Halloween 2015

Halloween fun for the Cook Family started the weekend before. We hauled our pop-up camper Georgia Veterans State Park at Lake Blackshear for a little R & R after a wild month of work.

We love that the park has a small hay ride and a mini pumpkin patch for the kids this time every year. We each got to pick out a mini pumpkin and decorate it. We even got in on a little photo prop fun!

  

Later in the week, I was able to visit Wyatt’s class for their Halloween fun. I loved being able to make spider hats with the kids and see Wyatt in action with his friends.

 

On Friday night, Ashburn had its downtown trick or treat celebration. I mentioned to my co-worker Kelli that Wyatt wanted to be a firefighter for Halloween and she found this adorable firefighter costume at her local consignment shop. We paired it with some new black rain boots, a fire helmet, and a real flashlight, emergency pager, and a mini fire extinguisher.

 

Before we started out at trick or treat, we visited Wyatt’s friend Ella who was hosting a lemonade stand.

 

We met Suzi, David, and they boys and made our way around town. (Check out my baby skeleton costume!)

 

Our last stop of the night was Sami’s new studio. She had candy bags for the kids and was taking quick pictures of them all dressed up. She did an awesome job and had at least a hundred kids come through in just a few short hours.

On Halloween night, Justin had to work. Mama, Suzi and David and the boys, Sami, Wyatt, and I went out to Calhoun Produce for their flashlight night in the corn maze. We had a good time, despite trying to follow Suzi’s directions!

Camping at Lake Blackshear

Justin, Wyatt, and I loaded up our pop-up camper and headed to Georgia Veterans State Park in Cordele this past week. We had a camp spot right on Lake Blackshear and it was wonderful!

When we picked the dates to camp, we were just looking for a time when we both could be off for a few days. We didn’t realize there was going to be so much to do at the park that weekend. Lucky us!

We got all set up on Thursday. Justin and I spent some time watching the squirrels in action. Those sneaky things were all over our picnic table and Wyatt’s toys!

 

Later that evening, Justin was taking Wyatt to the deer woods for the first time so we spent some time practicing in our “deer blind” (our camper) being quiet and watching the squirrels.

 

Wyatt got some chocolate eyeballs and was so silly!

Here are the boys all decked out in their camo for Wyatt’s first hunting trip. They are so much like each other!

 

   

While Justin and Wyatt were gone, I propped my feet up and read this book about agritourism in Georgia. It was so neat to see my friends and label the farms and stops I wanted to see in the future.

On Friday, I rented a bicycle from the park rangers to ride along with Wyatt. My seat kept tilting up so that wasn’t comfortable at all! We opted to walk around the lake shore, checking out the marina and even playing in the water. I can’t believe it was warm enough in late October to wade in the water, but that’s South Georgia for you!

Friday night, my in-laws, Desiree and Sheldon, stopped by the camp ground and ate with us. Justin cooked a pot roast with carrots and potatoes in his Dutch oven. I am so proud of him!

After supper, we went up to the park’s visitor center to ride the hay ride. We didn’t know this was happening until the week before. We paid $3 for the ride.

 

 

We were surprised when the hay ride took us into the woods to a clearing full of pumpkins. Included in your ticket was a small pumpkin! What a happy surprise! We decorated the pumpkins with foam face cut outs. They are all so much fun to see!

 

 

On Saturday, Suzi, David, Liam, Pax, and Sami joined us for lunch. It was fun having all of the boys there. Pax was so content to sit with us in the shade until nap time and Sami took Wyatt and Liam to the playground and for an impromptu photo shoot in the leaves.

 

 

After they left, we gave Wyatt the shortest nap in the history of naps. I don’t think he was asleep for more than 20 minutes before it was time to get him up again. We had free tickets to ride the Sam Shortline train pulled by Thomas the Train for A Day Out With Thomas. Wyatt had a good time. The ride was only about 15 minutes or so across the lake and back. There were some kids there that were almost jumping out of their skin to see Thomas. I suppose if it was Lightning McQueen, Wyatt would be the same way.

 

 

After Thomas, we headed back to the camp site. Amanda, Michael, Jake, Ben, and Rivers were all there. We had a hearty dinner of chicken perlo, again compliments of Justin’s mean Dutch oven skills. It was delicious!

We all loaded up on the hay ride again, picking out even more pumpkins. This time, the kids were able to paint their designs.

 

After pumpkin decorating, we rounded out the weekend with s’mores over the fire pit.

We had a really great time. I’m glad we can spend time as a family and it doesn’t have to be at a theme park or some other incredibly costly resort. Justin and I have a goal to visit as many state parks as we can over the next few years. I think it’s a fun and lofty goal that will let us get to see more of the state!

Smoky Mountains Camping, Part 2

We planned on spending most of our vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but we did spend some time in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg doing tourist-y stuff. It has been almost 5 years since we’ve been to the area, but it seems like they have done a lot to improve the building codes in both towns. They all appear to be more unified and the shops are a tiny bit less cheesy.

Our first stop was Goats on the Roof. We had been to their original store in Tiger, Georgia and also their second location in Helen, Georgia but we didn’t know there was one in Pigeon Forge until we drove past it. Wyatt had a blast feeding the goats and looking at them on the roof from the second floor windows. 

 

We stopped at the Apple Barn for apple dumplings, cider, and pie. It almost put us all into a sugar coma but it was delicious. Justin said a trip up there just isn’t complete without a trip to the Apple Barn.

We didn’t see anything that grabbed our immediate attention in Pigeon Forge after that until Wyatt say a giant Ferris wheel on the horizon. He wanted to do it. He NEEDED to do it! Since he was exceptionally good and hadn’t asked for anything other than a pack of Smarties the night before, we gave in. We spent almost $35 (with coupons!) for the three of us to ride the Smoky Mountain Wheel. It was okay but definitely didn’t provide the wow factor I was expecting. Wyatt loved it and for that it was worth it. It was only after we got done riding that I found out it was open at night. THAT would have been worth the money. I am sure Pigeon Forge lit up at night from the towering Ferris wheel would have been amazing!

We then went to Gatlinburg and tested out their three newest attractions: distilleries. We went to Davy Crockett’s (my favorite) where I loved the amaretto whiskey and cinnamon whiskey, Sugarlands Distilling Company where I really liked their apple pie moonshine, and Ole’ Smoky Distillery, where I gave up. After about 10 communion cups of straight liquor, I wasn’t excited to try the 12 shot line up. I really wanted to try their moonshine cherries, but Justin said you lost all of the cherry flavor and it tasted like straight liquor. We ended up not getting any. We decided it would be best if we waited until we tried them all to see what our favorites were. In the end we were tired and ready to make tracks back to the camp ground. If we had visited each store individually, we probably would have come home with a case.

  

 

The final tourist-y thing we did in Gatlinburg was a shoot-em-up 3D theater. Wyatt got a kick out of being on the mechanical horse and “powing” bad guys. He is definitely his daddy’s son! They showed a photo of the best and worst shooter at the end of each session and poor Wyatt was the worst both times. He just thought it was cool that his picture was up on the big screen!

Back in Townsend, we were only a few minutes’ drive from Cades Cove, an 11 mile driving loop through part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We got up at 7:00 one morning and drove the loop. Justin said that is when the animals were most active when his family visited when he was little. He was right! We saw deer mere feet from our vehicle. I got out and stepped right up to the field where these were.

 

Since the loop is off the real road and is one-way, we let Wyatt ride up front with us. He loved sitting on his daddy’s lap and looking at the animals.

 

We even got to see two sets of mama bears and their cubs. These were my favorite. The mama and her cubs were in a tree right on the edge of the road.

 

Wyatt loved the stream that powered the grist mill.

On the way home, we took a road called Rich Mountain Road. It’s a one-way, 12 mile gravel road over and around the mountain that leads out of Cades Cove to Townsend. We got to see the most astounding views and only saw one car the entire time, which we let pass us when we were taking pictures. It was funny though; they sign warned that it was an unimproved road, warning drivers to decide to take it with caution. With the exception of the hairpin curves, it was nicer than our dirt road, gravel the whole way!

We got up bright and early Monday morning to pack up and head home. The light rain didn’t put a damper on our good spirits. It was nice to spend a few days off and relax, but it sure was nice getting home!