A First In the Third

We are currently at a beautiful RV park on Lake Livingston, in Onalaska, Tx. We arrived Sunday evening, in time to set up before it got too dark. My sister and her husband and kids were already here, so she watched the kids for us while Jonathan, my brother-in-law and I got the RV set up. My kids were super excited to see their cousins, so we decided to let all of the boys have a sleep over in our "house", and the girls went to my sisters trailer for some "girl time," as Annie Jane called it.

Monday morning, my niece and nephew had to leave for camp, so we were all pretty bummed to see them go. To get my kids over it, I had them in swim suits down at the beach by 9:30 in the morning! Ha! You do what you gotta do to keep them happy. The rest of our day was spent with the kids making trips in and out of the pool, at the splash pad, back at the beach a couple more times, and around and around the park on their razor scooters and bikes. Oh, and did I mention that our 7 year old learned how to ride his bike this past week?! Eeeeek! So happy. He's not super "outdoorsy," but since he learned to ride his bike, he's been outside most of the day, zipping all over the parks, which makes this momma super happy! That evening my sister fixed us some delicious slow-cooked pulled pork for dinner, so we all sat outside and devoured some tacos, laughed until we couldn't breathe, and swatted a swam of mosquitos while we watched the kids play, then we headed down to the lake one more time to watch the sun set. Not a bad way to end a wonderful day.

On a not so cheerful note, our cat, Hiccup, who we love dearly, decided to make a run for it last night. We looked for her today, but to no avail, so we are all pretty bummed. :( I'm hoping she's just hiding out here somewhere in the park and will make her way back home. But say a prayer for our kids...if we have to leave here without her at the end of the week, it'll be really hard on us all.

Some time around midnight on Monday night, a MASSIVE storm blew in. I was wide awake until around 3am listening to the wind howl, and the rain splat like rocks against the roof of our little tin can of a house. Somehow the kids slept through all of the lightening and thunder and the house rocking like crazy, like nothing was happening. I, on the other hand, laid awake all night just to be sure we weren't being blown off the slab and into the lake! That's what moms are for, right?! Being irrationally terrified and staying awake all night to "protect" their family from scary storms! Not sure what I planned to do if we did get blown away, but you better believe I was wide awake and ready with my flashlight! 
We found out the next day that a tornado had come thru the area and thrown trees through houses and caused all kinds of destruction! YIKES! guess we got lucky we didn't actually get blown off the slab into the lake after all!

This morning, Jonathan and I decided to take the kids to visit the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin. Jonathan had work to get done, so I got to drive the new truck for the first time while he worked on his computer. Y'all, that truck is a beast! It's HUGE! Luckily Jonathan was looking down working the whole drive, because I'm pretty sure I nearly wiped a few small cars off the road making wide turns. Whoops! We finally made it safely to the zoo, which is great by the way! If you're ever in the area and looking for something to do, go check out the Ellen Trout Zoo. It's small but beautiful and shady, and has a lot of cool animals that you can see really close up! They also have about 100 peacocks that roam freely through the zoo and get close enough to touch. They are gorgeous (and loud!). All in all, we had a wonderful day and really enjoyed the zoo.

We ended our day back at the RV park. As the sun was setting I made us some sandwiches and we headed down to the beach to let the kids play before dark. They splashed and ran, swam, and even (tried) to ride their bikes into the lake. When I asked why Jack was riding his bike (which is falling apart, by the way) into the lake, he replied "Why not?! This bike is rubbish anyway!" He cracks me up. What 7 year old American kid uses the word "rubbish?" But alas, the bike is indeed rubbish, so I guess it's time to talk Dad into a new one! ; )

We're having a fantastic week here at the lake and I'll hate to leave once Sunday rolls around. My only consolation is knowing that leaving just begins our next adventure!

- Molly