Back From Vacation -- 3 to go to the hundreds!

What can I say about spending ten days in the forest with 15 other family members? One might think that nine adults and six children under the age of 10 -- all under the same cabin roof -- might make for a hectic week, yes? At times, yes, it was, but, for the most part, it was quite relaxing. I was disappointed that I didn't see one bald eagle, but, other than that, a great time was had by all! Low game sighting count this year… all we saw were one doe with her sweet little spotted fawn running through a meadow, one very healthy looking coyote, and one cow moose. That's it. :(

My sweet little granddaughters hopped on their 4-wheelers on day 1 and didn't get off of them until: 1) they broke; or, 2) when the time came to load them back on the trailers for the ride home. Granny never got on a 4-wheeler all week. I did, however, go kayaking… something I was unable to do just two years ago, because I couldn't get myself into the damned kayak! This year, I got in like a champ… it was the getting- out part that almost had me face down in the lake! LOL But, with a lot of help from Kerry (and we almost BOTH went in face first), I got out with just one wet sneaker. :) Getting to the lake was a 10-15 minute walk, each way, over rough, hilly terrain, so that was somewhat of a workout as well, and I made the trek twice in 10 days.

I was completely delighted to find that I'd lost 6 more pounds while I was away! Eating properly was a bit of a challenge, but I brought some soup and Greek yogurt to eat if there was something I couldn't eat on the menu. For the most part, I did the cooking (I'm one of those weird people that find cooking a relaxing activity -- even when it's for 15!). But, I couldn't make everyone eat chicken all week, so there were days when I had to rely on my soup -- most notably, those days when hot dogs and hamburgers were on the menu. But, I did eat some shrimp scampi (Hey! We eat really well at camp!). And I had some ham and bean hole beans! Yes, we cooked our beans all day in a real bean hole, in pots surrounded by hot coals from a fire that had burned all night the night before. And they were delicious! I had some turkey from the deep-fried turkey we had one night. I left the frying up to Frank, my brother-in-law and the turkey fryer owner. Our 20-pound turkey was perfectly cooked in one hour! And, on most mornings, I had an egg, one-half of an English muffin, and a slice or two of crispy bacon. I did bring my oatmeal, because eggs sometimes don't agree with me, but the eggs worked out well for me this week. Even though I fry the eggs, I only eat the yolk (the whites are too rubbery feeling to me -- it's a textural thing) and I scoop it out of the white with my English muffin, so I get little to no added fat with it. The last day we had two pasta dishes -- homemade macaroni and cheese and homemade baked ziti with meat sauce. I had neither, but the mac and cheese got rave reviews! I used up all the various cheeses we had left over from the week! There was cream cheese, shredded Mexican cheese, shredded mozzarella, sharp cheddar, and cheddar with horseradish. Everyone loved the concoction! :) No leftovers there, but there were leftovers of the baked ziti! The raccoons feasted on that. I made a few pies for dessert. We had strawberry rhubarb pie (it was purchased -- all I did was bake it), key lime pie, triple layer lemon pie, and sky-high peanut butter pie. They were delicious, but had too much sugar for me… even in the small 1/16 of a slice that I ate… didn't sit well with me. But, they were yummy going down!

Even with those six little kids and their four-wheelers, the injury count wasn't bad, either. We had one knee that was non-seriously cut from a piece of glass in "the pits," the gravel pit and the preferred place for these youngsters to ride their 4-wheelers. We had another who decided she wanted to try the "beans" she saw growing in the field, on the way to the lake. The "beans" were actually seed pods for the beautiful wild lupine growing there. A bit of panic ensued when her mother discovered the pods can be poisonous (on her iPhone). She just had a taste, spit it out quickly when she discovered the bitterness and hurried back to camp to wash out her mouth. She was fine. Another child had to be "iced" when he tripped over something on the front deck, smashed his shin and stubbed his toe. That was another ordeal, but he survived nicely. My fair-haired and fair-skinned 4-year-old granddaughter and her mother were covered with red welts from bug bites, despite the gallons of insect repellent they were doused with daily. Granny brought some Bite MD (When I bought it, I thought the label read "Bite ME".) that was used frequently during the week to get rid of the itch! A few other minor bumps and bruises, but all survived nicely.
My nearly 4-year-old grandson discovered the joys of peeing outside and headed to the same spot every time he had to go, peeing with great abandon. Oh, how he enjoyed making circles and loop-de-loops! LOL (TMI?) Now we're concerned he'll want to do the same when he gets home, to the horror of his mother, I'm sure. We tried to convince him that it's only a Maine activity. LOL We'll see how that works out. It may be his last Mom-sanctioned trip to Maine. LOL

Well, that was my last coupla weeks! How was yours? :) Three more pounds to the ONE-derful club… I'll be in the 100s!! Wooohooo!