Double Walkabout Weekend

The Groves came for the weekend -- we hadn't seen them since... Irish Fest, I guess.

Nothing special was planned. I had talked about the possibility of taking the kids on walkabout, but Saturday was to be very cold. Still, we knew Q needed to get out of the house and run some energy off at some point. Ryan wanted to go this weekend as well, but because of the uncertainty of us going Saturday, we scheduled that one for Monday.

It was 12 degrees when Mark, the kids, and I left for Cedar Creek. Q had said "Nothing can keep me from going on walkabout!" And Cassie was on board when she heard about the hotdogs.

We hiked down to "Gilligan's Island" and did the traditional fire-starting... this time with the sun and a magnifying glass. The kids were tasked with gathering some wood and fashioning their own hotdog-roasting sticks. We roasted some dogs, ate them. Watched the kids throw rocks in the creek. They never complained, and seemed to have a great time. Just a few hours.

We went home for dinner. Brian and Kristin came over, and Brian made Cassie's day, weekend, even, by playing "Teen Titans" with her. Cami & Vicki played Farkle. Very nice evening.

Sunday we did breakfast burritos, which Brian & Kristin returned for (and more Teen Titans was played), and after everyone left Vicki and I pretty much veged out. Well, Vicki points out that she stripped the beds and did laundry as well. She does a lot of laundry. It's hard living with Pig Pen, I guess ;-)

This morning after a dentist appointment, Ryan and I hiked to "The New Spot" from our respective sides of the National Forest. Ryan had a new toy ... a packable grill that all fits in a tube, and that tube is a part of the grill. Pretty amazing.

It sleeted most of the afternoon, but of course we kinda like that. We talked about lots of stuff, of course, including the accident that could have killed Kristie on Saturday ... something got stuck in her Ford Escape ... the accellerator and/or transmission. She pressed the "+" button on the cruise control and the car just took off. Brakes couldn't slow it down to anything below 60. She tried putting it in neutral, reverse, & even Park. She tried slowing it down by going up an off ramp, only to jump the street and back on to the on ramp, where she finally lost control and rolled it. Not a scratch on her, even though the airbags didn't deploy. She's sore. The car is totaled, and only the part of the top over the driver's seat wasn't crushed. She said there was glass and dirt and grass everywhere, including in her mouth.

So the rest of us had a great weekend, anyway, even if Kristie didn't. But at least she's alive, and apparently unharmed.