Sticks and Stones.....and Thunderstorms

With two little ones, recreational use of the nearby lakes is not boating, swimming or fishing, but stone throwing, stick sword fights, and crawdad collecting.

Gary has been asking us to go camping or to the lake for the past week or so. It's the first time he had asked to go to the lake, so I asked, if he wanted to go swimming, on a boat, or fishing, to all he replied, "no." Then I asked what he wanted to do at the lake. Throw rocks in the water--of course! Friday morning I told him if he got dressed, cleaned up his toys and put his shoes on we would go to the lake. About 7 pm we finally got the toys picked up and shoes on and we all set off for the lake.

As we started setting up camp, it got a little cloudy. Rain is so rare that a nice sprinkle to cool us off sounded nice. But, just after the tent was all set up the wind picked up, so I headed to the tent to sprawl out and keep it grounded. The kids quickly joined me, and Ionut finished cooking dinner--(mostly) before running for cover with us in the tent. It was a wild storm with wind in all directions blowing huge raindrops so hard it pushed a mist through the walls of our tent.

The lighting would light up the tent and the thunder had the kids crying and wanting to go home. We said a little prayer that we would be safe and that the kids wouldn't be scared. They calmed down, but the lightning and thunder kept getting closer until it seemed right on top of us. That's when daddy ordered a full retreat into the van; the tent would have to fend for itself. Once safe inside the van we broke out the graham crackers and chocolate icing grandpa had handed us on the way out the door--about the best kind of smores in that situation.The kids loved it and got chocolate all over the car while daddy pulled out seats and spread out some sleeping bags just in case. About an hour later we made it back into the tent, but it continued to rain. At one point during the night Sara got scared and Gary offered to pray. "Hevnly Father," he prayed "Sara not be scared, lake fro rocks, camping, rain, bless Jesus, amen." Sara slept fine--at least until the sun came up. Around 6 am we got the wake-up call from Gary. "It's time to throw rocks in the lake!

We forgot about the frosting, but Sara didn't she made her own breakfast!

It stayed cloudy and cool long enough for us to catch half a water bottle of crawdads, get a bit of wading in, explode a non-swimming diaper, and have fun just being together.

Proof that I was there--just usually behind the camera. I did have fun wading in the water and playing "sharks & sea horses" with Gary while Daddy & Sara took down camp.

On the way home Gary wanted to climb a mountain.

Thank goodness for a Daddy who can be convinced to hike on hot red rock in 100 degree weather--carry you to the top...

and back again!