Little Hippo Face

Last Friday night, Amanda, the pugs and I ventured down to the south for a little camping. I found a state park that we had never been to. Sakatah Lake State Park is about an hour and 20 minutes away, between Fairbault and Mankato. A had a half day so I cut out of work a little early (with permission from my boss, of course) and we were on the road by 130. We took the scenic route (169s to mn21 through Savage to mn 13 and so on) which was beautiful, but a little long.

When we arrived, we were super excited. See, last year was the first time A had been camping for real. like cook over the fire, pee in a pit toilet, use a tent CAMPING! So when we went for the first time last year and she realized she loved it, I was more than thrilled. (in case you don't know, i grew up camping and L*O*V*E* it!)

We pulled into the campground, checked in, bought some wood and ice and headed to our site. I had looked at the park map of the site and picked out what I thought to be the best open site. I was correct. We were away from the other sites enough that we could not see any other tents. BUT, we were real close to the toilet, which I need because i pee a lot.

So we unpacked, set up the tent, made some drinks (by we I mean I, but mainly because I love this stuff and don't mind my partner-whether it is A or Race, just relax while I do my thing) and decided we were going to go for a hike.

We were right by some beautiful trail, many miles long, so we took advantage of it. We thought we would explore to find a beach, so we just kept walking. And walking. At one point, we found a trail that lead to water, but there was no beach. so we kept walking.

The dogs were doing really well, but we could tell they were getting tired. And we didn't have any water. So we decided to turn back. The hike was really nice. The weather was perfect and we both were very happy about life.

We got back to the campsite and started a fire. I kept it small as to not use up all of our wood. Then we prepped for dinner (brats from the farmer's market, and fresh veggies in a foil pack with yummy herbs) and read some books/magazines. When I put the food on the fire, I started teaching A how to play cribbage. She caught on quick and we had a pretty good time.

Dinner was done, and man it was GOOD! I love cooking over an open fire! After we ate, it was getting dark, so I got the fire really going. We were having a blast-reading to each other, playing "what if"-type question games. It was great. We were both getting tired, so A decided to go into the tent to read. I started packing up our stuff-just putting food in the car and whatnot, and then headed for the tent.

When I got into the tent, Parker was hanging out and Scarlett started digging and burrowing into everything. A told her to stop and I turned to notice that she did not look right.

She looked pudgier than usual, in fact, she looked real swollen....oh man, HER FACE WAS EXPLODING! This has happened before-she had a reaction to a shot and her little cuteness turned into a HIPPO FACE! So I told A to grab her and get to the car. We had Children's Benedryl for this very reason (I was a girl scout until HS so you know I'm ALWAYS prepared...not to mention I'm a Baumann and that's what we do :) )

Amanda started to sort of freak out. I could tell she was scared. So I grabbed Parker and off to the car we went. I knew we had to leave and find help. So I gave A the emergency Vet number-I also took that just in case- and my phone and told her to call Rochester because it was the closest location on the list. I grabbed the car keys, started her up and took off to the rangers station. Luckily, they were still there and while A was on the phone with different vets, so were they. Eventually we got a hold of a lady who really calmed A down and explained that Scarlett would be okay because we gave her the meds, but it would take some time for her face to go down. At that moment, we decided to head back to MPLS.

We left our tent and all of our gear right there at the park. I knew I could come back down the next day to pick it up. And that is what we did. On a rush of fear and adrenalin, we drove BACK to Mpls, took care of our poor baby, and the next morning (because I just could not sleep) I headed back to camp at 7am. I got back to MPLS after cleaning everything up around 1045.

All and all, it was a really fun day, until the whole Scarlett-hippo face scare.

So enjoy these pictures.