Camping, Bears, and the Bell’s… Oh my

So we took off on our second adventure in our camper last weekend to visit our dear friends the Bell’s in Columbia, SC.  We stayed in a small family owned campground this time which was definitely a different experience but was a very convenient location to our friend’s house.

Mark, Melissa, and Brady ventured our way Friday night once we were settled in to eat some burgers and hot dogs and roast some s’more’s.  I was so busy enjoying our time together that I forgot to get out the camera but I snaped some shots of our campsite the next morning.  Brady got to experience what it is like to sleep in a camper with 4 other kids and 2 adults.  He didn’t seem too shell shocked but I didn’t’ really ask him. 

Saturday we headed to the zoo for some animal fun.  We knew the weather wasn’t looking good for the afternoon so we were on a mission to see what we could see as fast as possible.  The sea lions caught our eyes….

 Bryce had fun with the giraffes….

  
Nasty tongues they have…

While Bryce checked out the giraffes, the big kids ventured to new heights… literally…

Brave kids, much braver than mommy. We quickly made it back to the back of the zoo where they have a fun splash pad. All the kids enjoyed cooling off and splashing around…

After lunch and some water fun we made our way back through the zoo where we saw some koalas, bears, and snakes, oh my. 

Our adventure was cut short by a downpour, but it was good timing for some very tired kids.  

 We spent the rest of our day/evening hanging out at the Bell's house for some yummy food and some good quality time.  We are so thankful for friends that cleared their schedules for the weekend to spend time with our crazy family.  We cherish our time with them.  

 Thank you for a great time Mark, Melissa, and Brady!  

A day in the life...

Have you ever had the thought, "to be a fly on the wall in their house"?  I can tell you in our house you would be an overstimulated fly!  It is crazy, loud, full of arguing and fighting, nagging, tattle telling, yelling, sometimes too much screen time.  Full of apologies, prayers, long talks, giggles, wrestling, game playing, and lots and lots of love.  It's our perfect, crazy mix and we wouldn't have it any other way.  (Well maybe less yelling and fighting but we are working on that).

So just to give you a "fly on the wall" experience, here are some pictures of our recent happenings.

A Kitty and a Wolf for a school dress up day.....

Anyone else feel like locking their kids up?

Chase at his piano recital.

Our Crazy Bryce turned 10 months on June 2nd...

Not only do I want to lock them up but I tape their mouths shut. (And FYI this was their doing but I really enjoyed the end result).

This is what happens when you cut out your 3 year olds afternoon nap.  Just leave her alone at the dinner table for a while to finish her dinner and this is what you come back to.

Anyone else find their kids sleeping in strange positions (this is a picture of our video monitor)...

After multiple ear infections, Bryce had tubes placed in his ears. Just like our sweet boy, all smiles. 

And also just like him, all trouble, all the time.

A little pool fun to start off our summer.

This is mine plus 4 of my good friends kids, there are 24 kids between the 5 of us.  Don't drink the water near us, 4 kids seems to be the minimum.

A little girl fun with fake nails.  

New earrings and no front teeth.

Trying to send Henley to the moon, she drives me crazy :).

And Bryce will tell you bye bye for now.  Thanks for being a fly on our wall!

The McMahan’s go Camping

I have missed blogging so much. A lot has happened in the last couple of years that I have not blogged but hopefully I can get back into this and if you follow us you will catch up on our life events over time. We are always busy with something and I really wanted to take the time to introduce you to our newest adventure....

You see that correctly, we now own a camper.  I know what you are thinking. A camper, don't they have 4 kids, are they crazy.  We may be crazy but it has been a dream of ours for years to own a camper with the goal of being able to travel some and spend time as a family. Even though we are in a very busy season of life we decided that all time is doing is passing by and therefore there is no time like the present.  After what was probably years of looking and months of seriously looking, Kevin found a camper that would suit our family.  

There is a quad-bunk in the back for all 4 kids to sleep.  

The fridge/freezer, sink, stove, microwave are to the left of the above picture.  Couch that folds into another bed is to the right.  Straight ahead is a table with a U shaped dinette that will fit our entire family (and can double as another bed if needed) and behind that table the back slides out making a queen sized bed.  

Bathroom with tub shower.

Once we fell in love with this camper and purchased it we were able to store it at Grammie and Papaws for a while so we could get a parking space together at our house.  This was not small feat. It involved massive tree cutting, land grading, gravel, and railroad ties for a retention wall/landscaping.  

Not only was the parking spot a bit of an adventure but getting Kevin’s truck in the proper condition to tow proved to be a process as well.  He installed Roadmaster Rear Active Suspension, installed power folding/manual telescoping 2008 style tow mirrors, purchased SCT X4 flash programmer with tow specific program for ECU to better control shifting and installed a transmission temperature gauge to monitor transmission temperatures directly while towing.  Not specific to the travel trailer, but in preparation to be able to carry bikes on top of the Excursion he had to raise the roof rails with some rubber mat material from Tractor Supply so that the rails will not hit the roof and allow space for the roof top bike racks to be installed (we already had two of these racks from using them with my '05 Sienna).

With the truck seemly ready and things finally settled with the parking spot, Kevin picked up the camper to bring it home  It proved to be a bit difficult to get into out skinny driveway and parking spot but he did it.  Noticing that the excessive amout of backing it took to get the trailer in the parking spot just right, casued a lot of stress on the transmission, Kevin found what we hoped to be a solution to that problem and yet another adjusmest to the truck…..

With a trailer hitch now on the front of the truck for moving the trailer around we beleieved we were finally ready for a test run in the camper.  So this past weekend we were finally able to get our feet wet in our first whirlwind, local camping adventure.  From many recommendations from people we choose to go to Twin Lakes campground which is about 25 minutes from the house and right near Clemson.  We loaded the camper and Kevin hitched her up and backed her out of the driveway….

Then he turned the truck around and hitched her up, put the bikes on the new front hitch (temporary since it was a short trip) and we were finally off on our first adventure.  

When we arrived the kids were deputized as water safety sheriffs, responsible for making sure they wore their life jackets and listened to mom and dad in the water. 

Then as Kevin set up our site, we did some bike riding and game playing….

Bryce was a pretty happy “camper”….

After dinner we roasted marshmallows over the campfire and made s'mores. 

 Saturday morning we discovered a small sink leak but Kevin was able to pick up a new seal and fix the problem.  The kids and I headed into Clemson and grabbed some lunch and picnicked at a park and played for a while. 

Then we headed back for some lake fun…

Byce wasn’t really feeling the lake fun for too long so we headed back for showers and naps.  Around the same time we also discovered the difficulties of camping with no sewer hook up, your grey tank fills up quick and it has to be emptied.  We didn’t have the proper equipment to empty the tank without hooking back up to the truck and towing it to the dump station so we decided to make due without using water inside.  Luckily we have an outdoor shower feature so Kevin hooked up a shower head and we had hot and cold water outside.  Kevin grilled up some yummy burgers for dinner Saturday night and we again enjoyed s'mores for dessert.  Byrce enjoyed some plain graham crackers. 

Sunday came way too fast and everyone was bummed that our first adventure was over.  We are however excited about many more trips to come!!!