Caution: Severe Weather Ahead!

The girls and I group-camped this weekend at William O'Brien State Park with a bunch of friends from church. (Isaac took advantage of the weekend alone to work like crazy and catch up on projects around the house!) It was great to have so much time to catch up with friends, and they were all very generous in helping me set up camp, carry things, etc.

Jen and Harry took Elizabeth and her friend for Elizabeth's first canoe ride, and she loved it!

The food was excellent as always - lots of hot dogs, marshmallows, and even steak, pudgy pie cinnamon biscuits, potato packets, and more. Mmmm! I mastered the art of feeding my kids first and then eating everyone else's food when they were done cooking.

The exciting part came the second night, when the tornado sirens went off at 11:50pm. I woke Elizabeth, who didn't wake up, so I picked her up and stuck her outside the tent, where she promptly lay down on the grass and went back to sleep. My friend Shannon grabbed Elizabeth, while I came out of the tent with Amelie and the bag I'd packed just in case.

We ran to the car, drove to the shelter, and settled in while the storm hit. It didn't seem too bad, just a run-of-the-mill thunderstorm with heavy rain and spectacular lightning. At 1:20am, they gave us the okay to return to our campsites, saying the severe thunderstorm warning was over and just a little rain might come through.

No sooner had we returned to our tents (it had completely stopped raining, so we didn't even have to get wet - thank You God!) when the second storm hit. Yes, there was a surprise second storm, and it was just as bad as the first if not worse! The rain came down in absolute torrents, and the lightning and thunder never stopped - it was WILD. You could not have heard someone yelling from the tent 10 feet away. I felt pretty confident in our REI tent to keep us dry, and I just kept praying that the sirens wouldn't go off again - I did not want to drag the girls out in that ridiculous rain!

God got us through that second storm just fine. All 5 kids were so exhausted returning to their beds that they slept right through it! One family's tent got wet, but there was plenty of room for them in someone else's tent. And in the morning, the sun (and heat and humidity) came out to dry off our wet things so we could pack up and go home.

All in all, it was a very memorable camping trip and the worst storm I can remember while camping!