First Family Vacation

I was sitting on the patio sipping my sweet tea when I had the best idea for a new post. It was our very first family vacation. We only had the three boys at that time. William, Roger, and Ronald. We had them pretty close together and didn't have a lot of money or a lot of time to go on vacation. Richard woke up one morning and said, "Dee Dee, pack up our suitcases, we're going on vacation." It sounds so cliche but that's exactly what he said.

We drove down to West Virginia to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp and camped for 4 days. It was so much fun. Billy was 4, Roger was 2, and Ronald was only about 3 months old. Richard brought our pop-up camper and pulled it with the truck. Billy and Roger were pretending to hunt wild animals. Rich bought them toy guns and they were doing typical boy stuff. Ronald just sat back and observed the whole thing. He was always my observant one. Nothing gets past that boy!

So, the drive is about 400 miles and should only take about 6 hours or so but it took us almost 12 hours. Ron messed in his diaper at least 5 times. Billy and Roger kept asking how long it was going to take and needed several potty breaks and lots of snacks. Roger kept dropping his pacifier and I had to reach all the way back and get it for him. I think he was doing it on purpose.

Anyway, we left our house around 6am and got to the park right before 6pm. We were all exhausted! Rich started up a fire and we roasted hot dogs and sat around the fire until it got dark. Then Rich laid out all the sleeping bags and we got comfy and got the kids into bed. No one slept very good that first night. It got pretty cold and you can hear all sorts of wild animal sounds. The next nights were much better.

We took long walks with the boys on that trip and hiked in Kumbrabrow State Forest on some of their great trails. The scenary was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better. We sat around late at night and looked at the stars. Rich pointed out the bigger dipper to the boys and we made up bedtime stories for them.

It couldn't have been a better first vacation. I think the boys slept almost all the way home. they were up all night when we got home but it was well worth it.