The Pierces: Toledo Bend Country

Hanging out at the park with our little Gilligan.

This past weekend we went on a random, spur of the moment trip with my family to Toledo Bend, and was it fun. In order to get the true gist of the weekend, I must start from the beginning.

Well, in true Holles form, what should have been a quick 3 hour trip (for those from Lafayette) turned into about a 6 hour trip (due to taking me forever to get packed, thus taking us a long time to leave Alexandria, a stop off at Shoney's to have some pie, a trip to McDonald's for the boys mid-afternoon snack, then a trip to back to McDonald's to get the right order, and then playing a little game of who will actually make it there because Mom and I are the only ones with maps, and everybody else who is coming behind us just assumes we will have cell service out there, which we did not.) In fact, Ben was the only one who made it there with no complications at all. Good job Darlin!

After a standard trip in the car such as this, we all finally arrived in one piece, and when we got there I must admit were slightly taken aback. Let's just say we traded in our Asheville rental homes with jacuzzi tubs and pool tables for a little place on the lake appropriately named, "Da Camp," that came with a fish cleaning table and a motorboat, minus the motor. For those of you who know me, I'm not typically a "camping" kind of girl, but we had kick butt air conditioning, running water, a full kitchen, 3 bedrooms, & 2 bathrooms, so I wouldn't exactly say we had to really "rough" it.

The majority of the days were spent relaxing outside on the swing, rowing in the boat, and fishing off of the pier, and the nights consisted of a lot of eating (the food supply looked as though we were going to be there for a month) and poker, and of course watching Will and Elena play around on the floor. Ben also got to get in some good photography time. (Surprise, surprise.)

On Saturday we also drove to Cypress Bend, and the little ones swam in the lake there and Will went down the playground slide for the first time with Ben. Speaking of Will, he and Elena both were so good, and just fun to watch. They really seemed to enjoy sitting out on the swing taking everything in. The Hoover boys also always provide them both with great entertainment.

Will's first trip down a slide with his Daddy.

All in all, the weekend was a success. The only thing we wanted to change was the amount of time we were there. We wish we could have been there one more day. It would be perfect for a 3 day weekend. Considering it's proximity to all of us, I see many more trips to "Da Camp" or other camps on the lake in our future.

Oh and by the way, many props to Mom and Dad for deciding to go, booking the house, and basically making the trip happen all within a 30 minute time period. Impressive.