Camping with Friends

This past weekend we went camping in Palo Duro which is just south of Amarillo, TX.  We were leery in going due to the 3 inches of rain and grapefruit-sized hail the park got pounded with the night before.  Portions of the park were closed due to flooding.  I was a bit nervous about camping in a flooded canyon!  But I sucked it up, climbed into the van and traveled 4.5 hours to hang out with our fabulous friends!  The camping experience didn't start out on the right foot.  The kids wanted to play in the creek, but we had to drive to a creek area due to the flooding.  We took the WT approach and loaded ALL of the kids into the back of a truck.  The locals didn't appreciate our thinking:

But Pastor Matt pulled the "I used to be a cop" trick and got us out of any tickets.  The nice officer requested that we yank all the kids out of the truck and go back and get more vehicles.  Nothing like having a gaggle of muddy kids in the back of your vehicle:

Later that night we enjoyed a campfire & a peaceful night in a tent listening to the coyotes howl a few 100 feet from us!

The next day, we enjoyed another campfire meal, hiked in the mud, and played in the creek for hours:

We found a few treasures too:

Priceless memories were made with some great friends:

Now it's time to face the mounds of dirty laundry that reek of campfire smoke and are streaked with red clay-mud!  Thanks for the fabulous memories, Friends!