Happy Easter everyone! I hope you are enjoying this special day as much as we are. Taking time to remember WHY we celebrate Easter has been such a bonus to an already great weekend.

My husband and our girls are members of an Adventure Guides group at our local YMCA. Through the leader of this groups, we learned about a family camping weekend at our local YMCA camp. I often joke that my idea of camping includes AC, so you can bet that I was a little skeptical about this weekend. Little did I know that it would be a weekend full of memories.
Here are my intrepid campers (who were much more excited than I was at the beginning of the weekend). We had just moved our stuff into our cabin and were ready to head off on our first adventure. That is the camp map that they are holding, and we hadn't even had time to orient ourselves yet. Luckily we soon caught up with another family from their Adventure Guides group who had some idea of what we were doing.

Our first activity happened at the lake. As soon as the Misses heard "fishing" on the list of activities, they were sold! Miss S and her Dad shared a little quality time at the end of the dock waiting for a fish to bite. I don't know what all they talked about, but talk they did. While they were waiting for a fish to notice the worm, Miss M was discovering newts with her Adventure Guide friend. She got wet and muddy, and had a blast! While all of this was going on, I was snapping pictures and chatting with our Adventure Guide family's Mom. It was so nice to finally meet her and her family after hearing about them for a year.

After the lake we headed to the dining hall for lunch and a little info about our weekend. This included the agenda and available activities. Archery was a must for my family, and we all had a chance to participate. Here are each of the Misses with their Dad, trying their hands at shooting the arrows. They did pretty well, and had a good time. My husband and I took part in a little spousal competition, and I have to admit that my dear husband, who has no experience with a compound bow, out-shot me. Now I am motivated to but a bow, and set up the shooting range in the back yard. I have just got to out-shoot him next year!

Our "after archery" activity was a hike to Rainbow falls. We had been told that this was a strenuous hike, and it was, but it was very worth it. The pictures do not do it justice. One of the most incredible things was watching the entire column of water shift each time the wind blew. So cool!!
Here's the family at Rainbow Falls.
Miss M decided that she wanted to put her little toes into the waterfall water. It didn't last long as the water was COLD! I'd say refreshing, but it was just down-right COLD!

Miss S wasn't going to be outdone. "Whatever you can do, I can do, too" seems to be her mantra these days. This time she realized that maybe, just maybe she should have let her sister do something alone. That water was COLD!

After our hike, the Misses took part in the Easter Egg Hunt, and scored 42 pieces of candy. Their Adventure Guide friends came home with 69 pieces. Guess what was for dessert? I didn't partake of the candy though because I was too stuffed from our dinner of fried chicken. I actually had dark meat! This is a big deal for a dark meat loving chick who lives with chicken breast people. I ate too much but it was SOOO worth it!

All of this bliss was followed by a fun campfire where the Misses learned a song about razorback steaks, and were introduced to Old Lady Leary. Needless to say, we were all wiped out and headed for bed pretty early. Someone came by our cabin right after the campfire to ask if we wanted to play cards, and we had to decline. Too tired to even think about cards!

Easter dawned clear and beautiful. It was a gorgeous morning to be in the mountains. We did not make it to the sunrise service, but we did visit the chapel before we left the camp. There is a geocache there, and it was a good place to start our trip home.
I will just say "WOW!"

We continued our geocahing adventure with a visit to the South Carolina Eastern Continental Divide, then a stop at Caesar's Head State Park. It felt so good to be exploring again. Geocaching played a large role in our European adventures, but has been pretty absent from our lives in the past year. I truly hope this weekend is just the beginning of more family geocaching adventures.

So we didn't spend our Easter morning in church, but I think we were able to experience God in everything we did this weekend. We worshipped with friends, and celebrated the richness of our lives that has been granted by God. What more could a girl ask?