Burtnett Summer Vacation 2009 (Part 1)

Okay, so I know you all have been anxiously awaiting to hear about our trek across America, well the southeast...I know, I know we've been back a while but I had over 300 photos to go through and edit and it seems like we've been SO busy since the moment we arrived home. Well, I finally got to sit down and go through all the pictures this week so here's a little portion of the trip, I'm gonna break it down into a couple of days. Let me start out by warning you that this trip had a lot of ups and downs. It seems we were under attack the entire time, I learned a lot about myself that I never realized and a lot about what it means to be a "camper" in the southeast.

Shortly after we arrived at our first stop we all hopped out of the truck and began our set up process of plugging stuff in and leveling and what not. BTW, we ROCK at this, we definitely look like pros out there. After Steve hooked up the water and turned it on we ran into our first "surprise". Water filter was busted because we were lazy this year and neglected to winterize the ol trailer...bummer. Well, I'm a trooper! I sucked it up, put on my happy face, cracked a couple jokes in true Aly style and grabbed my toiletry bag and headed for the bath house. No biggie, I've been a tent camper before and this how I used to roll all the time. Well, back in my tent camping days I didn't have a 32 year old, mama of four babies, body that needs to take a nightly 3am potty break. But I soldiered on, I layed in bed until 3:30 when I gave up trying to hold it and grabbed a sweatshirt and slipped into my flip-flops and hiked to the closest bath house just a few trailers down from us, praying that no critters would greet me on the way. Not so bad really, kinda nice, had the joint to myself and saw some pretty stars on the way back. Crawled back in bed with dusty feet and woke up at 5:30 to repeat the process. Steve apologized profusely and promised to hit a local Camping World to get the stuff he needed to make the repairs so that this would not happen again..."Ok baby, thanks, you're the best!"

We stayed in Stone Mountain, GA which is just outside of Atlanta. Stone Mountain is this really, really cool "resort" (for lack of a better word) it is comprised of hotels and an enormous campground that is built around this enormous...stone mountain. There is a golf course and a lake, hiking trails and the coolest nightly laser show I have ever seen.

Day one in Georgia we were taking our Marine Biologist and shark expert son, Weslee to the Georgia Aquarium. But first we needed to find an urgent care, Steve believed he had some kind of UTI, he was having some low back pain & urgency and frankly, I was pretty worried, he had his tough face on, so I knew he was much worse than he was telling me. We found a local CVS but after waiting quite a while they informed him that they don't treat UTI for men, only women. Steve felt guilty about making the kids wait all morning so against my pleading we headed to the aquarium.

It was incredible! We petted sharks and rays, watched as an enormous Whale Shark swam inches from our faces, laughed at the otters and oohed and aahhed. Surprise #2, we took a bathroom break...again. Steve walks out of the bathroom with a smirk on his face and clutching a paper towel in his hand. He states "It's not a UTI" and opens up the paper towel and inside is the BIGGEST kidney stone I have ever seen! WOW! We were both immediately thankful, it could have been so much worse, he's had stones half that size that caused 10 times more pain.

On the way back to the campground we picked up the stuff we needed to fix the water filter and headed "home" and grilled some burgers and dogs with Uncle Jeff and took a dip in the pool, showered and headed up to watch the laser show. They blasted music over the field and we boogied while we waited with a couple hundred other folks, for the show to start, Kolby played some sweet air guitar on his light saber and entertained us all. It was a beautiful, warm, breezy evening. The show started and they played music by artists from GA (B-52's, Ray Charles, Sugarland, etc) and music about Georgia, they did a tribute to our soldiers and finished off the show with some fireworks and a little "Devil Went Down to Georgia". It was so cool!

We said goodnight to Uncle Jeff and crashed hard that night exhausted from a very busy day. Unfortunately, Steve wasn't able to get the water thingy fixed because he had the wrong size whatchamacallit so I trekked to the bathroom again around 3am and did my business, this time with a little less enthusiasm but still kept my game face on so as not to hurt my poor husbands feelings, he was not happy about this either after all so, me having a stinky attitude wasn't going to help anybody.

We all slept in the next morning and took our time over breakfast and began packing up to head to Myrtle Beach, SC, where hopefully the water filter would get repaired and we could get settled in a beautiful campsite by the beach. HA!

Cumberland Falls

Last month we loaded up the trailer and headed up to Cumberland Falls, Kentucky for our first camping trip of the season. It is SO beautiful! Despite the cool, drizzly weather we had the first day we had and awesome time. Cumberland Falls is the only location in the western hemisphere where you can see a Moonbow. If you go during the full moon, which we didn't, you can witness this phenomenon. Next time we go we hope to catch it.
Cooking hot dogs & s'mores over the campfire-YUMMY!

We hiked some really pretty trails that wound through the woods and up and down some great elevations along a river. Cumberland Falls is known as the Niagara of the south. In total my little guys did about four miles one day and two the next day. We're proud of our little hikers! We can't wait to return.












Little Izzy came along too and those little legs worked so hard. Although, anytime a butterfly flew by she'd hop off the trail into the woods after it. Silly puppy!

I learned how to skip rocks too. A skill that has always escaped me. Apparently it's all in the wrist. Which leads me to ask why is it so fun to throw stuff in bodies of water? I found myself searching for an object everytime we approached the river!

Camping

So camping season has officially begun and many of you know and are quite shocked that I enjoy camping. We will be taking our first trip in the next few weeks. (Call me if you wanna join us) Camping was a big part of our summers when I was a kid. Some of my best memories growing up were of camping trips. There are certain foods we'd make only on camping trips. My Daddy would always win the pancake contest with his fluffy buttermilk concoctions. And of course who can forget nights around the campfire? Tromping out into the woods to find the perfect wooden skewer and sharpening it so you could blacken the perfect hot dog. I love that smell! I am quite the s'mores aficionado by the way and I have an old pie iron I inherited from my folks, I can whip up a mean cherry pie with some slices of bread and some butter and some canned cherries.

We were hard core tent campers back then. Now that we live in the south and the weather is not quite as predictable as it is in California we have resorted to "sissie" camping. I say that negatively but in all honesty I love my 23' expandable trailer. It's the playhouse I never got as a little girl. I have decorated it and outfitted it with matching dishes, silverware, sheets and towels. We just grab our clothes, load up the fridge (that's right no leaky, muddy coolers) and hit the road. What is it about eating outdoors? The food is almost yummier. I don't have to worry about anybody spilling something on the carpet or knocking something off the wall. Outside is our boys natural habitat. Our favorite thing to do is to head out for an early morning hike to build up an appetite and then come back to camp for a hot breakfast of biscuits and gravy.......mmmmmm.

This year we plan on doing a little rafting and rock climbing. The boys have all conquered the rock wall at the mall a few times and are anxious to try out the real thing. It's been a few years since I strapped on a harness but I am pretty excited about tearing up my hands on a few local spots I've heard about. I don't think the kids are quite ready for the class III and IV rapids on the Ocoee but maybe we can find something a little more tame to test them out on.

I am so stoked to make some fun memories with my kids this summer. If you've never tried camping or have and it was a disaster you need to tag along with some pros like us. We'd love to show you the ropes.

I think the thing I love most about camping is that it takes us away from all the daily distractions. TV, telephones, computers and forces you to really TALK to each other. You'd be amazed at how close you've become when you return from a weekend away.