Oh, the places you'll go!

"Oh, the places you'll go!" is one of my favorite books written by Dr. Seuss. It talks about all of the possibilities in where we can go in life and one of the lines in the book says "I'm sorry to say so but, sadly, it's true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you."
This reminds me of a recent ADVENTURE we went on with our family. Buckle up and let me tell you about our adventure that now 4 weeks later we can finally laugh about. It all started with a wedding.  We have been to many weddings and this one was very much the same...wedding service at the church lasting about 5 hours and then a drive to a big tent and a reception lasting another 4 or 5 hours. We had an amazing time with everyone but unfortunately the majority of the people at the reception got salmonella poisoning including 3 out of the 4 of our family members. We didn't know this until we started on our journey the following day...when we went on our first camping trip as a family. As we drove the 7 hours to the Nxai Pans that are so famously know for the painting by Thomas Baines-"Baines Baobabs" (BTW we never got to see them as we were too sick), tummies started to not feel so good. By the time we got to our campsite Amanda had went downhill very fast so Brent struggled to get the tent set up by himself with the help of our not so helpful kids. As Amanda laid in the tent, Bradyn then started feeling bad. Upon taking temperatures we both were running about 103 fevers. We went to bed by 5pm and boy was it a rough night!! Brent got hit about midnight. Now this campground did have lions, elephants, and leopards that could come into the campsites. There were moments in the night as we were unzipping the tent and doing some not so fun things that we hoped a lion would just put us out of our misery. In all seriousness...worst night of our lives. When morning arrived we threw everything in the back of the truck and drove 2 more hours to Maun (10+ hours from our house). Some of our friends called to check on us and informed us many of our friends from the wedding were in the hospital sick. By the grace of God, we found a clinic that didn't have a long wait and got some much needed antibiotics.  Bradyn wasn't getting better by the next day and unfortunately needed an IV, but he was so brave. After about 4 days, we finally were "well" enough to drive home which was a sight for sore eyes. Although we didn't have a great 1st camping experience, we will definitely try again but maybe not hit up any weddings right beforehand...lesson learned!
So yes, this is not the most spiritual post in the world but thought you might want to know what one of our family adventures looked like. BTW, God loves you and has a plan for your life :)

The beautiful bride and her groom
 dancing in to the reception

The big reception tent

Driving to our camping spot, we saw several dried
up rivers. Botswana is in an extreme drought right now.

Our first place camping as a family

Elephants near our campsite

Amazing giraffe

The beautiful sun setting before the worst night of our life camping

Bradyn getting his IV, he felt so much better afterwards

We (as in Brent) went to visit a Baptist Church while we were in
Maun. None of the rest of us could get off the couch.

Home Sweet Home!