Hey Everybody!!

I'm sorry I have been missing. I have been sick and still can't talk very well. Lost my voice, ribs hurt, throat aches, you name it I got it. I feel like I've been hit by a bus. lol

Anyway, the trip took off with a bunch of hitches. That may be wrong, I was thinking of the saying " the trip took off without a hitch," but that, in our case, wasn't so.

To begin with my credit card was declined when we went to get gas. Had to wait on hold with my bank and right when they were about to tell me what was going on, my cell phone lost signal. :( So, thank God, my Aunt Shannon showed up with credit card in hand. She handed it to the clerk and we were on our way. So we are driving down Hwy 94 and my cell phone rings. The bank called and said they fixed my card and they were terribly sorry. We all breathe a sigh of relief and start to enjoy the road trip... for thirty seconds.

I have 2 boys so I am not used to taking a road trip with girls, but since we were all going to the same place, I took my sister's 2 girls with me. When a boy has to go to the bathroom and can't hold it till the next rest stop, you simply hand them a bottle with a cap, and direct them to the very back part of the van. With girls you have to find somewhere to stop immediately. Unfortunately, I didn't learn this until I had two girls in my van for a 2 1/2 hour drive. I swear, next time, they are going with their mother. LOL. I didn't realize how easy I had it. I mean, I am a girl, but I must have changed to fit the ultimately male population in my family. So after we stopped several times for bathroom breaks, we finally made it to the campsite.

The campsite was nice, but we are used to going up into the mountains and camping in the middle of nowhere. No people, and no electricity. This place was on the plains and it had electricity, people, pets, mosquitoes, the works. We could fish, swim, boat, or just sit and enjoy the sun.

The first night we were there, my two brothers, my oldest son, my husband and I were awakened by a chewing sound right outside both of our tents. We all waited a while calling softly accrossed the clearing to each other. Finally whatever the monster was, saw Branden and Kristopher looking at it through the tent window and took off with his head in a trash bag. We laughed so loud I thought we would wake up the entire camp grounds. Everyone settled back to sleep, but it wasn't meant to be. Less than a half an hour later, the monster was back. There we were whispering to each other again, and finally my husband, Sean, got dressed, put on shoes and the next thing I knew he was charging out of the tent with an ax, yelling. Apparently the black lab that was eating our cooler didn't scare easily so he just stood there, staring at Sean and chewing the soft vinyl of one of our empty coolers. So Sean growled at it, and when that didn't work, ran at it full force. Branden, Kristopher, Zechariah, and I were literally laughing histerically by this time. Oh my gosh, it was funny. Sean came back to the campsite, but we did not go back to bed. We sat up on our folding chairs in the dark, waiting for that black lab. lol. He, of course didn't show up. So after an hour of sitting and waiting for the black lab terrorist, we all went back to our tents. Ten minutes later, he was back. My husband hadn't even taken off his shoes so out the tent he went, and we all hear cursing. That was new so I asked what happened and he said the dog was running away with our cooler this time. Oh my gosh I thought my sides were going to split open. We were dying laughing. Sean ran after the dog and got the cooler back and thank God that was the last we heard of that mangy dog. The next morning however, at some crazy hour, our neighbors packed up complaining that we woke them up at all hours of the night and they left angrily. Not a good sign to our other neighbors. lol.

The next morning our husbands, and brothers took off to "scout" for fishing places, and didn't come back for six hours. It wasn't great fun waiting for them to come back. They, of course, left us with all the kids. lol

Anyway, we stayed there for three days, and it was nice to finally come home.

My younger sister loved it so much she and her husband and our two brothers are heading back there for a week.

We loved it so much that we will never go again. lol

Sean, our two boys, and I are heading up to the mountains with Sean's brother, neice, and cousin. Hopefully my older sister will come with us too. I sure hope its mosquito free. LOL