The Lake Adventure

 Let me tell you about our Lake House Adventure. A couple of weeks ago several family
members rented a Lake House within a couple hours drive from where we live. Four families would be represented, with a total of seven adults and four children, ages 2-12.

Five vehicles were loaded up with enough food and beverages to last us a week. Add to that linens, clothes, beach towels, water toys, a corn hole game a kayak and anything else we thought we might need for a weeks stay. My son's car was so packed they lost one child during a rest stop break. They didn't realize she never got out of the car, she was asleep, still buckled up, covered by water noodles.

The four families traveled separately, son and his family left a couple of hours before we did, hoping they could get into the house early. My husband and I drove separate cars because we were the ones that had the kayak. I followed what looked like an Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile for over two hours, I didn't have to worry about getting lost

When we got to the house things initially looked good, nice layout, enough room for everyone. We made the beds, put all the food away and headed out to the dock. We put the kayak in the water, blew up the inflatables (two that were large enough to hold small families) and settled in.

First hint that there might be a problem was when we saw a lake of water on the kitchen floor. Fridge was leaking from the ice maker. Easy solution, shut ice make off. Then we started to cook dinner,  fajitas were planned, I was in charge of grilling the vegetables, then problem #2 quickly surfaced. The grill temperature never got above 200 degrees, the gas bottle was full, so it looked like grill didn't work. I was starting to get a pit in my stomach, everything we planned to cook for the week's dinners was for the grill. My mind was racing, we can still make this work, we have a griddle, a broiler and a stove. Unfortunately things continued to go downhill. Problem #3, although the house had been listed as having central air there were no air ducts downstairs where three of the bedrooms were. The dehumidifiers in the downstairs hall should have clued us in right away. No a/c in the hot, humid south can be challenging.

The whole time these events were unfolding I kept praying for wisdom, this was for another family member to fix or not. I kept thinking, it's not about you, it's not about what you want or don't want. I had to go off alone a couple of times, cause sometimes there is just not enough duct tape to keep me from saying what I shouldn't. The Lord was faithful to me in this situation, in the end I was ready to accept whatever way this was going to end...God is after all, in control all the details of our lives

There is a wonderful ending to this story. The managing company got us into another house which was bigger and better equipped (two kayaks, a paddle boat and a air hockey game) But you know what that meant don't you. We had to load up all the food, undo the beds, and repack everything into those five vehicles to move to the new house, which was only a few miles away. We were quite the sight, especially since we decided not to deflate the inflatables but strap them onto the vehicles...anyone say Beverly Hillbilly's. Then we had to unpack everything all over again into the new house. We did it in about three hours...needless to say I was exhausted...but was worth it.

The week could have been a disaster but it wasn't, instead memories were made (some I'm sure we will laugh about in years to come) and relationships were renewed. What more could one ask of a family vacation