleep by 8:00 pm (Marcus finished the movie with the boys & put them to bed), and I slept straight through to 6:00 am (minus one hour for Daylight Savings). At 6:00 am on-the-dot, the boys simultaneously woke up, clamoring to get back to the campsite.

We hadn't even taken the food bin and cooler out of the car, so we just drove straight back to the campsite and went ahead with our planned breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast & OJ. One of the other families from church had stayed a second night, so they walked over to enjoy our campfire and share breakfast with us. The weather on Sunday was just as beautiful (if not more) than Saturday had been. After a short church service around the morning campfire with just our two families and another mother and her daughter who we'd met that weekend, we all walked down to the camp beach for some more water fun. (The two dads stayed back to break down camp.) After the cars were loaded up, we drove over to the petting farm near the entrance of Oak Mountain, and Ethan took a much-needed nap in the car. We ate another picnic lunch after the petting farm, and decided to make one final effort to hike down to Peavine Falls with our friends.

It probably would have been better to call it a day and skip this last hike, but we couldn't resist seeing what all the recent rain had done to the falls. The hike down was very steep, and we took it very slow, letting our friends go on ahead. It was a bit scary at points, since my balance is off (being 8-months-pregnant) and Caleb and Ethan are pretty young for such a steep hike, but we made it to the bottom unharmed, and the boys had a lot of fun playing in a shallow pool near the base of the waterfall. Marcus found a different trail back up, which turned out to be a much easier hike than the way down had been. We got back to the cars to head home around 4:30 pm, at which point I let Caleb play a game on my phone for the 20-minute drive so he wouldn't fall asleep and mess up our early-bedtime potential :)

All-in-all, the weekend was a success because the kids got to spend three days outside and we all enjoyed a lot of time with some of our best friends. I do admit that I bit off a little more than I could chew though, considering my current condition. It's just that, when I'm feeling good, I forget that I'm pregnant and that my gas tank is going to run out much faster than usual. Also, in my defense, I started out on an empty tank as far as sleep and as far as Marc's work plans for Friday changing at the last minute. It's Wednesday now, and I am feeling completely recovered (and out-of-the-woods as far as accidentally inducing myself :)

I almost forgot my very favorite thing about the weekend!! While we were all sitting around the campfire Sunday morning, Marcus surprised me by telling me that he was ready to settle on the baby name we've been talking about for weeks!! I'm going to wait to announce it on the blog until she is born, but now I can put her name up on the wall in the nursery and enjoy calling her by name over the next few weeks! Thank you for this surprise, dear hubby :)

Our fearless trek leader (Marcus) at Maggie's Glen.