Cacapon State Park - Luke’s Dream Birthday Celebration!

A few weeks later and .. the winter blues 🥶 got to us!! We couldn’t take staying home another weekend!!

My middle son Luke was a few days from turning 5.. Last year I promised him a bigger party for his 5th birthday (last year I was pregnant, miserable sick, exhausted ..) Who would of known we would be on high alert for COVID a year later, and current circumstances a big party in the winter just can’t happen 😥... David and I had to break this news. However, we had a back up plan that we knew he’d love! Yes! We had decided we were going on a weekend getaway, but we were leaving the plans up to Luke!

We ask Luke where he wanted to go, and what he would like to do for his birthday.. anyone want to guess his answer!? 🤔 Of coarse.. he wants to stay in a log cabin with a wood fire, a chimney, and in the mountains.. but not Tennessee this time because he don't feel like riding that far 😂 Usually, I like to search up some places, but this time I was busy with Boomer, (The boys have given Lynlee this nickname..you never know when she's going to let off a BOOM), and studying for my ONS chemotherapy/immunotherapy certification. Soo I left the part of finding a place to go to David!

He searched and searched for cabins around multiple areas within 1-2 hours of our home. Everything was booked, and it was not easy to find a wood burning fire place inside the cabin! He pulled up the map and started looking around state park areas in West Virginia when he stumbled upon Cacapon State Park in Berkeley Springs, WV!

Ok ...next to find out if these cabin rentals are on our budget and what do they include?? They checked off Luke's list pretty well! Click the link below to check out everything Cacapon State Park has to offer!

Cacapon State Park Cabin Rental

✅ 2 bedroom cabin - we were not able to get a log cabin last minute, BUT it was built of wood!

✅ They provide bed linens, towels, furnished kitchen! YAY for MOM, winning!

✅ Wood Burning Fire Place

✅ They provided the wood in a hut outside the cabin! Getting better and better!

✅ Chimney

✅ In the Mountains!

✅ 4 hour drive..best we could do here to!

✅ Hiking Trails

YAY! we booked it on Monday and we were leaving on Friday!

Luke wants a camping birthday cake, and he says we are NOT BUYING one! Mom, can we please make it!? .. I don’t have the heart to tell him we are kinda time crunched here so we will squeeze it in somehow!. Thankfully, he likes simple flavors nothing fancy for him! All he wants is a vanilla cake with chocolate icing... BUT it has to have a tent with a sleeping bag, fire pit, trees, logs, and rocks..!?

Thursday morning we bake the vanilla cake.. then off to wash laundry, and start packing so we can enjoy the weekend away! We are all a little extra excited because we had been on quarantine for the past 3 weeks, and our last trip was in November. At this point we do not care what the weather looks like for the weekend! ❄️⛅️☀️ We packed Carhartt bibs & jackets, Muck boots, winter gloves, hats, and plenty clothes to layer up. Made a grocery store run for all of our goodies. Loaded up the food bag so we would not have to go out for breakfast or lunch Saturday, and snacks of coarse!

Luke's Menu:

Breakfast : Cereal and Greek Yogurt

Lunch: Hot Dogs to cook over the fire!

Afternoon Snack: you guessed it.. S'mores.. can't have a fire without S'mores!

Dinner: eating out ..we'll find a unique place to eat I'm sure!

Friday morning.. time to make our fondant decorations for the cake! I did cheat here because we are on a time crunch.. yep I bought Wilton pre-made white fondant from Wal-mart! (if you know me, I prefer any baking I do is homemade, mainly because I enjoy it..but sometimes that's just not possible!) The cake and the icing was homemade..we could not cheat here.

Oh no what happened to the day!? We wanted to leave around 2-2:30pm... it is now 2:30 and I'm just finishing the cake.. still need to clean up the kitchen and finish getting clothes together! ahh! ok so David and I kick it into gear... Thankfully, he cleaned up the kitchen while I finished packing! GO TIME.. 4:00PM we are all loaded into the truck and ready to go! I put a few curls in my hair, put a hat on, & no make up.. I am getting used to that after baby number 3! It'll be bedtime when we get there anyway! And we are off for a 4 hour drive.. Boomer has been up most of the day..perfect!!

The weather was good, roads were clear. What a Beautiful drive through the Mountains! (it was dark some of the way but the way home we saw what we missed on the way) We did not make any stops this trip. The kids were excellent! Until we were about 10 miles out.. Boomer was ready to eat, and Luke needed a pit stop, but we all decided we could make it (Except Boomer she had to cry for a few mins) 8:15pm we were in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia!

Pictured above is the Cabin we rented! It was very clean inside and perfect size to feel warm & homey! The boys wanted to take their sleeping bags to cozy up in. However, they provided some soft, warm, blankets they curled up in by the fire. My only recommendation is to bring your own pillow.. there was nothing to them, and be prepared the water for showering in NOT a hot shower like I get at home! The water was warm not cold by any means but not overly warm at all! Keep your fire going and make sure the furnace is running when you shower! (if it is winter time.. I suppose this would not be an issue during warmer weather).

Check - in was quick and easy.. we quickly unloaded our luggage into the cabin. Within a few minutes Luke had David and Hayden at the fire wood hut loading them up with wood.. it was time to get the fire going! The wood was wet and it didn't burn well, but it looked good while the fire starters were burning! Well mom brought 4 fire starters thinking that should be good.. they are now gone...We'll try again tomorrow.

Saturday morning! This is the day we have all of Luke's plans that he has waited for. First off the ranger was refilling the fire wood huts, so David and Luke ask if he had some dry wood we could use for the day. They fixed us right up, no problem! We all had some breakfast then we were off to town to town to find more fire starters. AND I wanted to do my usual... find a unique little coffee shop in downtown Berkeley Springs! ☕️

We found the Fairfax Coffee House. David and I got some BLT's (we decided cereal, yogurt, and hot dogs were not going to get us through the day! 😂 I ordered a White Mocha with Hazlenut hot .. mine was excellent! Hayden enjoyed a caramel iced coffee. David was not impressed.. they did not make any fruit smoothies or vanilla beans!? (He does NOT like coffee, no matter how you make it or flavor it!) So the girl taking orders says they have this fruity tea? I say yea sure he'll take one of those iced... well it was still warm and he was not a fan of fancy warm tea .. Not saying it wouldn't be good to others but it was not his thing! However, he did think the BLT was awesome.

During the process of me waiting for our food/drinks.. David had the 3 kids in the vehicle..he decided to get Lynlee out of her seat while they were waiting.. and there it was BOOMER! As I was walking out with our drinks there is David trying to figure out how to contain the mess that was exploding out the front, back, and sides of the diaper! I'm kind of laughing because it's not me that found this one! He had it handled so I went back to grab our sandwiches. Now my 10 minute coffee stop has turned into 30 minutes.. Luke is ready to get his fire going to cook some hot dogs! Heading back to our cabin we stop at an Ace Hardware for more fire starters..now we are good to go!

We got the fire burning good with our dry wood and fire starters.. Luke is all excited now! We watched the fire burn down then Luke and Hayden cooked their hot dogs over the fire. YUM!

The sun is shining and its so pretty outside ...it's time to find a trail to hike through the trees and snow to see some beautiful views!

Boomer loves the outdoors to! We brought her little snow ball outfit...ok actually it's a lamb Halloween costume from Old Navy that was on sale for $7..🤷🏼‍♀️😂 I thought it was perfect, not too thick, but fleece enough to be warm! And my Ergobaby Baby Wrap carrier that she loves napping in (they are so soft!)

And now we are all bundled up and ready to take in some winter sunshine! ❄️☀️

I found myself trying to hike up and across the side of a mountain in snow half way to my knees and a 16 pound baby on front of me! Luke says I can't walk up the mountain any further! He is the smallest and the snow is making the hike a little more tiring.. so David now has 38 pounds on his back finishing the hike to the top. AND then it drops straight back down.. If I could of gotten my phone to Hayden safely I would of had him get a picture of David and I hanging on to each other and trees trying to get down... it was a fun hike! The trail really would not of been a difficult without the snow, however, it was deep enough you could not see the ground to know if there were holes, sticks, rocks!? I do take extra precaution with little Boomer hanging on for the ride! She was sleeping away at this point did not have a care in the world!

Once we were down off of the mountain we walked the park road back around a pond with a nice view! We were trying to get a better picture when we found a nice area of rocks for the boys to climb around on. The boys also found some pine cones to gather up. Hayden and Luke remember starting a fire with dry pine needles during a camping experience in Georgia.. so I'm guessing they are thinking similar here!?

Luke, Boomer, and I take the park road back to the cabin. Hayden and David took another hiking trail to get back to the cabin. Soon as we get back inside the cabin.. Luke throws his pine cones into the fireplace! Yep that's why they got them.. to restart the fire for the afternoon! We put a few more logs on to warm up after our afternoon outside. I did not need to warm up after that hike!

Yay! It's time for Smore's!! Just plain Smore's today for Luke.. Grahams, Hershey Bars, and Regular Marshmallows. I like to fancy it up sometimes adding strawberries, Reese cups, Ghirardelli Chocolates with caramel, mint, or raspberry!? you know all the goodies... BUT Luke is like his Dad .. simple and easy is the best. I love that about them.. Hayden and I, we like to experiment and try something a little more extravagant sometimes..however, I really enjoy being simple just as much!

Mountain hiking worked up our appetite! Time for dinner..while we were out looking for coffee and fire starters this morning we saw the Canary Grill overlooking Berkeley Springs. First thing we do is research the kids menu.. make sure they have things the kids would eat... Just facing the facts if the kids are not happy then dinner is ruined before we start! Luke chose Mac & Cheese (his fav), and Hayden had a grilled cheese with onion rings. I had the Carolina pulled pork sandwich with no bun and a side of sweet potato fries... their sauce for the fries was sweet with a little spicey YUM! 😋David went for the fish and chips meal that he says was good.. he says everything is good just to be honest!

Canary Grill

OK we have been out of the cabin for a little over an hour it is time to get back! Because Luke does not care about exploring the town.. he is ready for more fire🔥..we have had hours of it today.. but its just not enough!! There is also a vanilla cake with chocolate icing waiting on us!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Luke, Happy Birthday to you!

We are all exhausted after a day full of Birthday Fun! Time for bed so we can travel home in the morning..

And yes it decided to snow early in the morning.. so the ride home was a little slicker than the way there! However, it was so worth it.. the snow, mountains, views made it a beautiful drive! 🏔

Photo of the Cacapon Lodge that is currently under construction for a remodel that sounds pretty awesome! I’m sure we will have to go back once it is finished to check it out!

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Disclaimer: My full throttle blogs are for entertainment purposes only. These are my families stories to share for fun, and our opinions only. I am not giving professional advise or recommendations. Thank you for reading!