Lawson Style Camping

When I think of camping, this is what I imagine:

Tents, cooking over a fire, no AC, no outlets for hair dryers, "roughing it," if you will. That's the type of camping my father instilled in me.

So when Wade and his family invited me camping for the first time, that's what I had in mind. However, their idea of camping is way different than mine. This is what they imagine:

AC, shelter, cable television, microwave, basically a home away from home. Boy have I been missing out!

So far this year we've been to a few different places in the camper. Doesn't matter where we go, I always have a great time!

White Lake

My first trip with them was to White Lake. I had never been there before but had heard a lot about it and was really excited to go. We took the kayaks and went out on the lake Saturday and Sunday and each night there was a gorgeous sunset. It was a relaxing weekend at a very beautiful place. 

Steele Creek 

Next stop, Steele Creek Campground. Another beautiful relaxing weekend, this time in the mountains. We had the camper right next to the creek and spent a lot of time just sitting and enjoying the creek. We did take a quick day trip to Linville Falls.

Asheville 

July 4th week, the Lawsons were staying the week in Asheville and I joined them for a few days. Don't know if anyone remembers that far back, but the week of July 4th was miserable with all the rain. It was no exception in Asheville either. We did get a day or two that wasn't too bad and we were able to go hike and explore a little bit. We also went white water rafting, which was a blast.

Tabor City

In between Myrtle Beach and Oak Island is the small town of Tabor City. Other than the campground, there isn't a whole lot there. However, the campground has enough to keep you occupied: ponds for fishing, pools, water slides, a jump pad, putt-putt course, homemade creamery, horse shoes, and the list goes on. We enjoyed it here a lot and went back for Labor Day weekend.  One day we spent in Oak Island and on our second trip back we went deep sea fishing.

Camping with the Lawson's is something I've really come to enjoy and I'm looking forward to our next trip! 

Clearwater, Florida

It all started one day at the gym...I was talking about mermaids (cause they're one of my favorite things ever) and Wade told me about this place in Florida that had LIVE MERMAIDS! He informed me it was close to Clearwater, Florida which was one of his favorite places. I of course responded with: "You wanna go?!?", so I then asked off for a long weekend at work. I had forgotten all about it until the next schedule was put up showing that I had the weekend off at the end of the month, so we booked a hotel and went! It was quite a drive, but definitely worth it! For those of you who haven't been, Clearwater needs to be on your bucket list. It was a nice needed get away in a beautiful paradise. 

We played putt-putt one night. Needless to say, I've yet to beat Wade in a game of putt-putt...

Clearwater, Florida is also home to Winter the dolphin (from Dolphin Tale). And since I'm a fan of that movie, of course I drug Wade to go back there so I could see her and all her friends.

 

 Winter with her prosthetic tale. 

 The boat house from the movie. 

We also took a day trip to Tarpon Springs. Its suppose to be a neat little Greek community with  sponge docks and other neat touristy attractions. We may have been in a bad location or something, but it wasn't what I was expecting and I probably won't go back.

 Last, on our way home, we stopped to see the mermaids and kayak the river in Weeki Wachee Springs.  The live mermaids were entertaining, but kayaking on the Weeki Wachee River was by far my favorite thing. It was absolutely breath taking. Not to mention we got to kayak along side a manatee!

Manatee from underwater... 

And from above. Right beside Wade. 

We had a great time and already have another trip booked to go back! Looking forward to it. 

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Eighty one days ago I blogged about my half marathon. That seems like just yesterday, but really it was two and a half months ago and I've been super busy since then doing tons more things. Since then I've been to the beach, visited Florida, been "camping" with the Lawson's several times, ran in the Glow Run 5k, been to a couple of concerts, and planned more exciting events for the upcoming months. I've been so busy with these things, I've not really had the time nor energy to blog about them. Hopefully I can get caught up....

Diva Half

Seems like all I've been doing lately is running, literally. The past month has consisted of races, but I've had such fun, however, I'm ready for a break next weekend. 

The weekend after my mud run, I had signed up for another race in Myrtle Beach, the Diva Half Marathon. This was my first half marathon, 13.1 miles. Some reasons I picked this for my fist half was because mostly women run in this race and it's not quite as competitive, plus it's at the beach. Initially when I had signed up for it in December, I figured I would have plenty of time to train for it and would be serious about it. All of a sudden April 1st was here and I realized that I was not nearly prepared for it has I had been hoping, but nonetheless I was going to finish it if I had to crawl across the finish line. 

Friday morning before my race, I started to get sick, go figure. After work, Adam, Wade, and I packed up the car and headed towards the beach anyway. I stocked up on medicine once we got down there. 

 

Saturday we woke up, got ready, and headed out to pick up my race packet. At the packet pick up site, there were tons of vendors and women everywhere. After picking up my packet, we headed out for some food and shopping at the outlets. 

Sunday morning came super early considering the race started at 7am. Adam and Wade were such good sports about everything. They woke up early with me and were my paparazzi during the race. I'm a super lucky girl to have those two as friends. 

Drag Queen that was the host of the after party. 

I wasn't feeling my best at the start of the race, but eventually I got into a groove and it wasn't too bad. At mile 6 I kinda got a bit disheartened. Six miles is a good ways to run, and then to realize you're not even half way finished is discouraging. But like I said earlier, I was determined to finish one way or the other. It was empowering to see all the women who were in it (3,000+) and all the support along the way was encouraging as well. 

For those of you who think you can't do it- here's a ten year old that did it! 

After two hours and thirty six minutes, I finally crossed the finish line. It was a great feeling. I've already signed up for another half marathon in October. Who knows, maybe this time I'll actually have trained for it. 

My biggest fans!