Camping Fun

On Thursday we loaded up the van with five kids (Faith brought her best friend Sarah with us) and headed to Starved Rock for a camping weekend.

We had watched the weather reports for the weekend and knew in advance we could be in for some weather. But that is part of camping. I accept this. But you see, we had also encouraged our friends to meet us up there with their kids on Friday and have their first tent camping experience with us. So, for their sake, I was praying it would be beautiful.

Thursday was just hot and sticky. The hot was fine but the sticky was unbearable. But we were at a KOA so there was a pool and showers, I was fine.

Mike and I set up the tents for the kids and we converted the van into a sleeping station for him and me. It really was very comfortable and not as sticky as a tent, I thought.

Friday was gorgeous. Perfect weather. Mike spent a good part of the day teaching the kids how to cast properly and they ate it up!!! Our friends came, we made hamburgers over the fire and hot dogs for the kids. Ate S'mores and played cards. It was a great day.

Then Saturday was a little rougher. It rained on and off but the kids were troopers and fished just about the whole day. They loved it!! And Sarah even caught her first fish!!! That evening we had chicken tacos, S'mores, and doughboys for dessert and of coarse more cards.

Sunday we woke up and it was a little threatening out so the guys started taking down tents quickly. I cooked pancakes and bacon and right as I was about to start the eggs it started to rain. We pulled everyone into the eating tent when it started to really rain. And I mean RAIN!!! Oh my, I have never been so wet outside of a pool or shower and certainly not in my jeans!!!!! At first we tried to just load up the rest of the stuff with out getting too wet but quickly realized that between the calf deep water puddles and torrential downpour it was no use. Luckily, the kids had gone down to the park after breakfast and before the big rain downpour so they were safe under a shelter when the big storm hit.

We finally got everything loaded and picked up the kids and headed home. They were sad because we were supposed to go and hike around starved Rock state park but it just wasn't meant to be.

Shortly after we arrived home and unloaded much of the stuff from the very wet van Faith noticed a stain on the floor in front of the fridge. I opened the fridge door to be smacked in the face with a horrible odor and warmth. Our fridge had decided that this would be a great weekend to say goodbye. Everything in it was gone. Luckily we had emptied the very full ice cube compartment before we left into our cooler. I can't even imagine what that would have been like.

We have: a new fridge coming tomorrow, the old one cleaned out, three bags of soiled food in the garbage, four tired kids, 12 loads of wet clothes to launder, and one happy dog.

Kristen