*** Due to a crazy busy schedule, I'm just getting around to posting this. This trip took place the weekend before Thanksgiving.
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I grew up camping. Ever since I was younger than Stella I've been camping with my parents. We camped my entire childhood, usually several times a year. So naturally, I wanted to share that same experience with her. I wanted to do it last year, but thought it might be a bit too much. So I waited, rather impatiently actually, to bring it up this year. I was just so excited for her, for us, for me. Our go-to camping site was always FDR State Park (now called FD Roosevelt) in Pine Mountain. I basically grew up here. We had and continue to have family reunions here. It's just so convenient and beautiful.
I made the reservations back in October I believe and got to looking over Pinterest for ideas on camping with a toddler.
We left Friday, November the 13th. It was cold and we knew it was only going to get colder. But we were ready and prepared. Stella fell asleep for a nap and when we arrived late that afternoon at the lodge, she woke up. I was inside checking in and when I came out to get back in the truck she was in a mood. Unfortunately for all of us, including other campers around us, the bad mood really never left her.
I had to walk her around the park while Donald unpacked and set up the tent at dusk. We got a new and bigger tent and D bought us a new air mattress and Stella her own twin size air mattress. She did enjoy herself for about five minutes after the tent was assembled and Donald began to blow up the air mattresses. She kept yelling, "This is amazing! This is amazing!" I later found out this is from Frozen, but either way, I'm glad we had a few minutes of peace. Funny enough was that while we were setting up I kept hearing "Let it Go" on repeat. At first I thought it was coming from someone's campsite. I figured they'd turned it on out of shear desperation just to appease the kids while the parents set up shop. However, that was not the case. We finally figured out it was coming from Callaway and must be a part of music for the light show.
Once our campsite was set up we hopped back in the truck and headed back to a steakhouse we passed not too far away. We had dinner at Meriweather Steak Company in Warm Springs. This place was down a long dirt driveway and there were vehicles everywhere. There's no parking lot, just a grass area to park in. It looks like someone's house, a big house, but one none the less. We ordered fried cheese curds as an appetizer, then both got a ribeye for supper. It was SO good! A legit restaurant for a legit steak.
I wanted to come back to the campsite, start a fire, roast marshmallows and just sit around relaxing. This did not happen. Instead, Stella fell asleep in the truck even though we tried to keep her awake for a few minutes longer. Then she was pissed when we had to take her clothes off to put her diaper and pj's on. She got cold and so upset and would only calm down if her Daddy laid down beside her. So considering we were all pretty stressed and not in the mood to mess with a fire and such, we just decided to go to sleep. It was only around 10 pm, but we figured we'd be up early because of the sunlight streaming in.
I had to use the bathroom around 2 am so I walked over to the bath house. It was way too cold to go outside and we were only a short walk to a somewhat warmer bath house. Stella woke up not long after that and wanted to cuddle. She crawled in my zipped up sleeping bag, but this wasn't very comfortable for either of us. Donald decided to move over to her mattress and we would stay on the queen. She started getting all chatty and it got me worried because I didn't know what we were going to do at 3 am (at this point) to keep her happy and occupied. Luckily she quieted down and went back to sleep. But not before telling me:
"I'm having fun Mommy. I like the tent and the sleeping bags and the mattresses. I like ......Wait. Where are we?"
"Camping baby. We're camping."
"Yeah, I'm having fun camping."
"Mmm Hmm. I wish it actually seemed that way earlier."
I ended up being awake for over 2 1/2 hours.
We woke up the next morning not too early, 7 ish I think. I'd brought pre-made pancake mix and chicken & apple sausage for breakfast. Stella and I went off on a walk to keep her content while D fixed breakfast.
Even squatting down for her to snap my picture she still cut my head off. We're working on her photography skills.
It was a gorgeous morning. We walked hand in hand for a bit, then she chased my shadow (one of her favorite things to do). We got to wave to other campers, pick up pretty leaves and smell the wonderful aroma of chilly morning campfires and folks fixing breakfast.
Our view looking up from our picnic table
While I quickly showered, Donald and Stella had some quality time together.
Honestly, I really just wanted to hang out in the park. I wanted to walk around, take Stella to the playground, go for a hike, let her visit with other kids, but we decided to go to Callaway Gardens. It was probably for the best because her mood was all over the place. We thought the distractions would help keep her more even-keeled. We were kind of right.
Peek-a-boo
The Butterfly Conservatory
Balance Beaming
We walked in and a man and his wife were sitting on a bench. A butterfly was just sitting on his hand. Stella was so surprised by this. The guy told her to put her finger up to him and the butterfly walked right on over to Stella. She was instantly in love.
For the rest of our time in the conservatory, she'd throw her finger up in the air at any butterfly that flew by her.
We left Callaway and went to Aspen's Mountain Grill. We sat outside on their porch since the weather was so nice. We ordered their collard green and cheese dip. Oh goodness that was good. And now I'm craving it. Ugh! I had a burger, D got a shrimp po'boy and Stella had her own burger as well.
We drove back to Callaway with the intention of seeing the Birds of Prey show and walking around, but Stella had other ideas-a nap. She just wanted to nap. Lately, if we try to keep her awake in the car she'll get very angry with us. So we turned around at the gate and just drove around for an hour so she could sleep. We made a loop through Warm Springs and Manchester, then headed on to Pine Mountain. We had our fingers crossed she would wake up happy.
The crossed fingers didn't work their magic. We returned and I put her in the carrier and we walked to the last Birds of Prey show. We couldn't even sit she was so fussy and ill-content. We had to stand at the back of the amphitheater so she wouldn't be so loud in the crowd. I wish she would have woken up happy, she really would have loved the show. She liked some aspects of it, but would just revert to her grumpy ways.
A Great Blue Heron.
Donald's cousin Chris is basically in charge of lights for Callaway. We couldn't drive through at night to see them this weekend due to essentially a "soft" opening. Callaway did a motorcycle only night Friday, a March of Dimes walk Saturday night and a bicycle ride Sunday night. The catch: vehicles are allowed in earlier in the day, of course and they turn the lights and music on just before dusk so they can fix anything if needed. So Chris just let us follow behind him to view the lights for free. He'd get to a section, drive up ahead, get out, flip a switch and the lights and music would start. Then we could drive on along. Even though it was still daylight, the lights were bright enough for us to see. This really cheered Stella up and she obviously loved riding in the front of the truck with us with her head out the window.
Stella took this picture too-finger!
Then we walked to the Christmas village. Stella walked in and immediately went to the first decorated Christmas tree she spotted. It was covered in Alabama ornaments. I swept in, grabbed her and yelled, "Wrong tree!" A few people around us laughed, others said, "Don't raise her up that way." Then I sat her down in front of the Georgia tree while she said, "Look, a G" or "A bulldog, mama. Goooo Dawgs, Sic 'Em, Woof, woof, woof!"
We saw the abominable snowman, Santa walk by (the European/Scandinavian version of Santa) and a Christmas Frog while we walked around.
We found these foam Rudolph noses and I decided to buy 3 of them to do a few Christmas photos with them. I also bought a limited edition Callaway ornament with painted stained glass on it. The chapel there is one of my favorite places and I'm glad I got another special ornament for our tree.
Stella found these hat/scarf thingies and wanted all of them around her neck.
Donald stood in line for a gigantic pretzel and mustard while I grabbed a bag of fresh popped kettle corn. We all shared the pretzel and took the kettle corn to go.
Stella found a huge pile of leaves and found pure joy in jumping in them over and over and over again. I was so thankful for a free and simple mood changer.
We headed back to our campsite to heat up cornbread and a Southwestern style deer and veggie soup I'd made a few days earlier. Donald started the fire and I'd had hopes of us all sitting at the picnic table or around the fire slurping up our warm bowl of soup, but Stella's mood changed again and it was bad. She ended up nearly passing out in my lap on the picnic table and was super pissed when I tried to move her into the tent to put her pj's on. She launched into a tantrum and eventually passed out.
We sat around the fire in silence for quite a while. This was NOT how I wanted to weekend to be. So far, 2/3 of it had not been fun or enjoyable. Eventually our campsite neighbors struck up a conversation and eventually joined us for drinks and warmth around the fire.
Even though it was warmer Saturday night than Friday, I froze the entire night Saturday, but at least I slept better. Donald slept on Stella's twin air mattress and Stella and I bunked together. This is how she woke up.
Of course we had to bring along Maggie and her pop-up camper on our camping trip.
Our campsite
Enjoying a little cereal snack around the fire while Daddy heated up the breakfast burritos I pre-made. I'm pretty sure just me holding the phone up in her direction caused her to scream in a fit of rage.
So after I gathered my composure, we went for another walk around the park.
We all ate breakfast thankfully and packed up. Then we headed to the Wild Animal Safari. We rode in a window-less and door-less, zebra painted school bus through a few hundred acres of land and got to see all kinds of animals.
These two crack me up!!
Llama kisses
Stella fell asleep in the car and then back asleep with Daddy once we got home. This was an exhausting trip. We had a lot going on and a very moody girl for most of the trip but I'm so glad we did it. The good times outweighed the dark times.
