Spring Break Camping

Spring Break in Florida - sounds great, right? Unfortunately, we had some of the worst rain storms during the week. We had planned on going camping on Tuesday, but decided the rain would not be a fun experience with 4 little kids and a dog. So, we pushed it back to Thursday, which again had a bad rain forecast, so instead of sitting in our house we went and stayed in a hotel in Destin that had an INDOOR pool. The kids loved it and Friday turned out to be beautiful and sunny, so we spent the morning on the beach and then headed up to Lake Seminole which is on the Florida/Georgia border to do our camping trip. A lot of work for just ONE night - but now we have all the gear together so future trips should be easier to pull off.

The highlight of this trip is that we brought along our dog, Bubba. He was in heaven! He was actually very well behaved, only barked a couple of times. While we were sleeping at night, I was awakened by the sound of some extremely loud birds and just happened to hear the jingling of a collar. "Where's Bubba?" I asked, and with the lantern on we discovered Bubba was not in the tent - he had weasled his way out of the tent through the spot where three zippers come together. Amazing - he's lucky those birds or some other wild animal didn't think he looked like a good dinner!




We enjoyed some canoeing - this was Elyse's first trip in the canoe and she sat perfectly still between my legs. We were only out a few minutes before she started asking to go back!

This is a classic Ben picture. He is just a funny boy.

The rest of the Riley crew - they don't look like they're having much fun, do they? I think the smoke from the campfire must have gotten to them!

A parting shot at the campsite. Yes, Keyan was there, but he forgot how to do the timed picture on the camera so he wasn't in it with us!

Our last adventure of the day was getting ready to drive out of the campsite, and our Suburban wouldn't start..........guess the doors and trunk were open a little too long with the lights on! With the assistance of a neighboring camper, we tried jumping the car. It wasn't working, though, after multiple attempts. The engine/starter/battery (whatever it was) was just clicking, though, not even turning over at all. It finally started on the last try (of course it was the last try if it started!). I give credit to Heavenly Father helping us out because I asked Him just prior to this attempt if I could make a "blessing withdrawal" and get a little help with our car. He was obviously listening, because the car started right up. Sounds like a story from "The Friend," huh? It's nice to know that it's all true................