Attack of the mosquitos and a mouse

We, my family & I, just returned home from what was supposed to be a leisure hike at Carlos State Park, but instead turned into an attack of the mosquitos. (sounds like a movie title) Our adventure went a little something like this...

It's a beautiful sunny day in Alexandria, low 70s with a slight breeze. A perfect day to take in Carlos State Park. We loaded up the boys along with some snacks and drinks and the double stroller. We began our journey with not a care in the world--didn't even check the time nor grab a map. We were just excited to have some family time and take in the lushness of the park. The trail started out great, we were admiring the lake, and the landscape and Logan was collecting sticks. Logan instructed me to take pictures of any animals that we see. As we got further into the trail, the shadier and moist it became. As you know, certain annoying critters love this type environment. (This is the part where the mosquitos begin to attack.) We start to walk faster and are trying to keep the mosquitos off of the boys. Did I mention that we neglected to bring bug spray with? Walking and swatting flies was not working. Thankfully we had brought a blanket with for Shane, so Logan draped the blanket across Shane and his legs to keep the flies out. Josh and I decided that we should start to run. We honestly had no ideas how far it was to the end, but all we knew was that we wanted out.

By this time I really had to use the bathroom, if the bugs weren't so bad I would have stopped and gone on the trail. I, however, didn't want the bug bites and Josh said he wouldn't wait. As Josh is running with the jogging stroller and I'm carrying our camera I can't help but start to laugh. Up we went, down we went, things were falling out of the stroller because of the rough terrain. I could feel my bladder a swishing' and a sloshing' and I envisioned myself not making it to the bathroom. Finally we came to the road and we knew it wouldn't be long to a bug free zone.

I hurried to the bathroom and just barely made it, but I made it! I was dripping in sweat and was relieved that our time at the park had come to an end. As I walked towards the vehicle with no more worries a mouse ran out in front of me and almost touched my foot. I jumped and screamed for my life and then took off running (again). My heart was pounding and I felt like I had the he-be-jeebies crawling all over me. Josh was laughing and couldn't believe I was that scared of a mouse. So needless to say I went out with a bang!

So there it is folks, our adventure at Carlos State Park! We are now safe and sound at our house and the boys are sound asleep in their beds. Learn from our mistakes, apply bug spray before hitting the trails!