Cardigan Lodge and Winning and Losing

October 9, 2017  Columbus Day

    Well, boys, we just finished a very fun weekend together, one that I hope will bring your future memories of all of us together, having such laughs!!  The Cardigan Lodge Adventure (when I became the Cardigan Lodge bully towards some of those bratty kids running around, drinking hot chocolate on top of coffee tables-what a madhouse dinner was!)
    Between March and October, we have had some fun times, memorable ones, but I have not been writing about them.  Early in the summer we went to Battis Farm to swim with life jackets and rafts, also Veronica came, too. In April, we dedicated your Grandpa's tree down at Bartlett Mall with Uncle Don, had dinner again at Lexie's afterwards.  In July also we spent a night at Uncle Don's 4th of July. I especially liked staying up late with you both and talking with Auntie Kim (the other one, married to Uncle Don) Our topic was ticks.  You guys were worried about them since we found some on our floats when we brought them up from Uncle Don's beach!
    Also saw you in September, we had the walk for Ovarian Cancer, and we spent that day together with your dad and girlfriend #3,642.  We are calling her September, then Autumn, and if she makes it to Thanksgiving, we can call her Vio , her real name. :-)  She is awfully nice.  I hope it works out.  But clearly you both are at the top of your dad's love interests, let me tell you.  He gets such a kick out of you both, your senses of humor, creative minds, you both have the dry wit and the humor we K's feed off of!  Your mom does, too, so you got it from both sides! :-)
    Anyway, we hung out here Saturday pm after I took you out to Marshalls shopping for hiking boots, nylon pants and jackets, and then to Children's Orchid for rain jackets.  We hit the jackpot as far as clothes that you both liked, that fit, that worked for the hiking trip to satisfy Uncle Joe's (Captain Safety) anxiety about improper clothing and footwear.  As it turned out, sneakers and shorts would have been find since it was 78 degrees out, and some Chinese lady climbed the mountain with a red dress on!  That was pretty amazing.  Always best to be safe than sorry though.  And I enjoyed our shopping trip!
   The ride up was fun.  We talked a lot, and then after the hike, we had an adventure trying to find the lodge since it was on the other side of the mountain.  Uncle Joe had his grouchy pants on. It is never fun to be lost with him and much worse when his GPS has no signal out in the boonies.  We had to find the lodge the old fashioned way since we had no map in your dad's car,  by stopping and asking directions.  He stopped in three convenience stores and I went in each time and talked with various types including hillbillies that never heard of Cardigan Lodge nor of the town of Alexandria.  One guy at the deli headed us in the right direction and then we kept stopping and asking in case we were going the wrong way, if it turned out that guy in the deli really didn't know what he was talking about.  The GPS finally picked up a signal at hillbilly outpost #3 and we were off and running, in time to hang out on the deck and drink hot chocolate and read the Globe.  It was so warm out, some kids were swimming in the pond right next to the lodge!  Some other people were having a grand time drinking beer and eating snacks, wine, etc, while we watched them with our crappy hot chocolates that tasted like water since the machine ran out of chocolate.  Finally, the lodge staff put snacks out which were quite delicious and we sat down for dinner an hour later.  You guys first played Catch with Uncle Joe and your dad.  After the insanely loud dinner when the five of his hid quietly in the corner, shell shocked, we went to the presentation about animal tracking.  But the guy spent more time talking about himself so we ditched that and went with the ghost stories in bed.  I had selected a few stories to read in the dark with a flashlight.  Your dad kept snoring during them!  We were cracking up.
     Your dad and I got into a silly fit about a lost girl when someone knocked on our door thinking she was in our room (???)  which was weird, and then in the middle of the night he tried to lock me out of the room when I went to the bathroom.  We got hysterical about that.  Uncle Joe was the only one who heard that commotion.  And then I let out a foghorn fart which set off more uncontrollable giggles.  Oh my god!  My sides actually hurt.  In the morning, we told you guys about it and Noah taped the conversation with me cacking like a hyena and doing fart sound effects.  I hope you are both proud of your mature aunt!  (LOL!)
    After breakfast, we played a game with some kids there and I had to tell a couple of them to behave.  But then everybody seemed calm and to be enjoying the game, despite not winning which is still too big of a deal for one of you, especially!  Dylan felt like the girls were on Noah's side against him, but anyway, we sure had fun.  More talking on the ride home, and you feel asleep with the stuffed beaver and fox souvenirs.  Too dam cute, the both of you!
Love you to pieces,
Auntie Kim

PS Later same night...  I think I know where your competitevess and being hard on yourself comes from.  I played Bridge after writing last entry and my mind was a bit distracted, was feeling sad that the weekend with you all was over, worried about upcoming CT scan and my anxiety skyrocketed.  When I'm anxious, I do not do well playing cards and lose concentration.  I made several really stupid mistakes and I was so embarrassed!  At the end of the game, I went to my car and cried like a baby before I drove home.  How pathetic is that?  I mostly cried because I was sad on top of worried, but losing, especially on account of being so scatterbrained did not help matters.  Usually, me and my Monday night parter, John do quite well, often winning or placing at least.  Oh well, you can NOT win them all!  Nobody else would want to play games at all if they didn't at least win sometimes, right? :-)