For now.
In fact, we did get to see fireworks last night, even though we were bundled up under blankets. At least the rain had stopped. Now onto Part Deux of the Family Vacay '09.
After a quick stop home, we headed back out to the hills again. This time we stayed with my Brother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law in their cabin. This was the part of the vacay that I really started to feel rested. We played games, ate yummy food, had a camp fire for s'mores, four-wheeled, ran, hiked, zip lined, and tried to fish. After writing all that stuff down, and realizing that we did, in fact, do much more, it's hard to understand why I would have felt so much more rested, but I just did. It was just a really great time.
On one of the days we were there, we tried to go fishing and have a picnic. It lasted all of ten minutes. No joke. After just a minute or two after getting there and setting up food, we realized that there were quite a bit of mosquitoes. We had seen and been bitten quite a bit up to this point, so we weren't detoured (see previous post about all the rain we've been having as an answer to why we were so buggy). However, after another minute or two we realized that the problem was getting bigger and might be more than we could handle. After receiving a few bites despite the thick layer of bug spray, and THROUGH OUR CLOTHING, we realized we must get out of there. By the time we wrangled up everyone, and got stuff packed away, we were completely swarmed by more mosquitoes than I have ever seen in my life.
Some were the size of small birds.
OK, that was a bit dramatic, but they were large, and did I mention, they were biting us THROUGH OUR CLOTHING!
Thankfully, we hadn't unpacked our picnic too much, so it was very easy to serve everything back up again once we reached the safety of the cabin. The Little Man had so many bites on his legs that they were actually starting to look deformed.
That doesn't include the bites on his forehead that caused him to look like he was growing a horn.
By the end of the trip, The Girl and her cousin had decided that they had found a secret recipe for keeping mosquitoes at bay. It included almost an entire bottle of bug spray mixed with a nice layer of sand. They insisted that it worked.
By far one of my most favorite parts of this trip, besides watching the kids thoroughly enjoy themselves with their cousins and all things outdoors, was a run that I did with my Sister-in-Law.
She told me that there was this loop in the forest that she loves to run. It sounded fun and beautiful. Also, the term "loop" sounded kind of small and do-able. I imagined some sort of nice flat trail that looped around an open field/meadow type place.
Um. Not so much.
Don't get me wrong, like I said, this was my favorite part of the trip, but it was the hardest run I have ever been on. I realize that this isn't saying much, but I am just sayin'. First off, that "little" loop ended up being about five-ish miles. I do run further than that at home, but home isn't a little over 10,000 feet above sea level. Also, "the loop" is very hilly (Imagine that? Hilly in the mountains? Who would've thought?). Lastly, I am pretty sure the run was up-hill both ways. I made it, though. It was difficult, but totally worth it. I loved the scenery, the quietness, the solitude, and the challenge. I loved that when I was done, I felt like I gave all that I had. I can hardly wait to do it again.
Here are some pictures of this trip:
The kids favorite thing to do: The zip-line:
Watching Cars:
Enjoying some tire swing action:
Hunting for pine cones:
Geared up for four-wheeling:
Yummy S'mores:
Cousins are fun:
Part Deux was a great time.
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