The truncated family went on a camping trip this week to Clifty Falls State Park. I say truncated family because Alex and Natalie chose not to go. We'd told Nat that we didn't want Churro in the camper, and for a while she was planning to come with us and sleep in the tent with the dog. And, of course, he had to be leased all the time. However, as we got closer and closer to the departure date, the weather was looking more and more like it was going to be nasty. Very hot, very humid, chance of thunderstorms every day we were there. In the end, the horrible forecast chased them both off. Alex doesn't handle the heat well; neither does Nat. So they both chose to stay home, and it was just Beth, Missy, and me. I think that was the right call for everybody, though. We left on Monday around 10:30, leaving some cash and instructions for the kids staying behind, and drove through some rain and temperatures around 90 F. We got to the park around 4:00 pm, and couldn't go to the campground right away because a work crew was still busy clearing a big limb that had fallen down across the road. So we walked down to Big Clifty Falls, which had a much lighter flow than I would have thought with the recent rain. Anyway, we got all set up by around 5:30 and rather than cook in the wet heat we hit the campground pool, which was closing in 5 minutes when we got there, but they let us in to get a quick dip which felt amazing even if only for a few minutes. For dinner we went out to Red Pepperoni in Madison. Early night. The thunderstorms rolled in around 2 am. So it was crazy hot and crazy wet all over the next day, which was a Boschains day. We were going to go to the park pool again after breakfast, but we found it closed due to the pump having broken or something like that. So we hit the public pool in Madison for a few hours instead, which has been remodeled and upgraded since we were there last, with lap lanes and a deep end with a diving board and a water slide. Very nice. Missy got sunburned pretty good though. Later in the day we headed to Louisville to meet up with the Boschains at Momma's BBQ (awesome) for dinner and then to their new house. Their new adopted daughter is just an adorable lil punkin! We got back to the park around 11:30, and it rained overnight again. Wednesday we hit all the antique/junk shops in town and did half of the downtown shops and the Red Pepper for lunch (awesome). Then we did our one and only time to make dinner at the campsite, tinfoil dinners (awesome). Then it thunderstormed all evening. Another early night. Thursday Missy and I went on a hike in the morning to the creek bed, hiked as far as the side canyon to tunnel falls and back. I made a dutch oven pull-apart French toast for breakfast which turned out pretty good but we have some notes and improvements in mind for next time. Then we hit the other half of the downtown shops and went to the city pool again, as the camp pool was STILL closed. As we were leaving the pool, they blew the whistle to close it because of the approaching thunderstorm, which went on for a couple hours. The Boschains (including Jake now!) came out our way in the evening and we met them at Red Pepperoni (again!) for calzones. They could only stay for dinner before heading back. Rain overnight. Friday morning I went on a solo hike to do the Four Falls Challenge, which I did and then some. Some 7.5 miles altogether hiking the length and breadth of the park. By the time I was done with the hike, Beth texted me about when I would be back because the rain was on the way again. We got packed up and headed out on Friday and drove away as the rain began to beat down, again. So anyway, it was a good call for Alex and Nat to stay home, but it was a good trip nonetheless. I don't know that it was the hottest camping trip we've ever been on (possibly), was it was without a doubt the wettest. 

We had to get back home on Friday instead of Saturday as planned originally because the bridal shower for Julia was on Saturday. Beth wasn't in the mood for traveling again but she and both girls packed up and headed to Michigan Saturday morning.