Pilot Mountain Camping

This weekend we headed out to Pilot Mountain to camp with friends.

I thought I had been camping here before, but apparently, I was completely wrong.

It was pretty chilly this weekend, so I didn't sleep well, I kept waking up to make sure the kids were warm and covered by their sleeping bags.

Also, I've had pretty bad experiences with air mattresses while camping so I refuse to use them now.  During my 3 hours of tossing and turning the first night I came to the conclusion that the ground is hard.  Just plain hard.

I know I know, it's ground breaking in the world of science.

I'll need to invest in sleeping pads before our next trip.

The nights were chilly, but the days were perfectly fall in the mid 60's.

This is MY little mountain

*Sigh* Well, we TRIED to get a nice family shot

I think I'll have a "moment" now

Little Miss Pouty

I'll just sit here and pout, leave me be

KFC came over and tried to cheer her up

What's that you say?  There's a PUPPY?!  Pouting's over, I'm coming!!!

Our campsite

As usual, I didn't get enough pictures.  I would have liked to get a nice group shot, but I didn't.  We had fun.  Got to know some friends we didn't know too well, and met some new ones.  The fire was nice.  There were lots of rocks and the kids did a lot of falling and exploring.  I was a nervous wreck!  And out of all the falling and getting hurt the kids did, I was the only one to fall and skin my knee.  Then it got infected and I limped around and whined the whole weekend.  We ate lots of smores.   Sat around the fire...a lot.  It was cold.  When we got home, I broke my rule and turned the heat on.  I know, only a week to go, and I caved.  Apparently, I'm a wimp.  But it felt sooo nice to wake up to a warm house today!  ahhh!  I can't wait to go camping again, it had been too long, {over a year} and that's not acceptable.

WE'RE BAAACK!

Hello Dear Friends,

I'm here to report that we have returned from our week at the beach.

Many of you were unaware that we had gone anywhere.  Well, that was on purpose.  For though I would have loved sharing our journey day by day in blog form to you dear readers, well, it seems that every time I go away and let the online world know about it, my house gets robbed, so out of precaution, I never say I am gone, until I have returned...seems to be working so far as we have not been robbed in over a year.  Is there a connection there?  Perhaps.  But who knows.  Is it something to brag about?  Sadly, it is for me.
Anywho, you all have been missed, especially the other half of the family.  Our week by the sea was lovely.  We had rainy days, we had cloudy days, there were windy days, and get so burnt you look like a lobster days...everything a week at the beach should be like.  I love this time of year.

Hubby flying a kite on a beautiful day

We came home, heavy hearted, not really anxious to leave our life at the beach, to find many lovely surprises.  The first 2 on our list are these below...

After waiting for weeks for the arrival of our ladybugs and butterfly guests, they showed up on our door step only days before our vacation.... Coming home a week later, we discovered that our ladybug larvae are now fattys and some are already in the pupa stage.

And our Caterpillars have all made their chrysalis', bummer we missed that part.

There were also some fun finds in the mail.

Who doesn't LOVE mail??

I know I do!

Our lovely Tricia Jane sent KennaKat and myself a beautiful card, so unexpected.

And there was a bright orange box...

Our photobook arrived!!!  Hooray!!

I enjoyed flipping through it and will proudly display it in our living room.

I wont spill all the details about our week at the beach, but I will share these....

I brought down art supplies for the kids and I to keep our creative juices flowing and to help us focus on the beautiful nature around us.  We took quite keenly to the watercolors, so enjoy paintings from our week at the beach.

Ethylfolfe's paintings:
Top left, Caswell beach lighthouse that you can see from the house
Top right, A beautiful sunset
Center, a fishing boat on the choppy sea with seagulls chasing behind "mine, mine"
Center Right, another beautiful sunset
Bottom left, the houses to our right, with the ocean and brush
Bottom center, the ocean, the sun, the seagulls, spotted clouds, a day at the beach

KennaKat's Paintings
Top Left, the most colorful rendition of a copperhead snake
Top Right, the boardwalk, the sand and the sea
Center left, the sea
Center right, a family of dragonflies flying over the sea
Bottom, our beach house with a kitty cat on the roof

and mine...eh

Twistyn painted some too, but I didn't get any shots of hers.  {She's a talented gal as well.}

Actually, I didn't take a picture of ours until we got home, but we kept them lined up along the windows overlooking the ocean.

What a fun week we had.  We are so thankful that we got to get away with atleast half of our loving family.  Thankful that we relaxed, laughed, swam, sunned, you know, recreated.

I wish we got a picture of our family worship night, it was enjoyable :)

So yes dear readers, we are home from our longingly anticipated vacation.  It was wonderful.

I'm tired.

Good night.