Father's Day

The dads led Sunday Service on the beach.

There is a Father's Day tradition among our friends. The dads take the children camping - all the children (except for nursing babies). There are usually a handful of dads that go and many, many children. They take all the gas-guzzling toys they can fit into their vehicles necessities and off they go for the entire weekend.

It was just Zane & I hanging out for the weekend. I was looking forward to crossing off things on my ever-growing 'to do' list, taking in some garage sales and going for a Saturday morning brunch with my friend. I have forgotten just how much work it is only having one child. Zane's entertainment had left when the boys drove out the driveway! I still got a few things done, but mostly the time that I had at home was spent being Zane's playmate. Although I didn't get much else accomplished, we had some great Mom & Baby time!

As I was getting us ready for church yesterday, my sister-in-law phoned. The guys had gotten word back to town that they would like the moms to come out for some Sunday afternoon fun. Wow! That was the first time we'd ever been invited at all. It has always been a strict NO MOMS ALLOWED policy. I think I understood why once we got out there. The children were filthy. No nutritious food had been eaten all weekend. I nearly cried when I saw the state of my holiday trailer. It was 10 minutes before noon and the guys were grabbing bags of chips to head out on a lengthy explore. I kept telling myself, "Put the estrogen away, Amy!" It took much strength to not say anything and go along with the fun. Don't get me wrong - I have fun. Just not before everybody is fed, the trailer is cleaned, everybody has peed...

It turned out to be a blast! We went down to the beach, played soccer, went Sea-Dooing & boating and rode the dirtbikes & four-wheelers. Everyone was just headed down to have another boat ride when Tammy and I noticed it looked like rain was coming. We opted to stay back with her baby and my youngest two. Another mom was napping her little one. Tammy & I took our children for a small quad ride and all at once the wind got bad. I mean really bad. It came quickly and hard. We got to the camp in time to see a picnic tent fly across the field into the trees. The wind was gusting hard. We just started to think 'awnings' when Bobbie & Rod's awning when whipping right off their trailer. Tammy, Laurella & I threw the children into the trailers and quickly went to work bringing down the two remaining awnings. We have watched our hubbies do it but really had no idea what we were doing, let alone in a hurried panic. We managed to get them down. I was glad we were there or they would all have been gone. We inspected the damage on Bobbie & Rod's and realized that their vehicle was parked behind their holiday trailer and the awning arms had crashed onto it. The windshield was smashed and the hood was dented. I was sure glad that all of the children had been gone or it could have been dangerous!

Soccer!

I am thankful that we don't generally get extreme weather here. After seeing that wind and the damage, I cannot imagine having hurricane winds!

I didn't get any pictures of any of the action - too busy trying to save things. I did get some of the soccer game, the quadding & dirtbiking and the 'after the storm' clouds.

The storm brewing.

After the wind & rain had passed.