Poke-A-Nose

What do you get when you gather 11 adults, 4 dogs, and a baby in the mountains for a weekend?

Our annual trip to the Poconos, that’s what.

Day 1 in the Poconos proved to be a bit… rainy. And it felt somewhat familiar.

When we first woke up, it was still decent outside, so we took advantage and spent some time walking around. Trevor and Kara had to take a ride to a nearby town for some errands, but Hunter stayed back with us. I strapped him to the front of me in his carrier and about five minutes later, he was snoozing.

Before he and Kara left, Trevor and I posed for a pic with the baby.

A bunch of us on the dock… Tyler, Susan, my mom, me, and Marie.

Marie and Tyler even got out on the paddle boat for a little bit.

Miller experimented with “swimming.”

We relaxed in the screened-in gazebo down by the pond. This was after Hunter had passed out. Look at little Tess… she was really good with the baby. Normally, she gets really jealous when I’m holding him and is constantly bugging me, and while she did have a few of those moments today, she was mostly well behaved.

Speaking of Tessa… she was nervous about walking out onto the dock, but that wasn’t enough to keep her from doing it altogether. Instead, she walked really slowly, and with a funny stance–all of her legs wide apart, as if she were making sure to steady herself. It was hilarious.

In the afternoon, it really started to rain, so we all took cover and spent the rest of the day hanging out under the covered porch up at the house.

Hunter kicked back with his grandma (look at how big he’s getting–good lord!).

We watched it pour.

A bundled up baby took another nap.

And the dogs were cuddled…

…and passed out.

In the early evening, we all retreated to our respective rooms for a while. Everyone relaxed a bit and showered before meeting back up at the main house for dinner. The guys enjoyed beers while us girls had some wine and cheese.

While dinner was cooking, I took the opportunity to take a few snapshots of Hunter while he was in a really alert/playful mood. His big, wide eyes… love it!

We enjoyed a group dinner (all 11 of us!) of flank steak, and a salad made entirely of vegetables directly out of Susan’s garden.

After dinner, the fun (see: drinking) continued, as we all sat out on the porch and talked for hours.

Meanwhile, Miller slept on a dirty boot…

…Hunter’s toy got stolen by a big bear…

…and Tessa gave up on waiting for Michael and I, and found a place to relax on her own. This was a chair with a pile of folded up blankets on it in the dining room. I have to emphasize that she RARELY does this. Typically, we have to be sitting down for her to relax. Not only that, but her favorite place to relax is with us–lying on our laps, in between our legs, etc. So the fact that she sought out a place to make herself comfortable means she was really, really tired. :) I guess all of that off-the-leash time and fresh air exhausted her!

Weather is supposed to be much better tomorrow…