What does a mountain church do for a good time?

They go camping! 

Yep, for us that meant two toddlers in a tent for the first time...sounds like a recipe for an exciting night, huh?

When we heard about the big church campout and realized Ellis had the weekend off, we thought, "hey, let's do it, should be great!" I (Amanda) had a small inkling that perhaps we should just plan on staying one night, being that it would be the first time tenting with the little guys.

First of all, we didn't even have a tent big enough to fit our family, but the whole church pretty much pitched in and made sure we had everything we needed...even a little toddler-size blow up mattress for Mac!

And as for the food, well, we were a little unprepared on that end too. When we arrived, we saw grills, steaks, coolers, coffee makers...

When my friend Heidi asked us what we were having for dinner, I kind of hemmed and hawed a bit...(we brought a bag of ramen noodles and a cup to boil water). She immediately invited us to join in with their feast, which began the long string of mooching from various families that lasted the whole weekend. We have never eaten better!

When we arrived, Mac and Corrie jumped up on the hammock with Kaylie. I don't know what she was reading to them, but the book definitely did not have any pictures! They are so interested! How funny.

Soon after arriving, we were introduced to everyone's favorite annual tradition: Blue Hole Creek. There is a shallow section for little kids and a deep section where teens and adults jump off of high rocks into the water. Basically, it was Mac and Corrie's dream come true. (Ellis wanted to jump off of the rocks, but seeing as I used to teach my health students NOT to jump off of things just because everyone else was doing it, I asked him refrain).

Mac had a blast throwing rocks into the river and touching the tails of crawfish

 

Corrie loved saying "Hat!" And playing with the water using sticks and rocks

Since we played in the creek all afternoon, both kids missed their naps and were completely exhausted by bedtime. "Great!," I thought, "they will be tired and go right to sleep!"...Ha! 

Things started off well: we read our story and then I put them in their nice little beds. Unfortunately, it was still really bright outside, and since it was so hot, we had to leave the tent flaps open. No matter where I went, I kept seeing their little heads through the windows looking at me and yelling, "Mommy, Mommy!" 
And do you see how close Mac's bed is to Corrie's crib? That was a big mistake. Every time she would lay down to try and sleep, he would stand up and annoy her and try to tickle her. Eventually, it got dark, and I am assuming they went to sleep then.  And that's when the real adventures started!

First, someone came to find me (eating some peach cobbler at someone's campsite, of course) and told me "one of your kids is really screaming loud!" Oh man! It was Mac. He was so exhausted, he was half asleep and crying and crying...inconsolable and drenched in sweat. Eventually, he calmed down, and I decided to stay in the tent from then on. I remember thinking, "At the least the rest of the night will be peaceful now!" Again...Ha!

Around 1am, Corrie woke up crying and inconsolable...and she was crying LOUD! No matter what I did, she just could not get comfortable. I took her out of her crib to lay between me and Ellis, and then I smelled something..."Oh man! We gotta change a poopy diaper on a screaming baby with a flashlight in a tent in the middle of the night?" Turns out she had some serious diarrhea, which caused a fierce diaper rash. Once we got her changed, she calmed down and went to sleep snuggled up on me...but she still woke up at least every hour or so to cry some more. 

Not only did everyone have to hear our kids crying all night, but when I went out of the tent to throw away Corrie's diaper, I tripped on someone's tent cord and practically pulled their whole tent over!

After such a tough night, it was very sweet to see how cute the little ones looked sleeping :)

Somehow, both kids managed to wake up happy. I am not sure that Ellis and I are even fully recovered now, but Mac and Corrie were up at the crack of dawn ready for more fun!

Since it was now Sunday morning, our camping crew decided to have a service up on a nearby mountain. "Just a 20-minute hike? No problem!" Ha! When will learn not to make statements like that? Normally, Mac would be running the whole time, having a blast. Apparently though, the combination of new sandals and playing in water all day gave him some blisters...he made it about 3 steps on the hike. And of course, both kids were crying for mommy to hold them. Thankfully, Ellis was able to carry him for a while, and then after we traded kids, our pastor came and took Mac for me during the steep hiking. 

All you have to do is look at our pastor and you will know that he is a mountain man!

When we finally got to the spot for our service, we saw that the view and beauty was well worth the effort. We sang together and listened to a great message on Psalm 103 - the special psalm that Mommy and Mac love to say together before bed! 

While sitting there together, with just God's beauty and our own voices to worship Him and fellowship, I could not help but think about our many Christian brothers and sisters all around the world who gather like this because they are either persecuted and must meet secretly, or because they simply cannot afford a church building. There was something very sweet about thinking about them and feeling connected to them like that.

The kids were all-around pretty great throughout the service. Ellis said, "wow, they were so quiet and good the whole time! How can we get them to be like this at church at home?" And I said, "yeah, all we need is tons of sticks, dirt and leaves for them to play around in." 

Mac and Corrie kept themselves busy making dirt piles on Ellis' leg and poking bugs with sticks.

Another great perk of the scenic church service was a rare opportunity for family pictures!

Sorry for making your hat look silly Ellis! I was just trying to get your face out of the shadow for the picture.