Take a trip with me down Memory Lane...

Tell me you've been here before: you've been working on a project on your computer and literally just as you were about to finish and hit 'save', something happened and you lost everything? Well, that was me today. My computer had been running real slow all morning but I was determined to write a post about our weekend camp trip. It took forever to get all the photos uploaded, then in order to post the videos I had to upload them to youtube first. Then, I typed in all the text. Keep in mind this was done in fits and spurts, over about three hours, in between having to be a mom and work around the damn slow-ass computer. And for some reason, Blogger, who normally autosaves your draft every few minutes, wasn't working properly and so all my work was not being saved. And literally, the second that I hit 'publish' on the post, a window popped up informing me of an internet explorer error, and poof! Just like that, all windows closed and I was left with my wallpaper, a really hot pic of Adam Lambert, staring at me with dark intensity. I could have screamed! I was this close to picking up the monitor and throwing it out the window.

So, now that I've had all day and night to chill out about it, I've decided to hell with the post about our camp trip (even though it totally rocked as all my posts do, right?). I'll do it another day. I'm just not up to trying to remember everything I had typed down and uploading all those pics again.

Instead, I'm going to do a post about my all-time favorite camp trip, ever.

It was way back in 1998, eleven years ago, during the early days of Hubs and I being a couple. We were just young punks back then (I was 18, Ty was 20), crazy in love, and I was about 3-4 months pregnant. We hadn't told anyone about the baby yet due to a multitude of reasons, but the main one was that we were simply enjoying having this wonderful, exciting secret all to ourselves.

It was early April and we decided out-of-the-blue to take off one weekend for a camp trip up at the Brazeau. The few people we told about our trip thought we were insane to go camping in April, when there was still snow on the ground and temperature was around 0 at night. But we didn't care. We were looking forward to a weekend of peace and quiet (and fishing of course, on Ty's part), and just being together on what was our very first time out camping together as a couple. We packed up our stuff, loaded it in the back of our cute little blue truck, picked up the boat and trailer from Ty's dad Ed (who also thought we were nuts, I'm sure, though he was too kind to say anything), and made the long drive up there.

It was the early afternoon when we finally arrived, and seeing how I was pregnant and Ty treated me like a fragile piece of china, I got to sit and watch while he unloaded the boat and parked the truck. Ty had decided to surprise me with the fact that we wouldn't be camping in an actual campground, but on a secluded island out in the middle of the lake. I was utterly charmed by this, of course, and thought that he was just the most wonderful, sweet, romantic man ever. So we loaded all our stuff into the boat and took off across the lake. I should clarify -- he loaded up the stuff while I watched. That 'fragile' thing again, typical protective father-to-be, eh? But very sweet. Nowadays I'm much too independent and determined, to sit like a lump while someone else does all the work, but back then it was a novel experience and I was going to enjoy and take advantage of it. Hah!

The view of the lake from shore.

Look at that gorgeous man working up a sweat while I sit and watch.

So away we went, zipping across the lake in our boat, enjoying the crisp air whipping through our hair (Hubs was a long-hair back then). We approached the island slowly, as there was a narrow strip of deep water surrounded on both sides by shallow sandbars and Ty didn't want to catch the boat motor. We set up camp, and it was heaven. Just our tent, our gear, a couple of lawnchairs, the cooler, and each other.

There's our cute tent. Nowadays, I'm used to the motorhome but back then that little tent was a spacious palace for the two of us. I remember that I was a little uncomfortable with the fact that we were out in the middle of Bear Country with just this nylon tent enclosing us at night, but Ty reassured me that he had brought along a little something to take care of any wayward bears that may come along (NOT a gun, don't worry). "My hero" I called him and his chest puffed out in that typical male way of self-pride. "Gotta take of my little lady", LOL.

Inside our Tent of Iniquity.

Look at his long hair! And that was actually after he'd had it cut shorter, to shoulder-length. When I first met him in June '97, he had waist-length hair and he was a carbon copy of Anthony Kiedis from the Chili Peppers. Lust at first sight.

Aren't we adorable? And so young! (I had a touch of a cold, which is why in all my pics I have a big stuffy red nose; and I was still having morning sickness, which is why I'm so pale. It was kind of a secret embarrassment for me, to be with this total hunk of man who was all tanned and full of vitality, and I looked like a limp noodle.)

Ty hated that I took this pic of him, he said he looked "like a doofus" with the goofy grin, so I let him take a revenge pic of me...

...and here it is. I'd literally just woken up and was on my way to take a pee in the bushes. I was not amused.

I spent most of the weekend just in awe of our beautiful surroundings. Every morning Ty would wake up super-early to go fishing in the boat while I slept in. He'd usually return just as I was waking up, and he'd crawl into the tent and join me in our warm, comfy nest. That's the great thing about camping on a secluded island with no one around for miles and miles, and no one but the wildlife to hear anything, heh. Afterward we'd eat breakfast then go for a hike and explore the island. We'd come back to camp for lunch, then I'd crawl back into bed for a nap (I tired so easily during that pregnancy) while Ty went out fishing again. When I woke up he'd be making supper for us and then we'd just chill out around the fire, talking about nothing and everything, making plans for the future, thinking up potential names for the baby, imagining everyone's reactions when they found out, and sometimes just staring at each other in a daze, like 'I can't believe I found this person who is my other half, and that we have all the rest of our lives to spend together.'

The view from our campsite. Gorgeous, eh? Our own personal paradise.

One evening we were coming back from a little hike and noticed that a beaver was swimming to shore, right by our boat. We snapped picture after picture, giggling like idiots as we stealthily stalked the beaver while it waddled around, doing its thing.

This picture is dark but you can just barely make out the beaver coming ashore by the boat. See him there? That black lump?

We gave the beaver a silly name like 'BillyBob the Beaver' or 'The Beeve', something like that. Ty wanted to call him 'Beau's Beautiful Beaver' and I had to swat him for that. Men!

BillyBob disappeared back into the water shortly after this pic was taken, and we didn't see him again. But we kind of took it as a sign, that we were meant to be in this particular place at that particular time, and BillyBob was the proof of that.

Our very last night there, we decided to head out early the next morning so we could make it back home at a decent time. (Nowadays, we wait till the very last minute to leave camp so we can wring every last moment of enjoyment out of our trip, and we usually arrive home around midnight with the kids fast asleep. Funny how time changes you, eh?) But upon awakening we discovered, to our shock and horror, that overnight a stiff wind had pushed a large section of ice on the lake and carried it to our island. We were trapped! Unable to drive the boat (is drive the right word? Steer? Pilot?) until the ice floated far enough away for us to maneuver around it. We ended up waiting about four hours, and let me tell you, there were moments we thought we'd be on that island for the next month, living on twigs and grass and the occasional beaver (haha).

You can see the ice there at the far end of the inlet. We snapped this pic just moments before heading out in the boat. We knew no one would believe us about being stranded unless we had proof. And here it is!

And so there you have it. Pictures and memories from one of our most special outings as a young couple and we treasure the fact that we had that time together, before all the babies and the dog and the house and the responsibilities of having to be "the adults" and "the parents". Just the two of us, together forever (our motto since day one), young and crazy in love.