We have returned from heaven

On Friday morning my friend Jennifer and I packed our 4 kids 6 miles into Aneroid lake. This was my kids and I's second time this week but her girls first. There was a little whining, lots of breaks and sore shoulders, but 5 whopping hours later we made it and according to everyone it was worth it.

The kids ages 7, 9, 9, and 11 carried all of their clothing, sleeping bags, and water to drink, as well as any other items of their choice, such as stuffed animals, hard cover books, and cards. They packed their gear the whole way and had energy to spare once we arrived.

After we got unpacked, explored the cabin, outhouses and visited briefly with Dennis, (the caretaker of the cabins) we headed out in the boats. The kids had fun rowing for a couple hours before heading back to the cabin. We had taco's for dinner, cooked over the wood stove and went to bed fairly early since everyone was tired. Good thing too because 2 of the kiddo's didn't sleep too well. One being scared and the other with a bad 2 AM allergy attack.

We were awakened by pouring down rain about 7 that next morning. With the gray skies and drizzle we spent most of the morning in the cabin by the fire playing charades and enjoying each others company waiting for our husbands to show up. Tob and Jeremiah both were in Texas and returned home the night before, planning to hike that next morning and enjoy another night with us.

In between the rain storms the girls raised the flag, played in the stream and the horse corrals,

and then ventured off with us to find this mine from the early 1900's. We found beer cans from the 1930's. We let each of the kids crawl in a little ways so they could shine the lights in to see what was there. It went back pretty far they said with a bunch of garbage inside. I wasn't going to squeeze in to take a peak for myself so I took their word for it.

After the boys made it in, the skies cleared a bit and they were able to take the kids fishing out on the boats. Even the pups got to enjoy a ride.

The girls liked to fish but mostly took turns rowing in circles. Lex was making silly faces and I asked her to stop so I could get a nice picture and this is what I got :-)

On our last day there Nojah and Tob each caught a brook trout. Tob cooked the fish over the fire for the kids to enjoy. They said the hike up was worth it just for the fresh fish.

Sarah, our youngest backpacker loved to carry the fish head around and at one point I believe she accused it of biting her.

We spent some time hiking around the basin that morning enjoying the sunshine and sheer beauty that surrounded us. I had 2 very graceful (or not) falls, one back into the boat soaking my shorts and undies. It's kind of a long story but I actually grabbed one of the children to save myself and we both went down. I was very ashamed of myself. After that I tried to make a big leap across a creek in flip flops and landed in the mud, slipping on my bum again, soaking yet a second pair of shorts and undies in a matter of 1 1/2 hours. Luckily my ego was the only serious injury. I thought I had possibly fractured my foot and had it x-rayed this morning to make sure but everything is A-ok. I am icing and elevating and should be ready to climb mountains again tomorrow. Anyway, after packing up, eating fish, and saying our goodbyes to our fabulous host we headed down the mountain for home.

A mile in Nojah reported his pack was just too light and wanted to carry mine. I gladly agreed and shortly after we were told by Tob due to Nojah's recent knee injuries that wasn't a good idea and that I needed to carry my own pack. Needless to say we were both irritated.

Also on the way down, miss Lex insisted that she wear her pink and black leopard print flip flops. Within sight of the lake she slipped in mud onto her bottom. Brought back fond memories of my own experience a couple hours before. We told her it was going to be slippery and maybe it was best she put on her shoes. She stomped off saying she could do it. As she started to slow down we told her that if she couldn't maintain a safe and speedy pace she would put on her shoes. She promptly went to the front of the pack and hike 5 out of the 6 miles with these babies on. Not to mention we were out of there in 3.5 hours vs the 5 it took us to get in. However there was talk of ice-cream cones when we returned home which may have sped things up a bit.

On the way down we had several entertaining moments due to the wolf like dog in the picture above. It was much more entertaining to be there then it is to hear it 2nd hand I am sure, but I will share anyway for journaling purposes. Some of you may know our dog is a strong woman who is set in her ways. She's very friendly with other humans and has a few doggy friends she loves to play with. However she does have 2 weakness I will share with you. First she doesn't hear very well, not always coming back when called (occasionally picking up speed running in the opposite direction) and second she's dominant and occasionally pins other dogs to the ground. Anyway, on this particular day we had been passing these 2 men with their little happy go lucky corgi on and off all the way down from the lake without any problems. Due to these weaknesses Myah is almost ALWAYS on a leash if we think anyone with a dog may be in a 5 mile radius. We had passed this corgi several times with Myah and the German Shepard in our party who would chase it and playfully bark at it. We didn't let Myah get next to for obvious reasons until on one break Tob was sitting and didn't know the corgi came up behind him (off leash). My dog promptly took charge, pinning it to the ground by the neck growling and barking with the corgi crying. We all promptly pulled our large mutt off his poor little corgi, setting it free. The owners muttered something about he should have been on a leash and something about good thing his dog has thick skin and we muttered sorry. The dog and owners continued down the trail as Tob appropriately disciplined Myah for her most recent behavioral problems. I think she truly is more bark then bite but she's huge and well, it just looks bad, however she has never harmed any of her victims. Now for the entertaining part. The next couple we saw within 20 minutes down the trail were huddled in the bushes, puppy up in her arms covered up turned away from us in a protective manner with her husband in front of her looking terrified but kind of stoic at the same time like he was ready to attack the beast if needed. We giggled as we past and my dog completely ignored them looking like an angel. The next lady passed us with her dog tightly on a leash in one hand, and a can of pepper spray with her finger on the trigger in the other hand moving slowly past us in an obviously scared squatted position with a glare on her face. Our dogs ignored her as well but we almost peed our pants laughing. The next group didn't have dogs but still managed to ignore us and avoid any contact with our children or dogs despite smiles and friendly hello's. It was very apparent that he was spreading the word of our ravenous beast to all that came up the trail. We weren't sure how many turned back too scared to encounter the beast and we were surprised to not see the authorities waiting for us at the bottom. To our credit MY dog was on a leash right next to Tob and HIS dog was not :-) Like I said, maybe you had to be there but it was really funny.