The Accidental Family Day of Fun

What the heck is that, right? Well, I'll tell you.

Our outing started something like this.

Todd went on a little camping/fishing over-nighter with an uncle, a couple of cousins and and bunch of boy scouts and other leaders I don't know.

It was in the middle of nowhere.

And when I say middle of nowhere, I mean it. I live in the middle of nowhere. But this was beyond that.

I was concerned about him going because he didn't know most of the boys, except for the cousin and two young men from church, and most of these boys were older than him. But he wanted to go, so we let him.

Then came the text this morning. "I'm ready to go." Hubby asked, "Are y'all finished or are you just ready to leave?". Todd's reply, "I'm ready to go."

We loaded up our other three and hit the road.

We finally made it to the vicinity of the camping area when we met my uncle on his way out with Todd and the two young men from church. They were heading to another creek to swim and chow down on some watermelon. Hmmm . . . didn't Todd say he was ready to come home?

Anywho, Todd hopped in the van with us, but he didn't have his sleeping bag, etc. with him so we had to go all the way to the camping area to retrieve his things.

Enter sand bar.

Aaaannnddd . . . . we're stuck. This was after many attempts to get unstuck.

It didn't work.

We are REALLY stuck.


After trying everything we could think of, changing drivers and pushers(even had Todd as a driver which made me nervous as heck) several times, and burning our feet on the HOT sand, I said a little prayer to myself because my children, who were too excited by the events unfolding,  refused politely declined. I gave it another try while Ian was looking for something to dig us out with and decided to give up wait it out.

Maybe the scouts would come back to camp soon. Heavenly Father was obviously testing my patience and heat resistance.

So, we piled out and trekked across the HOT sand.

I thought of Lehi and his family, and others in the scriptures, traveling for several years on the HOT sand and was thankful that this was only a small inconvenience that would hopefully end soon.

I did something very unlike me . . . . I tried to make the best of it. (I guess that means I'm a grumbler.)

And you know what else? I usually don't have my camera with me. Today was different.

We found some treasures on the 'beach'.

We waded in the water.

Waved at one of several boats that went by while we were there.

Found more treasures.

Had a few sweet moments between siblings. (My favorite shot!)

Showed off muscles! (Changed my mind. THIS is my favorite!)

Now this. You might think they were . . .  um . . . peeing relieving themselves in the water since there were no 'facilities' for miles. But you'd be wrong.

Well, I take that back. I can't be sure about the girl. Water seems to have that effect on her.

I like to pretend this would've been our tent and canoes if we'd actually been camping.

But we weren't.

And it's not.

We don't even own a tent or canoes.

Moving on.

Shovels!!!!!

Dad working on digging us out.

It didn't work. Ian ended up calling my parents to see if someone could come pull us out. My dad, sister, and her hubby were coming to our rescue.

Aren't we a pair?

A pair of what I don't know.

Now these two are a pair.

This was Todd after several trips to the van for various things (sunscreen, band-aids, and I can't remember what else). I got the feeling he didn't like trekking across the HOT sand.

Toes in the not HOT sand. It was still warm sand though.


 While I was goofing off documenting our accidental day of fun . . . . . . 

Ian did this! Woohoo!

Free at last!!!

We had to quickly call off the rescue squad so they wouldn't make the long trip out to the middle of nowhere.

And after all that, Todd still left his sleeping bag behind.