Exploratory Trip: Soddy Blue Hole

Instead of the normal playroom play date, some warrior mamas and I took our kids on search of the Soddy Blue Hole yesterday. As a high school kid, this hike was about ten minutes. Since I forgot to calculate the toddler factor, yesterday's trip was neither a failure or success. What a doozie!

The hike is pretty flat and easy. It runs beside the creek, which has several small swimming holes along the way. At one point, we have to cross the creek (insert major toddler adventure and drama). A better term for this hike would be schlep.  We schlepped our kids over the river and through the woods to the big hole which we did go.

We had a four-year-old, two three-year-olds, and a barely two-year-old girl walking with us mamas. Oh, and Fern was on a carrier on my back. Oh, and we had floaties, towels, lunches, and other necessities in tow. 

Eventually my kind friends suggested to stop and eat lunch and reevaluate. We decided to head back. Nap time was fast approaching, and everyone was starting to lose it. 

On the way back, we passed a really stellar blue hole and Burl asked to swim. I really wanted to swim too and have a hard time saying no to adventures. Blue holes are just amazing. My friends decided to head home, so I took my kids to swim.

Let's just call this part the Magic Part. We had such a good time. We slid off of rocks into the water, threw pebbles, one kid crapped her pants, and we swam back and forth to the other side laughing the whole time. The kids loved it. They were so happy for the time that we were there. I promised myself that we would come back one more time before the summer was over. It's just so fun!

Then, from nowhere, a black cloud came over the mountain and we had to sprint out of there. As I was furiously packing up telling Burl that this was an emergency and he had to listen to everything I said (which was not how things went previously), Melissa texted and called me.
Get out! Storms a comin'! 

We made it out alive with 25% of the trip being a very good time. Before I hit the main road, both babies were fast asleep and the rain started to come. 

Again, this trip wasn't a success or a failure. But, we got to play in the woods and swim in this amazing place, so anyone would agree that we had ourselves a good ole time.