Spring Break, Easter, and that time we went camping for the first time in over a year

Seriously, I don't know how I can get so behind on this blog.  Now I know most of you are reading that and saying, "gosh Valerie you think you're behind- I haven't updated my blog in years - that's being behind."  But I really do feel behind.  It seems like every time I get caught up we do something big and I have to hustle to get current again. 

It doesn't help that I have a backlog of posts that I want to write in addition to my little weekly updates.  I want to do a before and after post about my weight loss.  I want to talk about some of the things that have been going on with Derrick. I have spiritual thoughts that I'd like to share.  Oh and I have that travel blog where I am perpetually playing catch up.  (In case you missed it I've started working on a list of Day trip destinations in the Texas Hill Country.)

And there is also a huge list of upcoming posts that I know I'll want to write.  Derrick's birthday is this next week.  So I'll do a post about that.  And we are going on a little road trip later this month which will result in a whole bunch of writing. 

That makes for a whole lot of mental clutter.  So in the interest of getting little organized let me hurry and tell you about some of the stuff we did during the last two weeks.    

The kids' Spring Break coincided perfectly with Brandon finishing up the Primary phase of flight school.  He's now on what's called Advanced Hold while he waits to start his Advanced training next month.  He has to do PT in the morning, and report to work for a few minutes each day, but for the most part he's free.  He's spending his time studying the things he needs to know for Blackhawks, doing some honey-do projects, and relaxing.  

I love this picture of Brandon and Veronica passed out of the couch.  Veronica can be very hot or cold with Brandon.  Sometimes she loves him, sometimes she wants nothing to do with him.  This was one of the time she liked him. 

Brandon had the Tuesday before Selection Day as pretty much a whole day off.  He had to check in in the morning, but after that he was free.  We went to the Pioneer Museum of Alabama in Troy which is about 45 minutes away.  They had a lot of historic artifacts displayed in a large building.  I've been reading the Little House on the Prairie books to Charlotte and Lydia so it was fun to see all the stuff that was like what Laura would have grown up with.

The girls told me that this maniquin looked like my sister Hillary.

Charlotte wanted this picture with a window.

Outside the main building they had lots of historical buildings like a store, a school, a church, and many homes.

There was also a train, much to the delight of Derrick.

The kids all wanted to sit on this swing together.

Charlotte pretended to be teacher in the school.

Walking toward the bridge.  (Yeah, Charlotte is wearing butterfly wings.)

There were some chickens that all the kids loved.  Derrick started out by calling them ducks, but he soon learned to say "Chick-en."

There was also a large amphitheater with a stage.  Charlotte and Lydia put on a show for us.

Then we went back to the train for more fun.

Inside the store.

There was a little nature walk that went over a very pretty creek.

More train fun.

This is from a different day, because the kids are wearing different clothes.  But I can't remember why I took this picture (or figure out where we are) so we'll just say the kids were happy about going on some sort of adventure.

Wednesday was Selection Day which I already described.  But in case you missed that post, Brandon found out he is going to be flying Blackhawk Helicopters.  He's very happy. And so am I.

The kids had seen a picture of icecream popsicles in a magazine so after I picked them up from the babysitter we went to the store and bought ice cream.  Then we came home and put them together.

When Brandon came home we had a little celebration with the ice cream. We used Neapolitan ice cream and the everyone liked the layered look.

Later we went over to the Community garden to take care of my plot.

This was the first time Brandon came with us.  It was so nice to have him entertain Derrick and Veronica while Charlotte and Lydia helped me.

There is a new person in charge of the garden and she's been a lot better about giving out plots.  (I had to bother the old person for months before she got back to me.) So now people are clearing out their spots and starting to plant things.  Someone went all out and erected this on the plot behind mine.   If were were going to be here long term I definitely would do that.

In comparison, my garden doesn't look that cool.  But I do have stuff growing so that puts me ahead of most people.  (Not that it's a contest.)  Here are my beans.

And my strawberries.

And my garlic.

And the peas.

The kids have been really excited for Easter.  Lydia wrote and illustrated this book all about the Easter Bunny.

On Thursday evening we dyed Easter Eggs. We've been working on teaching Derrick his colors and he had so much fun saying the colors of each egg.

Charlotte and Lydia also had fun with the eggs.

On Friday it was time for something that we hadn't really been planning that long, but that we'd been hoping to do for a long time.  We went CAMPING!!!!!!

Somehow we haven't gone camping as a family since we visited Galveston Island in November of 2014.  I still can't believe that all of 2015 went by without a family camping trip.  Sure Brandon took Derrick to Father's and Sons last May, and I took the kids to Yellowstone in July, but we didn't go camping all together.  We're the type of family that usual goes on at least two camping trips each year so it's really strange that we didn't do it even once last year.  I think more than anything that illustrates how much flight school dominates our lives.

Originally we were hoping to go camping for several days.  I've been dreaming of a little road trip up to the Lookout Mountain area on the Alabama/Tennessee boarder.  We were planning on doing it right after Selection Day.  It seemed like the perfect time to go.  The kids were out of school, Brandon had a break in training.  What could stop us from using up some of Brandon's leave.  But then there was some sort of Change of Command Ceremony scheduled and so no one in Brandon's company was allowed to take leave.  That effectively cancelled our Spring Break plans.  

Thankfully, Brandon's class leader was able to talk to the higher ups and requested that his class be allowed to at least get weekend passes.  His reasoning was that they'd just finished training and they deserved to have a break.  So Brandon was able to get a pass for the weekend.  (This is one of the weird things about Army life.  Brandon has to have special permission to sleep away from home.  He also has to have paperwork approved if he wants to travel more than 250 miles. It's a hassle but we deal with it.)

Anyway, so we had permission to go somewhere, but we weren't quite sure where.   Earlier I'd noticed Mt Cheaha state park on my map of Alabama.  It boasted the highest point in Alabama at 2500 feet.  That sounded like a nice change from the mostly flat landscape around here.

So on Friday at 1:00 (or rather 1300) Brandon signed out from work and we headed out on our first camping trip in over a year.

Turns out we REALLY needed this trip to the mountains.  Our kids were shockingly lacking in knowledge of mountains.  When we could see the mountains in the distance Charlotte said, "Hey I see some really big waves." I couldn't believe that she didn't know what mountains looked like. (And I kept promising Brandon that I really did take the kids to Utah, Yellowstone, and through the Appalachian Mountains this summer.)

As we started to drive up the side of the mountain Lydia started freaking out.  She was worried that the car would fall off the sleep slope as Brandon navigated the turns in the road.  We were barely 50 feet up the mountain and so Brandon and I just laughed.  We tried to explain to her that we'd grown up with mountains that that we were going to be just fine.  She was scared for a while until she remembered that Black Widow is brave and that she wants to be like Black Widow.  Then she had fun as Brandon went up and down some steep hills.

We made it to Mt Cheaha State Park and Brandon ran inside the store building to book us a campsite.  The state park required at least two nights if we wanted to make advance reservations so we hadn't been able to do that.  I was super nervous that we wouldn't have anywhere to stay.  But I shouldn't have worried because there was still plenty of room. We were given directions to the CCC campground and told to pick which every site was free.

We got there and set up camp.  It was so nice to finally use all of our camping stuff again.  On all of our little trips last year we used our little tent so it was nice to see the big tent again. Earlier in the week (and maybe even the day) it had been really rainy.  But by now everything was clear.  Brandon even talked me into leaving the rain fly off the tent.  That's something I've never dared to do.

The kids were having a great time.  I realized that they were SOOOOO much easier to camp with this time than they were 14 months ago.  All of them can walk, talk, eat completely on their own, entertain themselves, SLEEP THOUGH THE NIGHT, and could be trusted to be reasonably safe around the fire.  I kept remembering all the "sort of fun, but also kind of stressful" trips we took them on as babies.  In comparison this trip was so much easier.  I can't wait to know what it's like to camp with teenagers.

In fact, Veronica is a whole year older than Charlotte and Lydia were when we first used our big tent.  Back then we'd taken 20 month old Charlotte and Lydia and 3 month old Derrick on a camping trip to the Uinta mountains.  What we were thinking?

We spent the evening cooking dinner around the fire and just soaking in the scenery.  There is something that happens to me when I get to spend time out in nature.  It's like I can just feel all my stress floating away.

Derrick loved watching the fire.

Here I am stirring stew.

As it got darker we started to see fireflys.  Those just added to the magical feeling of this trip. 

I was a little worried about how the kids would do with sleeping in the tent.  Derrick cried for hours during the night in Yellowstone.  But it wasn't big deal this time.  The biggest problem was the Veronica demanded to sleep with many of the blankets.  So once she was asleep we had to do some rearranging to make sure everyone would be warm all night.

Brandon and I were tired so we went to bed early.  That turned out to be a bad idea because I woke up at 2:00 and didn't fall back asleep until 4:00.  I just laid in bed and looked at the bight stars.

In the morning, Brandon made breakfast.  (Our only complaint about this camp ground was its lake of picnic tables.  But we made it work.)

The kids had fun running around.

Here's breakfast.

Veronica loved the cereal we'd brought.

Charlotte and Lydia collected lots of rocks and then were heart broken when I said they couldn't bring them all home.  So we took pictures with them. Here are Lydia's.

And Charlotte's.

This is kind of hard to see, but the dirt looking specks in this picture are actually pollen.  It's was covering the whole care.  When Brandon turned on the windshield wipers to clear off the windshield the pollen turned the water yellow.  This is a really common thing in the south.

Our campground was in the same location as the original site of the Civilian Conservation Corps campground.

We packed everything up and then went to explore the park.  We went down to the lake.  You can see the clouds covering the mountain in the back ground.

Then we drove up into the clouds.

We wanted to go on a hike to the lookout at Bald Rock.  We were certain that we wouldn't be able to see anything, but going on a hike in the clouds sounded like a fun idea.

Here is what we found at the end of the boardwalk.  It reminded me of the edge of the world in "The Gods Must be Crazy."

The kids had fun playing under the boardwalk.

We went to stand on the edge of Bald Rock.  I'm sure the view from here, must be amazing when it's clear.

I'm sure it's also a lot scarier when you can see how far away the ground is.

We walked back toward our car on the original trail.

We were cold so we decided to go inside a building.  So we went to the Observatory build by the CCC.  It had this cool staircase that went up to the look out tower.

Lydia liked posing in the windowsills.

Looking down.

Once again, the view wasn't that great.  But it was still cool to be in a cloud.

Going back down.

The door.

And the whole building.

This also happened to be the highest point in Alabama. With an elevation of a little over 2400 feet.

This is the view of the building from the car.  I've never been in fog like this.

By now we were hungry so we found a pavilion that sheltered us from the wind that was blowing on top of the mountain and we had a quick lunch.

After that it was time for one last hike.  This one took us to a place called Pulpit Rock.  The first part of the hike was STEEP. It was hard helping Derrick and Veronica down this slope.  Especially since they kept trying to jump.

Then it leveled out and the remaining quarter of a mile wasn't that bad.  Veronica insisted on walking the whole way.  We passed some groups of teenagers/young adults and they thought it was so funny to see a little kids just trucking along.

We reached the edge and were happy to see that the clouds had thinned a bit. 

We could actually see how high up we were.

This was pretty surreal. (Veronica is made because we wouldn't let her sit on the edge of the cliff.)

This is the view down.  It was at least 100 feet.

This lady was sitting on the edge of a rock.  I wished I could take a picture there too, but I knew the kids would follow me over there and I didn't trust them to be safe enough.  So just pretend that's a picture of me.

We moved to a different area and I took this picture of Charlotte.

And here is one of me with Derrick and Veronica.

Charlotte and Lydia swinging on a tree.  (Don't worry they are away from the edge.)

Then we had to hike back to the car which was a lot harder.  Veronica was tired and so I had to carry her the whole way back.  Derrick kept asking for hugs so finally Brandon had to take him so I could focus on carrying Veronica.  That last scramble up the steep part of the trail nearly did me in.  I'm not exactly used to dramatic elevation changes - and doing one while carrying 40 extra pounds was exhausting.  But still it had been really cool.

As soon as we got in the car it started raining.  That was just fine though because we'd seen everything we'd wanted to see.  So we started driving.  All the kids got comfortable with blankets and pillows.

Soon most of them were fast asleep.

We were in the middle of the Talladeega National Forest so we drove around a little bit, just to see more of that.

It was very pretty.

Then we started driving home.  We took back roads so it took forever, but was also very pretty.  This whole trip had been so wonderful.  It made me really excited for our trip to Lookout Mountain later this month.  (Yes it will finally happen.)

We got home and got everyone cleaned up and started on the laundry.  In the evening the kids excitedly set out their Easter Baskets. 

I've come to realize that our kids have more than enough toys right now.  (A few weeks ago I actually got rid of over 1/3 of their toys and they hardly noticed.) So I really scaled back on what I would have put in their baskets.  They each got side walk chalk, a notebook, some peeps, some jelly beans, and some robins eggs.

 I also put out chocolate covered raisins as "Rabbit Poop."  The kids were really excited to find their baskets the next morning.

 Brandon had hidden some more candy eggs and all the hard boiled eggs out in the yard so the kids ran out there to find those.

 Then they ate candy until it was time to go to church.  We also might have been able to get some real food in them, but I doubt it.  The side walk chalk was a big hit. (I actually bought this around Christmas time, but then decided to save it for Easter.)

  I'd given the girls new dresses and Derrick got a new shirt.  Here they are posing in their new clothes.

 Veronica wasn't very happy.

 Charlotte was very happy about here clothes.

 Church went surprisingly well considering how much candy the kids had had.  Earlier in the week we'd made these little birds nests and Brandon and I took some to church as a present for our Primary Class.

 After church we got ready to go to a Easter Dinner at my neighbor Jessica's house.  We made another pinterest inspired creation.

 Oh and Charlotte insisted on putting Antler to bed in her Easter basket.

I'd been hoping that we'd all go over to Jessica's for dinner, but Derrick and Veronica fell asleep on the way home from church.  Usually they just sleep for about 10 minutes and then wake up and run around while Brandon and I yearn for the chance to take a Sunday Afternoon nap.  But not today.  Derrick slept for two hours and Veronica slept for something like four.  So if you want your kids to take a nap, just make plans.  Anyway, Brandon stayed home with the sleeping kids while I took Charlotte and Lydia to dinner. Later I ran a plate of food back home for Brandon. 

I had a lot of fun chatting with all the other ladies. I've been blessed with some really great neighbors.  A lot of us like the meet up in the afternoons at the park so I already knew many of them.  Other's were Jessica's friends.  And one was my friend Emily.  Her husband is away for some training so I invited her so she could have some adult interaction on Easter. Anyway, it was a great afternoon.  

 Monday was the last day of Spring Break.  Brandon had to go back to checking in at work.  But he was around a lot of the day. We were all feeling a little run down so we spent the day in our pajamas.  The kids had lots of fun with the side walk chalk.

Then it was back to the routine of school.  Lydia ended up getting a little sick so she stayed home on Tuesday.  And when she was sick again on Friday I took her to the doctor.  It's a long and not very interesting story, but basically she had a cough that wasn't going away.) Three boring hours later we were able to come home with a whole slew of medicines.  (I wish there was just a way to get medicine without having to go through the whole routine of waiting 30 minutes past your appt time, spending 10 minutes with the RN, waiting 15 minutes for the doctor, spending 5 minutes with the doctor, spending 20 minutes with the nebulizer, and then spending another 15 minutes at the pharmacy, only to spend another 10 minutes back in the doctors area to pick up something they forgot to give you.)

Anyway, that doctors appointment is about the only big thing I remember from last week which is good because I'm sick of typing and I'm sure you are getting sick of reading.

Now that this is out of the way hopefully I'll have a chance to work on some of the other posts that I want to write.  I really am excited to show you the before and after pictures of my weight loss journey.  Actually I can't wait.  Here is a little teaser.