Camping Trip

Since we were so disappointed when at the last minute Kevin's family couldn't come, we wanted very much to find something fun to do instead. So we decided this would be a good weekend to try camping with the kids! Since it was just a trial run we stayed very close to home, but we did want to leave the back yard because I thought it would confuse Eli more if we were still home but not sleeping in our beds. And overall, it went really well considering the kids are still so small! Eli did pretty good at entertaining himself kicking around balls while we were busy getting the tent set up. Once the camp fire was going he understood right away that it was hot and not to touch it. We kept him up later until it was actually starting to get dark, and he understood that the tent was his bed and he stayed right in his area. We all slept right in a row in our small tent, and it worked just fine. When Eli woke up in the morning and saw us all there too, he kept saying, "Wow. Wow." The hardest part of it all was Hannah. She usually falls asleep at the last feed of the day, but she didn't and without a rocking chair it was really hard to get her to sleep. But she finally did and then she woke up twice in the night, though she doesn't normally wake at all. So that was a little bothersome but fortunately she was laying right next to me so I could just nurse her for a little bit and she'd be right back to sleep. It was a GREAT campground--very clean, lots of fun things for children (even though Eli was a little too small for most of it), a swimming pool (that wasn't set up yet), and even mini golf. It definitely wasn't quite the relaxing experience it used to be without kids, but I still think we'll try again this summer!

Getting set up

Hannah just hung out in her seat for forever.

Eli's exploring the tent.

This magna-doodle comes in handy sooo many times! Great for cars and restaurants!

Check out all this fun stuff!

I took Eli to the sand volleyball court to play in the sand.

Back home and unloading the van.

Update on the flooding: Kevin's sister and her husband got the water cleaned up out of their basement. They'll have to replace the carpet and a few other things, but overall it wasn't terrible. The rivers seem to have crested and the water levels are going back down, but there is still a long ways to go. Continue to pray. A lot has been lost and a lot of lives affected.