Little brother Max: The Mountaineer and the "Mud Twin's"

As mentioned in my last post, we went to get our fifth wheel camper. Dan, Max, Dan's brother Dean and I traveled to the dealership to pick it up. It's about a 2 hour drive one way, but it went by quickly and it was a nice day for a drive. We arrived at the dealership and told them that we are there and they pointed us in the direction of where our camper was parked. We had purchased some lights and were going to have the service department install them, but they didn't get to them before we came to pick it up. Due to that, we had a store credit that was quite sizable so I had some shopping to do! I bought some needed items and Dan also contributed to the cart and after about an hour or so, it was time to cash out and hit the road. Dan and Dean hitched the camper up to the truck and after filling the tires to the proper pressure, we were on our way..... but not for long.

We drove for about a half hour and all was well, when all of a sudden POOSH
the noise was so loud, I thought we hit something! Dan pulled over and stopped the truck. The guys got out and after a few minutes they saw that the hose to the radiator/turbo had come off. Remember the ice incident that cracked Dan's grill and damaged his radiator? Well, they repaired it but unfortunately, this was the unplanned outcome of that "repair".

Anyways, Dan and Dean reconnect the hose and we are on our way in no time.............until it blows off again!!!!! Dan pulls over again and they reconnect it but it again blows off. This time, I had the 1-800 number of Ford's roadside assistance in my hand. Dan called, and they said they would send someone to pick up the truck.
What about the camper, you say? Well, Dan called his father, who gets Dean's truck, and makes the 2 hour trek to retrieve us and the camper.
As we waited, we crawled to the next exit, which has an excellent eatery, and ate as we waited. Dan's father arrived and we packed ourselves(five of us!) into Deano's truck and headed home. The camper is over the weight limit (11,000 plus #'s) than what Deano's truck is rated for, but it did the job well and we all arrived safely home, albeit a little stiff and sore from the ride. Max kept pointing to the camper and saying "OH NO!" as I think he thought the camper was somehow chasing us, because it was so close to the back window and seemed to be looming overhead. He became so upset he cried himself to sleep poor little guy. All the reassurance in the world from me didn't calm him whatsoever.
On Thursday, we drove back to where the truck was repaired and picked it up. Hopefully, this won't happen again.

The camper safely parked in our driveway.

We decided we'd have a night in the camper of just watching movies and cozying up together. The camper is still winterized in the freak event that we have freezing weather again (which is highly likely here in the boonies), so every time the kiddies needed a bathroom break, a trip into the house was necessary. We didn't spend the night in it, but we'll have plenty of time for that. Sonja is very excited to sleep in it but wants to sleep in one of the top bunks in the bunk room. I don't feel comfortable with her sleeping there because it is a long drop to the floor! Maybe next year I may feel more comfortable. They do make removable rails that you can mount onto the bunk, but we haven't any, and I just don't see the need for buying such an item when they can both safely sleep in their own bottom bunks. Besides, cousin Drew has already put in her request for one of the top bunks in the event she spends the night on future camping adventures. Sonja is also excited that she and Max have their very own bathroom in the camper. Who would think kids would be excited about a bathroom?!?!!!

We may spend the night, or two, in the camper this weekend. We'll see!

Dan hasn't practiced driving with the camper attached to the truck except for the drive home in Deano's truck. He'd like to practice towing it because he really has never towed anything larger than a four wheeler, much less a 37 + foot, 11,000 plus lb. camper! I'm sure that is on the agenda for the weekend if he doesn't get to it during the week. I want to practice driving with it too, just so I can take over if needed during any long journey's, although, I'm not sure how many of those we'll be taking with the price of gas now and it's supposed to get worse.....YIKES!!!!

I'm getting super excited about camping though no matter where we go, (if you can't tell)! I'm even more excited about the kids getting to experience the wonderful camping life I loved as a kid, and all of it's wonders!

The weather here has been more like summer than spring. This past Friday, the weather was beautiful!!! Our thermometer read 82 degrees pretty much unheard of in April here. Sonja wanted to "swim" so out came the pool. I filled it up and Sonja, Max and Bear took a dip in it. Bear LOVES the water. Oh...something I discovered about Bear, which I was somewhat surprised to see, is that he has webbed feet. I know he's part Lab but I didn't expect him to have the amount of webbing he has being a cross breed. Speaking of Bear, he is a really good dog and I'm so happy we have him, even though it's like having triplets at times, he's such a big baby ("big" being the operative word here).

The kids have been using the pool and playing in the sandbox everyday and I have to practically drag them away to get them to do anything else. As a matter of fact, They are doing just that, right now as I type!!

After testing the water with her foot, Sonja decided she'd get wet.... well.....maybe only her bottom half.

After a little while in the pool, Sonja and Max decided they thought putting water into the sandbox was a novel idea. Usually they only put enough in, so they can use their molds but today they got just a little carried away!

Bear, not wanting to be left out, joined Max in the sandbox.

Bear digging for buried treasure? I think this picture puts in perspective how big our puppy is! He looks more like a full grown dog! When people ask his age, they are surprised to learn that he's only 3 months old! Everyone seems to know right away that he's a Labradoodle though!