Lobsters, Racoons, oh and Family Reunion

I am so glad last weekend is over. Don't get me wrong, I had an enjoyable time with my family and its one of the few times a year we are all together, however Ross and I were in charge of the weekend and so its a nice burden off our shoulders now that its over. We got to plan the location, the reservations, the food, and the assign meals for others to cook. We decided to try a new place this year, we went to Millsite State Park near Ferron. It was a really nice place, the water level on the reservoir was pretty high so it came right up to camp. The only problem with the weekend was the weather. It was so windy and cold. The morning would be warm and sunny but about the time we started with lunch the wind would start. It would be windy and cold and shortly after we put on our jackets it would get warm enough until we took our jackets off. We were hoping to be able to swim, however the wind and the storms prevented that, so there was pretty much just fishing and hanging out. The fishing wasn't that good but when you did catch a fish it was a pretty good fight. We took our water trampoline and on Friday morning pumped it up and Ross, Jeff and Bre and I took it out and was going to swim because it was very warm. We were all getting ready to jump in and Jeff made it in the water first and came up screaming, the water was icy and the air outside wasn't quite warm enough, and boy was I glad I didn't make it into the water. Instead we rowed the floating trampoline out and lounged and fished off it.

The worst part of the weekend was when I drug Ross out on the trampoline with me. Just as we were about to get to a buoy to tie off on the wind picked up really hard and no matter how hard we paddled it kept pushing us further and further away, we ended up missing all the buoys and next thing I know we are on the other side of the lake near the shore. I had my fishing pole on the tramp and as we were about to run into some trees in the water my hook caught on a tree and drug my pole off and under the water. I was trying to keep us off the trees so we wouldn't pop the tamp and grab my pole and well, I missed the pole. So Ross and I got off the tramp when it was knee deep. Ross, the sweetheart that he is, tried to get my pole back, the problem was my pole was in chest deep water and that water was so icy cold. While he was trying to get my pole back I was in knee deep water trying to hold onto the tramp so it wouldn't hit the sharp rocks. Then I looked over at the boat ramp and see Brandon's jeep spinning in a circle. Jeff and Brandon had seen us with binoculars from camp (it was quite a ways away) and had come to help us. They weren't able to get the jeep down to where we were so Jeff and Ross were going to strong arm the tramp to get us to a place where Brandon could get to us. Before we left I had to try one more time to get my pole, I didn't want to loose my expensive pole and reel, and I took one last ditch effort and went almost up to my neck and luckily was able to see my fishing line still attached to the tree and follow it down to my pole. Jeff and Ross were able to get us over to Brandon's car, which was better than the alternative, Ross and I were going to have to wait out the storm standing in the icy water. Our legs were so red from the cold. When we got back to camp we had to hurry and get out of our wet clothes, I didn't think I would ever be warm again.

Coming home from this trip I am so sun burned, mainly my face. I got a little burned on Friday and Saturday used sunscreen but still got burned. My face is so burned and I have raccoon eyes from my sun glasses and my forehead is so sunburned it was swelling up. It got so big that it looked like I had a huge growth on my face and was giving me a huge headache. I looked pretty ridiculous going to work today with my big swollen forehead and my white eyes.

As a whole I think the weekend went really well and people had fun. It was a lot of fun to watch the little kids playing together and I am looking forward to next years (partly because I am not in charge of anything.) Below are some pictures and videos we took this weekend.

Jackson is eating hot dogs, don't know why he had an urge to stick them in his ears and eyes. He is definitely a ham.