Sunday, May 28, 2006

I Screwed It Up Again!

Well, after going through all that work, and writing five separate blog entries for the May long weekend...and saving them all as drafts before publishing them..I still managed to screw it up! How? I'm not sure! I wanted to post them in order, starting from Thursday, through till Sunday, so I published them in that order..unfortunately they still published backwards!

I'm too damn tired to bother changing it now..so please scroll down....way down...to the entry called May Long Weekend - Thursday Night Intro...then continue all the way up (if you want to read it in order that is!). I'm so ticked off! Anyhew, that's enough venting for one day! Chow for now!

May Long Weekend - Sunday

Finally, my fifth and last post for the May long weekend..what a process! These are all pics taken on Sunday, which was the last day for the Knowles clan, and Kim. There were no pics from Monday, since we all headed out so quickly..so these will sum it all up! Here's Aaron holding Daniel, Coll and Dan were busy packing up their gear. Daniel didn't look too scared of Aaron...that says something Darcy..heh heh!
Here's Kim and Autumn picking flowers, Kim was getting ready to head out for home..
Here's a pic of "Dead Lake", the place I talked about in my first post..Darcy and Aaron had a very quick trip in and out of there.
This pic of Scott was taken during our trip around back through the cutouts..so are most of the next pictures..
This is Jen's "I'll start with you!" picture, it's an inside joke we had..looks kinda like a helmet advertisement for Canadian Tire...heh heh! Sorry Jen, but it had to be included!
This pic has a little story too, while we were driving along, Darcy found this old pair of ugly sunglasses lying on the road. He put them on, and pretended to be a cop when Jen and Aaron drove up, Mitchell then decided to put them on, and pose for this picture..
The Martin clan, snuggled together on their four-wheeler..
The Martin's and Mitch driving up ahead of us..we really wanted to capture the blue sky..it was so nice to see after all the rain we had!
And back at the camp, Mitch and Autumn playing a game of washers.

Well, that's all for now, 3 and 1/2 hours is sure a long time to post a blog..my hands are sore, and so are my eyes! The weekend was a blast..I hope I captured all the memories for everyone that was there! Till next time, Lissy

May Long Weekend - Saturday Night

These are all pics taken Saturday evening..they pretty much speak for themselves!Here's Autumn and Aaron roasting some marshmallows.. Jake in his usual position on a chair, he would never lay on the ground like a normal dog!
The next two pics need a bit of explanation..if you know Mitchell at all, you'd know that he is obsessed with the TV show "Lost", his favorite character is Mr. Ecko, who carries a big club around with him, and writes Bible scriptures all over it. Anyway, Mitch decided he wanted to make one for himself, he calls it a "Jesus stick", not sure it that's what Mr. Ecko calls his or not..but here is a pic of Mitch creating it..
And here's the finished product...
Here's Autumn eating her marshmallows...she has more on her face then in her mouth..heh heh!
All the chicks..
I apologize in advance to you Coll, but I just had to put this pic in..it's too funny! The pic is a little blurry, but it still works...what a laugh!
Here's Darcy and Jen hamming it up for the camera! Note, this is Jen before....
and this is Jen after...heh heh! We started calling Jen "Aunt Jenina" after this pic was taken! I think the name will stick for a very long time Jen, sorry! Heh heh!
Darcy and Aaron playing a tune in the porch, I think they were both just about ready for bed when this pic was taken, eh boys?
And this is the one and only pic of the fireworks that we had, Kim was the only one who bothered to try to take a picture, the rest of us were too busy watching the show!

So, once again, I can't fit any more pics, which is probably a good thing, since some of them would make great blackmail photos...believe me it could have been much worse people! Anyway, read on for Sunday's entry...

May Long Weekend - Saturday Afternoon

This is all pics taken from Saturday afternoon, some at the camp, and some from the fishing trip... I had to include a picture of Cosmo, poor Cosmo had quite the culture shock being at the camp. He'd never been to the woods before, and he was really missing Mom! He spent most of his time lying underneath the table, when he wasn't outside smelling everything in sight!
Here's Autumn sitting in the canoe on the lake..she looks just like her aunt Marilyn in this picture!
Here's the Martin clan..really nice pic guys!
This is Aaron's "model" picture, he looks like he's posing for a fishing magazine..another really great picture!
Back at the camp, Darcy decided to hold Daniel for a picture, I think he was just a tad terrified of Darcy..we zoomed in for this shot! Heh heh..
And this is pretty much the same shot, except Dan is there too..
Here's a really nice pic that Kim took of Danny Jr. and Sr...so sweet!
Here's Daniel napping away in his playpen..he looks so peaceful!
And finally here's Jake, napping away on the picnic table..how peaceful is that? What a dog!

That's all the photos I can squeeze in for this one...read on!

May Long Weekend- Friday Night and Saturday's Journey to "Secret Lake"

This post is pictures from Friday night, some of Kim's pics from Saturday morning, and the group's journey to "secret" lake....that's not really the name, but Darcy won't let me say where it is! Heh heh!Here's a pic taken Friday night, Mitchell was playing the guitar for Autumn..too cute!Later on Mitch did crafts with her, here she is happily working away... Here's all the bikes loaded up with the boat and canoe, pretty tippy looking! They are en route to the lake..
Vince and Autumn cruising along..
Autumn all geared up for her bike trip, she is just too cute!
Aaron hauling Jen out of a major waterhole..one of the many they encountered that day!
This is a pic Kim took over at Scott's..it's a trillium..very nice picture!
And yet another of Kim's pics, this one is a spider (check out the legs), coming out after the rain..a really cool pic!

That's all the pictures I can fit for this one..read on!

May Long Weekend - Thursday Night Intro

The May Long Weekend has come and gone, and it was so much fun! I've been waiting to post my blog entry, because I have so many pictures to go through that it's hard to decide which ones to use! I'm also posting this in many parts, once again because of all the pics, so it's gonna be a long read!

I figured I'd start this off by giving a few general details about the whole weekend, since I only have one pic for Thursday night. All the other entries, the pics can speak for themselves!

So, Thursday night I drove Darcy, Mitch and our three dogs up to the camp. Darcy had Friday off, so he wanted to leave early. Unfortunatley, I had to work Friday, so I had to come back home. Scott was already up there when we arrived, and Vince was there too. It was raining that night, so I think they stayed inside most of the evening, but they still had a good night.

Kim showed up at 4:00am Thursday night, or should I say Friday morning, as soon as she finished her shift at work. She has a car, so she obviously can't drive right in to Scott's camp, so Scott agreed to go meet her with his four-wheeler. All I can say, is thank God Kim was smart enough to bring a flashlight with her! Scott did manage to stay awake long enough to drive out and wait for her, but he parked his bike off to the side of the road and proceeded to fall asleep! Meanwhile, Kim drove right past him, parked her car and waited for him. She figured that he wasn't coming, grabbed her flashlight and walked in through all the mudholes to Scott's camp, expecting to wake him up! She was surprised to find that Scott wasn't even there! Down the road, Scott woke up and saw Kim's car parked a way's down..so he went back to the camp to find Kim. It all worked out in the end..but Kim you need to get off those late shifts..heh heh!

Friday was another crappy weather day! Rain, thundershowers, wind, you name it! I arrived about 5:30 with my Mom's dog Cosmo (Mom was on her cruise, and my brother Nick gone away for the weekend), and then Jen, Aaron and Autumn arrived around 8:00. We had a fire going for a little while outside, but the rain soon started again! We all moved into the porch, Darcy had put the screens up the week before, which was a great help keeping the flies at bay, and the sideways rain! Mitchell and Autumn stayed inside doing crafts most of the night, the rest of us just spent the evening catching up.

Saturday was a really nice day..sunny with cloudy periods, but absolutely no rain! We all had a big community breakfast at Scott Horton's , then everyone except Kim and I went on a fishing trip with the four-wheelers and boat/canoe, to the "secret" lake. Kim and I waited for Colleen, Danny and Daniel to arrive, and spent our time over at Scott's...Kim pulled roots in the yard, and we both got eaten by blackflies. The fishing group had a long day..but it was a fun journey! It took them 3 hours to get there, many delays with unexpected branches and trees, which Darcy had to cut, and lots and lots of waterholes! I think they only got one fish, which Darcy released, and Autumn fell asleep on the way there and back. They were all quite tired when they got home.

Dan, Coll and Daniel arrived around 2:30 that afternoon. We set up Daniel's playpen, Coll fed him, and he went down for a quick cat-nap. The rest of the crew arrived around supper time, we had a BBQ, and then built a campfire. We roasted marshmallows, had some drinks, and so many good laughs that everyone complained how sore their stomaches and faces were from laughing so much! It was definately one of the funnest nights I've had at the camp in years! Aaron brought a box of fireworks out at dark, and Darcy the pyro set most of them off. Very cool! Autumn was a little freaked out, she stood there with her ears covered most of the time, she liked to look at them, just not hear them! Poor Daniel was sleeping in the camp, and the dogs would bark everytime a firework would go off, they almost woke him up! Luckily he slept soundly until the next morning..and he didn't even wake anybody up when he awoke, just Coll! He was so good!

Sunday was another nice day! Coll and Dan headed out by lunch time, back to Miramichi to visit some relatives. Kim headed out as well, although she hated the thought of going to work at 4:00pm...sucky! Darcy and Aaron went on another adventure to a no-name lake, which they soon decided to call "Dead Lake", since there were absolutely no fish in it! Autumn layed down for a nap, and slept the whole afternoon, Jen and I had a game of Boggle and soon decided we'd have a nap too! Mitch was not impressed whatsoever! He really wanted us to go with him on the four-wheelers down to the river..we had no energy for that trip! After supper, we all piled on the four-wheelers and went for a cruise through all the cutouts behind the camp. It was such a beautiful evening, except the flies were wicked, so we kept moving as much as possible. We saw a baby moose, but didn't get a picture..which was too bad. Halfway through the trip, Vince's bike started making some really bad sounds, so he decided to head back right away. The rest of us weren't too far behind..especially since our bike started making funny sounds soon after! What's the chances of that? Anyway, we came back, had a fire, the kids played washers for a while and later that night the rain started..boo! We headed back to the porch where we remained the rest of the evening. It was a good night despite the rain, the boys jammed on the guitars for a bit, and we had some good laughs.

Monday, we woke up to a downpour! It rained continuously all night long! Not a good day to be packing up for home! Vince was gone by 8:00am, the Martin clan packed up quickly for their trip back to Moncton, but did stop by at Scott's for a cup of coffee on their way out (Autumn insisted). We weren't too far behind them. Our biggest problem was figuring out how we'd all fit in the truck on the way home! The three of us, plus 4 dogs! Thankfully Scott drove Kate home, and Cosmo, Jake and Meg all squeezed into the backseat of our truck! Fun! Fun! You can't imagine how smelly 3 wet, muddy dogs are inside of one vehicle! YUCK!

So, that's a quick play-by-play of the whole weekend..the next posts will mostly be pictures, that's enough writing for this chickie! Read on..

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The Woods Are Dry!

I tried to think of an appropriate title for this entry, the only thing I could come up with is "the woods are dry" or it could have been "NO BURN". For May 5th, we could not believe how dry it was, the forest fire index was at extreme, so no campfires for us! Sucky or what? I can remember a few years ago going camping in a tent on the May long weekend, and actually shovelling snow out of our spot! How things have changed!

Anyway, this weekend our family, Scott, and our friend Rick all went for the weekend. We haven't mentioned Rick before, his last trip to the camp was many moons ago...we're not even sure how long (4-5 years)?? Anyway, we had a great weekend overall, the weather was really nice, it was supposed to rain most of the weekend and we only got a couple of 5 minute showers on Saturday afternoon. Friday night we were sitting around the firepit, even though we had no fire, (we are such creatures of habit!) Darcy went ahead and put the coleman lantern inside of the pit, to give the 'feeling' of a fire, heh heh! See the pic below...you may think it's strange but it actually worked, Scott even kept standing in front of the pit and rotisserizing himself, (like we would on a chilly evening), again, creatures of habit! On my last entry I showed a pic of the road in front of the camp, covered in snow, this is the same shot 2 weeks later. Amazing or what? You'll notice the dried out huge puddle..that's the first time we've ever seen that puddle completely dried up! Scary..
On Saturday, Darcy and Mitch went for a spin on the four-wheeler..here's a pic of Mitch taking a break..
Later in their journey, they found a nice pond (I think it was a pond..), anyway, they caught a couple of tadpoles. These tadpoles were freakin' huge for the time of year! After showing our buddy Dean the pic, he did some research and found out that they are bullfrog tadpoles, and they are in their 2nd season. That explains why they are so huge...they'll be frogs later this summer, if they survive living in the bucket on my front porch. Heh heh!
Here's the tadpole's home...nice spot!
And Mitch finally got to bring his guitar to the camp..he's been begging for the past few months. Saturday afternoon we had an outdoor concert, Mitch and Darcy took turns jamming, man was it ever loud! Scott was next door working in his yard and could hear it no problem. Rick had no problem hearing it either, (from the top bunk inside the camp where he was trying to have a nap...eh Rick?). Heh heh!

Anyway, that's all for this entry! This weekend coming up is the long weekend, lots of people are supposed to come up so it should be a great time! Till then, Lissy

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Long Easter Weekend

OK, I've been slacking with my blog entries, it's been a whole month since my last post! We've had two trips that I have to catch up on before the May long weekend, so I figured I'd better get to work. The long Easter weekend was a blast! Four days of relaxation and a little too much Yahtzee, heh heh! Our first two days, we had beautiful weather, the next two were a downpour of rain (hence the Yahtzee!). Don't think we'll be playing that again for a LONG time!

Thursday night, our friends Michelle and Cleve came up, Scott was up too, and so was our buddy Mike who has a camp down the road. It was Mike's Birthday, so we celebrated, and had a really fun night! On Friday, Michelle and Cleve left, we had a great night, huge fire, the usual. Saturday, Kim came and brought the rain with her (eh Kim?), heh heh. We spent most of the night inside, but still managed to have fun. Sunday was Easter egg hunt day for Mitch, and we had a big ham dinner, yummy! Then the dreaded Yahtzee tournament began, and lasted for the rest of the evening. I have to admit, it was fun, and very flukey too! Anyway, enough with my babbling, I'll let the pics speak the rest...This is how the road looked in front of our camp, we drove the truck in so it was a bonus! So much easier to unload when the truck is right there, no more sled, woo hoo!
Here's a pic of Scott plowing through the water down by the river, he and Darcy went for a spin on the bikes.
Here's a pic of Michelle, (sorry it's not a better pic Michelle), she was in the middle of one of her hilarious stories...she kept me in stitches all night!
Here's our mud covered Meg, or Muddy Fluffy as Scott calls her, she looked like that all freakin' weekend! We even bathed her on Sat., which was a big waste of time!
Mitch busy carving or should I say peeling, the bark off of a stick of wood. I'm not sure what the purpose was, but it sure kept him busy all day Saturday.
We had another visit from our flying squirrel..he had quite the feed!
Here's Scott and Kim being entertained by our crazy dogs..Jake is always trying to sit on somebody's lap!
And here's Jake with his new toy, a soccer ball that he carries around in his mouth like that all day! He must have really sore jaws!

Anyway, that's all for that trip...more to come! Till next time, Lissy