Now that Everly was old enough we took our first camping trip. The first thing we did was go fishing. Fabian and Everly fished for a little while but soon became bored of it. I on the other hand loved it and lost track of time while fishing.
Had I not had to stop to pee so bad I wouldn't have realized how late it really was.
When I got back to the cabin both Fabian and Everly were asleep. I was hungry so I fried up some of that fish I caught and had a feast.
This was so much better than those roasted beetles I had to make earlier and that is something I hope I don't have to eat again. I didn't take many pictures on this trip as I should have but we really did have a good time. We hiked, fished and I found some new and interesting plants in the wilderness.
We even met this eccentric old hippie with man boobs who lived in this remote cabin deep inside the woods. We invited him to visit us and to our pleasure he accepted the invitation. He quickly became a good friend of the family.
It wasn't long before I started feeling tired and sick all the time again. I knew exactly what that meant. I was pregnant again. While my first child was preparing to be a teenager, we were getting ready to make room for another little one.
I baked Everly her favorite chocolate cake and before we knew it.....
She aged into a lovely young woman.
While I was expecting I continued to care for my garden. I already had dragon fruit, grapes, strawberries, snap dragons growing and that old hippie gave me some blackberry seeds which we started to grow.
I also decided to grow some parsley, basil, along with some of the other plants I found in the wilderness too. The old hippie taught me some recipes for potions and elixirs using these plants and I wanted to learn as much about that as possible.
After a while I had to rest and start hiring a gardner to help me. This pregnancy wasn't going as easily as my last and I needed to rest more. I did use the down time to study herbalism.
I was making breakfast for the family when.......
I stopped suddenly as my water broke. It was time to go to the hospital.
Of course as soon as we get there Fabian goes into his panic dance again.
and I go to check into the hospital by myself as usual.
I guess Fabian felt bad about missing Everly's birth as this time he was waiting and watching right outside of the delivery room.
And both of us were able to welcome our new son into the world.
He came into the delivery room gave me a kiss just while we waited for the doctor to fill out the birth certificate.
We named him Dashawn and we went home to show Everly her new baby brother.
Soon after it was Fabian's birthday.
As he was blowing out the candles Dashawn made his presence known. I guess he wanted to be part of the celebration no matter how small he was.
As we all ate the birthday cake together we talked about going on another family vacation. This time we were going to rough it a little more and not get a cabin.
We would get a couple of tents and really camp. Of course we had to wait for Dashawn to become old enough to camp, but as soon as he was that is exactly what we planned to do.
The day when Dashawn jumped out of the bassinet and started walking was soon upon us. Now we had the money, Dashawn was old enough and it was time to go camping.
The kids and I started out the trip fishing. Dashawn couldn't wait to go fishing with me and Everly has grown a new appreciation for the sport. I still couldn't convince Fabian to come with us. He stayed at the campsite and set up our tents.
I fired up the grill the next day and made some breakfast for all of us.
The whole family was almost sat down together. Everly for some reason decided to sit on the cooler instead of the picnic table.
For the rest of the vacation I spent my time gathering plants and insects so I could improve my herbalism skill and before I knew it I was finished!
I became one with nature and I finished my aspiration.
Life out of the bin was off the table for me now that I completed everything I needed to do. Now it was time for me to enjoy nature with my kids. Dashawn and I played horseshoes almost every day. We have one of these at home and he became quite good at this game.
On our last night I grilled up some steaks and we all sat together as a family and enjoyed our last meal on this vacation.
When it got dark we built a fire, roasted some marshmellows and told ghost stories until all got too sleepy. This had to be the best family vacation every and I will remember it for a long time to come.
When we got back home we did some final renovations to the house. Everly is a music lover so we put a stereo in the living room. She loves to dance even more than my father did.
Dashawn loved the new Ice Cream maker. I should have never bought that because now I have a more difficult job in getting him to eat healthy food.
I decided to make a strawberry cake for my elder birthday
and I got myself a makeover for my birthday.
We did have one scary episode. We bought Dashawn a chemistry set and
It went on fire.
Luckily I installed a sprinkler system in the house and the fire was put out in no time at all.
Today we decided to spend together as a family because it is Everly's birthday and she will be moving out to start her own place in the world. I talked to her and told her everything she needs to know especially all of my Mom's advice. My Mom worked so hard to keep us out of the bin and now its Everly's turn to do her part. I also gave her some secret information left to me from my Mom and its all about bringing Oasis Springs and Willow Creek back to their former glories. When we do this family will never have to worry about life in the bin ever again.
After dinner we sang Happy Birthday to Everly and she blew out the candles on her cake.
We all enjoyed the cake and our last dinner with the four of us together in this house. This is such a bittersweet moment for me. I'm so proud that my little girl grew up into such a lovely young woman but I'm going to miss her terribly.
She said goodbye to her brother first.
I tried to hold back the tears but I couldn't help it. My baby was moving out and I was going to miss her. Its my right to cry.
Last was her father. Little did any of us know that this was all of our last day with Fabian. The very next day right after dinner Fabian passed away.
As soon as the cab horn blew louder she knew it was time and Everly left to start her own adventure
Authors Note: House 2a is only 2 chapters due to my own error. I became lax on taking pictures and played so far ahead that I decided just to use what I had and continue onto house 3. I do apologize for the lack of pictures and the size of this update. I will post the house pictures and info on another post.
