101 bug bites
**UPDATE: Pictures on Facebook and also at my brother’s website**
I am taking a break from scratching my hands, arms, legs, and feet to update y’all!
This past Memorial Day weekend, Paul, Jera, and I drove down to Magnolia Springs to meet up with the rest of my family for a fun camping trip. The campground is a bit south of Augusta, and about 3 1/2 hours away from Atlanta. (Although, it took us 2 hours longer to get there because of all the Memorial Day traffic heading out of the city.)
We stayed at two of the tent only walk-in campsites they have at the park. They weren’t true walk-ins – we could actually drive all the way up, which was nice! We also had water spigots at each campsite! After the last trip, we felt like we were living in luxury. :-) The bathrooms weren’t all that far away, and were fairly clean with hot showers (yay!).
Most of all, I enjoyed being with my entire family (hooray for AJ coming despite the dog! hooray for Molly coming! :-)). I wish we could get together more often!! Unfortunately, I think that we won’t be heading SOUTH to go camping until after Labor Day. It’s just too hot! However, we hope to have many future family camping trips. It’s a great way to both camp and see my family at the same time. :-)
Jera came with us, as usual. She did WONDERFULLY. We have found that every time we stop while we are traveling in the car, we need to take her out and walk her around a little. If we are good about that, then she is a nice quiet and calm puppy in the car. It was nice having my sister around this weekend, and one reason was because she puppy-sat. Jera was completely spoiled, after sitting on Amy’s lap and being snuggled all weekend. Also, she got to sleep with Paul and I at night instead of being locked up in her cage. :-) Jera doesn’t like being left alone, but she is perfectly content to be attached to a stake and enjoy all of us walking around. As long as we are good about keeping her active, she is completely content to sit when we’re sitting and sleep when we’re sleeping.
She is also a really smart puppy. The first night we were there, Paul and I were getting ready for bed when we realized that Jera was outside in the vestibule. She had figured out how to open the tent door, by grabbing onto the little tassel things on the zippers. So now we have to make sure the zippers are at the top of the door instead of in reach of puppy. Hehe. :-)
Other than socialize and sleep in tents this weekend, we also visited the aquarium, learned a little bit about the area (a Civil War prison camp, housing 10,000 people during its 6-week duration before General Sherman marched through), went swimming, ate lots of delicious food, took naps, and read books. We also explored the nearby trails, although we didn’t do any heavy hiking. Overall, relaxing and restful and fun. Oh yes, and itchy.
*Goes back to scratching bugbites*