~~LAKE MILAKOKIA~~

Well I know that it has taken me forever, but I haven't had too much time to get on here lately. As I said before, vacation was wonderful and just what we all needed. We stayed with Brian's sister and bil at their cabin on Lake Milakokia. I was a little hesitant about going at first, because there were supposed to be a ton of people headed up there and I just didn't think it would be too relaxing with too many people stuffed into one cabin, but it actually worked out great!

We left on a Sunday morning and arrived about 3:30 that afternoon. The weather was beautiful and we immediately got the jet skis in the water and went out on the lake. The lake isn't huge, as you can see if you checked the link...but it's big enough that you can ride around all day and not get bored with your surroundings. I have some beautiful pics, which I may try and download at work. But my camera has been having serious issues and I don't know if it will work or not.

The cabin is all log and surrounded by a huge wrap-around porch. There are floor to ceiling windows that look right out onto the lake and it has a nice sized loft upstairs, that also gives you a great view of the lake. Brian, the kids and I, all slept up in the loft all week, which was perfect. Sitting up in bed in the morning to look out at the lake, was one of my favorite things about the whole trip. It's just so peaceful being out there on the water.

The days were filled with jet-skiing, tubing, lots of sun, great food and company. His mom and dad came up, along with his nephew and girlfriend. Most of our nights were spent playing euchre late into the night and on one night we actually made it to the Kewadin Casino. His nephew recently turned 21 and had never been before. So, that was kind of exciting. None of us left there with any type of profit, but we had a great time playing roulette for the first time ever. I had a ball.

There was one "incident" that I will not soon forget. One day in-between swimming and tubing and all of that, we were letting the drive around on the 4-wheeler. (This is a small kid sized 4-wheeler, at that). There really isn't much to it...you push the throttle to excel and hit the hand brake to stop...no big thing. Well, Tyler jumps on this thing and decides that he's not gonna slow up very much to go around the curve...in doing so, he just missed running right into a tree. I run over there, give him the dangerous "talk", and send him on his way, hopefully a little more careful this time. He makes it about twice around the loop and does the very same thing again (only with a different tree). At this point, I'm grateful that nothing happened to him, but quite perturbed at the same time. So I get him off the thing and say that I'm going for a ride. Keep in mind, the kids are only allowed to basically do circles on the driveway.

So, I take off down the dirt road, which leads to a little side street. I figure that will give me lots more room to turn around (and I wasn't about to just do a circle in the driveway). So, I'm making my way down the road, make a right turn onto the side street head down a little ways and decide that I'm gonna turn around. I cut it as hard as I can to the right and then start making my left turn. I look across the street and see there are probably waist high weeds and figure that I can turn a little ways into them, it won't hurt anything. YEAH, AND THAT'S WHAT I GET FOR THINKING!!!

While turning into the "weeds", I wasn't aware that under those weeds, was actually a 3-4 foot ditch. Before I can do anything about it, I was too far over and the 4-wheeler was falling right on top of me. My leg is hurt, I am 5' tall and up to about my boobs standing in a ditch IN A FRICKIN' BIKINI WITH NO SHOES ON!!! OMG!!!! My head was racing. My leg is pinned and there's absolutely nobody around. I heave the 4-wheeler off my leg and then am left with the dilemma of how to climb out of this thing. I look around for a log, a thick root...nothing. Duh, I need to stand on the 4-wheeler. I stand on the sideways 4-wheeler and climb right out. As I'm hobbling down the path to the cabin, I'm thinking..."man is he gonna be pissed off". Instead, I come hobbling up and he is freaking..."where's the 4-wheeler?" "Are you okay?" "What happened???" I tell him what happened, we check out my leg, him and his nephew grab the video camera and head down to what they call the 'scene of the crime'. They are laughing all the way. I show them where it is and it takes all 3 of us to pull it out. We catch it all on video and I get right back up on the horse and drive it back to the cabin without incident. LOL

My dear sons words when I first pull up..."I thought you told me to be careful mom, and look what you did!" Out of the mouths of babes! I think we all learned a little lesson that day. The last few days of the trip...I was way more careful of that little "kids" machine and Tyler banned himself from it completely, stating that he's a 'bad driver'. LOL

So, that's the gist of my little vaca. It's been just shy of 2 weeks and I still have a slight bruise on the inside of my left calf and a red burn on the opposite side. Daily reminders of my 4-wheeling stint. Will keep you posted as to just how long a bruise can actually last. (I'm thinking maybe another week or so.)