Give me S'MORE!!!

What better way to end a day at the beach than having

s'mores! You know the oooweeey gooey mushhy smushhyy

yummy treat that we all know and love from camping.

What?!? We are not camping tonight?

Well that's true but we still can have that wonderful summertime

favorite right in our own back yard.

How?!? My Hubby bought me an outdoor Fire pit

for Christmas, two years ago, and it would be nice to use it.

So after the boys stacked firewood and the girls rode our bikes

to the store to get the goodies we needed the kids sat

around the fire pit waiting for their uncle or daddy to

light the fire.

I have never seen a sky I like as much as our good old

Nevada sunsets. The clouds, the colors, the mountains. Now I have seen

many nice sunsets- nothing like a Hawaiian sunset with the

tiki torches on the beach or the sun setting into the ocean

as you sit relaxing on a beach in Mexico with no kids..HMMM

one thing both those have in common is that they are vacation

sunsets on beaches. So yes those are both enjoyable for their

own reasons but in all honesty, and this is only my humble opinion,

I love our Nevada sunsets. Now ask me next week after I have

seen a Montana sunset and maybe I will have a different opinion.

What was my original post about?? Oh yeah s'mores mmmm.

My nephews waiting patiently.

Daddy and his little girl.

We have a couple of bats that come out right as the sun sets

and they fly around looking for food. It is pretty neat to watch

until they start to dive bomb near you to get the bugs.

I screamed a couple of times.

Roasting mellows.

Sally really wanted someone to drop something.

To bad, so sad. It all ended up in our bellies.

Showing my little girl how to twist the stick to

get the mellows to puff to just the right size.

I waited for my turn then I made myself one.

I think it was even yummier because there

was no sand in it, no bugs biting me and

I knew I would be sleeping in my own bed.

This one makes me laugh. I just have to wonder

how he got marshmallow all over his face?

The smile shows you how much he liked it and

that makes me happy!!!

Fun in the Sun (or clouds)

Today we went up to Tahoe to spend the day in the sun and sand.

Well it started off as a beautiful day but then the clouds came

and the thunder started and we didn't stick around and wait

for the lightening. Of course the kids had a blast and Grandma Rose

and I played cribbage while watching them.

"This is the life" Grandma said. Of course I agreed with her whole-heartedly.

(Thanks honey for working so hard for us.)

After the sun screen soaked in the kids were off to catch crawdads.

They caught about seven then made a little hole for them

in the sand in front of us.

For lunch we met my mom and grandma treated us at the

Harbor House. Uncle Paul even treated the kids to ice cream

afterward.

After lunch is when the clouds started and so the kids stayed out of the

water and buried each other in the sand.

We left the lake around 2:50 and when we headed back to town we

decided to stop off at the farmers market and get some tomatoes.

Then we dropped Grandma off and got back into my car to head home.

The boys (G&J) were sad that they were not going to be seeing their

great grandma again on this trip but I know they were grateful for all the

time they spent with her.

How does lunch and a movie turn into 9 1/2 hours???

Today was our first full day with my nephews visiting from Montana.

My Grandma Rose wanted to take us out for a special treat.

First we went to lunch at Applebee's. Cousin Sheena

also joined us for lunch. The food was good and the visiting was great.

After lunch we had about 30 minuets before we needed to be at the movies.

So without much time we headed over to the duck pond park

and the kids played. R & J are two peas in a pod actually more like

two monkeys. The first thing they did was find a tree to climb.

Then when that wasn't fun enough they decided they would rather

hang from that tree.....

Grandma Rose couldn't believe it.

I love that my kids love their cousins.

After the park we went to the movies to see G Force.

I have come to realize that I really don't like 3D movies.

After the movies we decided that we would go to Target to let

the kids use their gift cards that they got the night before

at our family birthday celebration. After shopping for a little

over an hour we headed over to Grandma's and she invited the

kids to play the Wii. Then since it was getting close to dinner

we decided to order take-n-bake and have the hubby pick

it up on the way over. The kids had fun playing the Wii again after

dinner and we were able to play two rounds of cribbage, I won

the first game and Grandma won the second. Hubby wasn't to happy

about loosing to girls but had a fun time anyway.

So that is how we turned lunch and a movie into 9 1/2 hours.

10 years and still growing...

Yesterday was my sunshine's 10th birthday. I remember when he was a little tyke thinking to myself...I have no problem getting older but the thought of having a 10 year old really freaks me out...now not so much. I do have to get used to letting him do more things with out his mommy like climbing on the rocks and catching crawdads with his buddies. Of course he has to be where I can see him at all times.
When we were planning his birthday he really wanted to have a sleepover with is friends. Well after the hubby and I talked, tried to get him to change his mind, and then talked some more we decided OK. Well then I took it one step further and since Tuesday is our Tahoe day and it just happened to be his actual birthday we invited all his friends to join us at the lake for the day. Luckily one of the moms also wanted to join us so I wasn't left alone with the boys and my M&M had a friend too.

Here they are waiting patiently so I could take a picture before they all ran to play in the water.
The boys eating cheesy puffs.

I know that at some point my son would start noticing that girls are different

but I didn't expect it to happen on his 10th Birthday. They played out in the

water with this one set of girls. The best part was that the girls held their own

and in my opinion they walloped the boys. HEHE!!

Grammie from SOCal was here and joined us for pizza dinner and dessert.

He loved his legos from his Aunt and Uncle and cousin in AZ.

They built it right away.

At 10:30 my hubby came out of our room and told me that the boys were

being to loud and needed to come inside, he was trying to sleep.

So I went outside and told them that they needed to quiet down and

that they got me in trouble. They thought that was funny.
11:30 I told them that it was time to go to bed. I know that they were tired

because I only had to get up once to tell them to quiet down.

Happy 10th Birthday Sunshine!!!

Baking Diva??? NOT!!

Last November when we were planning my MIL's Birthday tea the kids drew pictures of cakes they wanted to make. Well one of them had the number 66 on it and it kind of looked like the route 66 sign. So we put it aside to maybe use later for my FIL's Birthday. I told my MIL about it and we agreed that I would make the cake for his birthday celebration. Now he is a huge chocolate fan..not kidding...HUGE!! The cake of course had to be chocolate. The hard part was trying to decide what kind of frosting I could do that would taste great and be white. Well I found a recipe for a Chocolate Truffle Frosting and I just substituted white chocolate for the chocolate chocolate. Now I know I am no cake diva and I had a hard time because it didn't turn out perfect but once I put a piece in my mouth all thoughts about imperfect cakes went away. I will definatly make this cake again.



I started out with a 9X13x2 pan. I did have a little sticking problem though.



I downloaded a picture of the sign and blew it up and then cut it out. It was my template. (See sometimes I'm pretty smart.)

I thought the cutout looked pretty good until I put the frosting on. Then it didn't show as much of the shape as I would have liked.


I melted dark chocolate with butter and put black food coloring in it to make the writing. I would change this next time but I don't know how. The chocolate was melting the frosting and the bag I used as my tube was really hot. The chocolate kept getting clogged in the opening and then coming out in a clump. Very frustrating but now I know for next time.

Dick really liked it because it was chocolate. Donna liked that it was the Route 66 sign. Me I just like that I am done...at least for now.

Shasta 09

Here are the pictures from our trip up to Shasta. The weather was beautiful. It rained a couple of afternoons and only got really hot (110 F) on one day. We stayed in the water all day that day and didn't come home until 8:30 pm. On our last day there my youngest cousin, Mitch and his fiance Tiffany came up to spend some time with Grandma. We took them out on our boat before we left. This trip we stayed for 9 days and we loved EVERY minuet of it.

Tahoe Tuesday...Finally!

We finally made it up to Tahoe for our summertime treat of Tahoe Tuesday. None of our usually friends were able to go so it was just the kids and I. After they got over their initial disappointment they had a blast. The wind picked up in the afternoon, which was great because you could sit in the sun and not roast. The best part though is the waves it brings with it. I choose to stay on shore and just laugh and laugh and of course take some pictures. At one point the wave flipped R over and when he got up another one crashed over his head. It was so funny and when he saw me he started to laugh too. When we got home I told the hubby that one of these years I would love to take the kids camping at the ocean. I think we all would have a blast. Well I guess I need to start saving for that trip. In the meantime we will just enjoy our "beach" at Tahoe.

Writing in the sand.

She found a paper shaped like a heart.

Showing off their treasures.

Riding the waves was way fun!!

Next time I just might have to join them.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July! Today I decided not to talk about this country we live in and where we are headed. Instead I decided to make a patriot drink in honor of this county and all the freedoms we have had and will continue to fight for. To everyone who has or is serving in the military I THANK YOU for your sacrifice and to those whose loved ones have never come home I THANK YOU for your sacrifice. I salute you with my Red, White and Blueberry Soda.