Community Group Camping

Our community group went camping at Oconee State Park over Memorial Day.  Unfortunately, I did a terrible job of documenting the overall experience.  I had to delete some old pictures on my camera's memory card just to have room to take new ones, and I didn't get my camera out very often.  Here's what I do have:

Late Saturday morning, we set out on a hike to a waterfall.  The information we had seemed to indicate that the hike was 2.1 miles.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be more like 5.5 miles, plus about a mile to the trailhead and another mile back to camp at the end.  My shins hurt for days afterwards.  We hadn't brought along our carrier backpack, and there was no way Jeremiah could hike all that way, so Tony carried him on his shoulders most of the way.  I carried him that way a quarter of a mile the next day and about croaked--I don't know how Tony did it.

Once we got to the falls, Joshua enjoyed climbing around a bit.  Jeremiah did, too--but it's hard to take pictures of a kid whose hand you're holding.

 Hidden Falls:

After the hike and lunch back at camp, the boys wanted to go swimming.  I had left my swimsuit at home (darn), so Tony took the boys into the lake while Harley and I sat at a picnic table and read a book.  Actually, Harley napped more than he read.  Except when he need to bark at a passing dog.

The water was a little cold.

The big boys found it more tolerable when submerged to their necks:

 Tony and Jeremiah spent most of their time like this.  Jeremiah is actually in the water, while Tony is sitting on the bank with his feet in.

After swimming, Tony and Joseph went fishing while the younger two and I played carpet golf.  Jeremiah's technique was a little unconventional.  He did have several holes where he scored less than the maximum 6, and one where he beat Joshua and me.

 Joshua tied me on a couple holes and beat me on a couple.

 Jeremiah got up the courage to try a "tornado slide" for the first time.  It really helped that his swimtrunks were still a little damp and the slide was VERY slow.

 Right next to our campsite there was a little play area with two tire swings.  Jeremiah enjoyed being able to play on them whenever he wanted.  He would stand in the center and wiggle his hips and call it his hula hoop dance.

Perhaps when I get a copy of someone else's pictures, I'll post a little more of the activity around camp.