Bears Warnings. No seriously...BEAR WARNINGS

The Brandt Fam has a new favorite camp spot.

Bear Lake.

There scenery is beautiful, it's much less crowded, there are several different trails nearby you can hike, and there is lake nearby where you can fish. The only drawback it would seem are bears. Actual bears. Both times that we have camped this month, we were greated with a ranger and a bear warning flier. Not cool. Of course the Brandt bunch is so crazy ~~loud~~ tough...that the bears haven't risked showing themsleves in our presence.

Lucky for the Bears.

The bear in the flier was not nearly this cute.

Also, sometimes we bring our own "killer" with us. Bears are scared of Puggles. Didn't you know?

You know something that's really important to look into when you're camping? Weather. When the weatherman says it's going to be cold...you should assume he is an expert in his field of work and believe him. When the weatherman issues a freeze warning and tells you to bring your plants inside...you should assume he means it. And if plant's are advised to be inside, it's probably a bad idea for you to be sleeping outside...in a very thin tent....even with 7 layers and 3 blankets.

For the first 2013 camp out of the year, we did not heed the weatherman's advice...and we suffered for this decision. The Johnson's have joined us for camping trip 1 & 2 this year. We prefer to suffer in good company.

Don't get me wrong, good times were had. Just know they were very, very, very cold good times.

This photo pretty much sums up the importance of weather forecasts and camping.

We had much better luck with our second camping trip of the season. As it was much more bearable (see what I did there...BEARable) to be outside, we got in some quality fishing time. BY that I mean, roughly 12 hrs over 2 days were spent fishing...and NO fish were caught. Next time, I'm bringing my own fish from Publix with me. That way, I can make other campers envious of my fishing skills, without having to feel the disappointment of repeatedly reeling in my empty line.

We did have smores & wine however....and both of those trump fish any day.

Note the smiles on camping trip dose were just a Tiiiiiny bit bigger. Probably since it was warm enough to feel their faces and all.

Fish Tale

After feeding and watering the dogs for 6 weeks, Annabelle earned herself a fish today! After much debate at Petsmart, she decided on a pink "dragon scaled" beta & a mermaid themed tank. She has named him Poseidon (we're a bit into Percy Jackson right now...for better or worse) though I personally pushed for King Tritian (I mean HELLO it's a mermaid tank!!). She could not wait to get home and get it all set up. Because we (I) underestimated how big the tank we selected is, we set it up in the girls room...as there is no where else to put it. He has lots, and lots of pink decorations...so hopefully he's not too much of a manly man fish.

Carolers

The girls Brownie troop went Christmas Caroling this weekend at University Pines Retirement Community. They were absolutely precious. Words cannot express the cuteness overload. Several local troops were there and they sang for about half an hour. The girls have been practicing their songs for weeks, and they did spectacularly. The adorable retiree's gave them rave reviews and they were stopped by several people asking them to come back next year. Could they be any cuter? When we got home, we thought it only seemed fair to get the dogs in the spirit too..... Kingsley the Great Bayleigh the Princess

Blogging: Take 100

So. It's been a while and once again I have fallen off the blogging wagon. Alas I am pledging to once again give this whole blogging thing a shot. Lets see. My last update was January 2014 and a whole lot of life has been has been lived since then. The Mini's are back in school with just one mini remaining in the "Elementary" schools of SRC. They were less than thrilled to give up the sleepy loosy goosey living of summer, but this Mama was ready to have her structured life back. That and the early bed times. Don't get me wrong, Summer was great while it lasted. We road tripped. We Movie Nighted. We late night desserted. We summer camped. We celebrated birthdays, Shark Week, school getting out and then school getting the FREAK BACK IN. We basked in the sun, enjoyed numerous pool days, used and abused our "selfie stick" and slept in with reckless abandon. We. Had. The. Fun...but packing up those backpacks sure a joyous occ...

Life as a Brandtito

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