Happy 4th of July as told by Shannon Hufford

Well I was going to put a post of our eventful 4th of July festivities, but then noticed that Shannon had already put a great post on hers...so I just decided to copy and paste hers...but give her all the credit of course!!! However she did forget one huge detail that almost put me in jail! (Not really) The first night we were there we had the privilege of being next to some unruly male adults probably in their 3o's.

As Shannon mentioned in her post, it was very rainy and thundering and lightning constantly at times....so close it was shaking the ground underneath us! Well being a nursing mother at this time, it was a struggle to get Cora to sleep. I finally got her to sleep and our nice neighbors decide to come next to our site to set up there tent and also relay every last cuss word they could think of in the book! Oh and at the top of their lungs too by the way!! Of course, Cora being a light sleeper, woke up!! I was infuriated!! I was really close to going out and giving them a piece of my mind, which would have not been good as I was so tired trying to get Cora to sleep (other mothers with infants know this feeling of empowerment!) Luckily, I calmed down as I thought it was more important for me to get Cora to sleep than cause more of a rucus. Surprisingly Cora did finally fall asleep and the guys finally went to sleep about 1 hour later. Crazy night! Please read on to see what else occurred that weekend! Thanks for the great blog Shan! :)

Shannon writes....

"Realizing we didn't have any July 4th events planned, I went into panic mode and called my sister-in-law Colton and arranged for a weekend rendezvous (yes it's spelled right ;-). No worries, my friends, it's not the type of weekend rendezvous some of you may be thinking of. Colton and I are close but not THAT close....hehe. Anyway, so we decide to plan a last minute camping trip in Branson for the July 4th weekend. Surprisingly, so did 90% of America. As a result, we ended up with a rather interesting weekend.

I called every campsite in the area only to find out that they were all booked. That's rather odd I thought....it's the 4th of July - apparently the biggest camping weekend of all year!! Well, luckily, thanks to my persistence, we finagled a campsite reservation for Thursday night at the Table Rock State Park. However, the only minor twist was if we chose to camp a 2nd night, we'd have to book our booties to a first come first serve spot since ours was taken the 2nd night. We figured we were up to the challenge and signed up - despite the ever present warning of potential rain showers in the area. After all, we convinced ourselves, camping isn't for the weak and we could muster up enough courage, strength, and energy to laugh at Mother Nature in the face. Well, as it turns out, Mother Nature was the one laughing.

Night #1: John and I arrive first and start setting up camp. Midway through propping up the tent we hear an odd sound. Within seconds we get hit with a downpour rain shower. We begin to cover the tarp over the tent and make a run for the truck cab. After sitting in there for a few minutes we realize we aren't made of sugar and decide to venture back out into the rain. After the rest of the crew arrive, we take a trip to Walmart for a few more necessities: tarp, bug spray, and batteries. We head back to our camp and still more rain. We make a few minor modifications to our original sleeping plans and put Nick/Colton and family + Mom into the tent, while John creates a makeshift tent in the bed of his truck for us. By the time we were ready to retire for the evening we were completely waterlogged but cozy and safe in a water tight tarp, tent, truck bed cover. So tight that it turns out we were now fighting for air. We attempt to sleep admist loud booming thunder, torrential rain, and bright lightning. I lay awake feeling proud of ourselves that we didn't resort to the hotel option from earlier.

Day #1: We awake to bright, dry skies. Apparently the little ones (age 3 and 11 mos) slept better than the rest of us. We enjoyed breakfast and began packing up camp for our relocation to our next spot. So far, so good...well as good as can be expected in this environment. We spend the day at the lake and riding the sea-doo. We spend the evening hours eating dinner out, perusing through Branson Landing, doing some retail therapy and watching fireworks.

Night #2: John has headed back to Arky for a golf tourney and I decide to stay behind and endure a 2nd night. Amazing how over zealous I become when I enjoy one day of dry weather. The 2nd night was dry and not too shabby...however the 2nd day was not.

Day #2: We woke up to a sunny cheery sky, enjoyed some breakfast, and sat around basking in our lake-view (as in we were a mere 5 feet from the protruding/rising lake water). Not too long after we heard the familiar thunder come back for another visit. We ended up getting soaked to the bone, holing up in a minivan with two small children, and throwing our wet camping gear into the waiting vehicles. At this point, I was wondering what possessed us to challenge the forecast, the weathermen, and Mother Nature.

Actually, all in all it was an enjoyable time. Anytime we can spend with family (especially my two little neices Kayley and Cora) is a wonderful time. They were the best campers out of all of us - we were all surprised and jealous.

A few random stories....

After our lake outing we decided we were all in desperate need of some showers. The girls of course were faced with the challenge of showering two small children in a nasty bug infested shower facility that provided luke warm sulfur water - all while trying very hard to avoid touching the nasty concrete floor with our bare feet. I opted to take Cora with me while Kayley went with her Mom. I absolutely LOVE when babies are covered in water as they are extra squeezy and cute. However, in this environment, I spent more time trying to hold onto a 10 mos old covered in soap. She was a good sport but I did have a few near misses as I almost dropped her on the ground. It was hilarious but rather traumatic for her.

Also, on a different journey to our wonderful restroom facilities, Kayley notices a june bug laying feet up by the door. She explains to her Mom.... "Look Mom, that bug is tired....he's had a hard day. He's sleeping because he's had a very hard day". It was adorable and hilarious. She couldn't stop sympathizing with that bug over his hard day and we heard about it all the way back to camp. "