Thanksgiving 2006

This year for Thanksgiving we went on our traditional camping trip with the Larsen and Pierson families. The camping for Thanksgiving idea started with some families at church a handful of years ago. It's not a church function, just families who are friends would pack up head to a state park and camp for the holiday and celebrate with a feast. Our first thanksgiving camping was in 2003 and my mom even came down to camp with us. We have some fun stories to tell about the non-stop rain the first night and trying to squeeze our tent in the shelter and wipe it off with towels, then sweltering in the extreme heat and humidity all night. None the less we all had a fantastic time. In 2004 everyone prepared to camp and the day we planned on leaving it flooded, so we celebrated in the gym up at church. Last year we spent Thanksgiving with Ken's family. This year I was so excited to hear that the Pierson's would be flying in to town for the camping trip. So we packed up and headed off for camp with the Larsen's (some very good friends of ours) and the Pierson's (some more very good friends).

With the Larsen's and Pierson's one can't help but make great memories, in fact even when I think about it I can't help but chuckle and smile.

Fun notes:
1. Packed up early Wednesday, 3 vehicles, 1 trailer, 17 persons, 2 turkeys (not live)
2. Daria, Maddi, and Olivia drink full containers of Gatorade, BEFORE we leave.
3. 10 minutes down the road the girls complain of having to go to the bathroom, again.
4. Being the evil parents we are, we make them wait until we arrive in Brenham.
5. Caleb has a few blowouts in the Suburban. Uses up his clothes for the trip.
6. Shauna blissfully sleeping in the front of the van, we got good pictures of that.
7. Other things Shauna had to take care of at Wal-mart in Brenham :o)
8. The dreaded Mapquest directions. Why do Mapquest directions always take longer? Why do they never make sense? Why do I keep using Mapquest? Why does a 3 hour trip turn into almost 5?
9. Fortunately no matter how long your trip is it's always more fun with friends.
10. Ken's abrupt move over into the other exit lane behind Chris, with Shauna and Daren behind us. That was scary! Again, if the Mapquest directions made more sense.
11. Trying to interview Ken for his personal history. We didn't get very far because he's not a story teller and all of his answers were one word answers. :o)
12. Destination, Inks Lake, in the Hill Country. One of the best State parks I've been to.

Inks Lake was fabulous. We usually camp in tents near shelters. This year we used the cabins. Wow! they were nice. I believe they were about 7 years old but they looked brand new. Completely clean. Inks Lake is in the Hill Country on the Colorado River. The terrain is enjoyable and reminds me of New Mexico. We were surrounded by Live Oak trees, Cedar trees and a LOT of cactus. The park is also largely inhabited by deer who are very friendly. No feeding of course, but we had plenty of deer walk through our camp, probably about 30 feet from where we were sitting.

First Night.
1. Adults cook chicken wings in the dutch oven. The kids roast hot dogs on the fire.
2. Collin plays the guitar for everyone.
3. The adults laugh at Andrew who wants to switch cabins because he can't get internet connection. ???? Wait, I thought we were camping????

Thanksgiving Day.
1. Ken cooks breakfast on our tractor disc. (there are blessings to being a farm boy)
2. The boys practice with Colton's bow and arrow.
3. The girls play with the hammock.
4. Everyone but Ken, Chris, and Caleb tour the Longhorn Caverns.
5. Ken and Chris are our Thanksgiving cooks, 2 turkey's, 1 deep fried, 1 in the dutch oven.
6. After returning the ladies finish the fixings, salads, potatoes, stuffing, desert.
7. The Krupa family arrives for the Thanksgiving feast.
8. The kids wade on the shore for shells.
9. All of the families rent canoe's for the afternoon.
10. Everyone returns for a dinner of left overs.
11. We all learn about triathlons and Iron Man competitions. Shauna and Kris are our pros.
12. Everyone flips through the sale flyer's so Brother Krupa knows what to pick up for the after Thanksgiving Sales.
13. The Krupa's return home to get a good nights rest in order to wake up early and beat the door buster deals.
14. Listening to Shauna tell more of her sleep talking stories. We end up with sore mouths from laughing so hard.
15. The kids play flashlight tag.
16. Another good nights rest.

NOW, that was just a summary of the general events. It seems like in every group of people there is always someone that everything is going to happen to. That someone in this group was Dustin. For those of you who know Dustin he is such a funny little guy and odd situations always seek him out. No matter how much precaution I take, something different will no doubt, happen.
Day 1
1. Dustin grabs the end of the skewer that had been roasting his hot dog (after I warned him not to touch it)
2. Dustin "I hate hot dogs, I'm never eating a hot dog again!".
3. Filled a medical glove full of ice for his hand, this seemed to help.
4. Dustin continues to play and the hand bothers him on and off, but he is still able to play in good spirits.
5. Bed time arrives and Dustin cries harder than he did when he first got burned. So we made sure the glove was full of fresh ice.
7. About when we thought he was dying because of his extreme crying he says "My hand is so hot I can feel it in my other hand".
8. If you are a parent what would you say to that?
9. If you are a parent this is one of those moments when you feel dumb because you realize that the crying was actually related to being overly tired, overly stimulated, and just a plain old melt down.
10. My "poor" Dustin attitude returned to reality and I reminded Dustin that it was physically impossible so go to sleep! :o) That seemed to work.

Day 2

1. Like all of the kids, Dustin took his shoes and socks off to wade on the shore for shells.
2. Before walking back to camp I tell Dustin to put his shoes on because the ground was loaded with stickers.
3. Dustin "no mom, I don't need my shoes."
4. Minutes later I hear screaming loud enough that everyone could hear it at the camp.
5. Dustin is sitting down pulling handfuls of stickers off of his foot.

Day 3

1. The whole camp made it without any cactus collisions.
2. While packing up I hear screaming again..... and of course it's Dustin. I turn around and I can see him back at the cabin standing there with his pants pulled down.
3. When I get there I find that while playing with the other kids he fell in a cactus.
4. Ken and I only see 3 small needles in one of his but cheeks .
5. Strange?? after pulling them out Dustin is still screaming.
6. Ahhh, we find the reason. Ken has to hold Dustin's cheeks open so I can pluck out about 20+ very fine cactus needles.
7. Fortunately I could get them all out.
8. While I'm taking them out Dustin is yelling and crying "Now I've got holes in my bottom!"

Now you can see that even though these weren't pleasant situations, Dustin says the funniest things that we can't help but privately laugh.

Do you ever look around at other families and think they are perfect? I know I do. Even though I know that no family is perfect, sometimes our little family has the strangest set of experiences I tend to think we are extremely less than perfect.

For example...... You've not heard me say much about Daria. That's because Daria is pretty easy going. She doesn't seem to attract strange things like stickers, or cactus needles. So besides drinking the full bottle of Gatorade before we left, there was nothing out of the ordinary to report. Until our canoe trip. I think to myself, if there was one title that represented our family this trip I'd have to say "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". Jokingly of course.

So we set out to experience our very first every family canoe ride. The kids are thrilled. Ken's excited. I'm imagining all those great outdoors things I got to do as a child and now my kid's get to do some of the same things. Life couldn't be better!

1. I didn't realize that there was a front and back to a canoe.
2. I get in first, sitting face forward in the back of the canoe, which is now the front.
3. Daria gets in next, and then Dustin.
4. Everyone is still smiling.
5. Ken pushes us off and jumps in (the front going backwards) causing the boat to rock.
6. This causes Daria to literally and completely freak out. I can sympathize. As a child I didn't like water that much and prefer rivers over lakes.
7. Daria screamed the whole time.
8. While paddling I try to calm her down.
9. While I'm doing that Dustin is mimicking Daria in a mocking way saying "wah, wah, wah". obviously he is not scared at all. He tries to make Daria think there are alligators and sharks
in the lake. Of course this does't help and actually kind of creeps me out too but I pretend it doesn't.
10. I continue to try to calm Daria down. She's mad at Dustin. I'm telling Dustin to stop. Ken is telling Daria to stop, and I'm telling Ken to stop. Ultimately all of us were having our own personal tantrums.
11. I wonder if the people on the shore can hear us. I wonder how funny we must look.
12. We floated for a few seconds while changing directions. Daria screams even louder because she believes we are going to sink.
13. Ken decides we need to turn around in our seats so he can paddle.
14. More screams.
15. Ken turns around which rocks the canoe a little which now makes Dustin scared.
16. Now I'm the rudder person. I have no idea how to rudder. I'm thinking I'm glad we are all wearing life jackets.
17. Daria's still screaming. She thinks we are going to sink because I don't know how to rudder.

In reality we were not out on the lake very long. We went out in the middle and then turned back in. I think we both thought that eventually Daria would calm down, but she never did and our patience was begining to wear thin so we rowed in.

I think it's safe to say that unless any huge miracle happens, Daria will not be canoeing anytime soon.

Ultimately we had a fabulous time. The older the kids get the more fun our family vacations become because we get to interact with each other. Maybe we'll go again next year!

Animals and People

There are those who remember a person's name by remembering the name of that persons animal. Then there are those people like me who never remember the names of animals that people own. The people who remember the animal names are usually people who love animals just as much as they love humans. I have friends like this and I admire that personality trait.

Daria loves animals, or should I say all creatures. (currently we have a 10 gallon fish tank which is our version of a "dog" ). She loves to catch frogs, and isn't grossed out (like Dustin) by picking up knight crawler worms, she loves dogs and cats and especially horses.

Which brings me to my memory of the day. Daria and I were talking about a time when we looked through a bunch of model homes (she laughed at the idea of a "model" home, I had to explain that one) and she remembered that we went with someone but didn't know who it was.

Mom "we went with Cheri"
Daria "Cheri?"
Mom "You know, Cheri, the one with the cat named Cosmo"
Daria "Oh that Cheri. I liked Cosmo, even though I never met him in real life".

Like I said I really don't remember the names of animals but WHO can forget Cosmo, he is a VERY special kitty.

So as the story goes, Daria is definitely a animal person!

Another excuse to use the computer

In September I attended the one an only CKU here in Houston. For those of you who have no idea what CKU is, well, to a scrapbooker it's like the Queen of all scrapbooking events. Alas, here in Houston! (that's another story). I took an Adobe PhotoShop Elements class and couldn't wait to get home and try out my new digital skills. Unfortunately, I arrived home to a dead computer. It sat on my desk with a nice little note from my personal computer genius that read "Do not try to turn on your computer, it's dead, I'm working on it". Ten years of trying to balance my computer time. I felt like my life STOPPED.... then there was the bright side. Surely it would be fixed in a day. To my dismay it took about two weeks. But the story doesn't end there. It actually was a huge blessing in disguise. I re-learned that life really can exist without my computer. It was amazing! I re-claimed my life, re-organized my time and miraculously was still able to journal and do bills. I have to admit, I sort of liked it. In fact i liked it so much I rarely even went upstairs to sit at my desk (which became a piling spot of junk papers). When my computer got fixed I of course wanted to hug and kiss it but it did help me to do other things with my time. Until.... Friday night while talking with two very cool friends (you know who you are but you swore me to secrecy about your blog so I can't type your name) and one confesses she now has a blog and even checks out a few other friends blogs. Now that was cool I thought. Here is the answer to my pitiful web-site that I've not worked on for at least 4 months. Do I like to journal? Yes! do I like to post pictures? Yes! Do I have a hard time keeping all of my family and friends up to date on our day to day ramblings? Yes! blogger here I come!!!

Just when I think I've weened myself from the computer, here is another reason to use it! Gotta love technology.