Rearview Mirror: A WEEKEND AT MY SISTER’S

Internet photo. Not really us.

Come and listen to a story about my sister’s farm

It’s up in Sun City and is full of charm

They have six horses, a boat, pool and RV

The Tutty Family Farm is the place I want to be!

OK, this isn't really my sister's place, but how great is this (internet) picture?

Aw, Memorial Weekend – the unofficial start of summer vacation. A time for fun, family and boats on the lake. Elsinore, that is. Full of bubbling crud. Oh no, sorry. I’m still thinking of the Beverly Hillbillies. The lake really is quite lovely, from a distance. But up close, it’s a questionable shade of green. That didn’t stop us from having a whole pile of fun, though.

Come on in. The water's fine.

Our plan was to get there bright and early in the morning. OK, that’s always our plan, but it hardly ever happens. First we had to stop at Starbucks cuz we were hungry. And we needed coffee. Then we had to stop at the grocery store for some food items. Then we had to go to another store because I forgot to buy something at the first one. My bad.

Sadly, my dogs didn’t get to go on the boat trip because they are currently sporting coneheads due to some recent surgeries.

My nephew is a pro at launching the boat and we were out on the lake by 10. We found a little cove to anchor in and Bill cooked up some breakfast.

What's cookin, Bill?

I made my sister hike with me to the Sanihut over the hill. Bill told me a scary story about wolf spiders hiding where you’d least expect them, and I worried and fretted about this the whole way there and held my breath while I was inside. I didn’t want to see them so of course they weren’t there. Or they were just hiding, pointing at me and laughing. Don’t really want to know.

The real photos were way to creepy to post (from internet)

Have you ever seen a wolf spider? Have you ever shoved your unsuspecting, innocent foot inside your sneaker and felt something tickling against your toes? Then you remove your shoe out of curiosity and out jumps a giant fuzzy, eight eyed monster with a top hat and cane, dancing and singing, "Hello my baby, hello my sweetheart, hello my good time gal..." like the creature in Alien. OK, I made up the song and dance part, but the Nevada hills are still reverberating my screams from that incident over 30 years ago.

Mitch likes to multitask. Here he is auditioning for American Idol while tossing horse shoes.

Kyle skillfully avoids an obstacle course

The kids played Frisbee and flew around the lake on Mitch's new jet ski.

Mitch, an accomplished Farrier, is demonstrating how to shoe a horse (or his cousin)

My sister and I had fun reminiscing about our childhood and quoting lines from Christmas Vacation. This happens every time we get together.

"Can't see the lines, can you, Russ?"

"Welcome to our home. What's left of it."

Chillaxing

Cool hiding place

Heyeyeyey, let's have a party!

Better put some sunscreen on or you'll turn into a lobster!

It was sunny and warm the whole day, but then the wind kicked up in the afternoon, making our trip back kind of miserable.

My sister and I hunched down on the floor and buried ourselves in blankets as the wind whipped chilling sprays of water onto our heads. Good times.

Laura, is that you?

The wind was so strong at the launch ramp, it kept pushing our big pontoon boat around, making it impossible to line up with the truck. To make matters worse, some kids were kayaking in front of and behind us. The wind was pushing us around so much, we were worried about running into them, or one of the other boats waiting in line. It was kind of like a video game with a bunch of obstacles popping up forwards, backwards, left and right. A lady stood on the ramp yelling useless instructions at us. She was trying to tell us we were too far to the right or left, as if we didn’t already flipping know. Mitch and Kyle were in the water, trying to steady the boat. My sister and I wordlessly white knuckled the side of the boat and watched in horror. Bill directed us all to get out and we were forced to go over the side into the waist deep water. It was cold and our pants got all wet. Waagh. Luckily, everything turned out alright (whew) and we loaded our soggy selves into the car and headed for home.


Chester and Chelsea model the latest in head gear fashion

Say cheese!

The coneheads were happy to see us and we started a bonfire. Grillmeister Bill made us BBQ chicken – yum.

It's OK, Chester. They're just jealous of your conehead.

The kids compared sunburns and I’m afraid Kyle won the contest. He had turned into Lobsterman, since he didn’t listen to his mom and apply the right amount of sunscreen. Tsk, tsk.

The next day, in spite of Kyle’s lobster status, the boys returned to the lake for more jet ski action, and the rest of us chilled with the next door neighbors. When they returned, Kyle had, of course, grown a pair of antlers and lobster claws.