Otter Lake

Camping at Otter Lake was, in a word......perfect. We really had a great time.

We left home on Sunday afternoon and spent 4 days and 3 nights at the lake. Since it was Memorial Day weekend the place was packed when we arrived. People were everywhere, and there were no open spots left. The campground was hopping, kids everywhere, and everyone was having so much fun. We set up camp and when we were done we took a ride around the lake on our bikes. After that we made dinner and sat by the campfire for awhile.

The next morning we woke up and it seemed like everyone was packing up to go home. Surely there would be other people staying past Monday, right?

Check-out time is noon, and by 12:02 the campground was like a ghost town.......nearly empty. The entire loop that we were camping at cleared out, we were the only ones left. For the next 3 days we saw very few people and pretty much had the entire lake to ourselves........ it was so quiet and peaceful!

We did a ton of activities while we were there. The girls LOVED fishing with their Scooby-Doo fishing poles and Steph would have fished all day if she could have. We didn't catch anything, but it was fun trying. Each evening after dinner we would ride our bikes up to the general store and get ice cream. They had an indoor swimming pool with two hot tubs that the girls couldn't enough of......we went 4 times! I think we must have biked around the lake at least 8 times and we did a tiny little hike, too.

One of the neat things about the campground is that there are Mallard ducks that come right up to the sites and the girls really enjoyed feeding them our leftover hot dog buns!

As always, here are just a few of the 450 pics that I took of our trip.

Here are the girls feeding the ducks at the campsite:

Our campsite number:

Stephanie and daddy riding my tandem bike to the swimming pool while Jen took a much needed nap (and shhhhhh........ so did mommy):

Daddy and his girls:

A caterpillar buddy:

Mommy and her girls:

At the top of the rocks on our mini-hike:

The look that Jen gave me when she saw a BEAR!! Nope, a MOUNTAIN LION!!!! Nope, a bug.....that was flying.......in the opposite direction........at least 30 feet from us.

Our campsite all set up:

Checkin' out the scenery:

On our way home, just a few minutes from the campground, there was this place that you could stop and bottle feed deer, goats, and pigs, so we stopped off and let the girls have at it. Here are a couple of shots:

All in all it was a GREAT vacation and a place that we will definitely be returning to next year!

Camping!

Well, it's Memorial Day weekend this weekend and we are doing another family camping trip.

Ron and I took this week off for vacation (Hooray!!!) We are leaving on Sunday afternoon and heading up near the Pocono's to a campground called Otter Lake. "Bubba" and Tina are meeting us up there on Sunday and staying the first night with us. Shhhh........don't tell Bubba, but the only reason we let him come is so that he helps with the fire.

*wink*

We will be there for 4 days in the pop-up and I am looking forward to it very much. I'm sure I will have stories and plenty of pictures to share.

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday weekend and spends some time relaxing, spending time with their families, and doing whatever it is you enjoy.

Oops.

Steph went to school yesterday in one of Jen's long-sleeved shirts.

No one noticed all day until dinnertime when I realized the sleeves were half way up her arm.

I went over to her and looked at the tag and sure enough......4T.

I started to crack up and told Steph why I was laughing. She said:

"OH! That's why my belly was hanging out all day!"

I wonder what the teachers must think about us......................................

Here's the story:

Just a few minutes ago I am scrappin' away while Ron is upstairs playing "I Spy" with Steph before bed. All of the lights in the downstairs are off except for the recessed lighting in the kitchen, which are on a dimmer and are turned way down. Ron left the DirecTV on a music station for me to listen to while I scrapped, so when I got done I headed into the Familyroom to turn it off before heading upstairs for the night.

Now, as I just said, it is basically dark downstairs except for enough light to see where I am walking, and a little bit of light being given off by the TV.

I head over to the TV to push the huge button on the front....as I have done a thousand times before......and just as I push it I feel something wiggle (yes, wiggle) under my fingers.

Now.....I have to do a little sidebar here and tell you that I am usually not a sissy about things. I can handle just about anything. But I am a little bit of a sissy about crawly things. Just a little.

Well. OK. A lot.

Anyways, I pulled my hand back and said outloud to myself "I did NOT just touch a spider. Please tell me that I did NOT just touch a spider!"

I turned on the light and saw the most horrific sight.

I saw a freakin' huge Silverfish sitting there right on top of the damn button I was trying to push!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY GOD!

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DID NOT just touch that freakin' SILVERFISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I stepped back and took it all in.

Then I did what any self-respecting, self-proclaimed sissy would do.

I screamed.

Not the scream that you hear when people are having a good time on a roller coaster, or the scream that you hear from children on a playground.

Nope.

This was the scream of a grown woman, in her 30's, with children...... who has just TOUCHED A SILVERFISH IN THE DARK. IN HER HOUSE. ON HER TV FOR PETE'S SAKE!!! What are the chances of that? Really?

Ron came flying down the stairs and proceeded to hunt down the nasty bug until he finally wrangled it under the entertainment center. The damn thing screamed when he squished it. Sounded very similar to the scream I had let out just a few minutes before. Stupid bug better not have been teasing me.

:(

Mother's Day weekend

Today was Mother's Day. Ronnie extended my special day to two days and called it "Mother's Day weekend" then told the girls they had to be extra good to me on Saturday AND Sunday. Steph told me that she wouldn't give Jen or Daddy any hugs or kisses all weekend, she would give them all to me. I asked for Mother's Day month........but I think I pushed my luck.

Anyways, everyone spoiled and made me feel so loved and special all weekend. I got the new yard swing that I really wanted from the girls, and Ronnie took me to dinner at a yummy new Mexican restaurant, then clothes shopping at New York and Co. on Saturday night. Here are a couple of pics of me and my girls taken on Mother's day weekend:

On Sunday we went to Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's house (Ron's mom and dad) for a BBQ. I took a few shots of the day......

This is my beautiful niece Corinne. She gets her braces off on Friday which will only make her even more beautiful. I'm going to need to shave her eyebrows off or give her a bowl cut in order to slow down the prettyness. Anyone have any clippers I can borrow??

Jennifer's wet (cute) bottom.......

Mischele (my sister-in-law), Corinne, Mary (mom-mom).....

My brother-in-law Chris and Corinne doing handstands.......

Can't forget a few recent layouts that I have done. I have been in a scrapbooking slump lately and have spent little to no time doing the hobby that I love so much, but I forced myself to complete a few challenges that my friends Rachael and Patti have thrown out, so THANK YOU to them for getting me going again!!!

Uncle "Bubba"

I only have one sibling, a brother, who is 2 years older than me.

My big brother and I didn't exactly see eye to eye when we were growing up, as a matter of fact, we didn't get along. Ever. We liked to antagonize each other and often tried to see what we could do to get the other in deep trouble or tease one another mercilously, often to the point of tears.

His name is Alex, actually it's Alexander, and in our family he is Alexander the third.

Which meant that to me, he was Alexander the turd.

Anyways, since my dad was also an Alex, I ended up just calling my brother "Bubba" (short for brother) so as to not confuse the situation any further. After awhile, Bubba just stuck. Stuck so much that Ronnie calls my brother Bubba (which makes sense because he is his brother-in-law)........and now my mom calls him Bubba, my friends call him Bubba, and even his fiance calls him Bubba sometimes!!!!

So it only made sense that when I had my children they called him "Uncle Bubba".

I never really gave any thought to this until very recently when Bubba was over visiting at my house. Somehow we got onto a conversation about his real name being Alex and Jennifer was NOT happy about it. She didn't believe us. She was not having it.

That conversation turned to the fact that Bubba was my brother.

Nope......she didn't like that either.

Then we sent her over the edge........we told her that Grannie was my mom.

At that point....she shook her hand at us and said, "I don't want to talk about it."

:)

Back from our Maiden Voyage.....

It is Sunday afternoon and we are back from our very first camping trip as a family..... EVER. It was so much fun, we all had such a blast. Some of the highlights included playing candybar Bingo, riding on the hayride, playing with the fire, Smores, and Uncle Bubba's treasure hunt.

The weather, which was supposed to be totally crappy and rainy all weekend, was nearly perfect! Friday could not have been better. Saturday was dry (YAY!) but a bit on the chilly side. We layered up and stayed close to the campfire and all was right in the world. Sunday, again, could not have been better weather-wise. All in all I think there were a total of 40 or 50 rain drops the entire weekend, and they came while we were sleeping.

The girls did great in the pop-up (well, that is, if you consider waking up at 6AM giggling every morning great). They liked sleeping in different beds each night and didn't really mind that there weren't computer games to play or movies to watch (even though I did bring the portable DVD player and 6 movies JUST.IN.CASE.)

Daisy-dog was her normal chipper self (I think she slept 40 of the 42 hours that we were there).

Our campsite couldn't have been better. It was on a corner and we didn't have anyone camping next to us the entire time we were there. It was very quiet. From our site we could see the playground, which meant that the girls got to feel "SO BIG" because they could go to the playground by themselves without mommy and daddy tagging along. That meant mommy and daddy could unpack, set-up, cook, or just relax for a few minutes in peace and quiet. Mental note: always book site 12. Site 12 rocks. Hard.

Here are a few shots from the weekend:

This is our new camper all popped-up and ready for action, I am really enjoying it already! She is just the right size and an all around great gal. :)

A monkey on the monkey-bars.

Jen being sweet for 3.7 seconds. Then she snapped out of it.

My brother (Uncle Bubba) and his fiance (Christina or Tina for short) joined us Saturday and Sunday which added to the camping fun! Here is Jen taking a ride on Bubba's shoulders. There is a funny story about why we call him Uncle Bubba (his real name is Alex), which I will save and share in another blog entry. Stay tuned.

A shot I got of Jen just after she either:

A.) saw a bug.
B.) realized that we were staying the night with the bugs and not just turning around and going home.
C.) realized that there were bugs. Everywhere.

Steph playing candybar Bingo. Nope, we didn't win. Some 50 year old lady who bought like 15 cards won. Way to steal the thunder from a game that is supposed to be "for the kids". I hope she enjoyed all of her Kit-Kat's and Snickers.

Ron stuck in the train on the playground.

My sweet Stephanie.

All in all a great weekend. We are all exhausted right now but are looking forward to our next trip 3 weeks from now.....which is farther away and much longer in length (5 days and 4 nights!) Can't wait to see the face Jenny makes when she see's the kinds of bugs they have at Otter Lake...............

:)