Camping

Last weekend we went camping at Stone Mountain with some great families from our church. (When I say "we" I mean I did all the shopping/prep/packing/unpacking, Erik did all the camp duties/activity supervision/tent sleeping with the three big kids. Caleb and I came home to sleep Thursday night--if you know me well you know staying home alone was a bigger sacrifice than sleeping on the cold hard ground!) After a fun Friday of hiking, picnicking, and playing with everyone we planned to give it a go with all six of us in the tent the second night. We had just gotten the kids all settled in and off to dreamland (sometime after 9 pm), when one of the guys walked up with a weather.com radar image displayed on his Iphone and said, "Does this red band of severe thunderstorms heading our way look like a problem?" As lightening flashed in the distance we stood in the middle of the camp site discussing our options. Suddenly the temperature dropped several degrees and the wind picked up. As the first big drops of rain began to fall we dashed between the tent and the van buckling our dazed children into their seats. I headed home to get everyone in bed while Erik packed most of our stuff into his car (and helped some others load up as well), getting drenched in the process. In retrospect we probably could have stayed and just gotten a little wet. But at the time, the thought of high winds knocking a whole stand of pine trees over on our tent made leaving seem like the wiser course. (One family did stay and no trees fell on them.) Sleeping in our soft dry beds until 7:30 the next morning (the latest we have ever slept in as a family!) also vindicated our decision in my mind :) All in all, a very fun weekend; we hope to do it again in the Fall.