4th of July and Twin Lakes

I am finally to getting around to posting and am way behind. I hate it when I am posting things from last month but it is better late than never. This summer has gone by way too fast.

We were able to spend the 4th of July at Twin Lakes this year and it was so much fun. We had a barbeque dinner with Trent's family and then watched the firework show from the boat. We also had our own fireworks to set off and Tucker was in heaven. We call him our little Pyro Maniac. Tucker didn't even want to watch the big firework show. All he wanted to do was to light off our little fireworks which were nothing compared to big ones. We watched the fireworks with Trent's cousins girls, Brin and Heather. Talia is pretty much joined at the hip with them the whole week at Twin Lakes. I'm just glad that she has an opportunity to play with girl cousins her age.

We had our own cabin the first 2 nights we were there and then we moved into my parent's cabin because they had an extra room. It ended up being a little crowded because my brother Ross and his family decided to come at the last minute but the more the merrier. I was just so grateful that they came. I love spending time with my siblings whenever I get the chance. My sisters Nancy, Janet and Betsy also came up for Twin Lakes. Nancy stayed the whole week and Janet and Betsy and her family stayed for part of the week. Trent's whole family was there except for one brother-in-law and it was lots of fun to see all of them. There were 5 neices under the age of 4 in one small cabin which made for a lot of noise but it was fun.

We year's vacation was full of lots ups and downs. There were three major downs but overall we had a pretty good time. Of course I am doing to start with the downs.

1. The first downer was the weather. Usually it can get windy every afternoon and we will have a couple days of rain but this year it was pretty much rainy every day but the first and last day. There were a few hours of sunshine each day and everybody would rush out to use go skiing but the weather was pretty stinky.

2. WARNING THIS IS LONG STORY BUT WORTH THE READING! Monday night we set up our tent for my brother Ross to sleep in with Talia and Tucker and his 4 year old son, Parker. I first must set the story with that I had seen a black bear in the campground area Sunday evening. It was very scary for me especially since there kids running all around playing. I tried to get the kids to come away from the bear and the bear ran off from commotion. There had been a black bear in the campground a few nights before that but no damage was done except for some cookies were taken. While I was putting the kids to bed I noticed that Talia had 3 little pieces of candy in her pocket and she had put them down by her sleeping bag. I took them away and told there was to no food in the tent especially with bears in the campground. We then went on to have a long conversation about bears with Tucker and how the bears were only looking for food and they wouldn't hurt you or come in the tent. Tucker was a little a scared but he finally went to sleep. Well about a half hour later Ross went to bed but was reading for awhile before he went to sleep. While he was reading he heard something pulling at the back of the tent. Then he heard the tent rip open. IT WAS THE BEAR AND ROSS DIDN"T KNOW WHAT TO DO. Luckily some of Trent's teenage cousins were walking by and scared the bear away. What a relief! Ross ran to the cabin and told us what happened. We didn't believehim at first but then we came and got the kids out of the tent moved furniture around to make everyone fit on air mattresses in the cabin. While I am writing this I am realizing how scary it sounds and I am so grateful that I found Talia's candy and I am so grateful that Trent's cousins were walking by right at that moment to scare the bear away. I don't want to think about the possibilities of what could have happened. I am so grateful for the Lord's protection. It was extra scary when we went and looked at the tent that night after the kids were safe and sound saw the tooth marks and the fresh saliva from the bear on our tent above the rip along the seam. The rip was at least a foot long and we still need to get it fixed.

3. After the bear experience we thought there wouldn't be anymore downs during this vacation but we were mistaken. Tuesday afternoon my nephew Parker started throwing up. We didn't think anything of it until Talia and Tucker started throwing the next afternoon. It only got worse from there. For the kids it was about a 12 hour bug and afterwards those 12 hours of throwing up ALOT they would perk up and be back to playing. It was a different story for the adults. Trent got sick that evening along with my sister-in-law Jana, my niece Lilly, my sister Nancy and I. Trent definitely got it the worst as usual. He was pretty much throwing and had diarhea the whole night and the next morning. Lilly and Nancy was pretty sick also and was throwing up the whole night. Jana and I felt crummy and threw up once that night but was having to take of Trent the whole night and got to listen to him the whole. Those cabins have very thin walls and not very good insulation. It was a very long night for everybody. My mom got sick that next morning and then Janet got sick the next evening. My sister Betsy had the come the night everyone got sick and we sent her home becuase she had a new baby and we didn't want it to spread to her family. It was a terrible buy. Trent had thrown up so hard that the capillaries around his eyes had popped. Luckily it didn't spread to Trent's parents or sisters but it did spread to his cousin's families and his Aunt.

Now that I have gone on and on about the downs I need to talk about more ups. It was so fun to spend time with our families despite the bears and the sickness and we would do it again if we could. I can only speak for myself. I don't know if Trent would want to relive that week again. Despite the bad weather were able to use the boat some and get some good skiing and wakboarding in. Talia had fun slaloming and wakeboarding at Twin Lakes and Tucker had a great time wakeboarding. We also took a neice and nephews kneeboarding behind the boat. Talia and Tucker were able to go off the rope swing. Talia did it from high and Tucker below. Tucker isn't a fan of heights like his mother. We also took Tate to Twin Lakes and he had a great time. There were lots of people to meet and my Uncle kept feeding him treats every day. By the end of the week we were ready to go home.