Our Second Annual Church Campout

We had a wonderful time at the Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center this past weekend. The weather was just beautiful and almost everything went off as planned, except that we had a late start and well...THE ACCIDENT!

We arrived on Friday afternoon to set up our tent. I looove camping because I like to play house. I love setting up my kitchen area, hanging my little laundry line and getting my stove set up. I like sweeping out my tent and making the beds. I like setting up the table and getting coffee right on incase anyone stops by...I love camping!

The first thing on the agenda was a campfire, with devotions, hotdogs and s'mores and ending with hayrides. The campfire didn't get started early enough, and neither did the hotdogs - note to self: when you put the cold hotdogs in the hot water, the water gets cold and has to heat up all over again! So we sang some songs while we waited for the hotdogs.
After hotdogs, we went down to the fire area and had s'mores. The hayrides were scheduled for a set time so they had already begun, so the devotion leader decided to put them off until the next night. Conrad brought glow-bracelets for all of the children which was very smart. We were able to see if any kids wandered off in the dark. We walked back to the campsites about 11:00.

On Saturday we awoke and had breakfast. We planned to share breakfast with the family at the neighboring campsite, so she brought sausage patties and I made begniets - yum!

At 10:00 there were events for the kids, the older ones had signed up to try a zip line in the woods as well as a tree climb...up 80 feet and ring the bell! The kids who were too little for those events had relay races organized by Steven and the wonderful K family. It was great fun watching the little ones and I think it went very well. Lunch was back at each campsite, we had sloppy joes, carrot sticks and chips.

The afternoon was reserved for free time, though there was a big flag football tournament planned. That's when IT happened.

One of the men playing crashed into another player and got a concussion. When he came to, he didn't remember any of us (only his wife and children) or where he was. AND scariest of all to us, he couldn't remember anything we told him. We spent a nerve-wracking several hours hearing him ask, "what happened?" every minute or so. He wasn't exhibiting any other signs, his eyes were doing what they are supposed to and he wasn't experiencing any pain so on the advice on the medical person present we watched and supported his wife. She was amazingly calm, though his teenage daughter was really shaken by listening to her dad ask the same questions over and over. The guys gathered around him a couple of times to lay hands and pray for him and each time he said, "What are they praying for me for?" Finally after a couple of hours he was taken to emergency room where they confirmed what our medical guy said. Nothing more than a concussion, it will mostly all come back to him in 24-48 hours.

Dinner was BBQ catered by Red, Hot & Blue. It was very good, but next time I will not order as much pulled chicken and will order more sausage. Volunteers brought delicious desserts.

After dinner and clean up we had our Psalm sing, and requests as well. For the hymns/psalms we were going to sing on the Lord's Day, we broke up into parts and learned to sing them "excellently".

Then the dance, and though I sat out ( I felt amazingly well all weekend, but I wasn't going to push it), it was so fun to watch. There was the Virginia Reel of course, and several mixer dances that were so much fun to watch. I especially liked the Scottish Polka. The young men practiced asking the young ladies' fathers if they could dance with their daughters, which was fun. We got the call that Mr. S was coming back from the hospital and that he would be fine. It was cool to see our young people gather in a circle and pray with his daughters. We also heard at the same time that Ryan was home with his family, there was much thankful praying going on and some tears I saw (and shed) too!

Sunday dawned early...You know, when I heard the rooster crow early Saturday morning, I thought, "A rooster, how quaint!" On Sunday, when I was awakened two hours earlier than I planned it was more like, "KILL THE CHICKEN!" Breakfast was hashbrowns with onions and peppers fried with sausage and covered with scrambled eggs...kind of a macho omelet. We also made little apple pies in the pie iron, well, because we could.

We walked down to the pavilion for church and it was very nice to have church outside. The breeze was very nice, though the sun shone hot on one side of the pavilion. After worship we had lunch together. Half of the church had made chili, frozen it, and heated it in their crocpots at the campsites, the other half brought bread and dessert. We also had leftovers from the night before and salad. It was neat to see the variety of chilis there, I brought white chili, it was good, I think.

After cleanup we stayed as late as we could and headed home about 4:30.

About Mr. S...boy do we have stories to tell on him! Apparently on the way to the hospital he was very loopy as well as the rest of that first night. Once when he asked for the millionth time what happened his wife said, "You jumped out of an airplane and the chute didn't open." He said, "Really!?" and she said, "No, not really." Of course, a minute later, he said, "What happened?" She had a lot of patience with him, especially when on the way to the hospital he kept repeating, "I don't recognize anything around here, you're lost, pull over so I can drive." She would just say, "You've had a head injury, you don't remember anything, be quiet." And then he would say it all again. Wouldn't that drive you crazy?



We are glad that by Sunday he recognized us and though he didn't remember the actual accident, remembered that he had indeed had one and what had happened. Today his wife reports that he is beginning to remember everything, including what he was told in answer to his many questions. We sure love the S family and are glad for their contribution to the entertainment at the annual campout.

Last year when it was so cold, we were going to name it the Annual Insanity Campout. I think that the name still fits, don't you?

I hope to get some pictures up, perhaps dear Jon K will shoot some our way...I never remember to take pictures. Doh!
*Edit* There are pictures over at my Xanga...I'm too lazy to load them on here, too.