Camping at Palmetto State Park

A few weeks ago, some friends in the ward arranged a huge camping trip for the young families in the ward and 13 families came.  It was a blast.  I really did bring the camera but unfortunately, didn't remember to get too many pictures.  I found it more important to just enjoy the moment.  Luckily Glen got a few snapshots to remember our adventure.  The camping, the company, the park, the smells, the sounds, and even the rain.  It was a perfect camping trip.

This is how uncamera friendly we were.  This is the best view of our campsite.  That's also Josh Dean in the picture who was camped next to us.

And this park right behind our campsite (in the middle of the somewhat of a circle our group was camped in) was pure genius.  The kids were able to just go play while we set up camp, cooked food, did what adults needed to do and let the kids be kids.  Again, not the best picture, but it'll do.

Breakfast was delicious.  Last camping trip it was sandy cereal with seagulls begging for food.  This time it was pancakes, sausage, and eggs.  Note to self.  Next time don't forgot the spatula or salt and pepper, but the plastic fork worked well enough and thankfully some neighbors shared their spices.  A few flies bugged us, but we didn't have any visitors visiting our food until after our long morning leave.  That's when we came back to find what we think was a raven scouting out our food.  I'll never mistake a crow and a raven again.  That thing was huge.

Look at that good-looking crew.  I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

There was water nearby with snakes and very loud bullfrog sightings.  (They sounded like loud ducks at night but nope.  Lots of frogs.)  Glen and Izzy got to spot a huge frog make two giant leaps to the water, but Andrew, Izzy and I got to see a water moccassin.  At first I wasn't sure I wanted to go looking, but my adventurous mood must've hit because I went on a hunt with Earl, our group snake expert who kept telling us about his multiple sightings.  The host said there were 7 different species of snakes in the area with a few poisonous ones.  "Just keep your eye out and get help immediately if you get bit."  Comforting words of advice don't you think.=)  The snake we found, we'd almost missed it but it steered clear of us and luckily we didn't step on him.  He just wanted to get back to his nest in the bushes.  We could tell that he'd be fast if he really wanted to.  

We ventured past the campsites down to a bridge crossing a river.  Alex kept slipping and getting muddy.    

This is me dipping her feet in the water to get all that mud off.

We continued our walk to a trail covered with Palmetto trees; hence the name Palmetto State Park.  We had a ranger stop us right before the trail to once again warn us of the water moccasins but luckily we didn't come across any.  We enjoyed the walk and Izzy had fun with the plant identifying map--although we decided they need to update it or replant some of the bushes and plants.  It was still fun.

After the walk, we got our swimsuits and found a swimming spot (no snakes spotted.)  The river had a small current and uncomfortable rocks under our feet, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  Water is just fun.

What else did I forget to mention.  At night we heard owls, spotted fireflies, listened to frogs, saw the snake and just played.  I also learned how to whistle with a blade of grass.  After the kids went to sleep, Glen and I found a campfire and visited with friends til 1:30 in the morning.  We watched some lightening and made it back to our tent just before the drizzling rain started.  The next morning, Andrew and I awoke to a loud bird outside the tent.  We grabbed the bird book, binoculars and were ready for a nature walk.  We got outside the tent just in time for the rain to come pouring down so we hunkered down in the car and waited it out.  The smells were unbelievable.  If I could wake up to those sounds and smells every morning, 6:30 would be an easy time to wake up to.  Maybe it helped that our bed was the ground and not a comfy mattress although we all slept well enough.  Calvin and the girls slept in til 9 or 10.  Do you know how much I could get done if the kids would always sleep in that late?=)