The beginning of our relaxing, fun memories started in the 90’s. Our family was growing, but our income was not.

We had just moved into our first home and we now had a mortgage to go along with the luxury of 3 bedrooms. We were living day to day and week to week, getting by. We longed to spend some time together on weekends, to escape the daily routine and monotony of the same old same old. We longed to enjoy a vacation, a time where we could get away, relax and feel the air and deeply breathe. What could we do? We all loved the outdoors, so we decided we wanted to do something out of the inside. However, where would we go? Where could we go that we could afford?  Where would we stay? Hotels were out of the question with our increasing numbers!  Our many blessings were additional charges that we just could not afford. Somehow, the state parks came up. “Wow”, we thought, maybe this was it.

We acquired a state park book and began flipping through.  Fishing, boating, swimming, hiking, history learning and camping were enticing us as we looked. From the beach to the mountains and places in between, we were starting to plan our stay. However, what would it cost us to stay overnight? We had more than the average size family at this point.  Imagine our excitement when we learned that all of our minor children were the same price! This was for us! So off we purchased our first LARGE oversized tent and ventured to Douthat State park. Oh, the blast we had! AND the memories we took.

Since that beginning visit, we have annually visited one of the parks in Virginia.  AND every year, we have taken with us such great memories. Those memories are often shared by our older kids now, years later.

“Do you remember when, in the middle of the night, Matthew screamed “it’s a bear” at Bear Creek Park? We all had such a hard time controlling our laughter when we found out the growling was actually Dad snoring!” 

“Remember when we were sitting on the road and talking with the other kids that were camping, Mom. You saw lights coming and thought a car was coming on the road and panicked and tried to make us move. We knew the car was on the main road and not the camping road. Remember?”

Today, we are still making memories thanks to the Virginia State Parks. Now we are enjoying family time with our newest little ones, our grown kids, AND our grandkids.  We all enjoy our stay and cannot wait for our annual visit! Thanks for providing to our family a wonderful place to renew, to recharge, to share and to make precious memories.

The Stanley Family