The Cox's Corner: Meriwether Lewis Park on Natchez Trace

We went camping this weekend. The girls were SO excited! They were determined we leave early, so the set alarms for 5:00! I was excited about the trip too, but I could have used a couple of more hours sleep:-)

We had to stop for gas and I got this shot of them. I think Story Bell was ready for a nap!

The park was only a couple of hours from the house, but we didn't set up the girls DVD players. I don't know what we were thinking! They got pretty bored! They came up with a game to see who could see the oddest thing out their window. These are the things I heard as they were playing:
Lyric: a giant satellite
Story: a pig
Cadence: a big tree branch shaped like a paper clip
Story: a purple tree
Devon: a little turtle with crows trying to eat it
Cadence: a tree shaped like a rainbow
Story: tree with red stripes going down it
Devon: old timey car with a tarp on top of it
Story: a tree with fingers, hands, and an arm- his arm was longer than your arm mommy!
Cadence: tree shaped like a 7
Lyric: nobody is playing anymore!
Cadence: a tree shaped like a building
Lyric: NOBODY is playing anymore!
Cadence: a tree shaped like an F
Cadence: a bird shaped exactly like a kite- they were shaped exactly the same!

Cadence finally figured out that nobody was playing anymore and decided to play Eye Spy with Story. But they didn't just play Eye Spy; they played One Eyed Eye Spy! That's right-you could only use one eye! Eventually Story quit playing and Cadence wanted to play with me. The only problem was she didn't want to play in the car. You had to spy something outside of the car. She really did not understand why I didn't want to play. I tried explaining driving down the road at 60 miles an hour would make it a hard game to play, but she just didn't get it.

The girls loved it when we finally arrived at the campground and they did not have to ride in their car seats anymore!

Cadence decided she needed a leaf when we arrived at our site.

We could not believe the park! It was beautiful, practically empty and free! Wow, you can't beat that!

We were still setting the tent up when Cadence went in to check it out.

This was the first time we took the girls' bikes camping. From now on we will not be leaving home without them! They loved riding through the campground.

Lyric and Story both decided they wanted to keep a journal of the trip. They spent a lot of time sitting at the picnic table with their journals. I wondered if they would have had the same enthusiasm if the journals had been an "assignment."

Taking a break from lunch to pose with daddy.

We went over and checked out the Meriwether Lewis Monument, ironically it was his birthday.

The girls were checking out one of the grave markers.

We did lots of hiking.

Cadence decided she was ready for smores in the afternoon before supper. She was being pretty impatient with Daddy, so I gave her the camera to keep her busy.

Cadence Cam

Lyric found a snail and named him Snaily 2.

Cadence Cam

Cadence Cam

Devon chopped the wood for the fire and then walked down the road to fill up a water container.

Story and Lyric rode with him on their bikes. A little while later Story comes riding up to the campsite and yells, "Daddy fell!" I tried to get her to explain, but she decided to demonstrate:

Lyric eventually came riding up on her bike and gave me her version, unfortunately Cadence got a bug in her eye, so I was only able to hear half of Lyric's story:

But yes, Daddy did fall and he did look very similar to Story's demonstration. He claimed there was a huge hive and all the bees were chasing him. We went back to investigate and there were three bees at the base of a tree. They were really big loud bees though:-)
After his tumble he set to work on the fire. Time for some predinner smores!

The girls and I saw this interesting little guy on the way to the bathroom.

We thought this was pretty interesting- a grasshopper being eaten by bees. No, these weren't the same ones that tried to attack Devon. His were much bigger!

Lyric had fun playing with Snaily 2.

The girls decided they needed hot chocolate before we ate. After all, it was about 80 degrees.

We had quesadillas, guacamole, bean dip and chips for dinner.

Cadence isn't a big fan of quesadillas, so she just had an avocado taco.

After we ate, the girls stoked the fire to get it ready for more smores. Story Bell was really concerned with getting burned, so she found a LONG stick for her poker.

They decided they needed "gas" masks for the smoke.

We had a little frog come up and visit us.

Which is dirtier-- the face or the foot?

When we left the campground we decided to stop for a picnic near a little creek.

The girls waded in the water up to their ankles, but I just love how Story Bell hiked up her shorts so they wouldn't get wet:-)

We had veggie sandwiches for lunch. Cadence had some chip with her avocado:-)

They threw some bread to the fish.

When we were leaving. We noticed this snake nearby. I am sure he was glad to see us go!

After our picnic we headed over to Jackson Falls. The girls were done with hiking for the weekend, so I told Devon to go ahead I would stay in the car while they watched Barbie on their DVD players.

He was about to head out without us when a lady and her two girls, who had just done the hike, told the girls it was worth it and they really shouldn't miss it. Luckily, they all decided to check it out.