Riley Shooting a Big Gun

I forgot to upload the video of Riley shooting the K98 German Mauser. Here it is!

Brady Lake Drill Weekend

Brady Lake Drill Weekend

This weekend was drill weekend for Riley and the Sea Cadets. They had been planning this for a while, and Riley was so looking forward to it! We were a little disappointed because there was supposed to be some re-enactors coming to ambush the cadets, and that wasn't able to happen, but they all still had a great time.

I went back and forth about whether Regan and I should go, since we had our big Girl Scout camp out last weekend, I wasn't sure about another weekend away, and this one a little more "rustic" than what we're used to. But, I had heard there was a pool, so I figured if nothing else, Regan and I can chill poolside for the weekend, let the boys run around with their guns, we're good.

Well, things didn't exactly work out like we planned! Our cabin was supposed to have a refrigerator, so we took David's car and packed it to the gills and didn't bring any food. Thinking we would just get food there and put it in the fridge. We had the option of eating with the cadets, but with me being gluten free these days, I didn't want to pay them for food that I might not be able to eat. So, we ended up buying a styrofoam ice chest at Walmart in town to hold some food for us for the weekend.

We stopped at Cooper's on the way down, David's absolute favorite place to eat in the world, and had some leftovers that we put in our new ice chest! Got to Brady and had no cell service, couldn't even use the GPS on our phones to find out how to get to the lake! Finally found it, got unloaded in our fancy cabin (not). But hey, the a/c worked great! A little too great. We got our beds out and got Riley settled with the cadets, and then went to sleep.

The next morning, the cadets were up bright and early around 6:30 for breakfast (or chow, nothing is called what it really is in the military). We slept in a little later, seeing as how we were on "vacation" and Regan had me bring her to the bathroom a quarter of a mile away in the middle of the night and I couldn't go back to sleep after that!

But, we got up and got moving and realized something, there isn't a pool here. Not one around for miles and miles. And the one thing Regan really wanted to do was fish. But...we didn't have room for the fishing poles in the car, and we thought about just buying a cheap one, but then found out the lake was so low and they had a problem with red algae, and dead fish all over, so we figured fishing was probably not gonna happen. She was so disappointed. And then we really did have nothing to do. We went into town for lunch (more BBQ, I think that's the only thing people eat in west Texas) and picked up a movie from the Red Box for Regan to watch on David's laptop.

We hung around some of the other cadet's parents that were there also, but overall, we just sat there. There was a playground so Regan could swing or slide, but no one to swing or slide with! We walked around and explored the marina, which Regan thought was haunted since the water was so low and no one has used it in so long, there were spider webs everywhere!

The cadets had training in how to make shelter, how to make fire (which led to how to make s'mores) and how to navigate by the stars, and they did "colors" every day, which is basically raising the flag.  The Chief of Police came out and spoke to the cadets about leadership, and what it takes to make it in the world of law enforcement, and life in general. He was great, and I even took notes, he had a lot of great things to tell the cadets.  And it was so cute to see Riley running around in his camo gear, I mean, BDU's.  He did forget his hat though, and had to borrow one from Lt. Foster!

On Saturday night, we started a fire and heated up our BBQ leftovers and ate in our cabin. That was a fun meal of trying to cook without any of the proper utensils or pans! But it was fun, and we fed our leftovers to the cats (there were tons of stray cats all over the place!) and then stood in our window and watched the cats run off with huge pieces of sausage and chicken!

Then on Sunday we went to the gun range. It was fun, they had 14 different guns to shoot. They each got a lesson on each gun, how to shoot it, load it, sight it, etc. We brought a couple too, so Regan got to shoot some also. I don't even know all the guns they had! AK-47, Garand, Mauser, that's about all I remember. Regan and I stayed and shot for a while, then she wanted to walk back to the cabin and start packing up, so we did, and as soon as they were done at the gun range, it was time to load up and head home. It took a while to get everything packed back into the car, but we did it, and hit Cooper's one more time on the way home!

Riley had a blast, was super tired, and super dirty. He is loving Sea Cadets though, and all the opportunities it's giving him. He has some really great people that give up their time to teach them all this stuff, so I'm so glad he is able to be a part of this great organization!

Jellystone Park

Our first Girl Scout trip of the year!I can't believe this is our 6th year to be in Girl Scouts, and mostly with the same girls. We have a great group of girls and I love that we get to do so many fun things throughout the year.

This was a super fun camping trip! We had 12 out of 15 girls that were able to make it. We had it planned for a while, but then it started raining and I got a text the night before that the trip was canceled. Regan was SO upset, and I hadn't even started getting any of our stuff together, so imagine my surprise when the next day around noon I get another text, the trip is back on! Well, then it was flight of the bumblebee to get packed for me and for Regan, and get to Krista's to load up. We were leaving at 4:30 and another van load was coming later.

So we got to Jellystone Park and got our tents set up as quick as possible. The girls do most of it, and then we let them take their sack dinner over to the outdoor theater and watch Puss and Boots while we finished up.

Of course it took a while for them to settle down and go to sleep, so I wasn't asleep till close to 1am, and the girls were up bright and early around 6:45am! We got up and got breakfast going (baggie eggs, breakfast tacos and fruit). By the time we got it all eaten and cleaned up (Girl Scout rules means no paper plates or plastic utensils, but using a "mess kit" and washing dishes with boiling hot water and bleach water after each meal!) so it's a little more time consuming than the easy way out! Then we went to Candy Bar Bingo, and you pay for your bingo card with a candy bar! It was fun, and I even got a bingo!

Then we headed over to the pool, with the awesome 6 person super fast water slide! The girls rode that thing over and over and over! They also had a new 4 person water slide, which was really fun, but I think hard for the girls to carry the huge tube up all those stairs. We swam until lunch time, where we had sandwiches real quick so we could head back to the pool again. After more swimming, it was time for an ice cream social. The park had a daily list of activities, so we were trying to do as many of those as we could. We then headed back to the pool for some more slide time.

After the girls were completely water logged, we had our first official Girl Scout meeting of the year, where we talked about some of the community service projects we have coming up, brainstormed some ideas for our Bronze Award, and planned an activity for our sister Brownie troop to help them earn a Try-It. For dinner it was Frito Pie (gluten free, yay for me!) and the girls got it all cleaned up in time to go watch the outdoor movie again, while we grown up took our showers and got ready for S'mores.

By bedtime that night, we were all pretty exhausted and I head that it rained a little, but I never heard it, I was out cold all night! There was the cutest little dog that hung around camp, the girls named her Cocoa, and she was so sweet. Regan cried wanting to bring her home and adopt her and take care of her.  The next morning it was time to pack up, say goodbye to Cocoa, and before we left we stopped and said the Pledge of Allegiance with Cindy Bear at the Flagpole, and took some pictures with Yogi Bear. It was a really neat park, and the girls want to camp there again! They had some pretty cool cabins that I wouldn't mind staying in sometime too.

I just love Girls Scouts :)

Jellystone Park

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend

We had the best Labor Day weekend! David had taken a couple days off work to burn off some extra vacation days he had, so he smoked a pork shoulder to bring with us, and as soon as Riley got off the bus Friday, we dropped Princess at the groomers and headed east!

We got in late Friday night, and Saturday afternoon we hit the lake. Riley is SO enjoying learning how to wake board and it's so cute to watch him get more confident on the board. He tries to jump now and the smile on his face when he lands it is priceless! And of course, there have been some stellar wipeouts as well!

Regan loves to tube, and then we park the boat and swim to cool off, and it's a blast. I can't wait till we have a house on a lake, any lake! Uncle Danny and Aunt Kathy came over that night and we grilled burgers and visited for a while. It was really nice when a small storm blew through after dinner and we sat and watched it rain on the lake.

On Sunday morning, we went to church with Trista and Chris, they have a great church, and I really enjoyed it. It was the first time for our kids to be in a small baptist church so it was quite a change for them! But they enjoyed it as well. Trista said they were singing hymns that day and I thought, I don't know any hymns, but I was surprised, I knew them all, but one!

Then my Aunt Kathy had lunch ready for us, a small pre-birthday party for me and Trista (her birthday is the day after mine) and she had us a cake and everything! It was so yummy. Uncle Danny showed David and Riley his new guns and then took Riley for a ride on his motorcycle, and of course, Riley loved that!

Then we hit the lake again, one last chance to wake board and swim. And then the sad part, we had to pack and come home. We wanted to come home Sunday night so we would all have Monday to relax and get ready for the week. We got home around 11pm, tired, but relaxed! It was a great weekend. I love my family!