I was so looking forward to spring break. We all work very hard keeping up with our crazy, busy life. We all needed a serious break from our schedule. Saturday, poor Bubba’s football game got rained out but thankfully the rain finally past and we made it safely to the River. Unfortunately, we missed James and Jesse McDonald. I am suspicious that they always conveniently leave right before we arrive! I think they may be afraid of the Wog River experience. LOL! We unpacked, ate dinner and took a walk. KC went nuts. She always hunts the critters when we go to the River but this was crazy! For almost two hours we tried to get her home. She was so far away and it was getting dark. I blamed her behavior on pint up energy and was grateful when the kids finally called her home. The next day we paddled down to the little beach around the bend from our cabin. KC took off again but we all hoped she would come back soon like she usually does. It was lunchtime and we were ready to go back and she still hadn’t come back to the beach. We went home and would hear her faint howling in the distance, far, far away. I was really worried because she was on the opposite bank. Finally a couple hours later, she came to the bank across the river so Dan paddled to get her. When he got close, she took off again. Dan was so mad and said he was going to let her just spend the night out in the woods to teach her a lesson. The kids were upset so Bonnie and I paddled across and just hung out over there and ignored her when she came up behind us like we didn’t care. Bonnie finally pounced on her and we threw her in the boat and brought her home. Later that night, we took a walk down the main road and she took off again. This time she flushed out 6 deer and they were running up behind us on the road and then cut back into the woods. It freaked us out. David Lambert who has a cabin a couple lots over, told us since they have harvested the pine forest near us, our properties are inundated with deer. We finally understood why she was hunting so much more than usual.
The next day, Ms. Vicki gave the girls rides on her ATV and it was the best surprise. They loved it and had a blast. Later, we walked over to visit and KC took off in the woods again. This time, we saw something jumping up real high and heard all this rustling in the woods next to us. All of a sudden, two deer flew out a few feet from us and scared the daylights out of us. This was more wildlife than I ever wanted to see this up close and personal. Thank God we were standing together or they could have trampled over one of the children. We visited with the McDonalds and the Lamberts and told them of our "near death by deer" experience. They both had Hummingbird feeders and told us how cool it was to watch the hummingbirds feed. We went to the Lambert's property and saw all the hard work they have done. Their place is so beautiful!
The next day, we loaded up the kayak and headed out for Blue Springs. We were going to drop off Bonnie, Bubba and Dan and they would kayak about 2 hours back to the cabin. When we left, I locked the doors and then realized I left the cabin keys inside. Dan was not happy and was pretty irritated with me. I texted a friend to pray for us and within 5 minutes we found a window unlocked and Annie crawled through and opened the door. I was thinking about how mad Dan was at me and thought paybacks would be coming his way……little did I know, it would happen this trip! All I said during the ordeal was, "You have never made a mistake?" The little kids and I went into town and bought junk food at the store and also went to the hardware store for me to make a couple spare keys for the River house so we wouldn’t ever get locked out again. The kids were thrilled to find a hummingbird feeder there so we bought it and couldn’t wait to hang it on our porch! We made it back to the cabin, ate lunch, made Smore’s in the microwave and I attempted to hang the feeder. It must have been a funny sight. I got fishing line and tried to toss it over the beam a few times. I finally got it hung up and we waited for our visitors. Within two hours, we had a hummingbird and we were ecstatic!! Eddie was really brave this trip and did the rope swing for the first time and repeatedly jumped off the steps and boat!
The next day, our friends the Laubach’s came for a visit. Bonnie and Billy were in Ms. Pfalers’s K4 class at the Methodist school. Bubba and Ryan became fast friends at 2 and have been ever since. They have been on teams together since they were 4 years old and are now on the same football team! The kids had a total blast. The only major scary thing was we did saw several water snakes. It’s a sight I hoped to never see. The kids seemed pretty unconcerned unlike me. They still frolicked and splashed and enjoyed themselves all day long in the river. Ed and Erin got along great and played dominos and colored and had a ball too! The funniest picture of the day was Ryan lying in the front of the boat paddling with his arms, Bubba behind him paddling and Annie on the back kicking her legs like a motor. They picked up a lot of speed!! Dan cooked like crazy and we enjoyed burgers and hot dogs for lunch and awesome ribs and chicken for dinner.
We got up and started packing to leave. After we left, Dan noticed we needed to get gas. Our gas information in the car, told us we could go 35 miles and we knew an exit was coming up soon so we were not worried. All of sudden, our truck started spitting and sputtering and rolled to a stop on the side of Interstate 10 near Sanderson. Dan began walking to the exit, which was a couple miles ahead and left 5 children, a hound dog and I to wait until he could get help. Some of the kids were crying and afraid as the big trucks would go by and rock our truck back and forth. I texted out a request for prayer and just a few minutes later, an officer pulled up behind us. We were so grateful and relieved. He quickly went and got Dan and took him to the gas station. The alternator light came on so we were praying it wasn’t that. Thankfully, after a few tries, the truck started right up and we were all safely back on the road towards home. The officer was so kind, concerned and really helped our family. He told me to go easy on my husband! I told him I was VERY merciful unlike some people and proceeded to tell him about Dan's reaction when I locked us out of the cabin! Dan laughed and told him it was true! The Officer said bye to all the kids and blessed us with his help. The kids said he as our angel during this traumatic ordeal. It wasn’t quite the end we were hoping for to our great vacation but we will never forget the officer’s kindness and we will never believe the gauge in the car again!!!
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