camping and birthdays and rain, oh my!

 Can I tell you a story?  23 years ago, I had an eventful summer.  I was expecting my eleventh child.  I was  34 years old, my oldest was 14 (Emily), Abigail was 12, Benjamin was 10...he had gotten in that terrible boat accident in July of that year, he fell off the pontoon boat and was hit by the propeller...way up in the Adirondacks, good thing they had a good, although tiny, hospital with an excellent trauma surgeon...Ben had 106 stitches, infection from the lake water, oh he was in shock.  Paul still won't talk about it.  He was definitely in shock.  But anyway.  Little Benjamin survived with a whole mess of scars, and thrived. (But:  That very week, we had a campsite reservation at a park up in the Adirondacks, the camper was completely packed, we were ready to roll the very next day...Paul had taken little Benjy up for a boy's campout, and was supposed to come back the next morning, hitch up the 35 ft camper, which was all packed, to the 15 passenger van...). (I do marvel that I was 8 months pregnant with 10 children, and going camping for nine days)...the reservation had to be cancelled...when Paul called me from the hospital to tell me what had happened to Ben, I asked will he be okay?, and Paul said...I don't know.   So there I was.  Not even knowing if he was going to make it, it was bad, he had lost a lot of blood, and the remote campsite was all the way down Long Lake, they had to boat all the way to a town with a dock that the ambulance could meet them at, after driving across the lake to find a camp with a phone...so I had to tell the kids about it, and Aaron, who was 6 years old, said I don't care about Ben, I just want to go camping!, and he cried his eyes out...for the lost camping trip.  Emily was 14, she was a good big sister, she said campout tonight in the living room!  They all dragged their bedding out to have some fun...I was heart sick with worry...I took the cordless phone to bed with me (oh we were cutting edge!)...and I tossed around in my bed like a worm in hot ashes, in agony, worrying.  I pictured Ben dying, I pictured him parked in a wheelchair, I could not bear it.  He was my sunshine-y little bundle of energy...so of course I prayed and I prayed, then next thing I knew, I was waking up to the phone ringing....Paul calling:  Ben was out of surgery, and things looked positive.  The propeller hit his hip, did lots of damage, but if it had hit the stomach, the organ damage!  or if it had hit the spine!   So he was torn up a bit, but the prognosis was promising....

That was also the summer we went to the symphony at a big county park, and a summer storm rolled in really quickly.  No one had cell phones then, so we weren't all checking the radar, it surprised us.  Long story short:  Paul was bringing some of the little ones back from playing on the playground, before the concert started, it was just getting dark, and one of them had a little tantrum about it, she was standing there with her arms crossed, then the thunder started, and people started scattering, and where was she?  Wait, seriously, where WAS she?  She was gone.  She was not anywhere.  It got dark fast, and she wasn't anywhere.  She was two and a half years old, Miss Margaret Cheryl, and she was gone.  I was hysterical.  All the little girls were in matching sundresses, and I showed the symphony members, who were helping us look for her, and one of them yelled I found her!  but it was Kathryn.  They were up there on the stage watching our other children, keeping them busy and strangers were out looking...this venue is along a deep canal, on a lake, and I thought she walked into the water, I was really really upset.  I don't know how much time passed before a police officer showed up with her, a man saw her standing there and scooped her up, brought her to the tollbooth/entrance booth, and they called the police, which I do believe someone did from our end too...but back then, things took longer.   The whole ordeal was awful, horrible, and honestly, at the end of the day, quite embarrassing.  I was hugely pregnant, with a horde of children, and I had lost one.  Thank God she was safe and sound and found, but oh dear, what a night.  

Anyway.  When Evelyn Joy was born, we were supposed to be camping.  We had reserved the year before, and had the best site in the park, right on the water.  Well, we couldn't exactly go camping on my due date, so we gave the site to my sister and her family, they had seven daughters.  We did go visit them when our new baby was two or three days old though...I just sat in the shade and held the baby, while the kids played with their cousins in the sand and went swimming.  I mean, this was the SECOND camping trip that the kids had to miss that summer, poor Aaron!

So this past weekend, we camped at the same park, had the best site, and I tried to tell my story, but my kids have heard it before, and they rolled their eyes.  I'll just blog about it then.  Ha, on here I can tell the same stories, and if you all are rolling your eyes, oh well!

Anyway, our camping trip this past weekend was gorgeous...beautiful weather, very few bugs, clear clean water, lots of sunshine, until Sunday morning...it rained and poured while we were taking down the tents, happy birthday Evelyn!

From our campsite...

Camping coffee...it's worth the air mattress discomfort and having to walk to the bathhouse, it's worth all the camping and the sand and the packing and unpacking.  Camping coffee.  ahhh.

Happy camper.

Camille, Charlotte Claire, Sonja K., and me.

Kathryn Grace came for a visit with Achilles and Rhys...they like Grandpa and the pups...

Sonja and Char are having a Top Dog competition, they had to axe up some wood...I think Sonja won.

Abigail visited us, and snuggled with Mr. Achilles, after he was cleaned up with his jammies on, for the ride home...

Mariel held little Rhys...

Me, Sonja, Abigail holding Achilles, Camille, Evelyn, Char, Kathryn with Rhys, Margaret and Mariel peeking out from the back, and our friend Ashilde, who was visiting from Norway.

Char and Sunny...

And, Evelyn on her birthday...rain!  

But, later, she came over for a visit and I had made a few chicken pot pies..

Okay, it looks sloppy, but I don't like to trim it, and waste all the best part, the buttery crust!  

And a birthday cake!

Boxed yellow cake, shh...with homemade buttercream frosting...

The kids said it reminds them of being little...and it was so good, I had a spoonful which turned into two, which I then stopped myself before I had a huge piece, just too yummy.  

Miss Evelyn Joy, isn't she lovely?  She is also so much fun, and such a good girl.  

Char with the cake...

Paul in the background, Sonja, Char, Camille, Margaret, and Evelyn...and a puzzle!  Emily also stopped by, with a present for Evelyn.  I hope it was a nice birthday!

This fine morning, it's raining and pouring and the radar shows more rain.  It's nice, in that I have to bring Camille to the ortho dr., which is 40 minutes away, and it's not like we're missing out on pool time.  I would rather have this whole day home, to do things, but who wouldn't, right?  Life just goes on, and we just don't always get to choose how we spend our time.  So we can either grump about it, or be thankful and make the most of it....