Camp Vacation Week - June 22nd to July 1st 2007

Hey everyone!

I've been quite the slacker with this whole "blogging business", in fact I'm actually gonna skip the past two camp trips. Nothing much exciting happened anyway, so I may as well carry on with our vacation week. So here goes nothing! :)

On Friday June 22nd, Darcy, Mitch, the 3 dogs and I piled more things than you can imagine into the Yukon and we were off to the camp for a week. It's really hard to pack for that long; trying not to forget anything really important, and making sure other pets that can't come (Teddy and Peter) will be well taken care of..thanks Mom! By the time the truck was loaded up, I was already yawning! We made a few stops in town and finally hit the highway..

Unfortunately, I was not much company on the drive up there..heh heh..

As soon as we hit the last store for ice, I finally woke up. I had to snap this picture of Jake in the back, too funny! You can't even see Kate and Meg, there was just SO much stuff jammed in back there..

I waited in the truck while Darcy grabbed ice and Mitch grabbed his treats for the trip. Of course, I had to take a picture of myself (with my eyes open)...

We were soon on our way, and here's what the sky looked like..not too promising.

We knew the weekend forecast was rain, but still..you always hold out some hope right? When we reached the camp road, we soon realized we were being followed. After a few minutes, we clued in that it was Aaron (he had gotten off work early). So we all arrived at the same time, and as we were unpacking the rain started. Needless to say, we didn't do a whole lot that night. We couldn't really have a fire, so we sat in the porch for most of the evening. It was a pretty laid back, relaxing night. I was ready for bed by 11:00pm, pathetic or what? :)

The next morning we were all up bright and early, and Darcy and Aaron got lots of work accomplished. They had both brought jacks with them so they could fix the blocking under the camp, which they did in record time...

And they took Aaron's truck to the pit and got a load of crushed stone for the camp yard, then levelled it all out...

After the work was finished, the boys had some target practice with Mitch's pellet gun...

And Jake and I enjoyed some Jiffy Pop..heh heh...

Around mid-afternoon our company arrived. Thanks to Facebook, I've recently been in touch with quite a few guys that I took Environmental Tech. with (we graduated 12 years ago). Some of them live quite far away now, but a few still live relatively close. Two of my buddies decided to make a trip up for a "mini-reunion" with Aaron and I. (I should mention, it was because of that course we started hanging out with Aaron, and eventually we got in on the camp lease with him). So Kim Brennan (who currently lives in PEI), and Tony Richard (who currently lives in Woodstock), came up for the night. Kim plays guitar, so he, Darcy, Aaron and Mitch planned on having a jam session.

We spent the afternoon reminiscing in the porch (damn rain), Kim Dickson arrived around supper time, and soon after the night of guitar playing began. The boys played All Night...it was such a hoot! We had such a great time, lots of laughs, one of the best times I've had in a long time actually. Here's a few random shots from that night..

Kim and I having a good laugh...

Aaron on his way in to mix another drink...

Darcy playin' one tune or another...

A group shot of the ET alumni (ha ha)..L to R is Aaron, Darcy in background, Tony, me and Kim..

Another group shot, I wanted one without my brace to put on our Facebook group..so Aaron solved that problem! :)

We all had a really great night, and everyone woke up Sunday feeling pretty good. Kim and Tony left around lunch time, and Aaron headed back to Moncton a few hours after that. Sunday was another rainy, dreary day for the most part. I vegged out reading a book and pretty much spent the next two days completely wrapped up in it. I wasn't the only one who vegged though...here's Jake relaxing..

Darcy and Mitch went for a drive on the four-wheeler, and Darcy had to move this tree off of the road..NOT! :)

While they were gone on the drive, Kim and I noticed another huge rainbow developing over the camp yard. Luckily Darcy and Mitch saw it too, and managed to get some pictures. This first one is actually a double rainbow..

Soon the first one got brighter and the second one disappeared...

Sunday evening the rain actually stopped and Darcy, Kim and Mitch had a fire outside. I stayed inside, too sucked into my Stephen King book to enjoy the stars (and that's saying something). Apparently it was nice evening, Kim even slept outside in the gravity chair!

Monday came, and Kim decided to stay on for another night since she didn't have to work until late Tuesday. I was starting to worry about my physiotherapy. The Friday that we left for vacation, I was told I could start full weight bearing on my leg. It's hard to practice walking in the camp yard with all of the gravel, and I knew that on Thursday I had another appointment with my therapist. Darcy decided to make me a cane and to put up a parallel bar for me in the porch to practice with...

So, I spent some time practicing with first one crutch and the bar, and then with the cane and the bar. It worked out pretty good! While Darcy was on his travels looking for the perfect piece of wood for my cane he came across these huge deer tracks...

We also spent some time watching another gigantic spider that lives on the outside of the porch.... (he's a monster..ick!)...


Later in the evening, during another trip, Mitch snapped this picture of one of the many rabbits they saw...

They also made a few trips "around back" where the beavers have been really busy...



Monday night was another nice evening. This time I did sit outside by the fire, but would not be separated from my book! :)

While we were sitting there, this HUGE moth came flying out of nowhere and launched himself into the fire! Mitch nearly had heart failure, and ran into the camp to grab some oven mitts. He put them on and tried to rescue the moth from the flames. He did manage to get him out...unfortunately, the moth didn't make it! :( Good effort though Mitch!

Tuesday morning Kim was up and gone bright and early. Darcy, Mitch and I had a couple of pretty quiet days. They spent lots of time four-wheeling, I spent lots of time practicing my walking, and Mitch and I both read quite a bit. On Thursday we made a trip to town for my physio appt., to get more supplies and to do some laundry. My appt. went very well, and I was told that I'd graduated to a cane! Woo hoo! I was very excited, best news I'd had in many months. Darcy bought me a bottle of wine to celebrate, and I cracked 'er open when we got back to the camp..

That evening Darcy heard some strange peeping sounds coming from the woods between our camp and Scott and Dean's. He walked over and found a partridge with her brood, here's a picture of one of the babies..

I should also mention that Darcy spent a couple of days painting the camp floor. He did a great job of it, it looks so much brighter now...



Earlier in the week I had spotted a mouse in our porch. Because of the "mouse sighting" we picked up some traps while we were in town. Darcy set them up with some bait, and we ended up trapping 13 mice on Thursday night. Gross..but totally amazing. I never imagined there were so many mice around! Mitch was having a great time walking around with a flashlight on trap patrol. It was quite entertaining!Thursday night was a great night overall. It was a beautiful night, lots of stars, and we spent most of the time laid back in the gravity chairs enjoying the view.

Friday morning we were up bright and early enjoying some coffee when Vince arrived. He, Darcy and Mitch decided to spend the day at the lake. It was another really nice day, and they had a great time. Here's a picture of Mitch walking toward the lake, (notice the osprey nest in the tree above)..

Mitch walking along the shore..

The lake...

And some pictures of the osprey coming back to the nest with a fish...



They also made a stop at the falls, which is a really beautiful place. I'm only including one picture of it because you can check out a quick video of it here..

They all had a great trip, and when they arrived back we hung around the yard waiting for more company. Here's a picture Darcy snapped of us..

Me, looking SO impressed.. :)

Mitch drawing a picture...

Our NB flag which I've been trying to get a picture of of, it was finally windy enough...

And Darcy trying to get a picture of himself for his Facebook profile...

Sometime after supper Vince showed up for the nightly bonfire. Soon after, Kim, Scott and Kari arrived. Kim brought a whole box of fireworks with her, and we waited until dark to set them off. It was great fun, but fireworks always are! I managed to take a couple of pictures, but I was finding it difficult...


I soon decided it would be better on video, so here are a bunch of short video clips. You'll notice the sound of Kate barking in the background the whole time, she is SO freaked out by fireworks! You can check them out here, here, here, here, and here! :)

We had a great time the rest of the weekend. The weather co-operated which was nice, and we spent lots of time outside. By Sunday, we were ready to pack everything and get back home (even though we could have stayed on another night). What can I say? I love the camp, but man I missed home! On our way out the camp road, we came across this deer...

So, that was the week in a nutshell! Hope I didn't forget anything too important! Till next time,

Lissy :)