Adventure Camping

A few weekends ago, we went with some friends up to Tyler Bend on the Buffalo River. It was beautiful and super fun. It went from an easy weekend of camping to an adventure on the first night when winds that could send Dorothy back to Oz threatened to blow us back to Little Rock. Those winds brought in a nice thunderstorm and knocked some friends' tent down. That led to us adding four more "family members" to our tent for the night.

The rain continued through the next morning and into the first part of the afternoon. We persevered and, by about 2:00, were able to enjoy a beautiful day. We ended the trip with a record low of 42 degrees. Those of you with young children realize that's REALLY cold. Especially for little ones who don't have the extra warm sleeping bags or the 9 month old baby in the pack n play.

Fortunately we made it through and after we thawed out the second morning, we enjoyed a few more beautiful hours by the Buffalo. Camping is always an adventure!

And then it rained...

Not only did the rain make our kids nutso for however many days we were stuck inside but on Tuesday night the weather gave a Grand Finale and...

FLOODED OUR HOUSE!

Yes, that's right. We woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday night to the smell of gasoline. When we stepped down off of the stairs we were in water. The electricity was out and it was hard to figure out exactly what had happened but we soon realized that the water had risen quickly and flooded through the dog door in the garage (hence knocking over the gas can) and wrecking everything in there. It had also filled up our sun room. What a SHOCK!

Not only that but as we were trying to figure out what to do, the water levels rose again and started coming in once more. I decided that if I opened the garage door that maybe it would allow an escape for the water that was trying to find it's way into our sun room. As I opened the door, the water rushed in like a raging river, almost knocking me down, and ransacking everything in it's path. Luckily we were able to grab most of it before it floated down the street for all of the neighbors to see, but it did ruin lots of things in the process.

Here are some of the aftermath pictures...

Tues. night, when I stepped into this room, the water had been up over my ankles

These were taken the next morning after most of the water was gone. Leaving a mud bath. Thankfully my sweet husband and servant hearted father-in-law spent the morning cleaning that up, as well as, the kitchen, dining room , laundry room, foyer, and part of the living room carpet.

You can see all of the debris that was left from the dog door.

You can see the marks on the wall from where the water rose.

This used to be my herbs but the stormy waterfall turned it into a mud pit.

Overall, it could have been much worse and we are thankful that it wasn't. It definitely made me thankful that God promised not to destroy the earth by flood again! :)