Meremac Camping Trip

Meremac Camping Trip

July 25-27 2008. We camped at Meremac State park just south of Sullivan, MO. We had a great time. Our trip started with rain the first night and a real nice lightning show. By the morning the rain had quit and it got HOT and Muggy. We camped right on the river and so we were able to cool off quite a bit and quite frequently. By no plan of our own some close friends of ours, Rich and Tammy Garwood and their 2 boys, planned a camping trip to the same place on the same weekend and so we were able to hang out with them quite a bit. We spent quite a bit of time in the water and fishing. Bekah and Jimmy both caught fish. I won't tell you how many I caught. I was much more interested in swimming though.....ok, ok, I got skunked......there.... I admit it!

On the second day of the trip we had our friends drive us up river a couple of miles and drop us off at the boat ramp and we took a 2 hour float down the river. No Canoe or tubes....Just noodles, Yea, you know the ones that you have at the pool. (and life jackets for the kids of course) It was very relaxing. the kids loved it. My friend Rich and I got brave and jumped off of a small cliff. Then he got braver and jumped off of a 35' cliff. I just watched (that's kida high and I'm kind of a chicken). We found a cave on the river on the way down and decided to explore it some more the next day. The water comming out of the cave was blue and it was cold, ICE COLD. People were chilling watermellon inside the cave. (great idea) Rich decided to crawl on his belly with a flashlight into the cave. Of course this is in the water which is about 40 degrees (or maybe colder) again, not me.....to cold! He made it in about 50 feet before he had to come out because of the temperature. He said it went in a lot further.

Also on day 2 we took the cave tour at Fisher Cave. Bekah and Jimmy loved this. (especially Bekah) We were in 2/3 of a mile. (so the tour guide said) We took some really cool pictures. It is really hard to get good pictures in a cave. At one point when we reached the back of the cave the guide instructed us to turn off all flashlights and anything that produced light just to see how dark it really was. Very dark. there is zero light inside. 100% complete darkness. kinda spooky! Afterward we had a really good discussion about how God formed the cave and when he did it. I told them that my thought was it is pretty cool that he could have just made it, but what if he did it this way.....what if he made just one tree that he knew was going to die and the roots rotted away and water trickled in where the root was and slowly washed it away. what if he designed the hillside just right so that the right amount of water and minerals would wash out the old dead tree roots and eventually form a cave. Pretty cool huh?!? Well, fact of the matter is we don't really know how he made it but we know for certain that it couldn't just have been made by accident.

The whole trip was fun. We already have plans to go back to Pomme De Terre in a couple of weeks for Labor day weekend. The kids have had a great time camping so far this year, it's hard to believe that the summer is almost over and it's back to school! Bummer........no wait, I mean Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! (just kidding)

Pomme de Terre Camping Trip

Pomme de Terre Camping Trip

This was our first Camping trip with Jimmy and our first camping trip in several years period. We had a blast. Memorial weekend 2008 at Pomme de Terre lake. Our campsite was right on the water and I mean right on the water, as you can see in the pic's. We did everything from swimming, fishing, roasting marshmellows, BBQ to feeding geese. The weather couldn't have been better. The excitement all started on Friday night rushing to get out of the house I left all of my cloths that I packed on the basement floor and didn't realize it untill we were over half way there. Do we go back for them?? Heck no, not at 4 bucks a gallon. So, after a quick stop at the first Walmart we came to for some shorts, t-shirts, underware and socks, we were on our way again. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Yup, that's what we started hearing about three quarters of the way there. When we arrived Friday evening it wasn't quite dark yet but setting up the new tent was only a small challange. Amy read the directions and helped keep me straight. If it wasn't for her, we may have slept in the truck the first night. Our new tent was huge, well, huge as far as a tent goes. The campsite was perfect. Level and right on the water. just what we were hoping for. After we ate dinner we all sang some songs around the fire, I brought my guitar. the next day we put in the boat and brought it right up to our campsite. Perfect!! The day was filled with fishing, swimming and of course cooking and eating. It started to rain on us first thing Saturday morning. Not a lot of rain, just enough to be annoying. By the time I set up the pavillion that I made and tied the last rope it quit and the sun came out. Go figure. Oh well at least it will provode shade too. The rest of the trip was Great!!! Check out the pictures and see the fun. We are definately going here again!!!!!!

New additions to the knoll family

This is Amy's new addition, Yup that's right it Amy's. I bought this car for her about a month ago. It's something she has always wanted, a 1992 Aniversary Camaro RS. I got a really sweet deal on this car. No, it's not her everyday driver (espescially with gas quickly approaching $4.00 per gallon) this is just a sunny day hot rod. It has just over 160,000 miles and is in super shape. She has had a blast in it. She even lets me drive it every now and then too. Here are a couple more pictures of it.

Well, I did say Addition"S" didn't I......Here is the other one, Not as cool as the Camaro, but this is going to be my answer to the high gas prices. A 1982 Rabbit WOW!!!!!! Ok, I know that you think it's really cool because it's a convertible but hey, it's still a rabbit. It doesn't exactly run real good right now but hopefully I can ger it going soon. If not, You'll probably see it on ebay.

This is a test, this is only a test

This is a test

This is an album of the kiddos a couple of years ago for a test

Here's what's been happing in the family

I don't really know where to start. Since this is my first blog entry, I'll try to bring everyone up to speed on the life at the Knoll household. We sold our cabin last week after it has been on the market for over a year. God's timing is perfect, although I wish it would have been sooner and for a larger sale price. I can't complain though we are so blessed to have been able to sell it. I have been asked to coach T-ball again this year. I was able to coach 2 years ago and found that it was one of the most rewarding things that I've ever done. Last year Jimmy played for the first time and he had a blast. Long after the season was over, whenever we drove past the ball field, Jimmy would ask if he had T-ball practice. Amy and Rebekah have agreed to help me coach this year. It should be a bunch of fun. We were able to take the Mustang to the first show this year and it was COLD! We have been looking forward to going to car shows again and so this was a big deal to us. I was able to use the car as a witness tool as well. Bekah is still taking piano lessons from one of our best friends. She’s doing good at it but needs to practice more. Still, we are very proud of her. The piano teacher’s husband and I have become good friends and thanks to him and his Coffee influence, I have built a coffee bar in our basement. Yes, I said coffee bar. That has sparked me to build most all of the furniture in our basement. It’s been a lot of fun and it looks better than anything we could have bought. I’m up to Book 10 in the Left Behind series. Yea, I know, I’ve already listened to them on tape (abridged version) but the book is much better and also much more complete. Amy is still one of the Girl Scout leaders for Bekah’s troop. Along with that and teaching Sunday School, Praise team practice, church, and everything else we are involved in she still has time to cook, clean and take care of me. I envy her in many ways. Of course she’s the lucky one………… to have me! We are getting ready to do some much needed maintenance to our home, Not fun stuff, just stuff that needs to be done like replace the entire electrical panel. Well, that's all I know for now. Check out the rest of the blog, like my favorite sites, and the list of links above.