6th Annual Camping Trip

This year's camping adventure was just outside of downtown Crouch and just over the fence from the Starlight Mountain Theater.  We had a giant campsite with shade just on the edges that we had to chase throughout the day.  We moved the chairs and picnic tables 3 times. River Pond Campground is run by an interesting old man, who takes cash and good checks. He gets around with his riding lawn mower and old golf cart.  There was a pond that was completely overgrown with plants, and the river that was shallow and perfect for wading. Here's a few of the highlight:

• The McClures were the first to arrive.  Their tent was up and the kids had found a shady hideout to play in before anyone else showed up.  Bry and I-guy rode in the back of Grandpa and Grandma's car, with a big black storage bag on top.  The taller passengers had thick black straps obscuring their view or scrapping their heads. Thanks to Brent and Krystle for bringing up all of Bry's gear.  Everyone was loaded to overflowing.  Someone in this family needs to buy a big truck!  Brent, Krystle, and Joe were the last to arrive, but they made it well before dinner.
• Grandpa and Grandma took a drive into town for ice and styrofoam cups.  Crouch has a new deluxe supermarket and a very nice park and library.
• Both Mike and Grandpa hurt their backs earlier that day.  Ibuprofen for both of them, limited movement, and maybe a little less enthusiastic, but they were troopers.  
• Stace made foil dinners with turkey burgers, veggies, rice, and a lot of cream of mushroom soup.  They were super delish!  Everyone cleaned their plates, even Maycee who had to be threatened with no s'mores.  Mike chowed down on a full pound patty with all the fixin's.
• This year's s'mores featured Mounds, Reeses, and Hershey bars.  The marshmallows were giant and the kids were pro roasters.  Thanks, Bry!!!
• We didn't need to sing around the campfire because we could hear the Starlight Mountain Theater production.
• Krystle and Joe were the first to bed. We were low on firewood so we were all in bed by about 11:00 when the show was over.
• Our only wildlife sighting was the little gray camp cat that hung around our campfire and was there to greet us in the morning.
• Before breakfast, Grandpa, Grandma, and Hads took a trip to town for more firewood and another tank of propane for the stove.  (How could we bring so much stuff and be unprepared!)
• Mike prepared hot chocolate for everyone and sliced up oranges.  Brent and Krystle brought everything for our breakfast featuring our traditional omelets in a bag.  Very tasty!  We tried monkey bread in the dutch oven, but it needed a sweeter dough, more butter, and much more cinnamon and sugar.  
• The kids went on their treasure hunt.  There were 22 clues and it took about an hour. Besides candy, their treasure included big glasses, monster slingshot kites, necklaces to make, boats to build, and message in a bottle kits to record their memories of camping.
• The adults sat around working on crossword puzzles and chatting.
• Lunch was walking tacos, veggies and dip, and watermelon.  We had to move the kitchen from one side of the campsite to another just to stay in the shade.
• Everyone except Mike (he took down the tent and loaded up) walked down to the river. The kids got wet, floated their boats, skipped rocks, and splashed around for slow-motion videos.
• Brent, Krystle, and Joe headed home after the river.  This year's youngest, Joe, was amazing.  No crying, no fussing, just chill.
• The rest of us headed to the ice cream parlor in Crouch.  That was a perfect ending to camping - sweet and refreshing.

And finally....I have pictures.

Youngest Camper - 4 months

4 more bites or you don't get s'mores

Happiest Camper

Mickey's Place

I can't remember if it's Mickey Dees or Mickey Rays, but there's a new barbeque place right down the street, next to Blue Cow.  Dad took us to lunch after Arts in the Park, and the four of us give it eight thumbs up.  Everything we had was really good - ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken salad, cold slaw, baked beans, fries - even the water was special.  The prices were good, the portions were big, the atmosphere was nice, and the help was good.  Besides that, it's right next door to the best dessert in town, frozen yogurt.  I need to figure out the name of the place so that I can recommend it.

On a side note, I went to the bathroom and it was really cute.  There were some design ideas and colors that I'd like to use in my own home.  Check it out.

Love these flowers with the long stems.

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Love Story

My reading time is usually just before I go to bed.  It makes me sleepy, so it's difficult to get through too many books.  I try to read one a month, usually the one for my book club, but even those are often half finished.  Even really good books take me forever to read.  Last weekend I devoured one.

This wasn't the best book I've ever read, and it's not the kind of book I usually read, but the planets just aligned.  I couldn't put it down and I've been thinking about it ever since.  It's written by Ree Drummond, a long time blogger.  I had visited her blog a few times, but now I want to keep up with her even more.  The book is The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.

It's the story of meeting, falling in love, courting, getting married, and having a baby.  It's a love story.  She's funny and it's a feel good book.  It reminds you what falling in love feels like, and how you should feel about your man.  Besides, it's a cowboy story.

I hadn't heard about the Black Heels book, but just a couple weeks ago I had bought her cookbook for my friend's birthday present.  Before I gave it too her, I had tried a couple recipes.  They were very good.  I've been told though, that I tried the wrong ones.  Her cinnamon roll recipe is suppose to be life changing.  My friend took them to a church event and was asked to give up her job and just make cinnamon rolls for a living.  I'll have to give them a try.

Happy Birthday to Me

I’ve had several birthdays on the first day of school, and those are my favorites, because it’s always a fun and exciting day – one of the best days of the year. My second favorite birthdays land on Sunday.  I never want a lot of attention or a big gathering, or a celebration.  I want a day when where I can do anything I want, and that’s usually not much.  I want a good meal, some cake, simple presents, and time to relax.  The day of rest is good for relaxing.

This year was great because church isn’t until 12:30.  I slept in, relaxed, read the paper, took time getting ready.  I taught the lesson in Relief Society and I was nervous.  It’s been many years since I’ve been in RS.  Everything went well and everyone was nice.  I heard an elderly sister say to her neighbor, “she’s so cute”.  That made me feel a lot younger than 54.

We came home from church and had a pasta dinner.  What can be better than pasta.  After dinner I made cupcakes for my school class, with caramel frosting.  Yum.

To top off the day there were visits from my parents and a couple good friends.  It was the best.  I like being 54.

New Obsession

Stacey told me at the beginning of the summer that I needed to get on Pinterest.  You can save and organize all of the ideas that you come across on the internet in one place – recipes, crochet patterns, crafts, thoughts, or anything that you love.  You don’t have to download to the desktop or bookmark or put in your favorites anymore.  You set up little bulletin boards for whatever categories you want and then start pinning things on your boards.  Now when you click on one of your ideas, you’re automatically linked back to the source (the tutorial, the blog, whatever).  You can also look at all of the amazing things that other people are putting on their boards and repin them on yours. 

The only way to get set up on Pinterest is to go through Facebook or Twitter.  This presented a problem for me.  I’m not doing FB.  Finally I opened a Twitter account and put nothing on it.  I can probably ditch it now that I’ve set up my Pinterest site.  It’s already apparent that this new obsession will be a time sucker, but very useful and fun.  Check it out.  I can send you an invite if you want.

Our Park

Williams Park is hidden between Park Center and Boise Avenue.  Provident Road dead ends in a little parking lot there.  It’s a favorite of ours.  It use to be Ty’s park when we lived on Provident.  Hudson had remembered it from our bike rides last year.  Hadley is now won over because there’s great playground equipment and a lot of it is always shaded.  It has basketball courts, tennis courts, a big open field and a little creek.  Last summer we watched a squirrel build a nest there.  This summer the kids were fascinated with a rooster that kept crowing.  Most of the time you have the place to yourself.  It’s pretty quiet.  If we had our own family vote, it would win Best of Boise – Family Park.