rained out!!!!

Suri likes to dig. Our camping spot was the perfect spot for a puppy to play.

Kathryn with Suri...

Evelyn and Mirielle cooking our yummy dinner...rice, cooked at home and warmed up...chicken - marinated and grilled at home, warmed up...and lots of veggies.

Cuteness! She was a good little camper. She slept in the tent with Jonathan, Camille, Charlotte Claire and I. It was a night from...well, let's just say I was ready to go home. Not because of Puppy though, she was good. She did not piddle or poo in that tent, she did get a little silly at 5 am when the kids mistakenly thought they were going to stay awake, but I got ahold of her and held her, pet her, rubbed her tummy, and told her it was okay, until she relaxed and fell asleep, snuggled up to me on my air mattress that had a slow leak...not slow enough. By morning, I was on the ground, but that is Off On A Tangent. Our night started off well, we got into our four tents, two over the limit but the park police didn't seem to care. Then the silliness started. The farting noises from one tent, the laughing from another, the older girls shushing the silly ones, me threatening to come over there and shut them up if they didn't stop right this minute. That was hilarious to them....then there would be five minutes of delicious silence...I would start to drift off, and someone would burp. The laughing and carrying on would ensue, and so it went. I did get up one time and trot over to one tent and threaten to make one of the girls sleep in the van. They were quiet just until I got back into my tent and settled into my bed. Now, this was bad enough, but a guy on the beach earlier had complained to me about some other noisy neighbors the night before, his wife had told the park police on them. This guy was camped across the road, and his trailer lights had been off forever by this time...rrr.

I will spare the details of the rest of the night, but I was like a zombie the next day. A zombie bound and determined to have fun anyway, and not complain that my eyes felt like sandpaper....

Mama Zombie....

Jonathan likes to help build fires. And play in fires.

Charlotte Claire and Camille getting ready to climb the mountain. Char did fine, but Camille needed a piggy-back ride from Mirielle.

The sky started darkening...the wind picked up....there were waves in this little Adirondack lake...hmm, we though, was it going to rain? There is no internet, no cell phone service there, so we had no idea what was coming....

It started to rain. (Here is Emily, before she got too soaked).

We huddled under the 10x10 ft. shelter, eleven of us...and Suri, who was being held by Mali...who had this look on her face because that crack of thunder was CLOSE. Wow....

We kept the flag dry...

The flag was dry. It was the only thing that was dry. The rain came, the wind blew...and we sang all the rain songs we could think of. We laughed, we joked that we were told to build an ark but forgot to, we got wet. And then soaked. Then, it started hailing. It stung the back of my legs, it pinged on the tents. The river that ran through the site soaked the tents, and the bedding got wet. It wasn't so funny anymore. It didn't stop. We had to decide what to do. Ashley was on her way up for a few days, and we couldn't get through to her even on the real phone in the guard house. So...we packed up, in the rain...threw those tents in the vans with no rhyme or reason...and we headed back towards home....to a hotel. After we left the mountain region we got phone service again, and called Ashley...we met up with her in the city a few hours north of here, hugged and talked, and she headed back home with Baxter. We checked into the hotel...to soothe the disapointed kids....it was great, we got an excellent rate, and sneaked four extra people into the room. Well, they did not ask how many people. They just assumed it was the four of us who went in to book the room. Four wet people, with campsite-mud splattered on our feet and lets....brr.

Emily (standing), Camille, Charlotte Claire, Mirielle, and Evelyn in front...in our nice room, warm and dry...we went for a swim before bed, then ate pizza and some salads that Emily got for us. Mali headed home with Suri. We had a good night's sleep...woke up and had an excellent hotel breakfast (the little girls loved it most...those big waffles, danishes dipped in syrup which Camille claimed to invent, tea with too much sugar, juice, and bacon)(I had just an egg and lots of bacon and a yogurt with strawberries)(and two cups of coffee).

Miss Suze thought this was a good way to get back in the van when we stopped for gas...

Mirielle at the gas station...she drove the minivan.

Sonja and Kathryn in the van.

Home. Bliss. Not really. Wet everything. Tents separated from poles, towels and suits all wet and yuck, food to put away....and it is hot here. It was cooler and refreshing in the mountains. Oh well. We made our decision to leave because of the little girls, they were chilled to the bone, shivering. We didn't know how long the rain would last, and then second guessed ourselves because, wah, we didn't want end that camping trip.

Oh well. As I told the girls at the hotel, we should learn to make the most out of life. Instead of thinking of all the things that we would have to take care of when we got home, we should just have fun and enjoy the moments. Tomorrow is never a guarantee. We only have NOW. The little girls are such a good example in how we should live...they get so thrilled about all the little things. The hotel room had a 'fridge! Two huge comfy beds! Two tvs! Isn't the carpet nice, Mama?

So we had an adventure. Mirielle and Evelyn just returned from the laundromat with the bedding, I have to go help them hang it all up to dry. We still have stuff to put away and little girls who want to swim....