Thursday, June 30, 2011

Happy Summer Day

Yesterday was my 17th Birthday. It was the perfect lazy summer day/Birthday. We had waffles with blackberries for breakfast, and we made a fruit pizza for dessert later that evening. While the crust was baking, we sang enthusiastically and I taught my Mother how to swing dance. My sister joined us then and we were all swing dancing together. Afterwards, Mother and I looked through a fun magazine. Once my Dad got home from work, we went out to eat at Uncle Julio's (the BEST Mexian resturant ever!), then came back home and watched the movie Beastly. It was such a fabulous day!

Friday, June 3, 2011

A Camping We Will Go!

Just got back from my first, yes, FIRST camping trip! Sad that I'm nearly 17 and this was my first time to REALLY camp. I don't call sleeping out in a tent in a backyard real camping...
Anyways, our amazing friends the Archers invited me and Maddy to Lake Mineral Wells, and we jumped at the chance! All 11 of us crammed into their car and headed off. Once there, we swam nearly 2 miles (who can believe it) altogether by swimming to and from the other side of the lake. When Katie, Maddy and I were about to head off back to our camp site as we were on the opposite side of the lake, I saw a snake head sticking up out of the water. It was WAY too close for comfort. We yelled to the boys to defend themselves or follow us as we fled in terror. Later, we figured out that it was a water moccasin. Talk about FRIGHTENING!
When we got back, we were all exhausted, in an energetic sort of way, if that makes any sense at all. After supper we sat around the fire and enjoyed each other's company. We sang a few songs, listened to the guys play their guitars, and Katie and Maddy play their ukuleles. A friendly raccoon came up every now and then around the edges of the firelight. When I first saw it, I nearly freaked out, but calmed down when I saw it wasn't leaping at me to eat me. We all dubbed the raccoon Sir (yes, we knighted it) Maximilian Arthur Rupert III. As we girls attempted to star gaze, we were rudely interrupted by a "wild animal" thrashing about in the bushes. It SCARED the living daylights out of us but it turned out to be the younger guys trying to scare us. It worked.
Today we tried to wake up early to see the sunrise...yeah, that didn't work out like we planned. After a late breakfast and packing up camp, we headed off to a different part of the lake where they were renting canoes and kayaks. Between the 9 kids, we split 2 canoes and 1 kayak. We had so much fun! We rowed over to a darling little island in the lake, explored that, found a nest with a huge egg in it, a teeny-tiny turtle, and another snake. After four hours of canoeing, swimming and the like, we packed up and headed home.
 A most delightful first camping experience, wouldn't you think?