To begin with, we drove about 3 hours to Grayson Highlands National Park in Virginia. We made it to about 5 miles before the park and Mack had had enough. He got car sick, three times. Yuck. Luckily, the spot we pulled over had a little creek nearby so we could wash things up a bit. Good thing Richard heeded my advice to pack Mack some extra clothes! As soon as Mack was out of the car and had some fresh air, he was ready to continue on.
Running a little late after our creek-side detour, we finally met up with Eddie and his 11 yr old daughter Caroline and hit the trial. Mack learned a new phrase on this trip: "And we're off!" (Though from Mack, it is more "An wah oof!" - complete with hand motions, very adorable.) With all the hiking excitement, Mack took no nap on Saturday. So he was pretty wild when we got to our campsite after 7 miles of trail. He was super excited about the tent!
Sometime during the tent-building, Mack decided that Caroline should be called "Mimi." We have no idea why he assigned this nickname to her, but it was really funny. They played "hide & seek" around the tents together with Mack cackling hysterically the whole time.We built a fire and had our dinner around it (it got right chilly Saturday night!). Mack really wanted to eat his goldfish but insisted on eating them with a spoon our of the ziploc bag. Crazy over-exhausted, over-stimulated little guy!
Then it was time for night night. After much wailing (partly due to the fact we neglected to bring a bottle along for sleepy time, big oops), Mack finally passed out and the grown-ups hung out around the fire toasting marshmallows and making s'mores. Yummmm.
Then Richard and I climbed into the tent with Mackey. We slept...in half hour bursts between Mack waking up wanting to go back outside. When the sun finally came up, Richard said "Put his shoes on and get that kid out of here." Ha ha! We were all a little grumpy but the glorious sunrise wiped away all ill will created during the long night.
We had a shorter hike out and enjoyed another beautiful day complete with mountain climbing and wild ponies!
Mack hiked the final few steps of the trail on his own two feet, hand-in-hand with his new friend "Mimi." Could this be any sweeter?!
We really did have a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, the campfire was toasty warm, the leaves were beautiful, and we enjoyed our time with our little family and new friends. In case you'd like to see more pictures (sorry, these are the first pictures I've taken in months with a real camera as opposed to my phone so I got a little carried away!):
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