We decided we would look into a resort formerly and most known by as the Chain O Lakes. As we researched the resort and what they had to offer we noticed that the cabins offered were either a 4 person cabin or a 8 person cabin leaving nothing in between for a family of over 4 and less than 8. With that said, we decided then that each child could take 1 friend with them and that would fill up the 8 person slot. That seemed to work well....and especially well for the child who said they would NOT be going without a friend. Although the oldest said "That's just weird." and the youngest couldn't decide on which friend to take. Finally they had made their decision to join in and we would all come together for a good time. Well.....MOM made the comment to middle child that she might want to bring a favorite board game or two for at night being as though there was NO Tv and they MIGHT need something to do. That comment broke the straw on the camel's back I guess. We were later notified through text message that middle child and friend are no longer going to be a part of this. . . too boring for their liking so they thought. With that said, Dad told Levi he could invite ONE more friend. The other friend picked decided he would rather stay home and play a game of golf leaving Levi quite frustrated with said friend. Sooo.....he went for the next friends in line. I will say here that there are no more next friends in line that Mom and Dad feel meet the criteria of our liking to want to be able to spend an entire weekend with! This left Levi then very FRUSTRATED once more and he then decides he no longer wants to be a part of this family weekend as well! Great!! <Sigh with a deep breath> Dad and Mom now figure since daughter #2 and son #3 are no longer going that would simply mean daughter #1 and her friend would back out for lack of not wanting to be the only uncool ones who are stuck on a weekend trip with weird Mom and boring Dad.
David and I decided at this time that no matter what....extra money spent, extra food bought, an un-unified family left at home.....we were setting out to have a super awesome time. It's a mind set, a perspective, a decision that sometimes you just have to reach and go with it! My truly amazing and faith filled husband gave me his words of encouragement when I was frustrated about the situation of money spent and such. He said "No, I'm not upset. Afterall, it isn't even my money to be upset about...it's Gods." He is my rock and I'm so extremely thankful for his solid faith and contentment of life.
The next morning, I woke Levi up and said "Make a choice and make it now. Otherwise, you're staying home and that's that." He made his choice....and that was to go. I informed him then that should he go, he WILL go with an attitude of expecting to have fun....looking for fun.....and if he couldn't promise me that the same would apply....stay home. He agreed....
And now we're off! Everyone is together minus second daughter who never reconsidered. We had lunch in Porter, Tx about 20 mins down the road. While there I realized we had left some very important things at home. So after lunch our caravan of 6 travels back home once again to retrieve items. Me growing up should this have happened, we most likely would have just stayed home after that. Not my David thankfully! On the road once more! All is HAPPY, all is exciting....all is good. We traveled a hour away from home about 20 miles N of Cleveland, Tx. I will tell you that it was just as if we traveled to another state entirely ( at least in my opinion) we may have just been a hour away, but it appeared and felt like so much more because of the complete beauty and the amazing sights everywhere! Who can beat a vacation spot that is only a hour away from home?!! No fussy, tired, cranky kids to deal with after being in the car so long is always a plus! :) Woo!
This place was amazingly beautiful everywhere! Our cabin was right on one of the lakes with the absolute BEST view around.....don't worry we checked other people's views and YES ours was the best!! We were in the deep deep Piney Woods of East Texas so those of you that know....yes we were surrounded by heavily wooded nature at it's BEST!! Some find their peace, satisfaction, happiness, excitement in beaches, big cities, cruises, mountains, etc. David and I find ours.....in the woods! Afterall, I am Hillbilly by nature and blood! :) Thankfully, my David shares my passion as well!
Once at our cabin we saw the most AMAZING, EXCITING, SUPRISING sight.....2 alligators swam right up to our cabin!! Our cabin was up on stilts, so it wasn't like they could knock on our door and say "I'm waiting for you to come and plaaaaay!" But there was an uneven place of sloping land between the water and our cabin down below....this is where the gators were. In NO time flat my daredevil son was down there attempting to get the best shot with his camera phone!! Levi's friend, his sister, and her friend appeared to be more nervous about the situation than Mom and Dad did. I will tell you right here.....this weekend trip was NOT for just your everyday Mother. I'm thinking MOST Mothers would have had a big hissy fit and laid down the law that this child nor any other would be seen or heard within yards of said alligators again.....period!! Would you believe that as I went about my business of trying to make a phone connection wherever I could and Dad doing his business of unloading the car....poor Dad....he always does all the work......my son now traveled on foot .....alone.....to somewhere along the banks on the other side from our cabin....balancing himself on a tree and hanging over the banks attempting to call the gators enticingly over to him??!! Yes, as we watched perched safely from the porch, Levi is now making all the noises he can and bounicing on tree limbs that are dangling dangerously over the water!! He did make it back alive however and we continued with our day of fun and discovery. You have to know that I look to David as my guidance and if Dad's not concerned well then Mom just learns to not be concerned as well. Have I mentioned...it takes a whole LOT to concern dear Dad??!! That's ok....it teaches you to not live a life of worry and fretting. As David would always say "Why is there ever a reason to worry?" God is simply and always in control.
As time went on, the gators continued there menacing stay....menacing because they wanted to steal fish from your lines....menacing also because well....they're still an animal to be unsure of. So we accepted their company....at least I did....I found them so extremely fascinating!! And as time goes on you learn to respect the animal, but to also stop fearing it's menacing and intimidating presence. Often my son and or husband would be seen fishing down below with the gators lurking only feet away. Even my fearless....ok not so much fearless.....Heather was seen on the last day fishing alone with gator only feet away! Again, I don't think just any Mother could walk off with husband and go on a forever long hike while leaving unassuming, daredevil, adventerous son to himself with dinosaur reptiles.....but I did! :)
Our first day was filled with fishing, hiking, swiming in the lake as well as in the pool and grilling! We saw a alligator in the PEOPLE swimming hole that night lurking in the shadows while 2 boys were going down awesome slides into the lake!! I never DREAMED they would also be in the people part....but nothing was keeping them from coming. I later told the housekeeping lady and she said "yeahh...when that happens you just tell someone and they will come move them." Umm....right lady....just casually come move them for us! Haha! Well, we never did come tell anyone to come "move them" for us as the next day all my kids were right smack dab in the lake where he was the night before....only this time no sign of him or others....as far as we could tell. < Haha! That night we came out on the porch and listened to all the haunting sounds of the night......I LOVE IT! So many undetermined sounds....so many eery sounds.....life is so exciting sometimes. I will tell you that David and I both set off for a walk that night. As we did, we passed a cabin with actual raccoons up on the porch taking food right out from people's hands! Before we had left we saw 2 raccoons down below us as they scurried on there way only to find one coming up on our porch, but was startled as David had rounded the corner to meet face to face with him! Little did we know that just down the road they were eating right from people's hands! We went farther away from the lights on our walk. I love adventure!! And with darkness....comes adventure!! As we neared a deep and dark cluster of woods, we begin to hear a eerily scary low growling coming from them! We both stopped and listened..... In little to no time, I decided this was not a growl to be messing with....and turned to run all the while telling David..."LET'S GO!! RUN!!" As I'm running away....he has stopped and is listening once again. I say "What is it....c'mon run David!!" He claims he had to protect me so he had stopped to listen to see where it was coming from. As I stayed planted in my spot and he in his, we soon begin to realize that our thought to be growl was simply an airplane so FAR up in the sky and our surroundings being so quiet ..... that it was simply a passing airplane!! That gave us a laugh to share with ourselves!! :) Your imagination runs wild ..... in the wild.....so much fun it is!
Day 2 was filled with it's own excitement as well!
We fished that morning and at 11:30 went on our official trail ride with horses! Can I say here that trail rides are never as much fun as they SHOULD BE?! I mean let's loose the line, loose the forever slow steps of the horse, get some galloping in there....adventure! You're paying for it....right?! Ah well....it was nice I suppose....although Mom got put up front right behind trail guide lady who wanted very much to talk to Mom the entire time of ride. Needless to say, I didn't see anything on that ride....just talked to lady who told me a quick story of all that she is involved in.....in 20 mins. When she asked about my life....I said "Well, your life makes mine look rather slacking and un-eventful." Haha! I always hate those questions of "Soo, what do you do with your time?" : P It was Crystal's (Heather's b/f) first time to ever ride so that was neat for her. : ) Later and still today, we refer to everyone as their horses' names. Btw....I'm Derrick! Levi was Booger. Heather was BayBay. Crystal was Sassy. Hobbs was Bertha! And Dad was Travis. :)
Later, we had lunch and kids went swimming while David and I went to look for a missing forgotten major ingredient for our dinner that evening.....spaghetti noodles! We thought we were going to have to travel back to Cleveland which was a good 25 miles away....but thankfully we came upon a little country store on side of road that just happened to have spaghetti noodles!! YAY! After that, we got back in car and found some surrounding history for one of Mom's BIG interests! We traveled to find them...which wasn't too far. One was a plantation that was colonized and started in the year 1819!! Another was a church and CEMETARY (my favorite!) that began in 1845! We got out and took pics as well as walked around complete cemetary. It was hot, my David was tired....but he loves me. : )
We got back in time for the kids to just be finishing with their swimming. As they cleaned up, we took another hike. This was a very loooong hike and in fact we ended up in a section where people actually lived in AWESOME cabin homes that looked to be worth probably millions! At breakfast the next morning, I overheard a lady that works the resort restuarant say that these are mostly 2nd homes and rented out. O my gosh!! if I had something that NICE....you wouldn't find me trusting another to rent it out!! WOW!
We made our way back finally and found the kids decided to go swimming again. David and I went back to the cabin, rested and then began our dinner which consisted of a dinner normally mixed together, but more seperated as to meet the needs of our catholic adopted daughter who could eat no meat - for it was Friday. :) No problem....and it turned out great!
Later that night, we started a "fabulous" campfire that would roast our marshmellows for our YUMMY S'mores! That was yummy fun indeed! While out there, we begin to hear movement in the very dark bushes! The kids decided to take a walk by themselves while David and I stayed behind. We were enjoying the fire when all of a sudden I see two shapes running in the very near distance! COONS! They cautiously made their way over to us....by the way.....not all animals are scared off by fire! We begin to feed them marshmellows right there at our feet....but we could barely see them it was so dark! In fact, the only time we really saw them precisely was when I would turn the flash on to take their picture! Exiciting stuff for sure!
The kids did come back.
David was exhausted and went to bed. I stayed up with the younger crowd and had a good time of laughter shared with them all. Such a blessing this was......not just this time time but the whole ENTIRE time of it all!! I finally made my way to the bed when the kids decided they needed another night walk around 11:15. Later, around 1am I would wake to a creak creak creak sound. I got up to go look for them and only found Hobbs. Later, I would find out they had pranked Hobbs with pickle juice and shaving cream. Ha! I found their "innocent" bodies hiding and warned them to get in bed now....I was tired.
The next morning and last day, we were met out front with a horse and carriage to take us to breakfast at the very nice Hilltop Herb Farm Restraunt. Nice but SHORT ride that is. The breakfast which was complimentary was simply and wonderfully AMAZINGLY delicious!! Later, we saw a no-kidding-you-MAMMOTH size turtle in the water that looked to have swam right out of the dinosaur days! No lie! He was bigger than alot of the gators out there! That was a genuine high light! That was the thing about this wonderful place we were staying at....animals and more animals everywhere! We saw alligators, raccoons, armadillo, snake< thankfully NOT plural, beautiful cardinals all around, and heard multiple other various non-distinguishable animals as well. Simply awesome! : )
We finished our stay with a tad more fishing, a visit to the gift shop to buy the shirt that says "I saw the alligator at The Retreat Of Artesian Lakes" It SHOULD've said "I saw the alligatorS at The Retreat of Artesian Lakes" Many many gators!!
Once in the car to go back to normal civilization as we know it.....we decided to travel around the area and see the lots for sale that had the potential for us in another 5 years when David retires. Nice Nice Nice I must say! Kids had enough....but were nice about it.....so we started on our looooooong track back home. ; ) We stopped in Liberty for lunch, sending all kids in different directions to eat, after we parked.
Once home.....we unpacked and settled back in to living. But with me there was a new perspective of thinking that God blessed me with through this amazing trip He gave us! Part of this was in the fact of when things SEEM to be going in only a bad direction with no means of getting better.....HOLD ON.....for God is just getting ready to turn it all around and make something wonderfully WONDERFUL out of it all!! How many times can we use that positive thinking in our day to day life?! Also, another blessed perspective is that there are so many unseen blessings out there....if we just stop and take the time to see and realize them! And lastly.....God can ..... God does......bring healing to ourselves and shows us that all is well....mentally, physically and spiritually!
Thank you God for my renewed and new perspectives that you gave me!! : )
And thank you friend for allowing me to share a very lengthy story of our blessed weekend!
God bless each of you in your day and throughout! : )
I really do hope you took Lots of pictures. lol sounds like you had a really great time.
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