Camping at Faver Dykes

Since we had so much fun on our first camping trip with the camper we quickly planned another weekend trip.  Most of the parks were all booked up, but we found a spot at Faver Dykes State Park in St. Augustine.  We invited Cory and Vanessa to join us since we have room to sleep 6 in the camper.  We rode bikes, fished, and had some visitors come see us.  The kids made some friends so that helped keep them occupied.  We enjoyed the campfire and good talks once the kids went to bed.  

 

Baby Maya came at visit us and she proceeded to sleep pretty much the entire time :)  Love her.

 

The kids were all over the baby.  They fought over who could hold her or be closest to her. 

I have no idea what Peyton is doing!

Two days in a row with no nap makes for a tired girl.  She fell asleep watching the movie and then slept at least an hour longer than everyone the nest morning.

I came home with a cold and we were all exhausted.  Peyton took a 3 hour nap when we got home and then we all laid in bed the rest of the evening.

Our next camping trip will be during Spring Break.  We'll be camping at Stone Mountain, Georgia!

First Sleepover!

The kids had their very first sleepover at our house Friday night.  We've had kids spend the night before, but their parents were always sleeping over, too.  So, this was the first parentLESS sleepover.  I think Peyton showed the most excitement of all of them.

We started out at the playground.  Wear 'em out was my plan :)

Then we met Heath for pizza.

The kids watched a movie when we got home.  The boys slept in Hunter's room and the girls slept in Peyton's room.  Everyone was asleep by 9:30pm.  However, 3 of the 4 were awake at 5:30am!  Any guesses on who slept til 7:30?  Hunter.... love that kid.

This was their 3rd round of breakfast.  First, it was fruit to tide the early risers over so I could go back and lay down.  Then, cereal and waffles.  THEN, Heath brought home donuts.

And THIS is what happens at 10:45am after you've woken up at 5:30!

And this is what happens at 3:45pm after you've risen at 5:30am and only had a small car nap..... another small car nap.

Test Run with the Camper

For our first trip with the camper we went to Moss Park (which is literally 5 miles down the road from us) for 2 nights.  It's a good thing we stayed close to home because we ran back home 2 or 3 times to get things we had forgotten.  We had a big group... 4 families with kids.  The rest of the group slept in tents and we quickly realized how nice it was to have the camper.... a place with no dirt and a place to relax.

It was a great weekend.  We really enjoy camping with other families.  The kids stay so entertained and they have so much freedom that they don't have outside the house in our neighborhood.  So, trip one with the camper was a huge success and I already have trip 2 to blog about! 

Here is our setup

Lights are key

All the kids!

One of the best pluses is that we could get the kids all cleaned up and in jammies and put them in the dirt free camper to watch a movie while the adults sat around the campfire.

Pimp My Camper

This little pop up camper has come a loooong way.  Heath did an AMAZING job remodeling it.

Here is a before.  This is the kitchen table and seating with one bed in the back.

Here is the stove and sink.

Heath took everything out in order to replace the linoleum on the floor.  When doing that he discovered some rotted wood in several of the corners.  Someone actually tried to fix one corner using a street sign.

He fixed the corners the way they should have been repaired in the first place.

Then the new floor was put down.

New beadboard walls instead of the ugly brown ones.

 

Then he decided he could rebuild all the cabinets using the old ones as a template.  I thought he was craaaaazy.

Seeing if some of the new cabinets fit before staining them.

 

I had the cushions recovered which made a HUGE difference.  This was actually the only thing I did... and I paid someone else to do it...ha!

Stained cabinetry!

The last thing that needed to be done was made doors for the cabinets.

And here she is!  My mom made the curtains and pillows.  The only thing you can't see in this picture is the bed on the other side which I am sitting on while taking the picture.