About Me

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Rural, GA, United States
I'm an army wife, working mom of 2 kids.! My husband Tim is a Soldier In the army. I work for MWR for the Community Recreation Division as an admin assistant...I absolutely LOVE my job I couldn't have found anything better! My daughter, Kennedie, was born in January of 04 and our son, Cale, was born June of 09. Kennedie is VERY involved in dancing, she is in her 11th season (2019-2020) of being a competitive dancer. It's exhausting but we LOVE it. Cale is starting to REALLY get into sports. He is on a year round wrestling team, and he plays baseball in the spring! This blog started out as a recipe sharing venture but now it's going to turn into a more "granola" way to live. Cheap recipes more homemade recipes and re-purposing things. I'm a crafter at heart so I'm going to throw some of that in there too! On Valentines Day of 2017 we bought our first Travel Trailer. I'll be documenting our travels also on this blog!

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Blue Springs State Park - Blue Springs, Alabama

BLUE SPRINGS STATE PARK - BLUE SPRINGS, ALABAMA

We had found out about this park a few months ago when we visited another springs.  Everyone we heard had gone had had a BLAST.  We were supposed to leave Friday and stay until Monday.  That didn't happen.  We were going to forego the entire trip, but my BFF texted Sunday morning at 8am (because honestly we were just going to do a moms and kids trip to get them out of the house and enjoy the long weekend, because they were disappointed about not going camping.)  Once my husband heard that was the plan, we rallied the troops and got everything packed up and into the camper. We left not knowing if we wanted to stay the night or not but packed enough food for the possibility.  My BFF had thought she was going to just go up and come back home the same day, so she was NOT prepared for the decision she made later! :P  Once they made it to our house we made it to Blue Springs by noon AL time.  If you have urgent calls you are waiting on this is NOT the place to come.  Cell Service was BAD! I had Verizon 1x almost the entire time.
Their spots are about $25 a night with a one time $3 fee attached to your first night.
Entrance to the park.  It sneaks up on you we almost missed it.

The sweet older lady that was at the entrance was the sweetest little thing.  We showed up with a truck and trailer and an SUV full of kids.  She told us to just go and find a spot and then come back and let her know what spot we picked and we could pay then.  If you do decide to go, their internet/card machine was down so it was cash or checks only.  Bring a check incase you need one.  Thankfully I usually have a book in my purse.

Armed with a map we were driving to our spot.

My friend almost rented a cabin to stay in because they were only $86 for the night, but you have to bring your own linens and things and we didn't have ANY of that.

Found a great spot and backed it in!
TIP: Bring a big spray bottle of bug spray.  Both for the ground and for yourselves.  Mosquitos and ants are BAD.  Thankfully I had thought to toss the one we use around the perimeter of our house into the back of the truck.  My husband went around the camper and where the kids would be walking around towards the table and the fire pit and got rid of most of the ants.  I did forget the citronella candles though. DUH!  The spot we paid for was for water/electric - it was more expensive for a spot that had sewer with it. They do offer a dump station near the bathhouse so we were good with that.

This state park is a blast from the past.  Look at all these awesome play ground equipment from when we grew up!

We got the trailer all set up and changed into our suits and loaded up the coolers.  One thing I will point out is that there are signs ALL OVER that there is no Alcoholic beverages allowed in the springs.  You can drink all you want in the campground but not near the springs.


The middle section of the springs.

And the 3rd section.
 
They have some paddle boats available for rent.  I didn't ask how much though.

The bathroom is in that building for the springs, I didn't take a picture of the great park they had there. Our kids kept going back and forth between the playground and the springs. 

My sweet 8 year old in the water.  It was FREEZING but that didn't stop him!

If you guys don't have full face snorkels and do a good amount of snorkeling (our family LOVES IT!) they are the thing to have!  We brought our 4 and the kids and my husband took turns searching the bottoms of the springs for things people lost.  My husband actually helped an older lady find her RX glasses she lost while she was in the springs.

My 13 year old kept going in and out of the water.  She is never far without her paints, or art supplies.  One thing we DID forget was a book, so without internet service or cell service she got bored a little bit.

There was a great cement picnic table at each campsite.  Brushed the leaves off of it and ate all our meals on it. 6 kids and 3 adults (my BFF's husband wanted to sleep his birthday party off Sunday morning, and then was kicking himself when they decided to stay and how much of a blast it was!)
Earlier the BFF decided to stay and make a night of it.  We had to run to the next town to find a Dollar General.  It's important to know that Gas, Groceries and cell service is 6 miles away in Clio.  We drove to Clio before dinner to get some more hot dogs (I only brought enough dinner for my family), eggs, bread, a pack of tshirts for them to sleep in, and 3 blankets.  We had some games, cards, baseballs/gloves/bat, art supplies, BB gun, so we picked up football and another pack of paper because we STILL haven't gotten that TV installed in our trailer.  It was great watching them unplug for 48 hours.  But I will tell you it stressed them out when they first found out there was no internet/cell service and how they would "entertain themselves".  They now can't WAIT to return.


BFF and my husband searching for marshmallow roasting sticks.  In my haste to get out the door I forgot our collapsible metal ones.

He really did great being surrounded by 6 kids and 2 wives!

Our babies roasting marshmallows!

The bonfire still had some embers in it from the night before the kids were determined to revive it.  They all gathered as many sticks as they could. 

SUCCESS!!

He loves shooting that BB Gun.

Another view of the playground and our spot.


 MONDAY!
Because you know the girl life ;).  She said "I really wish I had brought a book!"


Anyone that knows me knows I can't WAIT for Christmas to come around again.  I can be seen reading Christmas books year round!

My husband and his "sister wives" We joke that BFF's husband is our "brother husband".  We love traveling and being a family and we are grateful that the Army brought these two families together.









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