Exhausted

My brain couldn't possibly condense all that occured in the last 4 days, and the excitement I have for the next 14 into a 250 character facebook update.... solution.... Blog.

I'm exhuasted.  The good kind of exhausted.  The kind they talk about in that joke where you slide into the grave at the end of your life entirely spent from a life well lived.  The last 4 days were days well lived.  Days spent among friends, camping in the middle of God's (and the Amish) country, making unforgettable memories with the boys, and ending it with German Chocolate cake celebrating my hubs 35th birthday vegging with him on the couch.  Perfection.

When I think over the details of the weekend however, my "Heaven" could quite easily be confused with anothers definition of "Hell", but in retrospect that's what was the icing on the cake for me.  No matter the circumstances tossed at us over the past 4 days, in a group of 25, not one cracked under pressure... a rather impressive feat given the following....

Ingredients for Creation Fest 2012:
4 days over 95 Degrees (2 over 100)
2 Massive Thunderstorms, one with tornados and all (we're in tents mind you)
Concerts that last until 11pm
No normal naps due to said 100 degree heat
A 4 month old, 2, 3, 4, & 7 year old, and 2 'stimmers' as my girlfriend calls 'em (Autism)

Do you think I'm insane yet??? :)

Our roughing it, wasn't nearly as rough as it sounded though.  When contemplating camping, make friends with 'campers'.... real ones... the kind with years of experience, and then ride their coat-tails closely.  We had a generator, which powered a shower, and essentially a 'full' kitchen, provided a charge station for the all important cell phones which also doubled as wifi-hotspots for the Ipads and laptops.  I would like to say Kevin and I contributed in some meaningful way, but these friends of our are pro's... the most meaningful way to contribute is to ask how we can help and stay out of the way if we can't :).

The most ironic part, was waking up on Saturday morning, getting text information from friends back in Alexandria that they were all out of power, in houses over 100 degrees.  We had slept like babie (litterally, the babes never even made a peep) in our tents and were enjoying fresh coffee, bacon, eggs, and pancakes while a nice breeze blew through the trees maintaining a cooler temp in the early morning.

Creation Fest itself was a great experience, in retrospect, with small boys we'll probably opt for a ticket to our favorite day/night and then use the rest of our time to just enjoy the fun of camping, while still getting some reasonable sleep.  We learned no matter how late they went to bed, 6:30-7am is still their sweet spot for waking up.  Ouch.  We did learn naps in the air conditioning car worked fairly well to help bridge the day, and thank God for providing an awesome pool nearby that we found to help us beat the heat during the day.  The boys did awesome.  They loved it, and wanted to stay longer as we packed up today, which was the best confirmation that we were exactly where we were meant to be this weekend.

Now we've got a day to relax/reset before Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Trav come out for a couple days to celebrate the 4th with us, and then we ALL caravan back to Michigan for 10 days visiting family back home!

Yes... I will be exhuasted, but with that bleary eyed smile on my face, thankful for all the fun and fabulous people in my life!!!