Fam Vac

 Over Memorial Day weekend, we took our children and grandchildren on a four day vacation to the Starved Rock State Park area.  We rented two large cabins at Grand Bear Resort for the 21 of us.  The kids especially enjoyed the indoor water park at the lodge, and they enjoyed being together with their cousins.  We enjoyed lots of good food, and played some games, and had crafts for the kids.  Everyone enjoyed hiking in the park.  We hiked some of the high overlooks including Starved Rock, and into several canyons.  The canyons with waterfalls were the favorites.  Saturday we ran into the Washington Young Group out hiking.  The grandkids got wet and dirty which was a sign that they had fun.

The Lazy River and the Wave Pool were both hits at the waterpark.

The weather was just right for hiking most of the time.

The kids also enjoyed the playground and the older ones were introduced to Mini Golf.  Here are all 12 of our grandchildren.

We checked out at 2:00 on Memorial Day.  At 5:20, a 911 call reported a fire at Grand Bear Resort.  It turns out that it started in the building just west of our two units.  There were strong south winds all afternoon and the fire spread quickly to the north.  Sixty some departments sent trucks, tankers, and firemen, with a couple hundred firemen involved.  By dark they had it contained, but they lost seven buildings with four units each for a total of twenty eight units lost.  The only two units out of the seven buildings that still were standing, were the two units on the east side that we had stayed in!  It was very fortunate that there were no injuries to occupants or firemen.  I feel sorry for the farmer whose seed corn field was driven over and used for a staging area.

It was a little unsettling, but we feel fortunate that we were gone and that the fire didn't start in our units.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.                               Daniel 3:17