I think it happened when we went to the Yosemite Park for the holidays. I remember fishing there but accidentally woke up a bear, setting up a campfire that burned dad's pants, getting raided by fire ants in our picnic basket and telling scary ghost stories with baby Lincoln in our blanket. Really, many interesting things happen back then. But I remember one fun part before we leave the park. I think it was on New Year's Day when that happened.
"Alright Louds, just stay still," Mr. Loud instructs his family as he sets them up for their yearly family photo. This time, they have it taken on a viewing deck at Yosemite National Park. Rita Loud holding Lincoln in her arms is seated at the rightmost edge, while Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lynn are fighting for space as they are crammed in the middle.
"Will you stop pinching me?" an annoyed Luna says to Lori, whom she suspects to be pinching her course, there was tormentor Lori.
"I am not literally pinching you. You're just feeling things," Lori snobbishly replies.
"What are you even saying?"
"Girls, can you stop messing around? We don't have all day for this photo, you know?" Mr. Loud persuades.
"But daddy, Lori's pinching me," Luna complains.
"She's literally saying things, daddy," Lori states her somewhat soft defense.
"Okay girls that's it. Change places," Mrs. Loud asserts, "Luna, sit beside me. Lori, you'll be beside Luan."
With that, Luna gently transfers beside Mrs. Loud while Lori vehemently marches to her position. She happens to pass by Leni, who is brushing her hair, and then messes her hair out of her anger.
"My natural blonde hair," Leni utters, "It turned curly. It turned curly!"
"Lori, last warning or you're grounded," Mrs. Loud warns her eldest daughter as she approaches Leni to straighten her hair.
A bad-tempered Lori drags herself beside Luan. The latter takes notice of her sister, whom she does not see yet as the bullying type.
"Seems you Lori yourself into trouble. Hehehe. Get it?" Luan throws in a pun to cheer Lori, to her annoyance.
"One more pun, and I'll turn you into a human pretzel," Lori intimidates Luan.
"Why? Are you gonna bake my day? Hehehe," the young jokester replies.
Annoyed, Lori readies to smack Luan but Lynn clings to her left arm.
"Lori…Lori…" the then 2-year-old sister mumbles.
"Lynn, will you let go off my arms?" Lori says, but Lynn leans on to her.
"Lori…Lori…" baby Lynn keeps mumbling.
"Seems Lynn wants you to pet her," Luan says as Lynn curls herself playfully on Lori's lap as toddlers would tend to do. She then sits by her big sister's lap and leans on her chest.
"Now that makes you a baby-seater. Hehehe. Get it?" Luan jokes, making Lori more annoyed but unable to smack her with Lynn resting on her.
Mr. Loud waits impatiently as he waits for Mrs. Loud to fix Leni's hair. "Are you done, hon?" he asks.
"Just be patient, sweetie. We got until lunch for our stay here," Mrs. Loud assures. "You know Leni doesn't like it when her hair is frizzled."
"It was curly mom," Leni whines.
After a moment, Mrs. Loud finally fixes up her daughter's hair with a headband.
"Are we good?" Mr. Loud asks, then with the family showing assurance, he presses the camera button, as he set the 10-second timer. He then rushes to the leftmost seat and lifts Lynn to his arms. "Okay Louds, on my signal, look to the camera and say '2006'. Okay, 1…2…"
But before Lynn Sr. ends his countdown, Lori throws a spitball to Luna. Luna takes a notice on this and vents on her, "Errrghhh…you did that on purpose, Lori!"
"Did what?" Lori kiddingly asks.
"I'll show you what!" the then 4-year-old bolts out, and then throws herself to Lori and quarrels with her. Of course, this causes a fight cloud where Luan and Leni get sucked in as well. Mr. and Mrs. Loud try to stop them, but they end up caught in their fight. Lynn joins in the quarrel, mistakenly thinking the sisters are playing, while baby Lincoln gets sucked into the fight beyond his will.
In the end, the camera automatically captures that fighting moment: Lori smacking Luna's face and pulling Leni's hair, Leni wailing from Lori pulling her blonde hair, Luna slapping Lori with her two arms, Luan laughing at her dad, Lynn riding on Mr. Loud's nape like a horse, Lincoln crying in the middle, Mr. Loud laid down by baby Lynn and Mrs. Loud standing by the left, appalled by what her girls are doing. Though the Loud matriarch sees this as a disastrous shot, Lynn Sr. takes a liking to it.
"Hmmm not bad for an unusual family photo. Hehehe," Mr. Loud comments while Mrs. Loud disagrees. "What? Can't you film the moment? Hehehe. Get it?"
Out of disagreement, Mrs. Loud replies, "Can we be serious about this dear? That joke's thousand years extinct already."
"Yeah dad. We shouldn't lose focus. Hehe. Get it?" Luan jokes along, prompting Mr. Loud to laugh with her.
"Oh, Luan, that's a great pun. Hehe," Mr. Loud replies.
"Okay, who in the world would teach her such jokes?" Mrs. Loud wonders, glaring at her husband for that. But he shrugs it off, hiding the fact that he taught Luan vocabulary and pun-making at the same time.
"Alright kids, let's do the photo one more time," she insists.
"Aww mom…" Lori, Leni, Luna and Luan whine about this.
"Nope. This as punishment for ruining our first photo," Mrs. Loud says earnestly, "Or if you want, I will ground you girls for two weeks."
"No mom, it's literally fine. We can do the photo," Lori gives up.
"Good," the mother Loud replies, "But, to make it more fun, let's do something different."And at her insistence, she persuades the whole family to wear their ugly Christmas sweaters, which the sibling (except for Lincoln) begrudgingly follows along. With that, the family finally has their annual photo for the New Year, with Mr. and Mrs. Loud in their smiles, the sisters in their forced smiles and Lincoln in his dazed "O" face.
While Mrs. Loud is satisfied with their photo, Mr. Loud is kind of troubled. "I don't know if this is a good photo to send out," he comments."At least it's not the previous photo. Just use this. It's perfect," Mrs. Loud convinces her husband.
"Whatever you say, hon," Mr. Loud replies. Then, while Mrs. Loud goes back to her children, he quickly looks at their first photo, which he thinks is a masterpiece.
After the photo shoot, the sisters immediately take off their ugly sweater. Lori throws hers to Luna, then nudges her from behind, which makes her slip.
"What was that for?" Luna voices out to Lori but she ignores her. "Oh, I see what you're doing, meany Lori!"
I don't know why Lori's like that. But, I tell ya, it ain't good. Tormentor Lori.
Suddenly, Lori stops Luna from telling her story. "Wait. Wait. Hold on, Luna. Are you literally painting me as the villain of your story?"
"What? No," Luna denies her claim, "I am just telling what really happened."
"Does that have to literally include my anger to you?" Lori raises her concern with a glaring warning.
"Let me finish, dude," Luna replies, while Leni, Luan, Lynn, Lincoln and Lucy are stumped at their exchange. "As I was saying…"
"You better not be painting me as the villain. Or else!"
"Or else what? You'll turn me to a human pretzel? I thought we're through that."
As Luna reminds her of that, Lori tries to control her temper in the most cartoonish way possible. "Better be lucky that I don't…"
"Chill, dude. Like I said…"
"And this is what you instantly get for living with a sister of 10: sibling rivalry," Lincoln shares to the , Luna goes back to her story.
I tripped from Lori who nudged me from behind. But something unexpected happens.
With her face down the pavement, Luna tries to get up. Thankfully, and unexpectedly, a boy lends her some help. "Need a hand?" that boy with brown locks, fair skin and in a Boy Scouts uniform offers his hand to Luna, to which she openly accepts. "Are you okay?" he asks.
"Yeah, I just slipped," Luna utters.
The boy then notices a wound on Luna's knee. "Oh, you got a cut."
"Oh, it's nothing."
"It's okay. I can handle this." He then brings out his first aid pouch and pulls out an adhesive bandage, first aid cotton and ethyl alcohol. The Boy Scout pulls out a piece of cotton and soaks it with the alcohol to heed Luna's wound. Though she feels pain at first, the boy blows her wound to ease the pain. Eventually, he places the bandage on her wound.
"How do you know how to do this?"
"My dad told me how, with my toys. Someday, I'm gonna be a doctor, just like him."
"Gee, thank you."
"Don't mention it. Be careful next time, okay?"
Luna then nods in response.
"Okay, see you." The boy then walks away from Luna. But before he does so, he says this, "You look beautiful with that purple dress. Hope I can see you someday."
As he departs, Luna gets smitten by his words that she cannot help but feel delighted to hear someone compliment her.
But at a distance, Lori witnesses this and obviously gets angered on this. Leni notices her on the verge of anger. "Uhmm Lori, are you okay?"
"Do you think I'm okay?" Lori replies furiously.
"No, you're Lori," Leni responds.
"What?!" Lori gets baffled on what she said, "Oh never mind, pea brain." She then begrudgingly walks out, trying to toss out her anger along the way.
"Uhmm, peas have brains?"
After their five-day vacation, the Louds eventually check out of the Yosemite and travel back home. Lynn Sr. plans for the family to drop by at a popular diner stopover, which is the location of a secret facility.
Oh, such a good time to spend winter in the warm and chilly Yosemite. Gonna miss that place. A lot of memories to store. But going home is a lot different. I decided to become Lincoln's playmate. It was fun, cuddling you and showing you my toy xylophone. But Lori seems not happy.
On the road, Luna plays with baby Lincoln, who is strapped to his baby seat. She teases him with a sock puppet, to which Lincoln wants to get his hands on.
"Look Lincy, here's my xylophone," Luna introduces him to her favorite toy, "It makes music. You wanna try?"
Lincoln then answers in baby gibberish, since he is still 8 months old.
"I know you are still young, but here," Luna says as she hands Lincoln the mallet. "You can try it."
He then accidentally hits Luna's head with the said mallet but achieves on randomly beating the xylophone, to Luna's delight. "That's good. Here, let me teach you." She then guides Lincoln's hand on playing the percussion instrument. Lincoln gets delighted on this, making Luna all the more delighted. "Good job, baby bro. You did great." She then snuggles his warm body as a way of rewarding him. Lincoln giggles at Luna's ticklish snuggles that it becomes a heartwarming moment for the both of them. "You're so good bro," she says as she embraces her baby brother.
"Aww. Isn't that the cutest?" Leni, seated next to them, reacts, witnessing their moment.
"Come on Leni. Join us," Luna encourages her sister, to which she accepts.
In contrast, Lori, who is seated behind them with Luan and Lynn, sees them with envious eyes. She still inhibits the anger she has for Luna. It still unknown what it is, but it is something Luan suspects from Lori's disgruntled face.
"You seemed not happy," Luan utters.
"Isn't it literally obvious?" Lori replies.
"Come on, Lori. Let that frown turn upside down."
"I'll turn you upside down when you don't shut up."
"Hehehe. That's a good one. You know, you shouldn't be mad about anything. There is only one group of people who are mad."
"And who are they?"
"Crazy people. Hehehe. Get it?"
"Oh, so you think I'm crazy?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying. I don't think you're crazy. So you shouldn't be mad if you're not crazy."
Lori gets amused by Luan's wordplay. With that, she goes along with her, "Hmmm, you seemed to have a good point Luan."
"Really?"
"Yes, literally really," Lori says with a scheming motivation. "I'll tell you what. Wanna do a prank with me?"
"Pranks? I love pranks. Count me in," Luan willingly pleads.
"Good. Now, pay attention to what I'll say." Lori then whispers her plan to Luan.
"Are you sure about this?" Luan asks.
"Just trust me, Luan. You wouldn't let down your sister who loves your pranks, would you?" Lori stresses with her finger crossed behind.
"Why not? Sure Lori."
At Luan's response, Lori grins evilly from it.
After moments of driving through the Midwest, the Louds stop at the stopoverdiner that Mr. Loud is talking about. "Here we are Louds. Holy Cow Diner: Home of the First Chocolate Ice Cream," Lynn Sr. utters.
"I thought we are skipping the fast food diners," Mrs. Loud implies.
"Honey, there's more than fast food here. Well, yeah, the very 'first chocolate ice cream'," he assures, "Come on. Let's check it out."
"Well, wouldn't be a bother to try," Mrs. Loud comments.
The family gets down from the car, with Mrs. Loud placing Lincoln in a carriage and Mr. Loud carrying Lynn by his shoulders. Luna continues to play with Lincoln as they enter the diner.
"Okay Luan. You know what to do," Lori whispers to her sister.
"But Lori, what if she freaks out or something?" Luan raises her concern.
"Don't worry. I am literally by your side. This will be a fun prank. I can tell," Lori assures.
Abruptly, Leni spots the two and joins in with them by clinging on their shoulders. "What's going on sisters? What seem to be you're talking about?" she asks with sheer curiosity.
Luan then answers, "Well, Lori here wants to surprise Luna. So we plan…"
But Lori covers Luan's mouth as she almost blurts out their secret plan and clarifies to Leni, "Surprise Luna with a gift that she will surely love."
"Ooh, a gift? What kind of gift? I wanna know. I wanna know," Leni demands excitingly.
"Leni, you better be quiet, or else she would know. Now first, get lost," Lori insists.
"Get lost? What is lost?" Leni asks, misunderstanding what Lori means. But the older sister ignores her as she and Luan catch up with the others. "Don't worry Lori. I'll find lost for you." Leni then gleefully skips around the diner's grassy premises, in search of "lost".
I never realized how that day was going to be a long day than I expected it to be. I never knew that a fun and loving sister and roommate like Luan would actually play a prank on me that day. I never thought that Lori was actually jealous. And all of us sisters never placed to fact that my feud and Lori's would actually lead us to another adventure, thanks to baby Lincoln.
To be continued…eventually.