Pope family: Camping at Pilot Mountain State Park

So, this weekend we went as a group of friends to Pilot Mountain and had a great time. Jackie, Meg, and I took the 8 kids and drove up to try and set up camp before Matt and Randy arrived. We managed to have 3 tents set up and a fire started all before they arrived. Unfortunately, doing that and watching kids meant we didn't get any pictures taken of camping but trust me we had fun. We even managed to put all of the kids to bed and enjoy some adult time. Randy and Matt had fun chasing a racoon and fox away when they tried to get into our trash- I'm not sure what they were going to do if they caught up to them but it provided a laugh for the rest of us. The quote from our trip comes from Randy who said, "if you didn't know you were in the mountains, you wouldn't know you were in the mountains". He is sooooo profound!!
As a side note- you won't see Chase in any of these pictures- we didn't forget him- he had the opportunity to go on his first away from home adventure and is enjoying Mrytle Beach with his best friend and cousin Ethan. We miss him and can't wait to share stories!!

What a group!! After our night of camping we are ready for our hike and our day of fun at Pilot Mountain National Park. Our group was made up of 8 kids (Callan, Randi, Keeley, Brayden, Kade, Josh, Jackson, and Summer) and 5 adults (Randy, Karen, Matt, Meg, and Jackie) and we had a great time.

These are the leaders of the hike- Meg, Randi, Callan, Brayden and Kade led our group for the hike.

Matt is ready to try out his climbing skills! I'm not sure Keeley thinks this is such a great idea.

Our happy hikers!! Jackson, Randi, Callan, Brayden, Kade and Josh were ready to go hiking! They all went and found hiking sticks and carried them everywhere we went. Our two junior hikers (Keeley and Summer) were able to hitch rides but these six walked the whole trail- good job guys!!

It's kind of hard to see but that is an eagle. It was so neat to look up and watch several eagles flying over us.

Brayden, Kade, Callan, Randi and Josh are always ready for a picture. They loved climbing on all the rocks during our hike.

A beautiful view from our hike at Pilot Mountain. It is so nice to be able to get away and enjoy seeing such beauty in nature.

Keeley was ready for a nap. Take a look at that knee!! Her first bloody knee- this happened before we were in charge of watching her. If only I could take a nap like that!!

Summer is not sure that the swing Randy is making from a rope on a tree is such a good idea. She is such a happy little girl. Keeping her while Jackie, Brayden, Kade, Matt and Meg were climbing was so easy. Of course the boys on the other hand... Just kidding they were great too! Especially with the swing Randy made. They had a blast!! I know the others had fun climbing but unfortunately my camera can only be at one place at a time- next time we'll have climbing pictures.