Our first backpacking trip as a whole family

We decided last minute to take our kids backpacking this last weekend.  We went to south cumberland state park, at the savage falls campground, which is a 2.5 mile hike in and a 2.5 mile hike out.  But you are completely secluded and you get to camp by your very own water fall.  Since we planned everything last minute we got a late start and didn't get to the trail until 7:30pm, almost dark. But we decided it would be a great adventure so we pressed on.  We got to camp around 9pm, after hiking a trail we have never been on in the dark, thank goodness for good signs.  We set up camp and then busted out our mountain house meals and enjoyed a yummy warm meal by the fire. Other then me being stung by some mysterious bug, it was the perfect night, the kids loved backpacking in the dark.  In the morning we got up and realized we didn't have enough water to make our breakfast (oatmeal) so we headed down to the water fall and creek area with our water bottles and water filter and filtered our own water.  The kids played in the creek and then we headed back up to camp with our water bottles filled with creek water, that actually tasted really good.  We made oatmeal, packed up our stuff, watched maddy freak out over a few bees close to her, watched andy have a mediation moment with maddy to over come her fear of bees, and then got our bathing suits on to go swim in our waterfall before we backpacked out of there.  The trip out of there was a little harder, the kids were less excited and tired from swimming, so it seemed like a lot longer then 2.5 miles.  But we survived.  After that we headed to foster falls to go hike to another waterfall and maybe rock climb a bit, but mother nature told us it was time to go home, as we pulled up to the hike it started pouring rain and thundering, so instead of pushing the kids through another adventure we headed home and ended our great weekend with eating out at cracker barrel and heading home to have much needed showers and watch a movie. It was truly the perfect weekend.  Hope to have many more just like it.