Learning to Dance in the Rain: Camping in the Rain ~ Part 1

This year's ten day camping trip was definitely a memorable one. There are so many stories, and so much that I want to remember, and that I want my kids to be able to remember. There is no way I can put it all in just one blog post, so this is the first of many to come. There were lots of challenges, and between bed wetting, lack of sleep, and constant rain, it really could have been miserable. Inspite of all that though, we had so much fun this year and each day brought us something different. I learned things about my kids, saw some changes in Mason, and even received a few flashbacks as well as insights into the future. I haven't laughed so hard in years! We spent time with old friends, friends that we have only known for a few years, and made new friends. Our kids were troopers and never complained once about weather or the cold water, I don't think they really even noticed that it wasn't the same type of camping trip we usually do.

The biggest story of our camping trip this year was the weather! People kept expecting us to pack up and go home early, but there was no way! We experienced everything you can imagine, we had rain everyday, and out of ten days we had two that were decent afternoons to spend at the beach, but we tried hard. If there was an hour or even just a few minutes the kids were playing in the shoreline and we were sitting on the beach. I have never camped where I swam so little. I only went under the water twice this whole trip, and that was to wash my hair because I couldn't wait any longer for the sun to come out to get clean! I was so thankful that I had braided the kids' hair because there is no way I could have gotten it washed. The water did warm up over our time there, the first day that I went in the water literally took my breath away, by the time I went in again, I found that I could actually get used to the water. The kids didn't even mention the cold and played in the water regardless of the temperature.

Our first day we went through the majority of the pants I had packed for the kids because they were wet and dirty from playing in the sand, stepping in puddles, or tripping and falling. During our trip we had two rainstorms that were so intense they caused rivers to flow through the campground, we had one flowing right past our trailer and the Munroes had one flowing through the campfire. In this driving rain I was able to see a GODSTOP. A Godstop is a moment where you see how God blessed you in the day, how he was watching out for you when you hadn't even asked or realised you needed him too. Prior to going camping we had prayed about our trip and even asked God to bless us with an awesome site, preferably a beach site, I know there are more important things to pray for, but that's the awesome thing about God, he loves us enough to care about even the little details in our lives! Anyways, when we got there the Munroes had gotten a great spot and the spots on either side of them were open, they had saved us a site on the one side of them, and said "you know, the other site is bigger but it is a little bit muddy from the water running off the previous camper's tarps." Well, let me tell you, I praised God all week for that little bit of mud, because had it not been there we would have chosen that site, it was a little bigger and had a bonus picnic table on the beach. After our first night of driving rain that site was one enormous puddle, so much so, that it never dried out, all week long it was a huge mud pit. Our site on the other hand, had a river run through it and puddle by our beach campfire but it would dry out within an hour of the rain stopping. Things were wet, but we didn't have mud to contend with.

The biggest difficulty with the weather was trying to get things to dry out, we were constantly pulling things on and off the line and our trailer did start to smell a little like wet dog with all the damp clothes being in it. We also experienced an unprecedented amount of bed wetting and we couldn't get the blankets dry so it was a good thing I had lots of extra in the trailer. I think if we were out there one more day we wouldn't have had enough blankets for the kids. In all of this I could have zipped home for a day to throw things in the dryer or wash some bedding, but it didn't even cross my mind, I was having so much fun that it felt like I was a million miles from home. We kept having people say things like, "I can't believe you are still here when you live so close, we drove six hours to be here and we are thinking of leaving!" For us though, the kids were having fun, we were enjoying ourselves, and anything beats going home to work and housework!

We also had some crazy wind storms! Cheyanne thought they were so much fun, and it's one of the first things she tells people about. The wind blew over our friends' tent, with their stuff in it, broke the Munroe's awning, had us all running into the trailer for cover, and almost knocked a tree on Marty's truck. It was pretty crazy, but in a way, a typical Noisy Creek storm.

One of the other funny stories that came out of this trip was during our second driving rainstorm. The rain was so thick that the water just looked white and we were all sitting under our awning waiting for it to pass. Michael was looking out at the lake and could see something floating in the water with just a touch of orange way out in the distance. It looked like it could be an over turned canoe and a few people in life jackets. Up Michael jumped asking our new friends if they had binoculars, which they didn't. He went over to a site where there was a middle aged couple camping who we knew would have binoculars, and knocked on their camper door. As Michael is standing there and he can hear a bunch of moving a round and it takes a while for the wife to finally come to the door he realises that he has interrupted them in an awkward moment, hahaha, obviously they didn't have kids so they came up with a better way to beat the rain! He explains to her he's worried about this thing in the water and she gave him the key to where the binoculars are kept. A little while later as Michael is looking through them at the water and the guy comes out and is looking with him and they decided it was just a floaty. Once the rain stops though the man was curious and took his little fishing boat way out deep to where the floaty thing had ended up and dragged back this deflated and wet tube that belonged to our new friends, who in their rush to get the boat out of the water during the storm had forgotten that they had left it sitting on the back of the boat. They were pretty lucky considering the tube is worth 3-4 hundred dollars and it was only rescued due to this man's curiosity, and Michael interrupting his afternoon activities, haha. The best part is that at the end of the week he gave us three beautiful fish that he caught because he doesn't love eating them just catching them, guess he doesn't hold a grudge, lol.