Shadow Puppy

Our dogs probably hate camping.  At home, they run all about and are never leashed.  But we have closer neighbors while camping, so they must be contained.

Since they do not have the freedoms they are accustomed to, they must sit and watch David and I as we drink our morning cup of coffee . . . in the trailer that is nicer than our house.

Yes.  We went to the river this weekend.  Usually we go with many different family members, but this time, it was just David, the boys, Kate, and I.

Hadley is off roaming the continental US with her pal, Lily, and family.

Our family:  Lily can come over, but she needs to help us castrate calves.

Lily’s family:  Would Hadley like to join us on a huge family road trip complete with fun and merriment?

Here’s Hadley-

And Hadley and Lily, somewhere beautiful and all nature like and far away from us-

But anyways.  We went to the river.  David, who cannot ever travel lightly, insisted on taking one vehicle plus:  the skidsteer, two fourwheelers, three kids, three dogs, camping food, water jugs, and bags of clothes.

I felt like we should take two cars, because I get fussy when I feel crowded.  And at one point I told LD to get his sticky leg off of my sticky leg and then he told me he was tanner than me when he clearly was not.  We are experiencing record hot high temps over here, and David’s truck does not have working AC.  Woe unto me.

It was a pleasant ride.

Norman the puppy is completely obsessed with light and shadow and I fear that he might slowly be losing his mind.

He will literally jump up and try to eat the roof  (ceiling?) of David’s truck.  David loves it.

We got to the river and it was so way hot, but as soon as the sun goes down, being outside feels awesome.  So we sat and ate smores and enjoyed cool of the evening.

It is like over 90 degrees here, people!  That’s insane.

The next morning, we set to work on our projects, and we tried to start early to beat the heat.  David and HD were on some sort of nonsense with the skidsteer.  LD and I were mowing-he was on the riding lawnmower, and I on the push mower.  Kate was using the DR trimmer mower.  I sweated so much that sweat was visible on my shirt and that has never happened before, so I guess that is because I am 40 now.

Then we sprinkled a bunch of grass seed, because we have many bare spots, and HD “planted” them by going over them with the skidsteer tracks.  We then set up the sprinklers and fancied going on an extra long kayak ride.  Which sounded amazing, in theory.

But we forgot to pack sunscreen.  And we aren’t the best when it comes to sunscreen, I shall admit, because we rarely burn.

But, Reader.  We burned.

And we could feel ourselves burning as we kayaked down the river.  But there was nothing to be done but keep paddling and sizzling away.

I felt like we should all paddle with intensity and try to get back to our camp all speedy-like, but Kate was like, nah-imma gonna nap, and so that was annoying.  David and I would get a good lead, look behind us, and see that none of our children were there-and that is just poor parenting.  So we had to stop and wait for them, as our skin smoldered in the hot, hot sun.

At one point, we pulled up and waited by some cows, so that cheered me right up.

Pretty soon, LD comes sauntering down the river, happy as can be.  LD can entertain himself like no one I have ever met.  He kayaked on up to the cows and checked the genders of all four of their calves and called them out to us.  He beached his kayak and went swimming and skipped rocks and basically had the time of his life.

Finally, Kate and HD came down the river.  They were happily chatting away, and that was nice to hear because those two don’t get along very well.

We forged on for home.  Kate and HD continued to travel together, just a bit behind us, and David and I were together, and LD was toodling about happy as can be shouting “FISH!” anytime he saw a fish.

We got back and everyone was terribly sunburned.  This has never happened to our family.  It was so bad that-and you had better sit down for this-

David asked me for lotion.

!

We were in pain and tired and hungry.  I summoned whatever strength I had left and made something for dinner while David and HD took the 4-wheeler for the truck.

Our dogs will not swim, but it was so hot that Niko and Charlie went swimming willingly.

Norman could not join them for he was busy staring down shadows.

After dinner, I announced “Everything hurts and I am dying.  I am going to bed.”

And to bed I went.  Only to be awakened by Kate at some ungodly hour to be informed that LD was missing.

!

And I was so tired, I fell back to sleep while David dealt with it.

!

Turns out, he fancied joining a neighbor’s wedding.  And what fun!  It was probably exciting for him to see neighbors, since we don’t have those at home.

The dude who owns the river lot next to us got married and had a live band and fireworks and it was so loud, but that was ok, and that’s where LD was and all was well.

When we woke up, everyone was in pain and sure they could never see the sun again.  Poor HD helped David with outside chores for about an hour and then came in and got in his swimsuit to jump in the river because he was covered in sweat.

IT. IS. SO. HOT. HERE.

Like 100 degrees now.

Readers.  We can’t.  We literally canNOT. We are made hearty for the winters.  Not lightweight for summer heat.  We come premade with a good layer of blubber.

We are basically in survival mode now.  It hurts to even move.  On account of the sunburn, of course.  And David is making my poor boys go and gather hay bales in Farmer Brown’s field tonight!

In triple degree heat!

My babies!

I hate hay season.  I feel like David goes about it all wrong and if he just LISTENED TO ME, everyone’s lives would be easier.

But he does not.

Ok.  Quick knee surgery is scheduled for July 29th. Should be easy peasy-trim out of torn meniscus. Found out I might be teaching kinder, or I might be teaching 2nd, but I won’t know for some time.  Here is a video of Norman.  Enjoy.