Resolution Check- "Beaver's Ben"

Man, I wish my parents wouldn't make me hike with a fever.

Well, we finally can put a check on one of the ole resolutions- we went to Beaver's Bend last month, affectionately known as "Beaver's Ben" to Faith.  And no, she cannot be convinced it is Bend.  She just can't.  And after this trip I am fully convinced that you can have fun anywhere under any circumstances.

Let's go back a week before the trip. We went to Great Wolf Lodge with some friends of ours. That place is crazy amazing.  Faith could have seriously played there for days and days.  Next time, we will stay longer.  It is incredibly safe and clean.  You couldn't convince me of that when we came home with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, though.  And yes, we are the like 1% of people that get it from public pools. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.  (Just google how you get it and you'll see why.)

Great Wolf Lodge
she seriously had me take her picture on this guy at least 10 times

BUT, we decided that since we had gotten a cabin (which was amazing) and Silas was on the mend (we thought),  and TJ couldn't really take off any other days this summer, we would go ahead and go and see how it went. We also thought that Faith had gotten through unscathed, but she was not so lucky.  And she had it much more severely than Silas.  After a nice morning family hike she didn't really want to do anything except lay in bed and watch movies.  That is NOT Faith-like behavior.  We had no idea until then she'd had a fever all morning.  (And the Parents of the Year Award goes to  TJ and Amanda.)  Her fever got really high, but we were determined to make the best of a rough situation.  We drained the hot tub and filled it with cold water and let her swim in the shade since swimming in the heat in a lake was out of the question.  She had no idea we were really trying to lower her temp and played for quite a while.  We would do what we could when she felt up to it and ended up having quite a good time.  

At night, Silas acted as if his pack and play had been filled with hot lava and we wanted to keep an eye on Faith, so we all ended up sleeping in one huge bed.  That proved to be difficult to break when we got home, but it was so nice while we were there to all be together, snuggled up. (I can say that now.  At the time I was tired and somewhat zombie-like in the morning.)

See, she doesn't look sick, does she?
Less than an hour later she was in bed with a fever. 

One of the funnest things for me was our friend Jerry coming down the last day.  He is just fun to hang out with and I really miss seeing him more often.  He brought his son and nephew and it was cracking me up watching Faith interact with them.  They would do normal boy things like burp or fart and Faith would just look at me and roll her eyes.

Beaver's Bend is a great place to stay for anyone.  We got a cabin this time, but TJ and I want to go back, just us, and hike the 12 mile trail.  You can tent camp along the trail at night.  We also just HAVE to take our friends there with their family.  There were some restaurants I'd like to try out too.  I'd also love to go down in the fall and take the drive to see the foliage change in the mountains.  (I know, I'm like 80 or something.) And I just REALLY want to stay in the cabin with the teepee (tipi?) outside that you can sleep in. 

There were many things that we didn't get to do and I really thought about being frustrated and mad since it was our vacation this summer.  Of course, that would be no fun and all and ruin the fun we DID have, so instead I'm just looking forward to going again.  That's another great thing about Beaver's Bend- it's close, beautiful, and reasonably priced.  

I'm so thankful we decided to just do it.  It was a blast and something we will do over and over again.  Until next time, Beaver's Ben...