mini camping trip wknd update

Doug and I went "away" Friday/Saturday. But not too far.

why do 2 people going for one night need so much stuff?!

say hello to my little friend

the view from the back tent window

the view from the tent door, mom and dad's house!

I will definitely be returning to Ma and Pa's Campgrounds. The showers were hot, they even threw in a dinner on the grill and a pancakes breakfast! :)

It was just good to go away for a night.

The next morning Doug worked with Dad on some wood project he's trying and I made salsa and canned with mom.

That little mix made quite tasty salsa!

I also signed up for my RN -> BSN program, sigh, and started looking at the program/classes/homework online. After that we headed to a nearby town to see a hot air balloon festival. I think it wasn't really happening for several hours and it was starting to rain so we headed back home.

We were hungry so we stopped and got Thai to celebrate Doug's spontaneous raise he got at work, yay!

We ran a couple errands together and then settled in for a redbox. September is such a daddy's girl!

This morning was a new church, stillll hunting. And a friend's surprise birthday party. Then house cleaning/laundry for me, and Doug mowed and has been working in the crawl. He sanded the mud in the bathroom for a while, but we think we're going to hire his friend to do it, it's just not worth us being frustrated about it every day!

Yesterday we picked up this birdbath. We were at Meijer and they had stuff 50% off, the sticker said it was $29.99, so I thought, yeah I'd spend $15 on that. But then Doug checked out and it rang up as $29.99 and said it had been $59.99. Heeeeeyy! Shouldn't the tag say $59.99?? So I've got it set up, we'll see if the birds even come, or maybe I should just call and ask, I don't know. That's annoying though.

And in other news my new bible came!

Half.com had said it was in "good" condition so might have highlighting/marks, but it is perfect, and hardcover, and all for just $7.

Right now I've got another Sweet Corn and Zucchini Pie in the oven for dinner and baking a batch of Toasted Almond Coconut Granola. Mmmmm

this time with added green peppers from mom's garden

It's the best!

We've got a half work week ahead and then heading out of state for a friend's wedding!

camping trip!

This weekend Doug and I drove down to Indiana to meet my friend Jill and her bf "halfway" for a quick camping weekend. I thought she lived in St. Louis, but she really lived in Springfield, MO so my calculations on halfway were a bit off. whoops! Anyway, we left Friday after work and off we went.

combos? check! we were ready

Stopped at a tasty fast food chinese/thai place on the way thru Ohio. Magic Wok, wish we had this restaurant! It was tasty and even a bit healthy.

the iphone was no match for the beauty of this sunset

Doug and I had a good time talking and driving down, but it was a long drive and we were tired. We pulled into the campsite at 12:30am and went to check in. We were soon told that they had no reservation for us. What?? So I called Jill and she explained to the guy that she had made phone reservations, but nope, they didn't have anything and now they were full. So we pulled over and started calling other places. Of course most of the other campsites didn't answer since it was now 1am, but a couple did and they were full too. So then we started calling hotels, full, full, full. We finally found a place for $120 and half an hour away. So off we went and crashed into bed after 2am.

The next day, you better believe we took full advantage of both a hot shower and the continental breakfast. And Jill's bf had found us another campsite, an hour further south of where we were. So off we went and set up camp.

It turned out to be really cool that we went there. They had a Pioneer Village of how life was when the guy came down and settled the town and built a mill. We watched and talked to a guy whose job was pretty much just to use 19th century tools to build furniture and talk to people who were coming thru his woodshop. There was also a woman who weaved tablecloths and such and the mill which ground cornmeal.

Doug bought me some. It was cool because I needed cornmeal anyway and I could get some fresh milled! I was telling Doug how excited I was about the cornmeal and he just said "I love you", and I asked him why he loved me spending all his money, haha, but he just said he liked I was excited about simple things.

We hiked and explored a cave. That was really fun. The guys hiked in thru freezing cold water towards the back of a cave and saw a waterfall. I can't believe this is the only picture I have of Jill and I from this weekend! I was slacking

We ate over the campfire, played that "head's up game", talked, went back to the village the next morning to see the stuff we missed, packed up camp and headed home. It was a super quick weekend. But so nice to see Jill. It had been over a year at least, and I'd never met her bf. So definitely worth it. And I'm very happy I'll see her again in November! :)

Rocky Mountain High

I had such a great time in Colorado visiting my brother, sis-in-law Michelle, sister and her husband Johnny. And, I can't forget my sweet little niece.

Oh my gosh, little baby girl! Her sweet smile gets me every time!

It was the first time Joel & Michelle met Doug, and they approved. Not surprising.

The trip was short, just 5 days really. And all of them jam packed.

We camped

spent time as a family

Johnny, Elizabeth, Doug and I hiked a 14'er! Woohoo, life goal checked off :)

Mt. Bierstadt is 14,060 ft and my thighs felt every foot of that.

Really more my lungs I guess though. We would take a break, and the second I started walking again I was ready for another!

(the top is that mountainous hump right in the middle of the picture)

we were literally climbing over rocks towards the top

YAY!! we did it!

Then we got picked up by Joel and Michelle and I think we all fell asleep. Poor Doug I think had altitude sickness because he puked 3x :(

But that did not stop us from going to my favorite restaurant 3 Margaritas!

The next day we got to see my aunt & uncle and their families for a little bit in the morning, and then back home. Over way too soon!

And just because, more pictures of my little cutie

with Aunt LizzyB

after she poo'd all over her new outfit!

She grew so much in 6 months! I can't wait to see the prettiest little flower girl 4 months from now!

Manistee River Trail

Over the weekend Hubbs and I went to the west side of Michigan to hike the Manistee River Trail with Andrew's half-brother Jason, and his half-brother Steve. It's a 20 mile loop so we packed up our sleeping bags, tents, food and were off.

If we are going to be serious backpackers someday, we might need to invest in smaller sleeping bags, my sleeping bag took up the entire inside compartment of my backpack!

pretty views

the hikers

The first day we hiked 13+ miles. The last couple miles were pretty grueling. But we finally made it to our campsite, set up camp, and had some 'dinner' aka pouch of tuna and a bagel. We met some people from the Sierra Club and sat around the campfire chit chatting with them, it was nice.

The night wasn't so great. We went to bed around 10pm, and instantly someone who will remain nameless in our party started snoring. Loud. I know I am a light sleeper, and I usually pack earplugs. But I forgot them. I kept trying to sleep, but by 2am, still awake, I woke up Hubbs and had him get up and help me drag our tent 100 yards away. He wasn't very happy, but after we did that I could finally sleep. It was pretty cold though, high 30s, and the ground was pretty hard, but better than laying awake all night.

The next day we packed up, ate some breakfast, aka another bagel, and were on our way.

Day 2 seemed much harder. We had 7 miles to go to get back to the parking lot.

A suicide attempt was contemplated (j/k - Hubbs said that wasn't funny)

But we finally made it. We piled into the Jeep and Steve drove us back to Jason's house. Poor Steve, well all fell asleep instantly and he had to drive. When we got back we all stumbled out of the Jeep, our legs had stiffened so much and my feet had swollen so that I was hobbling. Ouch! Then Hubbs and I made our way home. We stopped somewhere and got delicious pizza

Came home, showered, and went to bed!

My mom had asked me to check out Manistee and tell them if I thought they should retire there. I had to call her this morning and tell her 'no'. It is beautiful, but I can't believe they'd want to leave their only child that didn't move out of state, and I want the future free babysitting! It wouldn't help to have to drive 4 hours for it :)

Manistee on Dwellable