Skip to main content

Friends and Campers


 Two friends from church invited our family to go camping last minute. Because of the short notice I knew camping was out. We did however go and spend the day together. Mark was still in the field running the Salford over oats. The Mai family we have gotten together with a few times. The Peters family I had gotten to know Sue Ann through helping during cornerstone VBS. The Perkins family I had not met. Every family had 3 to 4 kids. All the kids were similar in age and everyone got along great. They had their little circle of campers and were set to stay for 3 nights at the Hidden Acres campground. Such nice people, the husbands and kids were so kind. Everyone started out by heading to the Lake and beach area. The kids all went to playing, swimming and paddle boating. They spent over 2 hours at the beach. The adults all had a nice shade spot to watch and visit. The kids caught tadpoles and turtles. They went down a long water slide and hopped of the big blob. Jake and I took a canoe out too. It was perfect. I got to know Mrs. Perkins. She has a boy that is 10 who spent his entire life like an ordinary boy when out of nowhere his legs began giving him great pain. He can no longer walk. He has been seen by many specialists and they cannot find any reason or anything wrong. So, he spends his time in a wheel chair or riding his 4 wheeler. His 4 wheeler is like his bike. It gives him a chance to be a kid and go places where a wheel chair cannot. They are a neat family. After the beach each family prepared a cold lunch for their own kids and sat at picnic tables. 
Soon, the group of boys started shooting air guns at targets. I am not thrilled with guns, want my kids to know a lot of safety before they handle a gun. This isn't what I had in mind. I couldn’t tell my boys no when there were 5 other boys shooting. I let them shoot at targets and they were hooked. Over an hour of shooting and they were the only ones left shooting and someone finally had to tell them to stop. They are most definitely hooked.
Around 4:00 we all headed to the indoor pool to cool off and swim. As I sat there with this circle of people that I am getting to know, I thought, this is what I have always wanted. I have prayed for years for good friends, good freindships with nice people and families with kids that our kids can be friends with. Growing up with neighbor kids and family pizza nights, I miss that family fun that I enjoyed as a kid. I also loved the little taste of camping in a group like that. I would love it. The kids loved it to. Jake was telling Sue Ann how he wished he could stay. She told him maybe he would get to go there again sometime. Jake said, "yeah, but I want to be here with these people." That pretty much summed it up for me too.
 We ended up with Rylie at our house and the tent was still up, so the boys all slept out in the yard another night in the tent. Fun times!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Volleyball

Jake  went with Karen after school and to the field. My mom, Luke and I went to Jayden’s  Volleyball game in Coon Rapids.  They played 4 games all losses. They were not having a good serving night and that really hurt them.  Still enjoy watching them learn.

Treasures

 In the morning we took 3 of our 4 cats to the vet for shots. The 4 th cat decided to wander this morning missing his appointment. On our way out, we passed a rummage sale and stopped. We got some major treasures for next to nothing. The church ladies were so fascinated with Jacob's interest in old radios and televisions. They just adored him and marked the prices way down and gave him some for free. We loaded up on kids books, got some board games, and a few other treasures. Jake ended up with a mini  television , an old radio and Polaroid camera. After lunch the boys went straight to the field. My friend Carolyn and her daughter Tabby came to ride horses. What started out to be a chilly day 45, turned out nice and sunny. We had coats on, but it was a great day to ride. We rode through our hay patch and along the waterway near the highway. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Dayton Fun Show

 It has been cold and windy for the past week, highs of 45. Today the sun was shinning and it got up to 60. There was one final horse show for the season at the Dayton arena. We took Jayden and Jacob while Luke went with Grammer and Po and was supposed to come later. It was a fun show geared for practice and the kids. Jake did really well on Winnie, he rode in walk and trot, barrels, and poles. He did some loping. Jayden did pleasure, milk can, barrels, poles, and a jumping event. Her horse Tex really jumps high for the jump event. Down in the arena, there was'nt any wind and the sun came out. It made for a nice day.