Summer Fun
As a mom the summers do not really slow down. It actually speeds up for me. My littles are already in a routine of waking up before 6am because let’s face it, why in the world would they actually sleep in? I never did any sleep training for any of my babies so I have no clue if that would have worked or not. When you have a house as busy as ours I don’t think sleep training would have mattered. Here it is, by 8AM Im writing my blog post after I have already showered one little because he woke up from peeing the bed, fed all of the littles their morning, “before breakfast snack”, Yes you heard that right, a before breakfast snack. What it is, is a yogurt squeeze. I put them in the bottom drawer in the fridge that way they can reach them without me actually having to get it for them. This small change in our routine has saved my sanity to some extent. I have already cleaned yogurt up off the floor because my youngest squeezed the tube too hard and got it all over, and have let the dog out because she was yodeling. This is just a small glimpse into the busyness that my life consist of.
One Week ago I took my three oldest kids to Lake McConaughey for a youth church activity. As a youth leader I was super excited to experience this opportunity with my kids but was nervous being in charge of other peoples children. Would they even listen to me or respect me, were thoughts that ran through my mind. Aside from my gear being used without me really knowing about it, the trip went fairly smooth. There were two storms that rolled through, and the last one over half the campers left, but we hunkered down and stayed the last night.
The first night we got there I was determined to have the coolest set up. Leaders were not to bunk with the youth so I had my own little 3 person dome tent, but in all reality it just fit me with my cot. I set up a EZup on the outside of my tent so I had an area to chill when not in my tent. I then strung lights and staked down a blanket and mat to walk on. On the front corners just right outside my pop up I put four solar lights that would light up the front entrance of my campsite and two tiki torches to help with the bugs.
The second day we spent all day at the beach. My two daughters stayed out on one of the boats all day long, while my oldest son, did what he does best, disappears and hung out with the other kids. So there I was left to hang out with all the other youth who stayed at the beach. It was great to get to know the other kids from the other wards and get to know the kiddos from my ward even better. I got our paddle boards inflated and decided to go out on my board for a little bit. it was so relaxing to be out all by myself. to lay in the sun and just float. No hearing the constant screams from my littles or fighting siblings, cleaning up messes spilt, or changing dirty diapers. This is kind of where my mom guilt creeps in. I felt guilty that my lovely husband was at home holding down the fort while I was out having fun with our older kiddos. He had to take time off work to stay home with them so I could go. Boy I cannot wait until the day come that the two of us are able to vacation together. The afternoon rolled around and that is when the first storm came through. High winds were pushing people out further in the lake and one of our leaders who is a very avid paddle boarder had to be rescued as she was trying to paddle back against the wind. One of the boats went out and picked her up and everyone got back to camp safe.
The third day we were at Lake McConaughey was another beach day. This time I was able to go out on one of the boats. It was so much fun. I actually tried wake boarding, which didn’t go very well. It was soooo much harder than I ever expected. I could not get up out of the water. after so long on the boat I started to get motion sick. The stop and go then the waves smashing into the boat was a little much for this inlander. After arriving back at the beach I had to take it easy for a bit because it felt like I was still out on the water. My girls are so sweet and they helped take care of me by getting me water and making me lunch. As the dizziness went away I decided to cool off again in the water by swimming and paddle boarding until we all noticed another storm rolling in. This was the big one.
Winds were really strong when we got back to camp. Tents were taken down in fear that they would break in the wind or blow away. This is when other leaders started contemplating packing up and driving home that night. The severity was unknown to me. I knew about the sever thunderstorm warnings but really how bad??? Some said hail others said just strong winds and rain. Well were my tent was set up was under a tree because that’s where the shade was when we originally arrived. Well what I was unaware of at the time was the fact that there was a dead tree branch right above my tent and Sprinter van. I was advised to move the Van and tent incase the winds got so strong that the branch broke. I definitely did not want impaled in the middle of the night if it did break. So I was then faced with the decision. Should we stay or should we go. In order to move my tent, which by the way was completely solid and not moving in the wind, I had to pack up everything. At that rate the thoughts ran through my mind that we should just go as well. To be honest I was annoyed of having to take down my whole set up but in the end it was for the best. Some of the other youth helped were they could in braking down my camp and loading it into the van all over again. That night I ended up sleeping in my van while my girls stayed in one of the other leader’s camper and my oldest son said he was fine sleeping in my tent once we moved it out from under the tree. The lightning that evening light up the sky for miles and was beautiful. I worried some for the tent camper, “ my son”, for they may get washed away. Well we are all home now, safe and dry. We survived the storms of Lake McConaughey. I can’t believe this whole trip I only get a handful of pics.
