Because the week is filled with hectic schedules and not as much family time as I'd like, I love love LOVE to savor our family togetherness through the lens on the weekends. This is the most special time because we're all together the entire weekend and being with my family (and capturing it all) is my number one passion of all. (all photos were taken with my iPhone and edited with the Adobe Photoshop Express app)

I'm back, weekend savoring it up, but now, instead of showing all of our New Orleans fun, I'm showing our Virginia fun...through the lens! Yay for moving!!

We've been wanting to go camping as a family for quite some time now...well, mainly D has been wanting to go on a family camping trip for quite some time now, but the thought of us, in a tent, outside surrounded by others, in public, with our little guy still oh so little, I wasn't ready.

But, since we live up here in Virginia now, surrounded by the Blue Ridge mountains, and the weather will be turning cold soon, and since our little guy is 5 now, we decided to give it try, because we never know when we'll get this opportunity again, since it's possible that we will be moving away from here next summer.

He (and his sister!) were VERY, VERY excited! :)

We planned to camp in the Shenandoah National Park, since it's literally 10 minutes from our house, and we just LOVE being surrounded by the mountains AND they only had this past weekend and next weekend left to camp, because it shuts down during the winter months, but once we got to the entrance, all the campsites were full.

Bummer!

But the views though!! Ahhhh...we are SO in love!!

Luckily, we went to another destination close by, called the Shenandoah Acres Family Campground, that wasn't in the mountains, but, was super packed and super awesome for the kids because it was a family friendly campground.

While the boys put the tent together, the girls relaxed a bit and took pictures of the fall leaves! :)

Yeah...putting up a tent was nowhere near her radar. Ha! :)

I can't get enough of this beauty!!

Luca LOVED helping D set up the tent! I'm thinking Boy Scouts may be in his future! ;)

I LOVED watching this Daddy-son moment so much!

Two happy kiddos ready to camp!!

But, even happier to get to the playground!!

They took off way in front of me...I can't even see Luca anymore! Ha!

While we walked around the grounds while waiting for the kids arts and crafts activities to start, a beautiful butterfly flew by and landed right in front of us.

Luca LOOOOVES butterflies and told me, "Mommy!! Take a picture!"

Well, of course, buddy boy! Of course! :)

She's looking all grown up!!

Then it was arts and crafts time!

They both enjoyed it, but C really LOVED it!! She stayed there the longest just coloring away. :)

Then we went back to relax at the campsite for a bit. I loved having this calming moment to just sit back and relax and take in the fall views for as long as I could before the kiddos needed me again.

Then, the kiddos found a ladybug to look at.

We always love it when ladybugs come to visit us. :)

Photo by Camille! :)

But, relaxing with a 5 year old is hard to do, so we started making s'mores much earlier than we anticipated. ;)

Luca got his Chase costume on for the occasion!

But then he decided to go into the tent for a nap...a fake nap that is! :)

He was back in no time to get his hands on some marshmallows! But, he's not like his sister who LOVES s'mores...he just likes to eat only the marshmallows or just throw them into the firepit. :)

We settled in and got cozy as the sun started to set.

Then we busted a move for a little bit at the Pavilion later on that evening. They looooved running around all over the place to the music.

They get it from their mama! ;)

Luca was getting pretty fussy because he kept running into the store asking us to buy him toys and whatever else he could find and because we kept saying no, he would let us know how that answer wasn't good to his liking...even after we bought him (and his sister!) a light up pumpkin stick.

So off we went to bed, because we knew it was all stemming from him being over-tired, so with the sounds of the DJ blasting till 10:15 at night and then a neighbor camper playing his guitar and singing songs until 11:30 or so at night...luckily he crashed right away, but the rest of us...we didn't fall asleep until all was quiet around us.

OH YEAH!!

We woke up in the morning, packed up and were ready to get back home and relax, but...the car wouldn't start.

OMG!!!

Oh boy! I thought for sure we were going to have to be towed home, but luckily it was just our battery and our nice camper neighbor had jumper cables and got us started up again.

So thankful for him!!

So while driving home and seeing this view, I couldn't help but think of how awesome it is to see this view so early in the morning and how grateful I am that we had a successful camping trip...

(with only one big one that had him screaming for what seemed like forever because he lost "the claw" game twice at the arcade...the kind of moment that frazzles me like no other and has me wanting to run as far away as I can...especially on a quiet campground site...and a little one because we wouldn't buy him more things at the store)

and that the car only needed a battery jump, because gosh, it could have been much worse...kids and a tow truck and all the jazz...oh gosh!

So even though I'm super tired today and all of us were SUPER grouchy this morning and camping just seemed like a crazy thing to do with little kids when D would ask me if we could all go over and over again, I'm SO happy I finally let my stiff mama guard down and took the plunge, because, gosh, it sure was fun giving this experience to our kiddos, who loved every second of it and can't wait to do it again, and to just get out in nature in this way.

Being out there this weekend reminded me of all my great memories of camping with my parents and my cousins and my friends and it made me realize how much I miss it.

I, too, can't wait to do it again, because there really is something special about spending quality time out in nature life this..especially in this very connected world we live in these days...but with an RV, rather than tent. Oh, and maybe without any crazy 5-year-old meltdowns, too! Ha! :)

Until next time...

Yay for happy camping!

The camera...one of my favorite creative tools to help ME get out of my stressed-out-mama-head + savor (fully enJOY!) all the JOYful moments that fill my heart up with LOVE (something that's hard to do when my mind is running five miles ahead or behind the present moment)