Laken's Home on the Lake

We didn't last through the whole talent show Friday night... it was a long night and we went back to our hotel to crash.  We booked a room at Mitchell Manor, a bed & breakfast inside the state park.  It was really expensive, but with the lodge closed, it was all we could find when searching online.  I don't know how Dad found Ralph and the Way Inn, but that would have saved us a lot of money.  The bead & breakfast was cute though.  Carigan and Tate had their own room that opened up into a game room.  But we were too exhausted to play games.

Our room was on the ground floor on the right hand side.  Yummy homemade breakfast!  I had my heart set on hiking to the actual falls (not just to the overlook) with the kids after retrieving them from camp Saturday morning, but we had two grumpy completely worn out campers on our hands.  That was a firm NO.  I made them at least drive to the overlook and take a picture. Party Poopers.

We said goodbye to Fall Creek Falls for the last time this year, and drove to Cleveland to visit Papaw.  We ate lunch at City Cafe Diner, where we celebrated New Year's Eve a couple years ago.  Gotta love a place where I can get Greek, Michael can get pork chops and sauerkraut, and the kids can get roast beef and mashed potatoes.  I don't know how they do all that, but we love that place!  Papaw is in a small one bedroom now.  It's sad to see him alone without Mamaw.  He was certainly happy to see us.  

We said goodbye to Papaw and rushed to Aunt Connie's so we could go see Laken!  Carigan and Tate were proud as punch that they had already met him.  All of us couldn't wait to get our hands on him! 

They are all so in love!  Most of us are in love in Laken... Tate is in love with Axl.  Tate stayed out on the porch most of the time so he could be with him.

What an amazing childhood Laken will have here on the lake!  He'll be big enough to run around with our kids before we know it.  We spent one last night at Connie's and then started the long drive back to Florida.  Atlanta was a disaster as usual, so we followed the GPS detour - Which took us by this Atlanta landmark.  So fun to watch the chicken beak move up and down... while we sat in traffic.  SO glad to be home!

Camp Farewell

Wesley and Anna Kate were baptized right before dinner, and we got to stay for the big end-of-the-week celebration.  AK with Debbie Chisam:

Tate and Ellie with Chelsey Thweatt.^  After dinner the whole camp walked down to the refurbished fire circle for the ribbon-cutting.  Tate and Ellie got a head start.

Several campers shared their testimony during the evening devotional - we got to hear Anna Kate's counselor Cheyenne share about growing closer to God amidst her parents' divorce.  They closed out the (very, very late) night with the ABC Talent Show.  I bribed Wesley to get up there and tell all these corny jokes I found online.  He was super nervous, but he told each and every one... the things this kid will do for ten bucks!  He was actually pretty hilarious.  The high-schoolers were on their feet yelling, "More! More!" 

Sunday morning they closed out with prayer by the fire circle. AK's cabin: Jencyn, Mrs. Emily Ray, Gwenneth, Anna Kate, Macy, Ava, Rochelle and Abby.^  So very thankful for Anna Kate's prayer partner for the second year in a row, Jessica Thweatt.  She's just amazing, and showered Anna Kate with prayers and gifts and attention. She is such a blessing!

Caleb is Caleb... he found a copperhead in a woodpile and picked it up. Apparently he picked up copperheads on the trails all week and milked venom from one.  And of course, like big brother like little brother - At least this one's not poisonous:

Photo-documenting Wesley's artistic treasures before retiring them to that great garbage bin in the sky.^  Ellie had the bus revved up and ready to go.  Goodbye ABC!!

New Creations

July 27 will always be a special day in our family from now on... Both Wesley and Anna Kate made the decision to be followers of Christ and were buried with him in baptism at camp this evening. Michael flew in early so we could be a part of this most significant day of their lives.

I have a vivid memory of rocking a 3-day-old Wesley and it really hitting me for the first time that we had brought this eternal soul into the world, that would ultimately someday be saved or lost. And it also hit me that I could not make that decision for him... that he would someday choose to follow Christ - or not. I’ve since prayed many prayers through tears, begging that all of our children would make the decision that Wesley and Anna Kate made today. Wes had tears steaming down his face as he was baptized, and Anna Kate was beaming ear to ear - she was literally jumping up and down before we went down in the water, she was so excited to be a new creation. As soon as she got cleaned up and changed, she came up to me and said “Do you want to hug the new me?”

I’m so proud of their tender hearts for the Lord, and so thankful for every single person that has shown them Christ - their aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents that have created a legacy of faith, their teachers at school that invest far more in their hearts and minds than in their academic pursuits, every person that has invested in them at church at Highlands and Legacy and Heritage, the amazing people here at camp that have been praying over this week all year long, and so many others. They have all played a role in helping us point Wesley and Anna Kate to Christ. We are so so grateful. What a beautiful day of celebration.

Wesley started crying right after giving his confession. Then of course I started crying.  Such a blessing to witness how his heart was touched by the Holy Spirit.

Then it was this girl's turn.  She was beaming.  She could not wait.

The crowd erupted into cheers & applause and sang, "I belong to Jesus."  So special.

Hiking the Falls

I was excited to finally get to enjoy Fall Creek Falls with Michael after a week of missing him while the rest of us got to hike and explore last week.  Wesley and Anna Kate loaded up in the camp buses for the final day hike.  Wesley did the gorge hike, and Anna Kate did the Falls hike that ended at the Cascades.  Michael and I took Carigan & Tate to lunch at the little snack shop by the park swimming pool (pretty much the only food in the whole park with the lodge closed), and then we walked next door to the Fall Creek Falls Outfitter Store, where we bought some Teva's for Carigan.  She was whining and whining about not wanting to do the hike again because all she had was flip-flops.  We asked her if she'd hike and be happy if we bought her some Teva's like Wesley and Anna Kate's, and her face lit up.  So it was basically a bribe. She did this hike in flip-flops last week and she could have done it again today, but a new pair of Teva's were the price we had to pay for cooperation.  We saw Anna Kate and her crew at the cascades at the beginning of our hike:

There was no way around it - I had to cross this swinging bridge again in order to hike to the falls.  I hate this thing!  I just have to go fast and keep my eyes off the bottom.

SO glad to have this handsome guy back! I'm pretty miserable when we're apart.  Especially when we're apart and I'm single parenting.

Michael loved the original trail markers - it's rare that many of those survive.

This time we actually made it to the falls!!  Last week we turned around just minutes from the falls, because I was getting nervous about leaving Dad waiting for us near the beginning of the trail for too long, and I figured we'd taken  wrong turn because I thought i would hear the falls if we were that close.  Turns out you could't really hear them until you were right on them.  They are much quieter than the cascades. So yes, we did this big hike last week and turned around just shy of the falls.  But not today!

The raging waters of the cascades had calmed down, and we got to wade into waters that were violently raging last week.  These same waters would have literally swept us away last week!  Although Michael still managed to slip and fall on his bum.