Rice Creek Camping

Way back before summer even started Gretchen and I found time on our busy calendars for a weekend of camping together.  At the time we didn't know where we would go or would else would come with us, but we knew we wanted to carve out a few days of summer to devote to getting our families together and spending some time roughing it in the great outdoors.

The summer has been flying by and our camping weekend came more quickly than I originally thought it would.  Gretchen found a great spot going towards the cities - very strange for us because we always camp up north - and once we got there we realized what a gem it is.  The sites were spacious and clean and the beach was close and a little kids' sandy shore dream.  

The Changas, Hares, Sellheims and us all had our tents set up by Friday evening and were ready to have a great weekend together.

 

Anth and "Emers" played and played and played and played and played...

The boys were all about having some shirtless fun Friday night!

 Gretchen brought the entertainment and laughs! 

Interesting flashlight, Sellheim!

 LaMont is kicking!

 

 Bubbles = even more shirtless fun!

 The beach and it's water feature was a blast for A.

Naked Adele is loose on the beach!

The high 90 degree weather was just fine 

as long as we were taking frequent dips in the lake!

 Everyone had fun even the daddies!

 Sleeping babies...

Andie and Amalia

Saturday night brought a storm that caused us to seek shelter at the shower facilities.  Luckily all the kiddos fell asleep in the vans while the storm raged through the area.  When we got back to our campsites we found two of the tents a bit damp/wet in spots, but overall fine to sleep in.  The Changas abode, though, looked much, much different.  Their camp spot had turned into a lake with ankle deep water around and in their tent.  Needless to say, our sleeping arrangements had to be improvised for the night.

The trusty Eddie Bauer Christmas-gift-from-Carol-tent was turned into the Red Cross Refuge Tent that housed the Changas and Hansons for the evening.  In the morning everything was soaked, lack of sleep was evident, but we could all laugh with the knowledge everyone was safe and this was sure to be a camping trip we would never forget.

Hopefully the typhoon of 2011 won't deter anyone in the future and this can become an annual get together for those who like to tent it up and get outdoors.