Rainy Days at Camp

I know that in reality it hasn't rained every single day this summer, but recently, it sure has seemed like we've received more than our fair share! Last summer we were begging for rain because it was so dry. This year we can't get rid of the rain - the ground is so saturated, that even a small shower looks like a flood because the water has no where to go, and it creates pools and streams that sometimes look like they're flowing up hill because there is so much water!!!

We have 2 bridges that you have to cross if you come to the camp the "main way" from town. Late Wednesday night, one of our staffers was coming back from Sonic and didn't realize how deep the water was over the first bridge. To make a long story short, she tried to cross it, got stuck, and the water was reportedly up to the steering wheel at one point. Luckily there were guard rails on that bridge (on the 2nd bridge, there aren't guard rails so she just would have floated over). Thankfully everyone in the car was safe (they got out, the car was towed back to camp, etc) but the car is totalled, and our staffer was pretty shaken up. (Brings to mind the lecture I got from my dad one day about the power of flowing water - even a little bit of water).

(We're definitely glad we have the roof on the back deck - this summer it has definitely paid off since we love to sit out there and listen to the rain and relax outside without getting wet.

...although we did find that we have a couple small leaks where the seams of the roof are. But we'll get those fixed soon...or we won't sit under them and just enjoy the rest of the deck. :)

Here's looking out our front door. The rain just keeps coming! Anyone know how to build an ark?

That's why we spend more time on the back deck. Better view, and we don't think about all the water running under our house, etc.

Our dogs are such chickens when it comes to thunder and lightening. It's the only time we see Flurry show fear. (Chessy always looks worried, but she's slightly neurotic).

(Chessy had to have a turn in Paul's lap, too).

Family of 12...(plus 2 dogs)

Paul and I have 10 "children" this summer. Their names are Rodgers, Jong-seok, Sarah, Andrea, Meredith, Aaron, Curry, Ashley, Sarah, and John. (Yes, we named 2 of them Sarah - we just really liked that name).

Okay, so we're not really their parents. But when the camp staff has "family nights", we all get together and act like a family...sibling rivalry and all. :)

A fun mini-trip that we got to take with them a couple weeks ago was to see the Round Rock Express minor league baseball team play. (I don't know much about baseball teams, but from what I can tell, they are the minor league team that feeds into the Houston Astros, and I think their mascot is a fast train which is kinda lame in my opinion, but better than some other choices I guess).

We had a really good time, despite the rain. It rained the entire way from Giddings to Round Rock (outside Austin), but over the diamond, it was sort of like a bubble poked through the clouds and kept the game from being cancelled. I'll admit that some of us were in improvised rain coats for the first 30 min or so, but then it cleared up and they played all 9 innings. It was great!

The home team made a great effort and were winning for most of the innings until the 7th when the other team pulled ahead. And it was over from that point on - we never recovered and lost. But they still showed fireworks after the game anyway, so that was fun.

How might one who rarely cooks at home feed 12 people you ask? Well, it's kinda complicated, but last night we had Cinnamon and Lime Chicken Fajitas (which actually turned out really good), and Cherry Berries on a Cloud (even though I had to make the meringue part twice). The first meringue turned out great, but I left it in the oven overnight as instructed, and forgot about it on the next day. Then I pre-heated my oven to 400 degrees while it was still inside and burned it up. Hence making it twice.

I was kinda nervous about having enough food for everyone - especially the guys. But the whole group probably only ate half of all the food we prepared, so now Paul and I have tasty leftovers for this week - even better!

(In her dreams)

We decided to have a surprise birthday theme even though it wasn't anyone's birthday. It was fun - we had hats, and blow things (that didn't make noise, so we had to make the noise ourselves, but that was fun, too). And we had crazy twisty straws, which I always loved as a kid.

Flurry didn't appreciate the hats, but Chessie actually kept hers on for almost the whole night. I was very impressed.

And of course we took advantage of the back deck being finished - roof and all. It even started raining at the end of the dinner, but we were able to stay outside and enjoy the sound of it hitting the roof for a while.

We couldn't hear each other talking though, so eventually we went indoors to eat dessert.

Then most of us stayed to play Jenga Truth or Dare, which of course was mostly dares. So we invaded David and Jennifer's house (next door) and did ballerina twirls, and stole an item of food - all while David and Jennifer had their own extended camp family over for supper. And we invaded Billy and Janice's house to sing the national anthem, which I think sort of perplexed their family as well. The rain/mud made everything interesting - we kept telling everyone to take off their shoes before invading each house. Lots of fun. We ended the evening by watching "What About Bob" because several of our kids hadn't seen it before.

All in all it was a great family night. Even though we discovered that one of our kids doesn't know the words to the Star Spangled Banner. How do you get through elementary school, middle school, and high school and miss learning that? I think a parent-teacher conference is in order so that we can address this omission in the school curriculum. Then again, it was probably our fault as the parent for not being involved in their schooling and for supplementing the school's efforts. Oh well, maybe we'll do better with the next batch of kids. :)