The Great Weekend Adventure

Warning: Contains Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, High Fevers, and Sore Throats. Read at your own risk! We were going to start our weekend out by going camping with some people from the ward but Brig got sick and so we ended up not being able to go. Grant was crushed! He had been looking forward to going so much. So we decided to set up our 12' by 10' six man tent in our living room and "camp". We could barely move from the dining room to the living room but we got the tent up. We cooked hot dogs on the stove and had indoor S'mores. The kids watched a movie in the tent and fell asleep during it. Cam and Grant slept in the tent and Audrey and Claire slept in the kids room. Little sleep was had and 6:30 a.m. came early. We had promised Grant we would take him fishing so we loaded up and headed off to Punderson State Park for a day at the beach and fishing. Brig was immediately magnetized to the water and never left it except for an occasional sandy cracker snack attack. We caught an enormous "panfish" that measured about 4 inches--fought like the devil. We watched a Division of Wildlife Officer ticket a Canadian guy who wouldn't stay within the buoys to swim. Among other things we had some annoying kids whose dad was out kayaking on the lake take our shovels and sand toys to play with. He would get mad when Brig went to play with the stuff! Audrey basically ended up babysitting 5 or 6 kids it seemed. Brig and Claire had a ball and got sand everywhere you could imagine. Grant enjoyed fishing and we tried to have patience as we untangled line caught in the weeds from stray casts. We got home and decided since we hadn't done enough already we'd go shopping to get Cam some new church clothes. We stopped at probably 6 different stores and the volume level increased with each stop. Claire was true to form in Bath and Body Works and screamed the whole time for dad. Had it not been for the loud music in the store it would have been quite a scene. We then got home scolded them soundly and put them to bed--Not before Grant had a sore throat and Claire felt like she was going to throw up! Grant and Claire ended up with blazing fevers and Tyrannasaurus sized tonsils. Audrey slept with Claire in her bed and discovered a new definition of bunk-bed back. We ended our weekend taking the kids on a walk to get the sickies out of the house. As we left the house, ominous black clouds were gathering fast. It didn't take long and we were in a deluge of Ohio rain, running with Claire in the double stroller Grant riding his bike and Audrey carrying the trike. Ahh, memories. We had dinner, popped popcorn and watched part of good ol' Swiss Family Robinson. Motrin is going down like water around here...each of our kids has their dispenser cup of it. Good Night Nurse! The Beck Family