Summer Week 2

This week Haley finished her swim lessons and then we took off for our yearly summer family camping trip.  We wanted to go to the Smokey Mountains and explore the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge areas, but every single camping site was booked!  I was so bummed until we decided to go to another area we've been wanting to explore - Land Between the Lakes National Recreational Area in western Kentucky.

Here we are heading out on our big adventure!

 On the way, we stopped at 'Lincoln Boyhood Home at Knob Creek'- which come to find out was his neighbor's home on Abe Lincoln's dad's land.  Oh well, it was cool anyway.  He would have played and hung out in the same area.

 Here is the stream by the house that Abe Lincoln was saved from drowning in.

Another few hours later, we set up camp on a great site right on the lake.

 We had fun swimming right at the camp site.

 Later, we checked out a big lock and dam.

 Needless to say, locks take a really long time to fill.  But I was the only one that seemed to mind. 

 We saw a girl bald eagle and her nest in this very rustic setting :)  You would think that of all the woods nearby they would have found a different nesting place, but nope - she liked this one overlooking a canal right by the road.

 We discovered this cool rocky beach.

 And had fun playing our favorite game "musical rocks."

 You get the idea...

 They had a nice jetty in town where we watched the sun set.

That night something happened that has never happened in all of our years of camping.  We had a huge thunder storm!  I woke up in the middle of the night to some crazy, crazy wind that somehow everyone but me was sleeping through.  I laid there thinking of at least 5 ways we could die.  Thoughts of "if that dead tree branch above us fell on the kids would I have time to jump on top of them before it hit them?" or "what if this crazy wind has a tornado that uproots our whole tent?  Would I have time to unzip the front and grab the kids before we fell in the lake trapped in the tent and drowned?"  When I woke Brian up to share my thoughts he just mumbled something about how he would just cut the tent open with his pocket knife that apparently he sleeps with and grumbled about how he was going back to bed. 

Not long after that, the rain flap blew off since we had only loosly put it on so I grabbed it and put it in the tent.  You guessed it.  No sooner than I had put it in the tent and laid down lightning struck and it started to rain!  So, Brian and I quickly put it back on and it stormed and stormed the rest of the night.  I tried to stop thinking of ways we were going to die long enough to probably sleep 2 hours.  Ugh.  It was a pretty rough night. 

Miracle of all miracles the kids slept through the magority of it though.  It's gotta be Murphy's law.  They don't even sleep through minor thunder storms in our house, let alone in a tent during a major storm with the wind blowing and rain pounding and no walls to buffer the thunder!  Go figure.  

The next morning since it was raining we went to check out the buffalo and elk preserve and boy did we get a show!

 There were 42 buffalo right there grazing!  It was so cool.  Buffalo are still my favorite animal.  Weird, I know.

 And their babies were super cute and very active chasing each other around. 

 Next we headed to see a show at the planetarium. 

 After the weather cleared we headed into town for dinner and to check out Patti's 1880 Establishment, a bunch of random shops, animals, and random things to do.

Late into our second night another thunder storm came through, but we were much more prepared this time.  The kids slept through it again, and I decided we were going to live and went back to sleep. 

The next morning we folded up all the bedding and hung out in our camp chairs in the tent playing UNO until the rain stopped.   

Even with the rain, it was a great trip!  I love camping - especially lake camping.  There is something about being in nature the whole day and night that connects you to past generations of people that lived that way.  It gives me just a small taste of what it must have been to be a homesteader, a pioneer, or american indian.  Plus, I find when I'm camping I live totally in the moment.  I don't worry about anything at home or anywhere else.  If we went to a hotel at night the TV would be on and the kids would be fighting over which bed and we'd be checking email etc.  But camping the party doesn't miss a beat and we get to chill by the campfire!   Long live the annual family camping trip!!