Hey there kids!  It's time for more shenanigans with Alicia! Yay!!!!

So really quick, if you recall the last blog post with the gnat story, I decided to put together a little something that I hope will make you all laugh and shake your head. below you will see Caitlin and I in our bug getups.  We like to call this "the evolution of the bug net".  Yes, we really did this.  Desperate times my friends.  Desperate times.

The evolution of the bug net

Ok, now on to the new!!!  I honestly can't remember everything we have done since I last posted.  I don't even know when that was!!  Time seriously slips by here like nobody's business!!  It doesn't get dark until around 12 a.m. and we work like crazy all day long!  Once we are done working, we play!!  We haven't gone out on the boats since last I wrote, but we have gone on a nice hike and then today we went on the same hiking trail-but this time it was a run!  We are going to try to do that run at least 3 times a week.  Wish me luck!!!

We have once again been very busy getting things all prepared for when guests come.  The season officially starts for us on May 31 when a family of 4 is coming.  We are excited!!  There are a lot of preparations to be done, and I am learning a lot of new things and doing a lot of things that I never thought I would have been learning!  This brings me to the latest new experiences that I have had.  This being said, I want to go off another road really quick and bring a little bit of perspective.  For those of you who know me and my family really well, I want you to think about me and my sister Kristen.  Kristen is pretty much awesome at everything.  She is great at sports, such a 'go getter', loves working hard and learning new things.  She loves to create things and she is great at building, painting, etc etc etc.  She is great in the outdoors and I really could go on and on and on.  Now let's talk about me for a second.  I am always the girl who loves to go shopping.  Ask me to do your hair--heck yes!  Painting my nails?  I did it them in 3 minutes today and they look great. :)  You are having boy drama?  Here, cry on my shoulder and I will make you cookies and then we will watch a chick flick and be super content.  Yes.  That is me.

So after going through the two of us, you would naturally think that my sister would be here, and not me.  But the fact is, I needed an adventure.  I wanted to learn new things.  Well, I am getting that!!  Now that we have solidified what these great people here are dealing with, let's talk about the things I am learning and some of the little things that have happened along the way. (and for the record, I am not a complete pansy--I am a go getter and I love to learn new things and do crazy things like jump off cliffs into water and do all sorts of crazy stuff like that.)

1) I learned to drive a four-wheeler.  No, I have never driven one before.  The thing that made this super awesome was that it was on a really bumpy twisty trail and it had lots of roots coming up out of the ground and...holy cow it was just crazy. So first we had to get to the four wheeler which was up at Brian's cabin.  For the record, the 'shortcut' to his cabin is not very easy to see, so Caitlin and I got lost and we had Jordan yelling from the porch of the cabin we all live in telling us where to go..oh, it was funny. Then we finally got up there and didn't feel comfortable driving it out so we walked all the way back the long way and went and got Jordan.  So he had to come up and then turned to us and asked who was going to drive it down.  Caitlin just looked at me and I said, "I don't know how."  Then Jordan said, "OK, hop on and you will learn!"  So...I did!!!  I coasted down and did quite a nice job I would say!  At first I thought they were crazy making me learn on that trail!  But it was a good thing I guess.  Then I had to go and we hooked the trailer to it and drove it up to where we loaded it with a bunch of trash that we needed to go burn.  Jordan then told me that I was officially certified to drive the four wheeler.  What an accomplishment :) haha

2) Right after learning how to drive the four wheeler we started a huge fire and that was a first for me too.  That was fun :)

3)  I rode on a front loader thing up and down in the bucket.  It reminded me of "are you my mother?" if you are familiar with that children's book.  That was fun :)

4) Today (Tuesday May 20--so not today anymore :)) I was handed a hammer and I pounded out a ton of these shelves that they had made up in our BARn loft (this place doubles as their bar and barn.  Pretty cool).  I thought my arm was going to fall off!!  I am telling you, I probably looked so goofy!!  Holding my hammer with both of my hands, swinging with all of my might!  pathetic..but I did it!  Josh was great because he was very patient with me as I couldn't get nails in the right places.  What took him 2 seconds would take me 10 minutes :)  But he didn't care.  It was really nice.  Josh and I took down all of the shelf things and we built desks around the walls--we did this for the Discovery Channel people and National Geographic crews that will be here this summer so they can have a little studio thing to work in.  It was a fun project.  I have definitely never done that before!!

5) Caitlin and I are pretty much master gardeners.  We sat in the garden all day today and planted a gadjillion squashes (p.s. did you know you have to plant them super far apart? Yeah..we found that out AFTER we planted them....soooooo you can just imagine what happened after that... :) ) We also planted beets..which are..struggling...and turnips as well as lots of lettuce!  It has been a really fun day just playing in the dirt with Caitlin!!

This is from gardening our first week here...but I love this photo...Classic. (Caitlin chilling with Sadie)

Amidst these things we have gotten to know more gnats and pinecones (more than I would like ;) ) and we also mopped our floors here and just cleaned cleaned cleaned!!  It has been really busy but good :)

So, that's about it! I am learning a lot and I am staying busy and sore :)  Thanks for all of the support!! Can't wait to update soon!!! 

Just a little something to keep you jealous of how beautiful it is here :)