CAMPING TRIP

I thought the whole idea of camping was to make things simple. We have so much STUFF. I pray we will have a great time, the packing is the worst part. Thank God Kelli is away at college because everything is stacked in her room. How did we do it last year? Thinking back to last year, I am thankful that we will be staying at the same place for the whole week. Last year we started the week at Yogi in the Smokies, which is in Cherokee. We loved it. We had a campsite on the "river" which was not the Neuse River but it was quite beautiful. Image a rock line slow moving river with water shallow enough you could walk nearly to the center in knee deep water, but be careful the rocks are slippery. We would walk to the entrance of the camp ground and walk down into the river to float on rafts to our site, the water was nice and cool some said cold but I perfer to say cool. The weather in the moutains was great 70-80 during the day bearly hot enough to sweat. Much cooler at night we needed blankets and long pants, but perfect for campfires we roasted marshmellows and had hot cocoa. I can't wait to go back next year. The end of the week we met some families from our church at a camp group on Kerr Lake, Shiloh Family Ministries. We left Cherokee and the 70 degree temps to arrive at Kerr Lake to 90+ degrees. WOW! that was a change. We were soaked in sweat by time we had the tents set back up. The campground was entirely reserved by our group. Several families have boats and jet ski a water trampoline it was also really nice in a different way than Cherokee. We got to fellowship with other families, one night The Royal Descendants sang(Denny Sutton's family was one of the families that started the tradition of camping at the lake) We also had Sunday worship service. Last year we camped right beside our youth director Kristal Easom and Saturday night around the camp fire, we (Kristal Mike and I) decided that since there were so many kids we would have a junior worship service. It was very spur of the moment and exciting. I don't remember the parables that we reacted but I remember Mike started out in a distance and walked towards us through the edge of the water. The kids were all excited and captivated by the stories. It was part natural hike part Bible lesson it was wonderful. Well pray we have a safe trip. I am finished rambling for NOW.