Hogge Reunion

I'm so slow. It's been TWO WEEKS since we've been back from our trip, and I'm just now finishing up this post. I don't have all the pictures I'd like; I didn't take any skiing pictures with my camera. So I'll post those when I get them from my in-laws. But at least for now I wanted you to see what fun we had in the GORGEOUS lake we got to play in.

Here I am (blue scarf) riding in the boat with my nephew, Trevor on my lap. Marjorie (my fabulous mother-in-law) and Alisa (Vince's sister) and her son Colten are behind me.

And here's Vince in the boat with the gorgeous lake behind him.
We rode the boat on Monday all together to start on the trail that goes up to The Falls above The Lake. It's a short, easy trail, so even the kids enjoy hiking up to the falls. And there was SO MUCH water this year--more than anyone had seen, and the Hogges have been coming to The Lake for, over 30 years? I don't even know how long. Generations, I guess we can say!

Vince & I with our kids and my niece Emma at the Falls. You can't see it in this picture, but we were up this close for just a few minutes, and came down DRENCHED--the spray was so intense. But it felt fabulous because it was such a hot day hiking up.

Vince & the kids at The Falls:

And me:

This is the view looking the opposite direction towards The Lake--gorgeous, no?
And of course, everyone has to pose with this beautiful scenery:

The whole Hogge clan hiking back down the trail:
Our children enjoying the traditional s'mores by the campfire:

I loved that Evan had one in each hand and was devouring his tasty treat:
The only bummers of The Lake were:

1. Mosquitos! Those nasty bugs were so vicious this year. We had to head to town after two days because we'd gone through about 4 cans of bug spray. We literally got out of our tent and had to spray immediately or we'd be eaten alive. Yucky!

2. The rain. We love skiing--sunrise to sunset. We got about 1 1/2 really good days, and then the other two we got half or full day of steady rain. Everything was wet by the time we got home. But those few days we had were well worth it!

For the rest of our stay, we went back to Vince's parents' house and ride the four-wheeler, the horses, lit fireworks, hiked, and went fishing. I'm not much of a fisherwoman. I had a negative fishing experience last summer that resulted in me paying a tremendous fine for dipping my son's "Lightning McQueen" fishing pole in a lake. But I decided to give it another try this year (legally, of couse--I did learn my lesson). Most of the experience was spent swatting more blood-thirsty bugs and stepping in muddy black swamp water. But it was worth it in the end because I got some darling pictures of my in-laws:

And the kids:

And the lovely scenery (this was the point at which I was bored):

But mostly because Vince is a good fisher:

And then we let him go. (He swam away VERY fast!):

But here are the pictures of the fish that got away:


Better luck next time!

It was a wonderful trip. Can't wait to go back again next year!!