Pre trip notes: We’re spending the weekend at Wilderness Shores Ranch with one of our favorite family friends. We got the camper and prepped food on Thursday night. Then packed everything up Friday morning while Kylo was at school. I picked him up at noon and we were on the road after final prep by 1pm. The weather is supposed to be cold for us Florida people; Friday is a low of 37 and high 55, Saturday is low of 33 and high of 61, and Sunday is low of 43 and high of 67. We are so excited for some campfire time. Our friends are staying in a tent so they may end up squeezing in the airstream if the nights become too uncomfortable.
Favorite tip for traveling anywhere with littles: drive during nap times.
The Journey: When we arrived we found our site backed up to some train tracks under a pretty field of oak trees. We set up camp, and explored the grounds. They had a couple tree swings that the kids loved to play on and a big pen of goats that you could go in to feed and pet them. We kept the campfire going for warmth and set up a projector along the side of the airstream so the boys could watch some hot wheels while they played too. We grilled steak and veggie/pineapple kabobs for dinner and did quite a bit of stargazing before beginning the bedtime process.
The next morning we got the fire going as soon as we woke up. Our friends that were in the tent were pretty cold after the night getting down to 37 degrees. We had a slow morning around the campsite, then packed some lunch and headed to Bonnet Springs Park. This park was huge and we probably only covered about a quarter of it. The children’s museum was very cool but we only made it to a few playgrounds and scootering around before we all got tired and wanted to head back to camp.
Once back, we skipped the littles naps today and the moms took the older kids on a hike while the dads bought a huge barrel of firewood and food for the horses and goats.
We fed the animals and the goats went into a frenzy and tore the bags apart. Our kids ran around on the goat playground for a bit longer then we went back for s’more’s before dinner today. (Dinner took too long yesterday so we didn’t get to s’mores before kids bedtime.) Showers were had, 2 square was played, and dinner was done fireside with the kids decked out in glow sticks.
The next morning we slowly packed up, had one last campfire with coffee and saw a couple long horned cows roaming through the sites. The kids ran over to say hello, as we followed after saying slow down… next thing we all turn into a sprint as one cow charges my friend’s little girl! It was terrifying. She was thrown on the ground, we scooped her up and luckily she was completely fine. Just scared. After she calmed down, in no time at all, she wanted to go pet it again. Meanwhile the parents are all still shaking from seeing that go down.
We had one last visit to the goats then headed home to get ready for another school and work week.
