Camping at Tugalo State Park, Labor Day

Our family enjoys going camping. We try to go 3-4 times a year. Usually Justin and I go with a tent at least once and we go as family in our camper a few times. Our location of choice is usually Tugalo State Park in Lavonia. It's on the GA/SC border and is about an hour North of our home. There's a good amount of stuff to do from fishing and having a campfire to playing tennis or miniature golf. There's also a field where you can play frisbee or soccer. Some may say that our camping is cheating because you still have water and power, but that's the only way Stephanie will go. :)

I jokingly call our camper our vacation home or lake home. It does sound kinda odd to say that when we camp we still have cable tv, heat, air conditioning, a refrigerator and access to a washer and dryer. It's still a relatively inexpensive way to get away for a few days and spend time together as a family . And when I say together, I really mean together. When we pass each other in the camper we bump into each other. Nothing like family closeness...especially when Justin hasn't taken a shower lately.

Oh yeah, add in there that we also take our dog Daisy with us and you can see that we have all kinds of fun. By the way, she started to chase a dog this time and broke her collar. When Justin and I were playing tennis she sent this text to me: "Daisy broker her collar. had 2 chase her around campground. nice man helped me catch her. hope u had fun w tennis". I don't think that she was smiling much when she sent that.

This year we had a small get together to celebrate Katelyn turning 6 at the campsite. It was kinda a last minute family party. We had given her gifts and had a mini-party at our house on her actual birthday on Thursday (she got a new bike!). We had some family over and had some cake and ice cream. Her Aunt Starlet brought some cake balls that were awesome! Her Uncle Shane and Nanny and Granddaddy were also there. When we asked her what family she wanted us to invite she said "not Aunt Wendy!". We looked at her kinda surprised and then she added: "she hugs too hard!". Her Aunt Wendy couldn't make it because of other plans (like I said, we planned it last minute), but knowing her, I have a feeling that her hugs won't be getting any lighter know that I've posted this, if anything they will get harder.

We really enjoy spending time enjoying God's creation. We didn't enjoy the rain He sent on Monday too much, but it's hard to complain when we need it so bad. We were prepared with a rain suit and poncho though. We were able to visit a local church on Sunday where a friend we used to go to school with is now the pastor.

Here's some pics of the weekend:

Katelyn's Birthday gathering



A new twist on smore's (snickers, we also had Reece's as well)


Justin showing off his Snickers smore


Sitting around the campfire:


This is how we broke camp on Monday. Thankfully, the rest of our trip was dry, except for all the time we spent in the lake, but that was getting wet by choice. :)


Katelyn displayed how each of us felt after the weekend. It was a great time, but each of us needed some rest.