Camping 2010

My not-so-color-coordinated baby.

We stopped a few hours into the driving to have a picnic lunch and let Ezekiel get some energy out. Who goes camping 6.5 hours away with a baby?? I wondered if I was insane . . . more than once. Especially when we had car problems and had to stop to see what was going on. That made it into an 8 hour trip. Yes, I'm still glad we went!

I had been to this spot once before - three years ago. It is probably one of my favorite places on this side of the US. Snow capped mountains and green meadows with wild flowers . . . it is my kind of beauty.

Keeping busy with a carrot while everyone else eats lunch

Luke and I thought this is the cutest little place. It was for sale so we looked in the windows and everything. Luke always says we need to record what I like so that he can build it for me someday. :-) I was like . . . "This is it, Lukie! Small but enough space for kiddos. A loft for the children's bedroom. The kitchen open to the main area so that I can cook and visit at the same time. Most everything we had talked about. It's fun to dream . . . even though most of it will probably never come true. :-)

There is wild life everywhere. Jacob was in heaven.

Jacob eating a giant smore.

Haha! It's hail . . . larger than marbles. We had two big storms pass through in the evenings. Storms such as I had never seen before. Right on top of you thunder and lighting not far away. I was putting dinner on the table the evening the hail came and the sky got that orange tinge to it. I started moving everything under cover pretty quick and once we were huddled together this hail started coming down hard. It left me in awe of my Lord. Is His power ever lacking? Is His arm too short to save? Does He fail to hear? How great is our Savior.

There are so many things that I didn't get pictures of . . .

Luke and I rented a kayak and went out on the lake. I noticed right off that, unlike the paddle boats we had been on the day before, they put the life vest on you instead of throwing them in the back of the boat. Comforting. The man helping us told Luke that he should be in the back because he weighed more. I started laughing hysterically and informed him that there was little difference between us. He didn't seem to know what to say. :-)

We didn't come prepared to get soaked . . . which is pretty much what happened. We started off. I like water. I know how to swim. I have a sense of adventure. But this felt really tippy. I was talking nervously. "Luke, this thing is so going to tip. I thought we rented a boat . . .but we didn't! This is a little peace of plastic that we have to keep upright." I stifled a few screams for the first half hour. Then I was comfortable and we worked together well.

Three years ago when our family camped here I was thinking about Luke . . . a lot. I took time away from work to go on this trip that I had been looking forward to. It took me by surprise that I missed someone I wasn't even really friends with. Seemed crazy and even a little lame. :-) It had started the spring before with him just intriguing me. He was so quiet but once we started working together ever so slightly I picked up on the fact that he was humble, intelligent . . . and he could think for himself. He worked hard and long and I never heard him complain. When he wasn't at work it seemed like he was with his parents and siblings. He sold me on himself without knowing I was even watching. But I was the girl and so I was stuck being sold and thinking - and trying not to think. For seven long months. :-)

It was fun to go back this time and be with him. He seemed intrigued with my confessions of where and when I thought about him back then. I was just in glory having so much time with him . . . which wasn't really happening in the weeks/months leading up to this trip.

If Chris and Jee-Eun had been there the trip would have been completed with a little more drama. (Feel free to comment Jee-Eun . . . I heard from a reliable source that you read this occasionally. :-))