Party of Eight

Weekend Trip

Last weekend, we headed down to Wax campground on the shores of Nolin River Lake in Kentucky. This campground is relatively small, with only 110 sites but it is well maintained and conveniently located near Mammoth Cave National Park. Loops A and C offered numerous lake view sites, and loop B had a great playground in it! We stayed in loop B and loved our site with plenty of shade, close to the shower house and playground. We had a great short trip with the exception of the large number of ticks! Hopefully tick season will be short lived and we will not be using a bottle of bug spray every two days!

My kids loved this sign inside the cave!

We opted for a 2 hour historical tour of the caves due to our kids love of history and science! It definitely did not disappoint and we will be sure to check out more tours and hiking paths at Mammoth Cave again in the near future!

Favorite products from this trip include the Moby Wrap and Ergo Baby Carrier which came in handy for carrying our twin two year olds through Mammoth Cave. We also loved our Greenerways Organic Deet Free Bug Spray.

I type this post as I am riding along with my family on our way to our next adventure! 10 days, 3 states, 6 kids, 1 dog, a 23’ camper, and our mid sized SUV! Stay tuned for more post on this next adventure! (I am predicting sunscreen will be one of our favorite products on this trip!)

First Trip of 2022

Finally, camping season is here! On March 18, we headed down to Sweetwater Campground at Allattona Lake in Georgia!

Our view from site 092. Apparently, the water level is still very low in March, which gave us plenty of shoreline to play on!

The campground opened for the season one day before we arrived and everything was spotless! Occupancy was very low during our visit, but with the size of the sites, and layout of the campground, I imagine it never feels packed. Next to the pad for the camper, there was a large area of gravel where the fire pit and picnic table were located. This was a huge plus for us, as it had rained a lot leading up to our trip and could have been a muddy disaster!

Our crazy crew, 6 kids ranging from 2-11!

We loved this campground and it reminded us so much of Calhoun Falls State Park in South Carolina!

Life with 6 active kids

I do not know what my intentions were when starting this blog. I initially thought it would be a great place to share our adventures but I think it is also important to share some of our day to day life as an above average sized family. My husband and I both work outside of the home but I have the benefit of only working part time… which really equates to me spending all of my days off cleaning and running kids from place to place. Today, I found my two year old twins mostly naked during nap time. One had pooped on the floor, one had peed on the floor, and one stepped in it. They were both quite upset but I am confident no lesson was learned. I also discovered that I can no longer clean as fast as the twins can destroy. Really. Most of the time, I don’t know where they took their pants or diapers off and somehow, they don’t know either. I started a deep clean of our master bedroom, bathroom, and closet today, an impossible task for one day off work. So for now, I sit in a partially deep cleaned room, with my 11 year old by my side still finishing up homework. I love that she still wants to be by my side as much as possible and I truly cherish these moments.

Favorite Gear

Summer Pop ‘N Sit Portable Booster Chair

We have loved the portability of this chair while camping with our young kids! It has a great sized tray, great durability, and is easy to clean!

Summer Pop ‘n Play Portable Playard With Canopy

This play yard has been so convenient during camping trips and soccer games! I love that the bottom sits flat on the ground so I can climb in and play without concerns of exceeding weight capacity.

GCI Outdoor MaxRelax Pod Rocker Portable Rocking Chair

My husband is 6’8” and has a very hard time finding a comfortable camping chair but this has managed to be a winner in his book. This chair has a high back and gentle rocking motion that has quickly made it a family favorite.

Other items we have loved when camping with twin babies include the ergo baby carrier, minimonkey twin baby carrier, and double BOB jogging stroller. These items have made hiking and exploring new areas so much more pleasant/feasible!

More favorites will be posted as the camping season starts again in Ohio! Come on spring!

Reminiscing

As we patiently wait for our first camping trip of 2022, we can’t help but look back on our past camping adventures. We started 2020 with a tent and after one trip with 6 kids (including 5 month old twins), we decided to invest in a used pop up camper!

2020 included a quick trip to Hocking Hills in our tent and then Maumee Bay, Lebanon KOA and Brookville KOA with our pop up camper, named Poppy. Maumee Bay was definitely our favorite campground we visited in 2020!

2021 started with a week long trip to Calhoun Falls State Park in South Carolina. Little did we know that this would be our second to last trip with a pop up camper! Due to the challenge of packing for 6 kids and dogs for long trips, we realized that a bigger camper was going to be in our near future! In May, we took Poppy out for one last camping trip before we picked up our new travel trailer the day before our next big adventure!

Even with some terrible weather, Calhoun Falls State Park in South Carolina exceeded all of our expectations!

Paint Creek State Park was our last trip with Poppy! This trip was so wet and cold until the last day!

June 2021 we brought home our new travel trailer, which we affectionately named Super Salem! Super Salem took us many adventures in a few short months!

Silver Lake State Park in Michigan
We spent almost an entire week in Michigan in June 2021! The dunes were breathtaking but the campsites were quite small and close together.

Over the next few months we went to East Harbor State Park, Deer Creek State Park, Lebanon KOA, Indian Lake State Park and Lake Loramie State Park.

Now, we have 28 days until our first camping trip of 2022! So far we have a trip planned to Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and a few more in Ohio! This year should be a little more interesting as our youngest two have very much hit toddlerhood! We hope to blog more and share our likes/dislikes of all the places we visit, in addition to sharing the highs/lows of our trips!