Family Camp

So, our family went camping last weekend...Young Life style!  TJ and I are not really much for real camping, you know with tents and stuff, so I'm not sure our kids will ever really experience that, but this kind of camping we could handle!  Young Life in Fayette County hosts a family camp every Spring at Sharp Top Cove, their campsite in Jasper Georgia.  It is BEAUTIFUL!  The view from the mountains is amazing and the weather we had last weekend could not have been any better!  So, our family of four, along with seventy something other families, joined up for a weekend of fun!  TJ and Trip stayed in a cabin with other dads and sons across from Mady and I who were in a cabin with 12 girls/moms!  Mady was the youngest one in our room, so all the big girls (especially one named Maddie) took great care of her!  They doted on her all weekend.  She loved it SO much, she didn't even mind falling out of her lower bunk bed in the middle of the night, both Friday and Saturday!  Poor thing.  I didn't even hear her fall out Saturday night; I just woke up in the middle of the night and found her sleeping on the floor...still wrapped up like a caterpillar in her sleeping bag.  Each day at camp was filled with all kinds of food, singing, fun and games!  During our free time on Saturday, TJ and Mady went down these huge slides into the freezing cold lake...2 times!  Trip was a little nervous about it, so he just stayed in the pool with me, diving off the diving board and swimming with his friends.  On Saturday night, we had an old fashioned hoedown followed by delicious ice cream sundaes!  Trip and Mady are still singing their favorite song from camp...Bananas Unite!  Next time you see them, ask them to sing it for you!  The best part for me was having so much time together as a family, with no interruptions from the world.  It was like we were a million miles from anything that could bring us stress.  We had a wonderful speaker for the weekend, Randy Eberhard.  I've known him since before TJ and I got married and he always has such wonderful words of wisdom.  He and Andy (our Young Life area director) spoke about finding the "calm" in our worlds and really being vulnerable and open with each other about life's problems.  It gave me the desire to be able to answer the question, "How are you doing?"  with the answer of, "Calm."  Wouldn't that be great to be able to answer that way and for it to be true!  Honestly, if I can really give it ALL up to our heavenly Father, that would be true.  I would know his perfect peace and I could answer, "Calm."  So, I walked away from the weekend refreshed, with a renewed since of love and appreciation for the wonderful family and friends God has blessed me with and with a desire to know them better and share my life more openly with them while I continue to let go and let God!