Camping in Texas in June!! (Hot!! Hot!! Hot!!)

Our kids were so excited to go camping to Inks Lake in Austin. We all love to go camping, we are still novices, but we get to go with our Houston friends and they know how to make it fun. Well the day before we left we had the storm of all storms. Lightning and thunder that sounded like it was in our front yard. We were out of power for at least 12 hrs. and Sydney our 7 yr old decided she was deathly afraid of rain/thunder-lightning. So needless to say we sat around holding kids, trying to not melt as we waited for the electricity come back on before we left for our camping trip. This is what the kids looked like on the way to the lake, exhausted and finally cool in the air-conditioned car. Until............ it started storming on the way to the lake about an hour away.

It too was a super bad storm! So bad in fact that the town the lake was in had tornados dropping and causing lots of damage. Our friends that were at the campsites already had pop-up campers and said they were fine, but told us with tents to camp in the Hotel for the night. So we did, all 10 (us and my sister's family) of us packed into a very dry and cool hotel room for the night. The last thing we needed at this point was to be in a tent with girls afraid of the thunder and lightning and tornados coming through!

Caleb chillin' in the cool Hotel!

Alli, Madie, and Caleb in the kyak

Allison trying her hand at fishing! (no luck!)

Maddie enjoying the cool lake!

Chad, Allison, Madelyn, and Caleb

The lake was the best part of camping. During the day we had a great time. We went cliff jumping with all our friends, swimming, and kyaking. I even took one jump of the cliff. It toook me about 20min. to get the nerve up, then I had to jump with one of the 10 yr. old kids. Talk about feeling like a whimp, but I did it. Caleb tried it a few times, and Chad he showed off a few times by scaring all of us with flips and jumping off the really high cliffs. The water was perfect and made the hot day so much better.

Now sleeping in the tent that night was really horrible. There happened to be heat lightning without the storms, but that caused Sydney to be so anxious that she ended up throwing up. Needless to say she had to have one of us sleeping next to her reassuring her. We did have a little fan in the tent, but it sure wasn't doing much. We also had neighbors in the same campsight partying, singing, and playing soccer into our tent. Not so fun! Chad even tried to sleep outside on the picnic table to get some relief, then in the car, then back in the tent, only to have Madelyn throw up from too much heat. I am telling you it was quite the night, and we were so glad it was our last!

Madelyn and our nephew Jacob hanging out!

This is what hot little kids look like after a very long day!!!

Although it was hot, we still had a great time with friends and family. We cooked by the fire, played in the water of all sorts, played games, chatted, and had experiences we will never forget. That's what camping is all about. We did learn that we will now, only be camping in Texas during the months of Oct-April. That is our new rule!