Camping Trip - Day 1

At the beginning of the summer, we took a three day trip up to Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia.  Brian and I had been here once before when I lived in Kingsport.  The main reason I wanted to take the boys here is because they have wild ponies roaming around the park and I thought they'd really like seeing them.

The drive is long - almost six hours. So on the way up, we took a detour (and made the drive a bit longer) and stopped at Margarette Falls in Greeneville, TN.  This was our first time to these falls and was definitely worth the stop.

Gray got his very own Camelbak from Aunt Shannon this Christmas.

The majority of the hike followed the stream that is downstream of the falls.

The boys like to "meditate" for pictures all the time.

Margarette Falls:

We let the boys take off their shoes and play in the water at the base of the falls.

We played for a long time and then headed back to the trailhead.

After getting back to the car, we loaded up and continued on our drive to Grayson Highlands.

We had reserved a campsite beforehand but weren't able to pick out a specific one.  Because we got to the campground so late, there were only three sites to choose from.  We got site 2 which actually ended up being perfect.  The sites are very close to one another and since no one ended up using site 1, we were on the end.  It was Saturday night and the people around us were loud, even past quiet hours.  It was fine, but I would have hated to be in the center of it all!

We set up the tent and boys' hammocks, and then Brian got a fire started while I prepped dinner.

We had grilled chicken quesadillas with chips and salsa.

It was a simple meal but yummy!

For dessert we made Jiffy Pop.  It was the first time Brian or I had made it and it turned out great!  Rylan was VERY excited!

We chilled around the fire for awhile and then went inside the tent when it got dark.  We read books for a bit and then went to sleep.

I was worried about how Gray would sleep but he did awesome.  He was the first one to pass out and it wasn't difficult.  We have a 4-person backpacking tent and with four sleeping pads and four sleeping bags.  Gray got to share with me.  It wasn't spacious but we all had enough room.  And we all got enough sleep.