When we first got there on Wednesday evening (by the way, we left WAY later than we were supposed to...but that wasn't my fault) it was pouring down rain. Nice, right? So there we were, huddled under the shelter over the picnic table with a swarm of wasps trying to stay dry. I suggested we have peanut butter sandwiches for dinner because of the rain but my hubby insisted that we cook hotdogs over the fire so as soon as the rain let up a little we were standing outside in the rain roasting our hot dogs. Not exactly MY idea of a good time.
The rain finally stopped about 9:30 that night so we put up our new tent in the dark, but luckily they make tents so easy to put up anymore it wasn't a problem. Then we had to get the kids ready for bed so we walked to the bathroom facilities to brush teeth. (Jackson Lake has nice bathroom facilities with running water and flushing toilets and a shower, but we didn't use it because that would be cheating). Anyways, I was helping the girls brush their teeth when I hear some strange noises coming through the window. Then I hear Douglas tell Brandon, "Brandon, catch more, hurry!" Hmm...suspicious. Suddenly they throw open the bathroom door and throw in about 15 toads all for our enjoyment. Thanks.
The next day the wasps weren't as bad but there were biting flies that were nibbling on our legs all day long. Kind of annoying. We were able to go out on the lake for a couple hours in the morning and we were the only boat out on the whole lake. It was nice! The kids had a great time tubing and Douglas got a chance to wakeboard for a while. When it got close to lunchtime we tied up the boat close to camp and went to get some sandwiches and take a break. However, when we got back to the boat it wouldn't start. Of course we didn't realize that until I pushed the dumb thing out quite a ways so I had to jump out and tow it back to shore again. My hubby was NOT a happy camper at this point.
We left the boys to work on the broken-down boat and I took the girls back to camp to hang out for a while. A couple hours later he said he had the boat running again so we ventured back once again. The boat did start but when we got out to the middle of the lake we realized it wasn't running very well at all so we better get it out of the lake while we had the chance. He pulled it a little closer to shore and I had to jump out and swim for it. Then I had to walk back to camp and get the truck and trailer so I could drive over to the dock to load up the boat. My hubby was still not a happy camper at this point...but we went to the swim beach and had fun splashing around and building a sand castle.
On our way back to camp from the swim beach Katie accidentally stepped on a cactus in her flip-flops and somehow she ended up with some cactus barbs in her foot. Wow can that girl scream! You would have thought she was being tortured to death! I held her down on the picnic table and yanked them out and then she was fine. Then the kids helped me make some dutch oven pizza. YUM!
The next morning I was thinking my hubby would just want to go home but he was sure he had fixed the boat this time so we ventured out on the lake once again. The kids got to go tubing again and every time we would stop the boat for something everyone would jump off and go swimming for awhile. Of course my crazy hubby would be jumping off of the top of the wakeboard tower, but that's just his style. He got another chance at wakeboarding but after a while the boat stopped accelerating. Luckily it didn't die and we were able to get it back out of the lake again. We were kind of bummed but we were glad we had another chance to get out on the lake.
Back at camp the kids were playing in the tent when Brandon started jumping around screaming. Apparently a small hornet had gotten down his shirt and was stinging him all over his back. Luckily, this mama never goes on a camping trip without some children's allergy medicine so he was feeling better in no time. We went back to the swim beach, carefully tiptoeing past where a huge bull snake just slithered across our path, and spent a couple of hours playing in the water until it was time to make dinner. Douglas finally figured out what was wrong with the boat and got it completely fixed but it was too late to go back out on the lake. When we got back we saw that we had neighbors in the campsite next to us for the first time. It had been nice being all alone but they seemed nice enough...at first.
They had a brand-new jet ski that they put in the lake and in the first 2 minutes got a rock sucked up into it. Then this idiot was pounding the rock in farther instead of hitting it out. There was only supposed to be 6 people to a camp site but they had about 10. They stayed up until almost 2:00 in the morning arguing over who was more drunk, whose gas smelled the worst, who slept with who, who had slept with more people, and anything else they could think of. They kept bragging about how they were going to be the first ones on the lake in the morning because they were getting up at 5:00 in the morning. Then they decided to turn on music at midnight to pump up their party. I felt sorry for the little boy with them. That poor kid needed to go to bed. Our kids were asleep before their party started so it didn't bother them but Douglas and I couldn't sleep. I was ready to go over there with the axe and take care of business but Douglas wouldn't let me. I tend to get a wee bit grouchy when I want to sleep and someone won't let me. He wouldn't even let me go punch the most obnoxious girl in the face.
Well, they weren't up at 5:00 in the morning. We were up at 6:00 and started packing up to go home and since "quiet hours" were officially over and decided that we could be as loud as we wanted to be. I told Emily she could sing as loud as she wanted to :o) We got everything packed up and decided to go out on the lake one last time since the boat was finally fixed. The only problem was the kids were completely worn out. They swam around for a few minutes and went on a tube once but then they just wanted to sit in the boat. Katie even fell asleep on the boat! So Douglas and I played for a little bit while the kids rested and then we decided it was time to go home.
It was about 11:00 when we got out of the lake and much to our surprise and enjoyment, our "neighbors" that kept us up all night were holding up traffic on the dock with a boat that wouldn't start and they were hogging both sides of the dock and wouldn't move out of they way so people were screaming at them and yelling all kinds of not-so-nice things at them. I couldn't help but smile. When they finally had enough brains to move over to one side we were able to get our boat out and go home. It was an exhausting trip! Now we are going camping again this weekend for our annual camping trip at Hermit Park with my family. But, the company will be much better this time and we will be sleeping in a cabin so I'm already loving it!
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| Home Sweet Home? |
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| Our "shelter" from the storm. |
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| Emily |
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| Fun on the tube! |
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| Katie |
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| My Little Fishies |
