Montgomery Bell State Park 2/59

Continuing our journey of visiting all 59 Tennessee state parks, this weekend we went to Montgomery Bell State Park out near White Bluff. I chose this park because it was the closest park to us that was doing an Easter egg hunt, wanted to try and mix in a kid activity with some exploring.

We got there early and spent some time playing and watching the birds of prey presentation.

About twenty minutes before the egg hunt, everyone decided to line up for the egg hunt.  When I watched them put the eggs out, an hour before the event, I thought there would be tons of eggs for everyone.  I was very, very wrong.

I took this picture ten minutes before we started and people were still arriving... The whole "hunt" lasted about ten seconds. Mila was able to grab half an egg, and Kian found one whole egg.  I convinced him to go over to the playground and pick up some of the ones that were broken after I noticed that the field around up was clear and our chances of finding any in the hoard of people in front of us was slim. This was our first mass egg hunt, and we will never attend another. Afterwards I heard people complaining that parents were pushing kids out of the way and picking up eggs. I did not see that, but I was very surprised at the speed with which the under 4 kids managed to clear the field...

After the egg hunt, we went off to explore more of the park and drove past the cabins.  The cabins looked cool, and had big outdoor fire places. But, Brenden and I both noted that they would not be our first choice to stay as the view is not great.

We ended up parking at a nearby playground (a different one, there were a lot of playgrounds!) and headed out on the wildcat trail.  

The trail was parallel with the road for a bit, had a canyon overlook, went past a lake, crossed over some stairs near a cabin and then seemed to end.  It was a prefect hike for two tired kiddos!

We may go back to Montgomery Bell in the future, but for now we have many more parks to explore!
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Anderson Road Fitness Trail

Or, our first "hike" as a family of four! We are now a family of four! Yay!! It's been amazing and wonderful and I can't believe our little family has grown by one.

Now that our family has grown, and I can walk more than ten feet without feeling exhausted, we really want to make an effort to get outdoors more. Hiking, camping, biking, I want to do it all!

In order to start off easy for this recovering mama, we chose the Anderson Road Fitness Trail which is paved and just over a mile.  While I would probably never visit this trail again, I'm so glad this is the first one we chose because when we passed the 1/2 mile marker, I felt like we had already walked five miles... who knows what would have happened if we had gone on a real hike!

STUD!

Brenden wrangled Kian and Nova while I had sweet girl in the baby sling.

 When you look at the map, most of the trail goes right along  Percy Priest Lake, but in reality you don't have much of a view because of all the trees.  They do have several cut offs with benches where you can go to sit and stare.

After the 1 mile marker, you walk on the road back to the parking lot.  Not ideal with a dog and a stroller. But we made it or more specifically, I did it! I walked a whole mile without taking a break..what an accomplishment ;) This is just the start though, I can't wait to get out there more and push myself. 

Some Big News!

Kian had some big news to share! We're so excited for our new addition, and to see Kian in his new role as a big brother. We are already trying to teach him about the baby and working on sharing, which is quite difficult with a toddler but he is always learning!