Happy New Year/Camping trip

First and foremost Happy New Year to all. For most if not all this last year was hard. I am hoping that this year will be better. If not dramatically then in little things. It is the little things that make people break down.

On to a brighter note, I was talked in to a camping trip to the lake for a few days. Normally I am the one harping to go camping but since Nikki came along I would not go camping just for the fact that the nearest phone is 25 miles down unlighted, pot holed filled National Forest Roads. And that is not a town. It is a station that doesn't sell gas. No, our cell phones don't work there.

The dog, Ranger, used to get car sick when he was a puppy. After two hours riding in the backseat on top of out pillows and blankets he yaked. I heard Nikki shriek and reached back there to comfort her and encountered warm slime. Nikki was up against the window and side of her car seat, trying desperately to undo her harness. I got her calmed down, and the car seat cleaned up, and two pillows and two blankets.
Out of our three dogs he was the best choice, Judd is too aggressive with strangers and Gator doesn't listen, for anything.

I got Donald a HUGE new tent. It sleeps 7 with storage space, 9 feet by 13 feet. So if is raining nonstop my toddler has room to be herself with her stuff and my stuff, which it was raining and the temp was dropping. So we got everything unpacked and out new tent set up and ready to go.

DJ insisted on bringing his tent and setting it up for himself and Ranger. He is seventeen so I can understand not wanting to sleep in the same tent as your parents and little sister. He is allot more polite about it then I would have been when I was seventeen. Because of the rain and some depression under his tent the water soaked his blankets, pillows, and sleeping bag.

Nikki talked to me in the dark for an hour and a half. Just when I thought she was asleep and I would doze off......MAMA! And she would start talking and telling me stories in her way ( allot of hand gestures and sounds) for another 20 min or so. It was really cute and sweet.

It was 29 degrees in the morning. I went thru allot of wood for the fire. I was burn happy. We went for walks up and down the trails. DJ showed me a hickory tree that took two people to wrap their arms around. Nikki learned to be a bear by going up to small trees and pushing against them like bears do. We went down to the lake to throw rocks and find snail shells.

Hunting was a bust because crews were out there looking for oil. They were drilling and setting off dynamite to get seismic readings. The deer were only nocturnal.
We caught four catfish.

I saw the moon rise over the lake, huge and red each night. The moon was so bright after the first rainy night it was like having a street light over the tent. I woke up early each morning and would have the moon to my back illuminating the woods and watch over the lake and see the sun rise. It was picture perfect. It was calming and inspiring.

Speaking of...where are the photos you ask. My camera died the second photo I took. I wanted to die. I was so looking forward to taking pictures. Of everything.

We watched Bald Eagles play over the trees and water and call out to each other. Nikki chased grasshoppers in the grass. Played with water bugs and yelled at owls at night.

We had no electronic anything. Everything was by firelight and Coleman stove/heater. I wanted to collect twigs and make birdhouses and live there forever.

If it was not for my husband I would prefer to live life without a TV. I got dirty looks for that statement. I would miss my Internet but I could live happily without it. Sorry Internet, I am not as obsessed as I thought. *grins*

Here is a link to where we were---

http://www.toledo-bend.com/national-forest/index.asp?request=ragtown

It is quiet and cheap and has showers and toilets. The trails are clean and the wildlife is there, the armadillo wandering thru camp is testimony to that, DJ hard to get up and shoo it away. We even had little light green birds EVERYWHERE. They looked like the wind blew the rest of the leaves out of the trees. Until some blew into the camp and the leaves had eyes. They ate every single bug they found and then some. It was totally awesome.