T.O. Fuller State Park, Camping Trip 2012-5

 Joe is saving all of his military leave for next summer before he retires, so we are stuck camping within commuting distance of his job.  We originally thought we wouldn't be able to camp much this summer because of that, and we were sort of bummed since we had just bought the popup.  But, we found a great work-around by camping locally, close enough that Joe can commute back and forth to work.  

We chose T.O. Fuller State Park in Memphis for this trip, and I wish we would have found it before the 5th trip of the summer.  It was quiet, beautiful, clean, and VERY well maintained.  It's obvious that the staff and community take a tremendous amount of pride in the park, and it was by far my favorite place that we have camped locally.  The sites are gorgeous, paved and most are centrally located around the playground and common picnic area/shelter, which was perfect.  

They also have an absolutely amazing pool.  First of all, it's HUGE.  And apparently during the week, not very busy.  We had the pool nearly all to ourselves all day long.  The lifeguards were amazing, they had plenty of time to work with Justice one on one on his Webelos Aquanaut Activity Badge.  He learned so much from them.  I am telling you what, wherever we go he asks himself... Can I learn something from this person? then approaches them and asks them for help.  I'm very thankful everyone this summer that he beelined towards has been nothing short of wonderful and eager to help him learn.  

I am also extremely excited about Jack's progress in swimming.  This little guy is a natural swimmer.  He is now able to jump off the diving board by himself and swim to the side.  As a matter of fact, he swam the width of the pool without stopping this week, and I'm so happy.  I'm going to take more pictures of him swimming and give him his own post, he's that awesome.   It is sort of funny to see the look on the lifeguards faces of the pools we have been at, they panic when they see him jump in the pool, and then once they see him swim always tell me how crazy it is to see someone so little swim so well.  

The pool was so big I couldn't even get the whole thing in the picture.  Towards the left is a deep end and diving board.  Way cool.

Justice listens to Radio Disney while we are in the car, and calls them 15 times a day, at least.  He never ever ever ever gets through.  On our way to the campground he finally got through.  I could tell by the look on his face that someone picked up the phone, his eyes got so wide you'd think he saw E.T.   Turns out he was the 15th caller and won some sort of Cars Adventureland prize pack.   He told the radio guy "I've been waiting for this day my WHOLE LIFE!!!""".  It was priceless.  It seriously made his day.

We went to the drive in again and saw Brave and Ice Age.  I LOVE the drive in!  We backed up my Jeep and the kids sat in the back while Joe and I sat in chairs outside the Jeep.  I tell you what though, both trips to the drive in this summer I have been eaten alive by mosquitos.  Holy cow, it's ridiculous to camp and not get bothered by them, but go to the drive in and get torn apart.  Not awesome.  I even used bug spray and they still got me.  Jack is crying because he just woke up from a nap and didn't want his Bubbie anywhere within his eye site, for no particular reason.  Mr. Grumpy Pants.

We always take our bikes when we camp.  Let's talk about my bike for a second.  My bike is so cool it should have a post of it's own, but at the risk of sounding like I'm super snotty about how awesome it is, I shall just write about it for a second.  Joe the awesome gift-giver bought me this bike a few Christmases ago.  It was a complete surprise and I was thrilled.  This is the coolest bike ever.  It's a beautiful Electra Cruiser complete with whitewall tires, white leather seat and handgrips, and an awesome wicker basket.  I feel like a kid again every single time I hop on this bike.  And I am also super excited to be married to the best gift-giver on the planet.  Maybe even universe.  

Did I mention this is the coolest bike ever?  I did?  Oh.  OK.  Moving on.

Speaking of bikes, we have a bike trailer attached to Justice's bike and he pulls Jack whenever we go on a bike ride.  Jack may be able to swim like a fish, but he cannot ride a bike for beans.  He cannot even ride a bike with "stabilizers"as he calls them (training wheels).  We still bring his little bike on every trip hoping he will pick up on it, but so far no dice.  So Justice straps him in the trailer and away they go.  This has worked great until this trip.  Jack decided he wanted Justice to stop and he wanted OUT of the trailer.  Justice did not hear him, and did not stop.  Justice rides a bike like he does everything.  FULL SPEED AHEAD.  Jack unbuckled himself and stood up, and THREW HIMSELF OUT OF THE TRAILER.  Right onto the asphalt.  But wait... it gets better.  He was hot in the trailer so he took of his shirt first.  This poor little boy had mud all over his face and road rash like you wouldn't believe.  

Jack is normally tough as nails and rarely ever feels pain, but this time he really did a number of himself.   Tears, mud, and snot...

And I'm pretty sure I mentioned road rash.  Ouch.  He cried for over an hour after the accident.  He was SO MAD at Justice, and somehow or another he blamed him for the whole debacle.  

Since we were camping locally, we were able to attend the Pioneer Day Celebration at our Ward.  The kids got together and played traditional field day type games, we had a picnic lunch, and then a talent show.  The kids had a blast.

First up was the three legged race, Justice and his buddy Will smoked everyone.  

Then there was Jack... and his buddy Wyatt.  I have to give Wyatt his props, because he is six and Jack just turned four, and Wyatt really does a great job putting up with him.  Jack thinks Wyatt is the coolest kid ever and he annoys the daylights out of him.  Wyatt was less than thrilled about being Jack's partner during the three legged race, but it worked out because Jack turned out to be a relentless beast.  He fell down during the last part of the race and literally drug himself on his hands and knees to a first place finish.  I'm glad he didn't let Wyatt down!

 And here is Mr. Full Speed Ahead in the sack race... If he would have gone down, it would have been hard and with a grill full of muddy grass.  

The little one is not so speedy.  

And Tug of War

Yeah, the headband Justice is wearing is ridiculous.  It was the tie from the three legged race that he felt made him more ninja like, so after the race he tied it around his head.  Whatever.  

I love this picture, it tells a good story about how sweet Justice is, and how the little kids like him.  He has both Jack and his friend Jessie perched on his lap during the talent show.  I missed the picture of Jessie snuggled up on his chest, it would have been a better one to post.  He loves little kids and has a heart of gold.

Speaking of Jessie, she is the cutest little thing in the world.  If it were legal to arrange a marriage between these two, it would have been done and cows exchanged a year ago.  I mean seriously, look at her sweet little face!

Jack also learned to take his own picture with my camera.  You have to appreciate the cute little face and cheesy grin.  And lets not discuss the bushy eyebrows.

And lastly, a picture of Joe looking like nothing short of a National Geographic photographer.   He was taking pictures with his super awesome man-camera and I was taking pictures with my point and shoot.  For the record, I will never see the pictures he took.  I am not quite sure where they go, but they go somewhere and I'm sure they are quite happy there.  I do love this handsome man with all my heart.

I have learned that four nights is just about my limit for camping.  We usually check in early the day we get there, and leave late the day we check out.  That means six full days and four nights.  I was thankful to be home today!  I also learned how to hitch up, drive, back-in and set up the camper by myself this week, so now we don't have to wait for Joe to get off work to take us wherever we are going.  I was actually pretty proud of myself to be able to set up and also go home by myself, and I was glad he didn't have to do all the dirty work himself.  Doesn't seem fair since he's working like a dog and I'm just sitting at home chillin' with the boys all day!  It felt good to have everything set up when he got off work.

Football starts tonight and I don't know when we will be able to camp again, but hopefully this wasn't the last trip of the summer!