Severe Camping Adventure

Being the very smart Arizonans that we are, we decided to go camping last night with a few families from our ward . . . during severe thunderstorm season. We've been planning this trip for a while, and the forecast looked like the weather was going to cooperate. The forecast started to change this last week, though. The news said that Thursday was supposed to be nice, with a small chance of rain, but that there was a chance for severe thunderstorms Friday. We decided to play it safe, and only stay last night, and then come home before the storms. There was only one problem . . . somebody forgot to tell the weather about our plans!!

We had a great day yesterday (besides the fact taht Michelle was completely exhausted from preparing for the trip all by herself while I was working in Kansas City). The campsite was awesome--it had a huge playground that the kids loved, and a sand beach and swimming area in the lake that the kids played in. Michelle made awesome dutch oven pizzas for dinner, and then we topped it off with SMORES and dutch oven apple cobbler!! Before we headed to bed, we checked the weather radio to make sure it would be safe to sleep out there last night. The forecast said that there was a 20% chance of thunderstorms, but that there should be no severe weather. With that update, we felt very confident and safe camping for the night. If only we had known then what the next 6 hours would bring.

At about 3:00 in the morning, Michelle and I woke up because the rain was pounding mercilessly on our tent and the thunder was rolling continuously. Michelle immediately suggested that we get in the van and drive home for the night. I felt like it was already too late for that, and that we just needed to ride out the storm. The rain was really coming down, and we would have been drenched to the bone just running to the van. After about 30 minutes of constant downpour, the water started coming right through our brand new tent--the roof and the floor. I checked on the kids and discovered that Michayla's bed was getting soaked. At this point, I started laughing out loud and saying, "we are the dumbest people in the world!" Then it got even worse.

The rain storm wouldn't have been too bad if not for the non-stop lightning strikes all around us. Each time after the lightning would turn the night sky and the inside of our tent bright yellow, we would count to see how close it was to us (this must be the type of methods the Kansas metiorologists use to determine what chance there is for severe weather), and some of the lightning must have been directly above us. With the rain pounding on the tent and the lightning booming in the sky, we could barely hear each other in the tent. By this time, Michayla realized that she was wet, and crawled into bed with Michelle and I. Michayla couldn't sleep because she realized that we left Sarah (our dog) outside at home. Michayla and Michelle were shaking with fear, I was laughing because of how ridiculous our circumstances were, and Blake and Allyson were sleeping soundly as if they were home in their own beds.

To make a long story not quite so long, we made it home alive. The 3 other families all had similar experiences in their own tents. We all had puddles inside our tents (one puddle was deep enough that a diaper was actually floating in it). We all also had at least one kid who slept through the entire thing.

Except for the crazy storm, we had a great time. We were in great company, the kids had a blast, and we got to do all of the fun camping activities. Still, we've decided that we're not going camping again in Kansas unless there is a 0% chance of percipitation.