Hello and Happy Summer!
Yes, summer has finally arrived, which is a relief, since the weather was already feeling like muggy summer, and less like spring!
Earlier in June, we made our annual trek to Davidson River campground in the Pisgah National Forest. This time, I had heard about a new waterfall to visit, so we decided to check out Courthouse Falls. And New Daddy and I ran the teens up to Sliding Rock, which was cold, but tons of fun. Almost everyone who brought a bike forgot a helmet, so they didn't mountain bike at DuPont this year. And my cousin B (who is the same age as Precious and Cousin S) got to join us this year, as well as Granddad R's sister Aunt P! But Uncle W couldn't be there, since he just started a great job with Michelin this spring and wasn't able to get vacation in time. Aunt R could only come in for a day, because she's in a graduate education class right now. So there were some changes, but it was a wonderful trip nonetheless.
Around the campsite...
lots of chess and Exploding Kittens on this trip (and a football)
Tater really enjoyed entertaining his younger cousin
Aunt R came in for a day... I think have a photo of her reading to the kids from every camping trip.
teens setting up Cousin B's tent
Girls in their matching MOD Sportswear skirts. This company is based in Georgia now, not too far from us, and it's a treat to be able to drive over and buy from them!
This year, we were able to get a group site for 16 people, and it was great having everyone together at the same site! If we can, I think we'll try to do this again. Also, we were planning to head up early Wednesday morning as we did last year, but the teens begged to go up on Tuesday. So I left in the afternoon in the truck, and Precious drove New Daddy up in the Civic later that evening after work. It was pretty great using the small car to hold the stuff that would have been in the trailer, not having the trailer, and having a compact car for bopping into town.
It was a little rainy, but we had resealed our rain fly (knowing about the forecast); so we stayed dry inside the tent. However, we did have to bring the wet tent home and set it up in the backyard and get through a few rain storms here before it actually, finally dried out and we could pack it up. When we had arrived on Tuesday, the kids and I set up the tent in the fading twilight and rain, which was probably a little more adventure than we needed to put ourselves through. It stopped drizzling about ten minutes after we finished setting it up, haha!
And the fireflies! Our back tent door was facing the woods/river this year, with a lovely clearing for the campsite. Each night began with stuffy humidity, so to be comfortable, we zipped down the windows and fell asleep watching God's amazing light show: synchronous fireflies. This was such a treat.
Courthouse Falls was truly awesome (Granddad R's dad would have been proud of me for actually using this word correctly- pop culture's use of it bugged him to no end). With limited GPS information, we started out on a crazy forest road to get there (my fault). We were the preppy 4-wheelers; this was definitely the upper limit of our adventurousness, but thankfully, all three of us had the trucks to handle it. We returned to the campground on the paved road that normal people use, and my dad headed straight to the car wash after that! Cousin I had a scary swimming moment in the falls, but all was well. He was completely relaxed and seemed unaware of the danger, but New Daddy jumped in after him just to make sure he was ok... and he was, thank God.
salamander on a rock face with water flowing into the falls
Sliding Rock- these teens know how to have fun!
On Friday morning, New Daddy and Cousin I set their alarms, viewed a spectacular sunrise at Graveyard Fields, and did a trail run to the falls there. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the sunrise, but I did enjoy my sleep and getting to see the amazing photos afterwards :). I'm sure they were no comparison to the actual experience, though.
Finally, after checkout, we met up at Dolly's for ice cream. I love this photo of these two youngest-of-their-family boys who love entertaining others ;).
The family that was at Dolly's (but not necessarily camping :))...
We're very thankful for a great trip this year.
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