Of Birthday's, Anniversary's and Friday the 13th's!

Well what a weekend! I guess I'll start with our "Friday the 13th" experience. We arrived at the campground at about 9:20 a.m. and were setting up the camp, getting everything in its place and all the tents set up when it was apparently time for a bathroom break. So David and I headed off to the bathroom, you know all of 5 min's being gone. When we were headed back, we were met by Kaitlyn running up the road screaming that Kristina had cut off her finger! So we ran, walked fast, back to the camp not really believing that this was true until we saw Kristina and her hand wrapped in a red cloth (came from the store that way) and blood spattered over the front of her jeans. Well the finger, her pointer on the left hand, was still attached but doing a bit of dangling. She was chopping wood with our new axe when she got carried away and swung in the wrong direction and caught her finger lengthwise, cutting across her finger and nail diagonally. At the hospital it was determined through x-rays that she had not broken the bone but come close. So 5 hours and 5 stitches later, one through her nail, she and David were back, I was almost crying with relief and the rest of the birthday/anniversary weekend was spent celebrating a complete digit and having fun.
Our camp consisted of 2 sights one for Kaitlyn and Ivan and the other for us. Kaitlyn and Ivan took advantage of a great deal through Walmart in which they were able to purchase a tent, chair and sleeping bag as a combo deal.

We had our 2 tents which allowed us for the first time to separate the guys (Dad, Parker and Hunter) into their tent and the girls (Mom, Kristina, Olivia and Jolie) into their tent. I have to point out, that unbeknownst to us, the girl tent was apparently cursed for the weekend, but I'll delve more into that as the story progress'.

We had a steak dinner to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary that night with our friends Carrie, Cole and Anika and then ended the evening with S'Mores and a fire.

Saturday started off better after a nice nights sleep, pure exhaustion! mixed with relief. We got up to a great breakfast of cereal, breakfast burritos with eggs/steak. I loved cooking on the stove/grill with the cast iron that I got from my mom many years ago. Some how the food tasted better.

David, Ivan and the boys, with the Andy Griffith Mayberry RFD tune being whistled, walked over to the lake to experience fishing for the first time. Eventually all the kids got to fish and approximately 40 fish were caught and released. The lake holds trout, bass and blue gill. Most, if not all, of the fish they caught were little guys.

Later Carrie showed up with a pail full of water balloons for the kids. Water balloons were sailing all over the place as our group of 7 participants and another campers kids all started in the fight! Fun was had by all! Half way through the day David took Jolie in the car to the bathroom and upon their return Jolie jumped out of the car and slammed the door on her thumb. Quietly she walked over to me and showed me "her" injured digit with tears starting to roll down her cheeks. Typically Jolie is quite the screamer so her reaction was a surprise. I once again pulled out the first aid kit and cleaned her up and with band aid in place scooted her on her way. Shortly after that Olivia blew her nose and started a terrific nose bleed (which she is famous for). This leaving me as the only one in our tent to be untouched by the unfolding curse.

Saturday evening we had "make your own taco night" and loved the chips, salsa and tacos! Carrie showed up with a wonderful chocolate cake she had baked for us and the whipped cream and sprinkles to go on it! You could say that we're just a bit spoiled when we camp at their campground. At some point I realized that my middle finger on my right hand was throbbing a bit and looked down to see that I had split my nail way up into the nail bed. Blood was running into the side of my finger. My digit injury, I have no idea how it happened, was minor and quickly I wiped up the mess and told everyone about it. A sense of relief swept over me as I realized that all in our tent had some type of "incident" and we were probably safe from what ever curse was pursuing us. We ended the night with Jiffy Pop and a nice roaring fire that had to be extinguished due to a front moving in that we hoped would give us a bit of rain.

Sunday morning arrived to the squaking of a gaggle of Canadian geese touring the area. (The campground is home to a pair of producing geese. This years crop was about 12 babies large that are all now as big as their parents and wonder all over the area investigating each and every camp site for hand outs. Yes, they are just as cute as they can be but also they can be a bit overbearing if they think your holding out on them!) Jake made quick dismissal of them when he started to bark and they couldn't locate the offending poodle, as he was in the tent with us. Which of course woke all of us up for the day. Oh well, sleep was hard to come by this weekend. Kristina was a bit concerned about her finger and woke me up at about 2 a.m. Sunday morning to ask for permission to unwrap and examine her finger since it was hurting so badly. Once she was able to see for herself that all appeared well she relaxed that suddenly the finger didn't hurt as bad, of course the Vicodin she had taken shortly before hand probably helped just a little. Shortly after that Jolie woke up needing to go to the bathroom and off we went. At some point, that rain we hoped for arrived and I did hear some sprinkling. Others in our group heard some good thunder and a nice rain that lasted for a bit. Hunter experienced it first hand as his pillow got wet inside the tent since we'd forgotten to fasten down the rain fly on the "guy" tent.

Overall Kristina spent her weekend asking for food, drink and drugs. She probably had the most relaxing weekend of us all! Not bad!

I had a great Birthday and Anniversary to boot. Nothing beats everyone making it home in one piece even if one piece was dangling.

p.s. Parker, our normal walking accident, made it home without a scratch.