Sean & I finally got to get away together & spend some time in the woods with our little dogs. We had such a great time! We really wanted to be able to go to Pennsylvania with the fam for the reunion, but we had our vacation for less than it cost for one plane ticket!! Yikes! Maybe we can take the new bambino for the next one!
We drove up Wednesday night & stayed til Friday at Canero Lake just north of Greer. It was very beautiful, but there were alot of bees where we stayed, which was one reason we headed towards the Black River for the rest of the trip.
Thursday we explored around the area of Big Lake & Canero Lake where we were. This picture is Sean encouraging the dogs to chase squirrels up trees, which was one of their favorite past times of the trip.
Sean was nice enough to make us toasted cheese sandwhiches the first day for lunch & I just had to take a picture of Sean cooking. Usually this only happens when a grill is around, or we are camping. Nonetheless... it's nice to sit back & enjoy the food :)
When we explored around the Black River I was nice enough to sit with Sean while he fished. He has always wanted to try & fly fish, but dosn't really know how.
He is probably one of the only people I know who, when he really wants to do something, he just reads up on it, asks people who have done it before, & then goes for it! This applies to alot of things he does. He really is an amazing person. I think that one of the reasons I love him so much... my dad is just like that too. Never afraid to do something even if he dosn't know how... & he's always good at whatever he tries!
Aren't these pictures amazing? It was so incredibly beautiful there. We were very close to Alpine most the time , at about 8000 ft. The weather was unbelievable! & it was so green... we felt like we were in Oregon or Washington.
The first time he tried.... a catch! He said.. it isn't very big! but I don't think he really cared. Look at his smile. I was so proud of him! Of course being the animal lover he is, he wanted to let it go immedietly. He had a little trouble getting it off the hook & was really starting to panic that it wouldn't make it. It was rather cute. what was even cuter... he really wanted me to be able to catch something so I could be as excited as he was- thats sweet
Here is Alex faithfully looking on as Sean fished... she's so pretty :)
Sean was looking for the perfect fishing spot, but looks rather stoic in this picture!
On Friday we decided to move our camp over where Sean was having the most fun fishing. We liked Canero lake, but this year there was a ton of people there & the bees were just killing us! As we were packing up to leave, our neighbor camper came to say goodbye. Sean told her that we were going somewhere else so he could practice fly fishing cause he didn't know how. She said.. oh no! I wish you would have said something! My husband is on the other side of the lake fly fishing right now. He's been fly fishing forever! He caught about 200 fish just yesterday. Sean looked at me slightly panicked. ???? Are you serious? I told him I would just read for awhile if he wanted to hike over & talk to the guy. His wife assured Sean he would love to give him some pointers. Sean was gone for about an hour & a half. He taught him how to tie the flies & how to cast. & gave him the name of the club he belonged to & told him where he normally fishes if he ever wanted more pointers. Sean really wanted to go over towards the Black river though, so off we went.
These pictures are of Sean saving our hineys. When we got to our new sight, he went to unhook the trailer & put it up on the jacks. Well, some idiot buried thier camp fire very well... in fact it looked like regular ground. That & the fact that the fack holder was slightly faulty. He was up in the trailer & the whole thing fell forward!!!!!! I seriously cried ( which dosn't take much anymore) but I hid it well because I wanted Sean to be calm enough to handle the situation. He did... cause he's amazing. But seriously, what are the odds of that happening? I mean the trailer just collapsed & the jack stand just broke in half! I, of course, had to document it... After I prayed nonstop that Sean could get the trailer back up somehow.
That night was fireworks cause it was Independence Day!!!! Yippeee!!!!
I bought us little flags & we drove over to Lyman Lake in between Eager & St. Johns to watch the fireworks... Sean is contemplating our countries freedom....
I got sick of holding the flags & wore them in my hair for awhile.
they let off these insanely huge ones that shook the car. I had never seen one so big in my life! These pictures were the best ones Sean took...
All in all... it was awful! We went to that one last year & it was amazing! they let off the fireworks right over the lake & it was long & awesome! this year the hundreds of people that were there were all parked to watch them over the lake & then... they let them off over to the right... so everyone had to turn to watch them. It was short & not very good... but that wasn't the worst part. After the pathetic show, there was NO body directing traffic! So it took us about 45 minutes to get back to the highway. I thought I was going to get out of the truck & whoop some serious booty. There were a few vans full of punk teenagers ( I'm not saying this to sound like an old fogie) that were screaming obsenities at people & butting there way through the crowd & getting out & running around. They were out of control! I thought I was gonna lose it! One of the kids tried to stare me down.. ridiculous! Then when we got out to the highway the cops were directing traffic. Phew!! I don't think I could have found the highway on my own! Freaking ridiculous!!!!!
It was so wonderful being in the middle of nowhere... doing nothing... taking walks, naps, reading just sitting and talking... grilling food around the fire. We took a walk on Saturday with the dogs & found an old grave from the 1920's. This is us on a walk & Sean resting on a huge log.
I even put a puzzle together. Now I don't know if you remember this Crystal, but you gave me that puzzle for my birthday one year when we were pretty young... do you remember? Anyways... I did the whole thing myself. I guess it was only 550 pieces, so it wasn't a major accomplishment, but I felt all warm & fuzzy inside. Sean said the picture was stupid & the dogs probably pooped in the basket.. how nice!
when I went to put it up Sean insisted on trying to pick it up as a whole. The look on his race was so classic! I was rolling around laughing. He was seriously concentrating so hard & actually picked it all up. He folded it back into the box.
Sean and fire. Two words that can be dangerous together. He found 3 gigantic logs & decided to pile them all together. We sat there in our camp chairs talking for awhile. Then the park ranger pulled up. He just wanted to say hi & ask how long we were camping there. He then wanted to make sure we weren't actually going to light a fire with the wood piled up that high. I just started laughing. I assured him that I wouldn't let Sean light that big a fire.... & that he wasn't going to.. when he was fully intending to. 
Every time the dogs heard a noise they would run to where they heard it. It was usually a squirrel or chipmunk running up a tree & they would jump at the tree for awhile. Sean would of course encourage them to "go get it!" One time they were gone for awhile so Sean went to see what they were up to. He found them cornering this little mouse. So he called them off, caught the mouse & then let it go away from them so he could save it. I swear I've never met someone more tender hearted towards animals in my life. I told him he couldn't tell the dogs to go get something & then get mad at them if they got it. 
Red & Alex chilling out. They loved it! According to Sean.. their Disneyland is camping. Plus it wasn't a million degrees out! I think Red thought we were punishing him by bringing him back home, cause the day we got back he sulked alot. He jumps in his water tub & sits in the back of the doghouse, which i don't blame him... he is black!
Being goofy.. sitting... talking.. doing nothing... wonderful :)
Sean & Alex finding more firewood. Sean has this wierd obsession with keeping a fire going constantly when we camp. 
More beauty of the earth....
Sean looked really cute sitting on that rock, so I had to get a picture!
Now it is obviously a good 4 days into the trip as seen by how disgusting I really look in this picture. 
I found this dandelion & it is the hugest dandelion I've ever seen!!! It was nuts! When I blew it all off it was like umbrellas floating to the ground. Maybe I'm just a sheltered city girl & these giant things are common elsewhere....
Sean really wanted a pic of the trailer before we left... isn't she a beaut?
Thats it in a very large nutshell. I feel refreshed after being able to have that trip. Wed-Mon doing whatever we wanted in beautiful nature. We read together, laughed, talked, & came back better friends than we left... & were sad to come back. Sean always acts like he grew up on a farm or something. He talks about the valley like its the devil sometimes. Maybe we will get to live somewhere a little more green someday! All in all.. 2 thumbs way up :)
