My family, like most, indefinitely loves one another but bumps in the road make this love go unseen to the untrained eye at most times. In other words, my aunts are psychotic. My childhood memories of family gatherings consist of my cousins and myself making forts in our grandmother's backyard while our mothers yell it out for reasons they don’t know in the kitchen while their husbands watch any athletic event on tv and try to make small talk loud enough to block out the snooty comments coming from the kitchen. Needless to say, family gatherings were a dreaded event so when the idea of going camping for an entire weekend was thrown on the table everyone forced a smile and praised the idea because in my family we don’t tell one another how we actually feel about something we just say whatever the other person wants to hear and pray for the best possible outcome. So my mother told my sisters and I to pack up and get in the minivan because we were going camping.   
After a long car ride and many potty breaks we drove down a ridged dirt road and pulled into our campsite. After waiting for all of the family to arrive our mothers made all of us kids help set up the campsite, torturing us because the sun was out and the trees surrounding us were inviting us to come play.  But at last the tents were set up, the food was put away, and we darted into the woods ripping up the grass and destroying the damp dirt that laid beneath our feet with all of energy we had built up from the car ride and didn’t look back. I had absolutely no idea what my first day at Devil’s Lake had in store for me but at that moment I was nothing but excited.
Prancing from tree to tree, we were doing whatever we pleased. And for the first time I could remember the older cousins tagged along with us, this never happened maybe it was because they thought we were immature. There were 14 of us all together and all 14 of us were laughing loudly and obnoxiously getting along for once. No one was setting traps to dump cherry soda on someone or throwing nasty squishy mulberries at one another, which is what normally took place at family events, we were just happy kids stirring up the restful woods on the campsite our parents had paid for.
I remember the first day at Devil’s Lake so vividly. It was a beautiful day. The sun was out and peeking through the trees, lighting up our campsite. I was wearing a sweatshirt and sweat pants my outfit of choice even when it was 75 degrees out mostly because I was too self conscious to wear anything else. My face was beet red, and I was slightly sweating under the layers of clothes I had told my mom would not be too warm for the trip. I also remember, but wish I didn’t, my awful haircut at the time. I had a bob with bangs a hair don’t inspired by Madeline, a character from my favorite tv show at the time. Despite the fact that I was overheating I was still running around with everyone else smiling and having a good time until we ran on top of something unexpected that’s when the smiles stopped and we all stood still. Screams were now echoing through Devil’s lake and the majority of my cousins ran for their lives but for some reason I couldn’t move my legs and my feet were frozen on top of fallen leaves and broken twigs. I had awoken something I didn’t even know existed. A sensation of stabbing needles spread through my legs and left me standing for what seemed to be eternity in utter confusion until my cousin picked me up and the remaining cousins that hadn’t left already ran what seemed to be miles back to our mothers.
It wasn’t until we got back to the campsite that I was released from my cousin’s arms and had the sudden urge to rip my pants off so, naturally, I did. At this point I still had no clue what had happened and why I was in so much pain but I found out the instant I .took my pants off, throwing them on the ground beside me. That’s when I saw them. Hornets. I had managed, in my baggy sweatpants, to step in an underground hornets nets where the majority of the hive’s members stormed up my pants. The others that didn’t get the pleasure of this, attacked my cousins out of rage. Now here I stood with my pants thrown to the side of me in my pink Hello Kitty underwear, mortified, with my entire family staring at me.
Quickly I put my pants back on and stuck so many ice packs across my legs so I could no longer feel them. After this incident I went about my day still somehow excited to be at Devil’s Lake, spending time with my family. Surprisingly enough it was a pretty normal day we did typical family camping things; went hiking, took too many family photos, and at the end of the night we were going to have a bonfire, one of my favorite camping activities probably because I love s'mores.
Once we got back from hiking along the paths, one of my aunts forced my cousin to clean out the fire pit of its dusty black remains and set up the logs while the rest of us got the snacks and lawn chairs out of the cars. When my cousin finished we all grabbed lawn chairs, mine was a small little purple one, and made a circle around the fire. It was rather chilly outside compared to when we had first arrived and my sweatpants and sweatshirt were failing to keep me warm so, I disregarded any warnings from the aunts not to get too close to the fire and scooted my little purple chair all the way to the ring of rocks that surrounded the flames. Now I was real comfy. The heat radiated off the fire and soaked through my pants leaving my calves feeling roasted. Heat from my legs warmed the rest of my body leaving me nice and warm. We were all calmly sitting around the fire, roasting marshmallows and little weenies and then pop. Sparks flew across my face lighting up the world around me, around all of us. This is when the familiar feeling of utter confusion of what the hell is going on struck me yet again. We all were screaming. All of my family members went dashing in the opposite direction of the fire in complete chaos and while running away I got the sudden urge to take my top off. Why? Probably because it was on fire. My cousin failed to completely clean out the fire pit and left a rock which then exploded after the fire was roaring and heated it up enough. Once my top was off I stood in the dark in my pink Hello-Kitty sports bra, that matched with my pink Hello-Kitty underwear, in disbelief this may just be the worst day ever. I survived the first day and Devil’s lake and Sunday came and I was still breathing, the only other bodily harm I went through was getting terribly sunburnt after refusing that I didn’t need sunscreen.
I always knew the camping trip was an awful idea and so did the rest of my family it’s just too bad we didn’t speak up because it could have saved all us all alot of grief. I’m just happy I decided to wear matching underwear to save myself some embarrassment. But I must admit though that weekend was straight from hell and each and everyone of my family members despised one another at the time, after our scars healed (literally), we talk about Devil’s lake  from time to time and each time we do we find ourselves in tears laughing so hard, still confused at what had happened.