On the (off)road again...

HEY!  I feel like I've been gone to forever.

First, I'd like to send hugs and kisses to the ladies who guest blogged for me -- you are all awesome and you rock.

Second, I promise I will catch up on reading all of your blogs.  Hopefully sometime today.

And Maggie's birthday post will be later in the week.

So we went to Jeep Jamboree in beautiful (ahem) French Lick, Indiana.  John has been there 9 times and I have been there 6 times.  We have friends we see up there and we had a great time.  The weather was a little too warm (80s!) for jeepin, but we made it through.

We got some body damage (rock, tree, not sure) but nothing major, and besides, that's a badge of honor when you're jeepin.

Here are PJ and Maggie all saddled up and ready to go off-roading.  Comically PJ's door is broken and it won't open, so he got in and out of the car seat through the front seat.  Good times.

Getting ready to go up a hill.  There's lot of steep hills, bumpy roads.  Sometimes the Jeep will be at a 45 degree angle and it seems like you're going to tip over, but you don't.

Apparently, off-roading isn't very exciting.

Whoa.  WHAT IS THAT??  SERIOUSLY.

PJ kept saying "Whoa Dad!" WHOA!  It was super cute.  He giggled so much when we'd over bumpy hills and rocks.  He did get a little scared when we got stuck -- we were in a ditch and because our Jeep is a Cherokee, the wide wheel base had us off all four tires and just suspended by the body.  He held my hand for that one.  Maggie slept till we got towed out. :)

Never know what might happen.  Better hold on to me, Mags.

THIS IS AWESOME!! YAY!!!

I drove for the first time ever.  It was extremely scary -- especially at the points where it feels like the jeep is tipping.  However, Maggie was napping when I started and I didn't wake her up, so that's something, right?

See the tires?  Flex is a big thing on a Jeep trip.

PJ looks a little concerned.  This took a little while to get out of .

Oh boy!! Look who's driving now! And riding shotgun.

Family.

Just love this picture of my little guy.

John's nickname on the trails is Mudslinger, because he loves to get the Jeep dirty.  One of our friends on the trip, inquired about getting muddy on Saturday at 4 p.m. (one hour before trail riding is over).  Our guide asked if anyone else wanted to go, and of course we did.  So he led us to a mud pit.  Thank goodness our friend Rich went in first....

He sunk all the way to the tops of his tires.  It was a bottomless mud pit.

This was the tires after he got towed out.  Needless to say, we ended up NOT going in the mud pit.

So that was our trip in a nutshell.  The kids were great, they had a great time, we had a great time, and we can't wait to do it again.

Although we will have to get the back driver side door fixed.