Mini Vacation

We took a mini vacation to Mammoth this last weekend. It really wasn't the best time to be honest. Everything just seemed to go wrong. Here are some pics and then I'll get to the "story" later on in the post....

It was a lot more snowy than we expected it to be. The lakes around Mammoth are kind of on inclines and hard for Baby G to walk around on. Plus the snow was cold and we didn't last long fishing. We took a drive out to the Tioga Pass. It's a very beautiful drive but kind of scary since you're so high up. We stopped at this lake and threw our poles in the water. This was nice because it was mostly flat around the lake and so the kids could play.

Mister Studly caught a couple fish. Moma was helping him catch a pretty good sized one and right when it got up to the bank, her hand got caught in the reel and the fish came off the line. Big Bummer!

The kids just loved playing in the rocks and the snow. I had to keep telling the to get off the snow. I didn't want them to get too wet or cold.
It was so pretty. I could have stayed there all day but the kids needed naps and the wind started picking up so we left.

The trees were changing colors and they were so pretty.

Here's a close up view...

And here's Baby G hanging out next to the fireplace. (no fire going) He loved it up there.

Okay so now for the "story". Mister Studly had a very last minute urge to go to Mammoth for his birthday. So we made all the arrangements and headed out on Thursday. As we were driving there, the kids were being difficult. It was not very fun. I had to go to the restroom so we pulled off the side of the road to a very small gas station in a town with about 45 people in it out in the middle of no where. I jump out of the car, and go to get Moma so she can use the restroom too. As I'm getting her out, I feel something land on my head. I sort of shake my head to shoo it away. It comes back and lands on me again. I kind of yell and shake it away again. Then it flies away and comes back and hits me in the cheek. By this time, I yell to Mister Studly and ask him what is happening?? He says it's a bee and to hold still. This thing would not leave me alone. It kept flying all around my face and hair and kept landing on me. I have never seen anything like it before. I started to get scared. So I try to run away from it, but it's now chasing me. It gets stuck in my hair and then I really start freaking out. So I basically look like a complete idiot running around the gas station with a bee stuck in my hair. Oh did I mention I'm screaming by this point. I'm not usually one to get afraid of stuff like that but I have never been stung, my Mom is very allergic and this thing was seriously after me. Mister Studly tells me to hold still and comes over to help get the bee out of my hair. The bee is now extremely PISSED!!! It comes after Mister Studly. Next thing I know, Mister Studly is hitting himself repeatedly in the face (right there in the middle of the gas station with every one staring at us like we're a bunch of idiots). I see that there is something stuck underneath his eye. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that he is being stung. The bee is seriously attached to his face!!! He finally knocks it off his eye, the bee comes after me again, flies into my face, then gets stuck underneath the turned down collar in my shirt. Mister Studly comes over and I tell him that the bee is stuck under my collar so he proceeds to beat the ever lovin' crap out of me trying to kill the bee. The bee falls out, lands on the floor, Mister Studly steps on it. Then turns to me and we pick the stinger out of his lower eye lid. After all the commotion, I decide I really need to go potty, but a bunch of bees start swarming around us. I got scared, yelled at Mister Studly to just get in the car. He gets in and we drive off hitting about 50 bees with our car as we are driving away. After consulting with my friends and family, we are pretty sure this was an africanized bee. It was so aggressive and if we hadn't gotten in the car when we did, those other bees would have been all over Mister Studly. I have never seen anything like it. So now Mister Studly is miserable and in pain. His eye is swelling up and eventually swells and bruises like a black eye. He has the black eye the whole vacation and it basically ruined his trip because he was in pain and uncomfortable. So we drive out of that stupid bee ridden town and about an hour later, hit a bird. I guess a bird decided to play chicken with us and we hit it with the car. Stupid bird! So we get to Mammoth and try to shake everything off but the kids are brats, fighting, yelling, being poops the whole trip which just puts everyone in a foul mood. Our favorite restaurant is closed down for the next month so we don't even get to drown our sorrows in yummy food and banana fritters! We didn't sleep well on top of everything so we are all grumpy and by our last day, we are just ready to come home. We decide to take a scenic drive on our last night and everything is going well, we are having a great drive. The kids are being good, then a stupid squirrel decides to run out in front of our car. He stops right in the middle and I take a deep breath. All I can think is "Please stay right there!!!" He was right under neath the middle of the car. So if he stayed in one place, I knew he would make it. If he moved, I knew he was road kill. I close my eyes and hold my breath only to feel the bump and squish of this poor little squirrel under our tires. It was awful!!! I totally felt sick to my stomach after that and all I could imagine was how this poor squirrel would be wondering where their brother/mother/father was and it made me sad. The drive home was about just as fun as the rest of the trip. We didn't even stop off to visit our family that lives on the way because we all just wanted to be home!!! We were all soooo over it. Moma kept saying from the back seat "I just want to go home!!!" It was so miserable. So we get home and all is well until Baby G decides to get the stomach flu and throw up 8 times last night!! Ahhh. All I can say is at least he didn't start barfing in the car. That would have just been the last straw with me!!

Anyways so as you can see the trip wasn't the best of trips. There were some fun times but it seemed like everytime we would try to shake off the bad stuff, something else would happen to get us all in bad moods again. Glad to be home. Glad Baby G is feeling better today. Hope we don't all get sick now though. That would not be fun.