Ward Camp Out

Since our dear friend became the Bishop, our ward has had an annual campout every summer.  The reason behind this has to do with the fact that he is the father of all girls and they love to camp.  Every time he left to go on a Priesthood campout, they would get jealous.  So, the DR2 "Everyone is Invited" Ward Campout was born!  The last two years we've reserved spots at Long Valley.  This is the same place the Stake does Girls Camp, and it's one of my most favorite places in the whole state of Arizona.  

Bless Kyle's heart for having hot dogs.... Brayden would NOT eat what they served for dinner.  If it hadn't been for Kyle, Brayden would have gone to bed VERY hungry!

We were both nervous and excited to bring Max this year.  We knew he would love Long Valley, but we were worried that sleeping in the tent with us (and not in a confined space or kennel) might be a dicey proposition.  

He found a comfy spot between Megan and Ian and I made sure he was covered up with a blanket for the night.  All was well until Jeff's dog Husker, a cute, but naughty, Jack Russell Terrier, escaped from his tent at 5 a.m. and started making the rounds to "visit" other tents where dogs were sleeping.  Let's just say Husker made a few enemies that morning!

Eric was in charge of the kids Geocache activity, so he and I went out for a walk to plot all the points and hide the treasure.  Long Valley doesn't look this beautiful during girls camp... it's still too dry up there from the spring.  But after six weeks of summer thunderstorms, the wildflowers were everywhere!

And so were the butterflies.... they were huge and not afraid of people at all.  When they landed on you, it felt like they were biting you a little bit.  Super crazy!  (Maybe Ian should be a hand model?)

Kate brought up fun games for the kids to play, but adults were getting into this one too... How many Oreos can you stack on your forehead before they fall.  I think Eric and Megan and one other person all tied at nine.  Truth be told, I think Eric had the unfair advantage with that chair.  It's a natural recliner!

This view always reminds me of Girls Camp.  It's the road that leads to the area where the YCL camp always is.  But now it will always remind me of my last campout with the DR2 ward.  Since we moved here to AZ over seven and a half years ago, we've been in this same ward.  And these people have become my family.  Three weeks ago, we were moved into the G3 ward.  Overall it's a HUGE blessing for us, as the new ward has a much bigger Young Men's/Young Women's program.  Rumor has it that there are 47 YM in our new ward... SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!  More than half of our DR2 ward came with us over to G3, so we haven't been thrust into a new ward where we don't know anybody, but we are still sad about being pulled away from some dear friends that stayed behind in the other ward.  Boundary changes are always bittersweet, but I plan to make it my personal agenda to push for a G3 ward campout up at Long Valley every year.  It's such a fun activity!  Can you tell I love camping?

Instagram

There's this cool app you can get on your iPhone called Instagram.  It's kinda like Facebook for photos.  I am in love with it.  I didnt used to like the Instagram look at all, but I'm a convert now.  Here are some pics I've taken since the first day of school with Instagram:

First day of School

First Day of School

Lake Day with our dear friends.... how many kids can fit on one intertube?

Storm chasers camped out on the back patio

Gilbert Temple at Dawn, taken during an early morning group bike ride

Smoothies a grandma would be proud of:  strawberries, blueberries, bananas and apples.

A good friend of ours wanted to see a picture of Eric with hair... this is what I came up with.  Eric and Christy circa 1993 on our first wedding anniversary.

More smoothies.... 

Brayden doing backflips on the tramp

Max feeling lonely with all the kids gone at school

My badge for work.  I love my new job!

How Taylor survives a dust storm during their swim meet.... I guess it worked because he got a great time on his 500 Free that day!

Three more days until the first quarter of school is over.  The greatest thing about my job is that I only work on days when the kids are at school.  So, all five of us get 18 straight days of vacation!  Too bad, Eric will be a stressed out mess during that time because he got slammed with writing 48 performance reviews between now and the end of October.

Swim Team

This year I'm the "unofficial" team photographer for Swim Team.  It's been fun, and I'm enjoying a break from being a timer.  I'm learning a lot (by trial and error) about sports photography.  It's exhausting... I'm constantly running from one side of the pool to the end and back again... I'll be glad when it's not 100+ degrees at the pool during the meets.  Here's some random photos I got of the kids at our Intersquad Meet (code for Varsity vs. JV or Practice Meet).  We didn't have the team suits yet, so they are all just wearing a suit they wear for practice.  

Note to the Grandmas:  I emailed these photos to your kodak frames... did they come through?  My email kept freezing up while it was sending, so I never knew if they made it or not.  

No More Sunday Naps for Me... EVER again.

So last week was probably one of the most exhausting weeks of my life.  I started my new job on Tuesday.  I work as a Para (which is code for Special Ed Aide) for an autistic 6th grade boy.  He is awesome.  He has his quirks, but so far we get along, and he isn't any harder for me to manage than any of my own kids.  I'm at school with him every day from 10:45 to 2:45, which leaves me enough time to exercise, get ready, maybe run a quick errand and still be home before Brayden gets home from school.  It's the PERFECT arrangement.  But it exhausts me.  I haven't been this "scheduled" in years... like since I left Valley Title 16 years ago?  Even going to school in the spring was less commitment than this.  But I really love it, and I'm sure I will adjust.  I've been falling into bed each night, and dragging my sorry butt out of bed each morning.  To my credit, I did work out every day last week before going to work, which I was proud of.  Thank goodness for Jillian Michaels... I've been doing her 30 day shred, and it's a great workout in 25 minutes or less.  Perfect for days when you don't have a lot of time to exercise!

But here I sit on a Sunday night, no... Monday morning at 1:30 a.m.  I haven't slept yet tonight... and I don't even feel that tired at the moment...  and I blame it all on yesterday.  The Saturday from H3LL.  Taylor had a cross country meet in the morning... which I gracefully bowed out of going to watch so I could clean my house before 20+ women showed up for a baby shower at noon.  I managed to pull it all off, and it wouldn't have been that bad, if we hadn't had an Elders Quorum dinner that same night.  And since Elder Neil L. Anderson of the 12 was in town, Eric got invited to a special meeting with him from 1-5 on Saturday afternoon.  I was excited that Eric got this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but not so excited that all the EQ social prep work fell into my lap.  I managed to pawn some of it off to friends, but by the time the dinner came, I was on the verge of a complete breakdown.  I made it through the dinner without any snarky remarks (to which I am proud of myself), came home, let the kids put themselves to bed, and slept for 10 straight hours.  After church, I was still super tired, so I laid down for a quick Sunday afternoon nap.  Well, you know how that goes... not so quick, not so restful, and you don't feel that much better when you wake up.  I begged Eric to make dinner, so I could clean up the kitchen... I knew I didn't have the energy to do both... we watched a video with the kids, watched another movie while I attempted (and failed) to fold laundry, then went to bed.  And then the insomnia began.... I laid in bed and read blogs on my phone, thinking that it would help me fall asleep, but no... that trick didn't work tonight.  So I finally decided to get up and take a Melatonin... why didn't I do this 2 hours ago?  And now, I'm doing a quick blog update while I wait for it to work it's magic.  Of course, this blog post is turning into more of a rant than anything, but they say when you have insomnia, the last thing you should do is lay in bed and stare at the ceiling.  I wonder if any of the experts who write these articles have really ever had real insomnia.....

I'm trying really hard not to panic about this... since I actually have a job to go to in the morning.  I know panicking will not help me get what little sleep I can salvage for the night at this point.  I just know how badly I will feel tomorrow on no sleep.  I know how much Diet Coke it's going to take to get me through the day tomorrow.  Wait... not tomorrow... today.  I promise my next blog post will be more positive and include at least one picture... I haven't given up photography completely... quite the contrary... just haven't had time to edit photos I've been taking at swimming, cross country, etc.  And I promise it won't take me 3 weeks to blog again... but it's time to  hit the pillow again for another attempt at sleep.  Heaven knows I really need it...........................

Most Requested Recipes

Here are 3 of my favorite recipes that other people love too.  I would normally include a photo with each one, because I'm all about the photos, right?  But I've feeling lazy about picture taking lately, and taking food photos means cleaning up my kitchen, making the food, and well... it's just too hot right now to care that much!

Salsa
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 small can diced green chilies
1 small can El Pato (found in mex food isle)
1 bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime
1 large scoop of garlic (from the jar)
1/4-1/3 c sugar
a pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  I like my salsa less chunky, so I generally take half the bowl, dump it into my blender and liquify it.  Then I mix it back in with the chunky stuff for the perfect consistancy.  Sugar is my secret ingredient in salsa.  El Pato is Sheri's. (I hope she doesn't mind me sharing her secret ingredient.)   She makes amazing salsa too, and mentioned that she adds this stuff, so we gave it a try, and we love how it made our salsa taste!  :)

Broccoli Tortellini Salad
20 ounces cheese filled tortellini (I use the kind you find in the refrigerator section)
3 heads of broccoli, cut into florets (don't use the stems)
6 slices of bacon (I like the precooked kind... just nuke and crumble)
1 c sunflower seeds
1 c craisins
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sugar
2 t cider vinegar
Cook and crumble the bacon.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and cook tortellini, al dente.  (1-2 minutes less than package indicates.)  Remove tortellini from boiling water, rinse with cold water and set aside to cool.  Bring the pot back to a boil and dump in the broccoli.  Boil for one minute, just until tender, drain.  Mix mayo, sugar and vinegar to create the dressing.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss the dressing over the top.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 sticks butter or margarine
1 egg
2 1/4 flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 cups chocolate chips
Cream together sugars, butter and egg.  Add dry ingredients, mix well.  Add chocolate chips.  Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes.

Random Homemade Awesomeness

I'm not a person to go to a lot of trouble to make things from scratch.  I would rather buy ice cream than go to the expense and trouble of making it.  Compounded by the fact that I can no longer eat ice cream (thank you lactose intolerance), my ice cream maker sits on a shelf in the garage and collects dust.  Since Eric became gluten intolerant, I've tried several times to make gluten free bread.  A store bought loaf of gluten free bread is $5.50 and yields about six very small sandwiches.  The slices are the size of a baguette.  However, I've come to the conclusion that making it is almost as expensive (the specialty flours cost $3-4 alone for one loaf of bread) and it's a crap shoot at best.  Sometimes it comes out great, sometimes it doesn't.  I hate wasting an entire afternoon and $4 of flour for a crappy loaf of bread.

But, I love a good bargain.  And I'm not an extreme couponer.  I don't see myself ever going that crazy.      Having said all that, here are recipes for 3 products I LOVE and we use a lot!  And, the homemade equivalent is super cheap to the store bought equivalent... not to mention easy to make!

Homemade Gatorade
2 qts water
1 package of unsweetened Kool-aid
1/2 t. table salt
1/2 t. morton's lite salt
10 T sugar

The best way to do this that we've found is to buy a 64 oz bottle of gatorade at Walmart for a buck-fifty.  Then after you've drunk it, you can make your own and refill the bottle over and over again.  We fill the bottle half way, put the ingredients in, screw the lid on, shake well, fill the rest of the bottle up with water and shake again.  Voila... 64 oz of Gatorade for about fifty cents!  :)

Brown Sugar Body Scrub
2 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar
1 C oil
1 T vanilla

Mix the sugars in a bowl until there are no lumps.  Add oil and vanilla, mix well.  Put in a plastic container and store in the shower so you can rub it all over your heels in the shower.  Since I started using this stuff, I haven't had one cracked heel.  That says a lot, since it's a chronic problem I've had living in the desert.

Granite Cleaner
Take an old windex bottle and fill it 1/8 full with rubbing alcohol.  Then add one drop of dish soap.  (Really, one drop is more than enough.)  You can add a drop or two of essential oils if you have them for scent, but I don't.  Then fill the bottle up the rest of the way with water and you have a super cheap, great granite cleaner!

My Own Version of Paradise

I have a secret love affair with the Pacific Northwest.  I always have... it started when I was a kid and we would road trip up to Canada... I loved driving through Portland and Seattle.  I love greenery.  I love seasons.  I love cool temperatures.  I love rain!

March marked a big milestone for our family.  We have officially lived in Arizona longer than we've lived anywhere else.  Quite honestly, I thought by now, I'd like here more than I do.  I still loathe summer.  I still dislike winter.  It's too hot in the summer, and not cold enough in the winter.  I can't even wear a turtleneck sweater without having to peel it off after lunch because it's pushing 80 degrees outside.  I love winter clothing, but it sits and collects dust in my closet.  I refuse to get rid of my faves though, because someday I'll live somewhere better.  Someday....

Eric and I are approaching a big anniversary.  This December will be 20 years for us.  Getting married over Christmas break has it's drawbacks.  Not being able to sneak away on your anniversary without kids is one of them.  The holidays make it really tough to get babysitters, etc.  We found ourselves with some Southwest Airlines tickets to use up before mid July, so we planned a short 3 day trip to Portland.  Eric goes to Portland all the time for work, so he didn't see the adventure in this, but I've never actually stayed in Portland and I've been dying to hike the Columbia River Gorge, and I pushed him until he caved.  I wanted to pick out just 10 of my favorite pictures from our trip, but I couldn't narrow it down... so if greenery, waterfalls and nature, aren't your thing, you might want to stop reading now.  :)

Day One

After we flew in,we had about six hours to kill before we could check into the hotel.  We decided to drive out to the coast.  Thank goodness for a rental car that got good gas mileage!  We drove to Tillamook, the legendary home of the delicious cheese factory and had lunch at a Rodeo themed cafe.  Then we followed the coastal road up towards Astoria.  (Remember that city from Goonies?)  En route, we stopped at this State Beach.  The parking lot was next to the highway, and you walked along this path to get to the beach.  I was pretty sure I'd died and gone to heaven.  The only thing missing were my kids.  

Oswald West State Beach:  Did you know Oregonians LOVE to surf?  Oh yeah, they were out in full force on the waves!

Confession:  I love to photograph fences.  Don't ask me why.  

 We drove all the way up the coast to Astoria and then cut east again back to Portland.  It was a lot of driving, but gorgeous all the way.  I still can't understand why you aren't allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon.  Weirdos...

Day Two

We had breakfast next to David Robinson in the hotel.  Only one person in the room approached him while he ate.  I don't know if that's good or bad.  I'm sure celeb's love it when no one recognizes them, and they can eat a meal in peace, but this hotel was full of teenagers in town for basketball camp.  Sad that none of them even knew they were in the presence of one of the greatest basketball players ever! 

We spent the whole day exploring the Columbia River Gorge.  We started off going to Bonneville Dam where we knew we could buy a parking pass for the various parking lots along our route.  The dam was impressive, as was the fish hatchery next door.  Look at these gorgeous hydrangeas!  You can't find these in the desert! 

 I spoke to an older lady who sold me the parking pass and asked her what she thought the best waterfall hike was, and she gave us excellent advice.  She recommended Wahclella Falls.  It's a two mile loop of gorgeous scenery with a beautiful waterfall at the end.  She was right... and it wasn't nearly as crowded as some of the other waterfalls we visited.

Confession:  I hope this is where I get to live in heaven.

This is Horsetail Falls.  Not the most picturesque waterfall we saw, but I absolutely loved this photo.  I'm super thankful I was even able to get some decent shots of any of the waterfalls... because who flew to Portland without her tripod?  Yep, I did.  :(  I substituted all kinds of rocks and ledges for my lack of equipment.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Who wears jeans in Portland on a gorgeous July day?  People visiting from Phoenix!

The last waterfall we visited was Multnomah Falls.  This has got to be the biggest tourist trap EVER!  We decided to do the one mile hike to the top of the falls to escape some of the crazy crowds, but it was crowded up there too.  It was an awesome and challenging hike.  Eric made me promise not to post the picture a stranger took of us at the top.  There's a lot of unsightly sweat stains involved.  

 Looking down over 600 feet to the bottom... the people look very small down there!

One more fence photo!  :)

The next day we slept late and wandered around the area a bit in the car before we headed to the airport.  If it wasn't 1350 miles each way, we would be making a Portland area camping trip every summer from here on out.  That's how badly I want to go back.  After seeing the pictures, the kids are on board with that plan.  Hmmm... summer of 2013... I need to start scheming now!