Totally Tracky ... and Troops: Single Moms Vacation 2008, More Pictures

Day 1

We went to Devil's Den State Park in northwestern Arkansas, and it was beautiful! It's in the Boston mountains (nicely rolling hills to y'all Rocky Mountain people), verdant with trees and other growth. We had to wind down into our campground, which was wonderfully kept up (seriously, they cleaned the bathrooms and showers and emptied the trash every day, and even came around and offered to clean our fire pit out). We chose a campsite near the bathrooms, and that was a wise choice with all those kiddos.

There was a creek near the campground which the kids were anxious to explore. We sent them off en masse to check it out, and later asked them to guide us to it. Tiffany and I were a little surprised when they led us straight to a whole bunch of brush. "Is this how you got to the creek!?!?!?!" "Well, yeah." I think we were lucky to get home with no poison ivy rash. After pursuing an alternate route, the kids relaxed in the water. Hahahahaha. The creek bottom was rocky, and the sharp stones were covered with slick, slick moss. The kids seemed to have no time navigating it, but I guess I am too ancient (plus, I nearly smashed Sariah, but that's entirely beside the point).

The great creek excitement came a bit later, though. Sariah needed a nap, so we went back to the tents, and Ben followed soon after. Not long after that, Matthew came back. That's when the screams started--terrible, bloodcurdling, something's dying screams. I knew it was Rex. I waited a couple of seconds, thinking he would cool off, but the screams intensified. I thought, "Surely he's broken a bone. It's not blood, because he gets kind of faint around blood." I commanded Ben to watch the baby, and started running. I ran into 3 other campers, one of whom was sprinting, on their way to the scene also. We show up (we went through the brush, by the way), and find Rex out in the middle of the creek, perched atop a wobbling rock with one foot. The other knee was drawn up to his chin with his arms, and he was still screaming, something about crabs and pincers and getting carried away. The guy that had run with me there started laughing (thankfully, he had a sense of humor), "He must have found a crawdad." Five minutes later, I had coaxed Rex out of the stream, even though he insisted it was a crab, NOT a crawdad. Tiffany thinks I should have made him come out on his own, because he'd gone that far upstream alone against her advice. Of course, I didn't know that until after. Wise woman, that Tiffany.

This picture, of course, is pre-crawdad-sighting.

If you burn it, they will come.

That night we had a campfire and roasted hot dogs, and of course, made s'mores. Naturally, I ate more than was good for me. (And yes, Day 1 was not the only day we made s'mores. You can never have too many.)

And at dusk, we watched bats. Devil's Den has all sorts of bat shelters, one right there near the visitor's center. The park ranger, or the Bat Guy as we took to calling him, counts those from one particular shelter every Monday evening. We stayed to the bitter end, counting 105 in all. Elisabeth, and Matthew I think, even got brushed with bat wings. They looked surprisingly like birds. And here's what I learned: bats don't glide, they always flap their wings. So if you see a "bird" fluttering by in the twilight, it's probably not a bird.

Day 2

Day 2 was essentially spent in 2 phases. The first was going on a 1.5 mile hike in the morning, before it was really hot (that means it was 90 instead of 100). Tiffany and the kids explored 3 caves. Sariah and I couldn't get into them, and Caleb wouldn't get into them, so we waited on the outside. In the 1st one, Rex heard that it had "a dead end," and freaked out, running and crying all the way back out again. He went into the subsequent caves after both Mom and Tiffany explained exactly what a dead end is. You have to feel a little sorry for him, knowing how we're bringing him up. The cave was called Devil's Den, and there was a feature inside called "Satan's Maze." Another cave was called the Icebox, and it was freezing in there. It felt nice since we had already sweat buckets and buckets.

(Are we there yet, Mom?)

The afternoon was spent at the park's pool. It was wonderful. It was not nasty and gross, and the water felt fabulous. Sariah slept part of the time--camping is hard work, but she sure loved having 4 more people than she usually has to pay attention to her.

Day 3

Time to go home, but before we went, and after we (and by that I mean Tiffany, Hannah, and I) cleaned up, we stopped at the little lake made by a dam on the creek. Don't the kids look excited out on that paddle boat? And look, that's me and Caleb canoeing. My first time. It was loads of fun ... even when Rex tried to fish a snake out of the water with his oar.