Nick: Jess, tell us a serial killer story!
Trevor: Yeah, tell us about a Froot Loop killer!

Megan: Jess, are you and Evan brother and sister?

We got back from the lake yesterday afternoon, threw all of our junk in the house and went to my Grandpa's because it was his birthday. We were there for the rest of the day pretty much. So I guess this is the summary of the past 16 days.
So we started out bright and early on Saturday (July 24) after attending the lacrosse game in Armstrong the previous night. That was game 3, which was mentioned briefly in my previous post. We picked up Barry from Vernon and started on the way to Langley for Kerry and Anna Lee's surprise 25th wedding anniversary, which started at 3pm. On the way down we stopped in Hope (I forget why) and discovered that they have NO 7/11. My overall assessment of that was "What kind of hell-hole is this place? Let's get out of here!". I don't trust a place that size that doesn't have a 7/11. So we left Hope and the a/c in our truck quit. And it was hot out that day. And dusty from construction. No a/c=open windows in the dust. Not cool. So by the time we got to Langley we were a)hot, b) dusty, resulting in c) sticky and ending in d) late for the party. Fortunately Kerry and Anna Lee were also late, so it started late and it all worked out. That was a pretty fun night and they couldn't believe we came all the way down for the surprise. On Sunday, we went and visited my mom's Aunt Joyce, then my great-grandma in Royal Columbian, then my mom's Aunt Ethel, who had a pool in her backyard, which we were invited to swim in, but to our standards it wasn't a warm enough day to be swimming in a pool, haha. They thought we were crazy. Then we drove home after that, fortunately the a/c was working again, and we got in around 11. So that is that leg of the trip.
On Monday morning, we again got up bright and early, packed up all of our clothes, food, and various other junk, then hooked up the boat and drove out to Mabel, where we unpacked, launched the boat, etc, etc. Also, that morning we woke to a valley filled with smoke so thick you couldn't see the end of the street. That was smoke from the fire up by Williams Lake, which was pushed all the way down here and filled all of the valleys. We were pretty freaked out for a minute there. So yeah, we hung out at the lake and did stuff and whatever for the rest of the day, and that night I tried to call the Civic Arena from the middle of the lake to see who had won Game 4 of the Shaw Cup Finals, but couldn't get through, thus forcing me to listen to the KissFM noon news on Tuesday, where I learned that the Canucks had re-signed Dan Cloutier (yay!!!) and the Vernon Royals had won the previous night's game 9-4, winning the Shaw Cup for the first time in my tenure with the team. So that was pretty sweet. Anyways from Monday to Friday of that week we just went boating and sat on the dock and painted the railings green and that was about it.
On Friday, my parents went to Vernon and got us a new tube, got my brother a new water ski and me a new air mattress (yay, no more blowing up the piece of crap blue one every hour!). So that was pretty cool. Then on Saturday, everyone arrived at the campground from various points east and west to take over the group site and party for the week. I was wandering around talking to people when I ran into my old friend Scott, who hadn't been there for a few years, which was great. We were drinking buddies for the week, but there was no keeping up with him--he drank a 40 of Appleton Estate rum per day. And I learned a valuable lesson on the Monday night. Lesson being to never again let Scott mix my drinks. Things got a little drunk out that night. It was pretty funny. Scott's trademark for the week was a red plastic beer cup, which was constantly full of rum and a little coke.
Anyways, over all our days consisted of the beach and water sports. Evenings were dinner, drinking, campfire, volleyball and story-telling. Danielle and Kelli tried to have a country music night which didn't go over very well. Erin and Morgan got into their parents' (and cousin Jason's) alcohol one night and I honestly have never seen 14 year olds that plastered. One of the other kids told Morgan that the water was dry and she should go swimming. She checked it out and..... "The water isn't dry you guys, it's WET!".
Another night all the kids (teenagers, I guess) were down on the beach and two guys streaked them, causing all hell to break loose--the all took off and one of them ran into one of the ropes holding up the volleyball lights. It fell down and there was a great crash as the light broke (these things are tree poles 30 feet tall with halogens on top). When the light pole fell and broke, it also brought down the volleyball net, which ended up being okay. On still another night, a guy named Bruce came out and was drinking rum and coke all night (what's the deal with rum and coke?!). He passed out at the campfire. Mabel Lake tradition states that persons passing out at the campfire get their faces painted. So Anna Lee broke out the glow in the dark face paints and Bruce was painted. He woke up later and had no idea what had happened, even though everyone was laughing at him. In fact, he didn't notice until he was eating breakfast the next morning and wiped his face with a napkin...ahh, fun times.
There was also a small fire out at the lake while we were there, which I noticed on Tuesday morning. However, we had a huge storm and tons of rain from Wednesday afternoon to Friday morning, so that helped to put it out.
The kids also got their traditional night-time stories on the beach. I resurrected the axeman of past story infamy for this year's story. They also got a few traditional camping horror tales and some true-life serial killer ones. Bloodthirsty bunch, they are.
So that's about it for now, if I think of more I'll say more, if I don't, I won't.

~Currently playing: The Killers-Somebody Told Me ~