Weekend Escape to the Woods

I'm not going to be a daily blogger because even though I think my life is fascinating, it's probably not as entertaining to everyone else.  Initially though, I will post for a few days consecutively as I want to go into my 2012 goals (no resolutions anymore, just yearly goals).  First though, I want to go into our winter camping extravaganza last weekend.

So last weekend was a very fun weekend for The Piper Household!  It started off Friday (Jan 27) with the Blake Shelton concert.  Now I'm not an overly big fan of country music (although I LOVE older country music circa Brooks and Dunn era) but during and after that concert, I started becoming more of a fan!  Blake Shelton put on one AWESOME show!!!  He was energetic and interactive with the crowd!  It was SUCH a fun time!  We went with one of Tom's coworkers and his girlfriend (after many attempts for the four of us to hang out, it finally happened) and even though we got stuck in a ton of traffic, we still had a fun time enjoying good company.  Blake Shelton put on one of the best shows I've seen and I would definitely buy tickets for another one!

We were so close to the stage!  Blake Shelton and all of his beauty

Saturday morning, Tom and I woke up and prepared for the next 3 days.  We were spending the weekend in the woods at Red Top Mountain State Park.  This is BY FAR my favorite Georgia State Park!  The campgrounds are nestled right next to Lake Allatoona with miles and miles of hiking trails, beautiful lake views, and plenty of trees for shaded summer camping trips (not that it really makes a huge difference in Georgia- summers here can be unbearably humid).  After packing everything and running around like crazy people, we finally hit the road and got to Red Top early afternoon.  Now Tom and I have specific responsibilities when it comes to camping trips.  We unload the car as soon as we pick our site (this trip, it was right next to the bathroom because I was NOT making a long hike to the ladies' room in the middle of the night in sub-freezing temps).  After we unload and pitch the tent, Tom goes off for firewood and I organize everything, make the bed (thank goodness for air mattresses), situate everything in the tent, organize the foods stuff, basically make sure everything can be easily found, especially in the dark.  We each understand our camping duties and get right to work!  Our system works very well as I am VERY Type A so I have to have things organized my way and he loves to search for firewood.  We never argue over who has to do what; we just do it.  It has been this way since the very first time he and I went camping together.  It makes for an easy set up and breakdown!

Our site this past weekend, tent all set up and ready!

Tom's absolute favorite part about camping is hunting for firewood and chopping it up with his oh-so-big camping axe!  On many occasions, I have been enjoying a good book by the fire, Tom disappears and returns 30 minutes later with huge logs, ready to let his inner Paul Bunyan shine and do his job.  So when I say it's Tom's absolute favorite part about camping, I'm serious.  So after we got the tent up, Tom disappears in the Jeep in search of firewood.  As always, he comes back with the entire back filled with logs, branches and limbs, kindling, pine cones, basically anything he could find that would burn.  This exact scenario played out a few times on our trip-- it was too cold to let that fire die!

Hubs works so hard to get the firewood chopped

Once we got our fire going, it didn't go out the entire weekend.  Sure, it died down a little overnight since we couldn't tend to it, but Tom built the BEST fire we've ever had that literally burned for days!  The rest of the weekend was so incredibly relaxing!  It was great time for Tom and me to escape the city and civilization for a few days, spend time with each other and Max without the everyday distractions such as TV and internet.  It was wonderful to just sit by a fire, roast 'mallows, make s'mores, talk and enjoy each other's company all weekend!  Max wasn't on the same page as us though...  He was FREEZING!  And when I say freezing, I mean his little 15 pound body was convulsing with shivers.  We did have an electric heater in the tent so when he couldn't stay warm after the sun started to drop, we put him in his crate to enjoy the heater blowing directly into his pop-up crate.  He survived, but wasn't too thrilled with the chilly mornings and nights.  Sunday night though, we did spend more time with him in the tent so that he could be warm and not in his crate.  He DID enjoy that!  

One of my favorite parts about camping is definitely the scenery!  I usually get really great views when I go running as I run throughout the entire park.  This weekend was different because I took the entire weekend off from running.  It was just too cold to take off the layers (I was in at least 2 layers of clothing at all times- running compression tights, fleece pants, tshirt, long-sleeved compression shirt, one of Tom's long-sleeved tshirt, sweatshirt, my heavy North Face with the fleece zipped in at night.  At bedtime, I swapped out the sweatshirt and fleece pants for my fleece footie pajamas- best.idea.ever).  Even though I didn't go running like usual, I was able to enjoy God's beauty in our surroundings.

Lake Allatoona shoreline

The barren winter woods along Lake Allatoona

Sunset in the woods

While these scenes may not seem beautiful to everyone, they are to me!  God's beauty is something to always be enjoyed and Mother Nature is a fine example of His wonderful creations!  To sit back and enjoy nature and the outdoors was so serene and relaxing for us.  For those who know me well, you know I would rather be outdoors on any given day!  Florescent lighting and recirculated air isn't my idea of a great setting unless it involves being at work.

Our weekend fortunately got to extend into Monday!  I took the day off so that we could finish our weekend off with a day of relaxation and that is exactly how it ended!  We unpacked the car, took showers (we smelled like our fire pit and I hadn't washed my hair since Thursday night thanks to the cold- I didn't want to get sick), and parked ourselves on the couch and hung out the rest of the day!  It was a perfect ending to a fabulous weekend!  I can't WAIT until our next weekend venture into the woods!  That will probably be in California somewhere so I hope the camping and outdoor scene is great there, too!

This weekend means cleaning up for us!  We are getting rid of things, listing items for sale on Craigs List, going through things and packing things up!  Well, that's the plan anyway.  We'll see how much actually gets done!  Hope y'all have a great weekend and thanks for reading!  Be back soon!

All My Love, 

Britt

xoxo