4th of July Weekend

 Our family was invited to go camping with some friends from the Canton Ward again this year at Proud Lake. It was the Thursday-Saturday right before the 4th, which is amazing we even got a spot. They all stayed at the group sight, but we opted to stay at the main campground in our camper so we could get it ready for our big Yellowstone trip in August and see how everything was working. The group site only has an outhouse for a bathroom and we were very close to the main bathrooms with showers and by the stairs to the lake, so when we weren't with our friends at the group site or at the lake, we could see anyone who was going by from our group. 

It turned out to be a somewhat chilly weekend with lots of wind, but no rain, amazingly enough, so it did make our plans for only lake playing not quite as enticing, but we did it anyway!

After we got our site set up, the kids had to flex with their shades.

Our bodyguards

As soon as everyone else arrived and after eating, some of the kids had to go for a swim in the lake, even though it was only in the 60s outside!

We believe this was Mars. 

Fairly early the next morning, Karissa and some of the other girls decided to go for an early swim, again in chilly weather and with wind!

A little later, Victoria and some of the older kids played some volleyball. The volleyball court was right across from our campsite.

Karissa got on the paddleboard with her early morning swim friends when more people decided to come to the lake from the group.

When the sun decided to finally shine, Austin, Erik and I went out on the kayaks, though I was freezing the rest of the day, even though I really didn't get wet.

We saw Victoria on the paddleboard with her friend while we were out. 

It was beautiful!

Austin and Ethan 

From the lilly pads

We tried to find all the different flowers. We found 5 different kinds! 

Erik helped Jason teach some of the men how to play Cover Your Assets, his most favorite card game!

There were a lot of active games too!

Saturday was the warmest day, so I chanced a swim workout that morning with Jason. It didn't feel as cold as I thought it would in the water. There was no wind, so that helped when I got out. 

Before we got to the lake with the kids, later on, we got to see a little 4th of July parade come by through the camp, complete with Smokey the Bear!

I didn't get a close-up, but Smokey is in the jeep on the left.

More games 

Lots more water and lots of food before we left.

We had such a great time with our Canton Ward friends. I didn't take near enough pictures or take many close-ups because I had so much fun talking with my friends and going on the water via paddleboard or kayak. I'm still catching up from the lack of in-person socialization!

Since we arrived home Saturday evening and we were already notified that church was canceled due to the cleanup efforts for the flooding in Detroit and surrounding areas, we had to unpack and then get our clothes ready for our cleanup efforts. A week earlier, we received about 6 inches of rain in one day, but the rain kept coming on other days, not giving the big rain a chance to soak in much. Unlike the cleanup efforts from Midland last year when the dam broke, (http://themercadoplace.blogspot.com/2020/05/dam.html) they allowed kids 12 and up to help, rather than 16 and up. We weren't able to help on Friday or Saturday, due to our planned camping trip, but were able to help on the holiday, since our only plans were to go to church, which was canceled. I wish we could have gone over earlier during the cleanup, but there were plenty of people who came over from all over Michigan and Ohio to help. We were happy we could bring our kids this time to let them experience this service opportunity. Erik was too young, but since the rest of us could go, and Jason and I had done the cleanup before, we knew there would be something he could do.

It happened to be very hot, humid, and sunny that day. We left as early as we could and then waited about an hour at the church for Jason to be trained and an assignment, as well as supplies to help with the efforts. Not really sure why it took that long, especially since we had done it before, but by the time was had our assignments and another car assigned to work with us, the kids and I were pretty hot. Then, our car wouldn't start and we had to use the jumper cables. 

When we got going, we called the first lady on our list. We were coming from the chapel in Dearborn and her house was 20 minutes away in Detroit. But it turned out she wasn't there, So we called the next lady who had feces in her basement, according to the write-up in the assignment, with sewage water. She wasn't planning on being home till later but was so grateful and sweet on the phone. We had to call the other car on our team and caravan back to the church after that for a new assignment. (I was secretly glad we didn't have to clean up the basement with feces with my kids around....)

Our new assignment was for another sweet lady in Detroit who is 73. All we had to do was clear out her whole basement of stuff that was ruined from the water. The kids worked hard and it was smelly, hot, and heavy work, but they never complained. After we were done at her house, the morning shifts were up and we dropped off the supplies at the church and went home to rest, eat our barbeque dinner, and watch fireworks on the rooftop. We were all extremely tired and didn't take any pictures, but we had a fantastic conversation in the car as we drove through the ghetto about our freedoms and blessings that we get to enjoy. It was eye-opening and such a great way to celebrate Independence Day! 

Awesome workers!

 

The other team members with us.

Our Family Team!