Happy Fourth of July!!!

visitors

My sister and her little dude came for a visit this weekend.

He has my heart,

one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen,

oh, and the family's signature blue eyes.

I have never seen my sister so in love.
Could you blame her?

42:365, my favorite

I got a call from the front desk at work today- My niece and nephew (with the help of their mom) had dropped off some of my favorite flowers as a sweet and very unexpected Valentine's Day surprise.
It totally made me smile ear to ear. Not only do I love tulips, but purple. Those kids know me so well!

Turkeys

I got pictures of these turkeys,

this pretty turkey,

and this turkey too.

But I some how managed to not take a picture of the actual bird. But trust me when I tell you that it was big and juicy (and done much faster than we had expected). We had a really nice thanksgiving. The kids had a blast running around together and the icebox cake that O helped me make was yummy, as always.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out around the house, a little bit of thrifting and fabric shopping. Some time in the sewing room and some time brewing a new batch of beer. It was cold and a bit snowy, so we really just hunkered down and enjoyed one another. And isn't that what it is all about this time of year?

Death Valley- Day Three

I hope you aren't sick of my camping re-cap. I use this space not only to share with all of you, but as a journal of sorts and it is so important to me to get these memories down before they fade off into the mommy-brain ether....

On Saturday we had a mellow breakfast and got out early to check out the sand dunes.

The wind was still around that day though so they weren't quite as fun as I remember them being from last time- sand in your eyes and in your waiste band aren't all that great.

Poor O. decided that it was a good time to fill up his diaper and had an epic 'field change' to beat all field changes on the top of a windy, windy sand dune. Sand shouldn't be part of any diaper change but it was nearly a blowout and had to be done.
We did get in some kite flying though (perfect weather for that!) and football with Grandpa back in the parking lot. "TOUCH DOWN"!

It was again agreed that a dunk in the pool was necessary so we brought all the lunch stuff , plopped down on a big blanket and had a picnic. We then jumped in the pool to clean up and cool down-though Saturday was not nearly as hot as the other days, so we didn't stick around as long as we had before.
After a quick splash, we headed back to camp for nap time. That is when the funniest part of our trip began. Daddy-O's sister R. headed out for a run (she is training for a marathon and despite the heat, needed to get her miles in for the day). It was Daddy-day care time....
O. fought his nap at first, but finally went down. However, E and N were another story all together. Putting two kids in a hot tent with bouncy air mattresses for a bed and expecting them to doze off quietly to sleep is just plain crazy.
N (the 18mo) figured out the zipper on the tent. We watched, with stifled laughter, as one little, pudgy toddler foot popped out the tent door and then another. I wish I would have had my camera out, especially when, at one point E (the 3.5yr) opened this little 'escape hatch'/"doggie door" on the tent and shoved N right on out and onto the ground. We were trying so hard to just ignore the silliness and continue playing our game of Uno, but the cocktails that the boys were enjoying were not helping the giggles and made keeping quite extremely hard to do.
Finally, T. decided that it was futile and let the kids just skip nap time for the day. He got out the bubbles for them to play with. For some crazy reason or another the wash buckets of water were filled and dumped, making the most spectacular "chocolatte-chocolatte" you have every seen.

I was sort of sad, yet totally relieved that O was still fast asleep for his nap during all of this desert latte making... hee hee.


There was an easy dinner of wieners and burgers that night.

Then off to the play ground for cookies, face painting, swinging, basketball and glow sticks. It was a prefect last night to our awesome camp trip.

On Sunday we packed up camp and headed out for the 7hr drive home. One last group shot of all of us was snapped before we hit the road. Daddy-O and I (and O.) also did a quick visit in the museum and gift shop. We purchased a couple of t-shirts and a new book about deserts for O. (Something we always like to do to support the parks is get a t-shirt or book.) O was amazing on the long ride and slept, sang, read his books and spotted "moo-cows" and "neigh-neighs" along the way.

I am was so glad to have had a little break from work and reality. And even more happy that I have such an awesome set of in-laws to join us on our trip. We had a great time exploring. I think I laughed more laughs then I have in a long, long time. I never had cousins in the same town (or side on this side of the country for that mattere) while growing up, so getting to do this sort of thing with O, and his cousins E and N is a total treat and an only child's dream come true for her kid.
Thanks Death Valley for being a warm sunny spot in our late winter early spring days. It was well worth the drive to get to your intense landscape and beautiful scenery.

Death Valley Part Two

On Friday we got up, made coffee and McLem's (a family version of an egg mcmuffin) and then met up with Grandpa and Grandma again to check out Bad Water.


Again, once noon hit we were totally overheated and ready to hop back in the pool- Grandpa bought us all ice cream

And we gathered our gear and purchased our passes for more splashing and fun.

It was an instant mood lifter once we were in the water!

It was fantastic.

The guys came back to camp for a quick lunch and then headed out to play a round of golf. The moms hung out and got the kids down for a nap (reluctantly) and SIL and I just hung out and relaxed in the heat. When the kids woke up we decided to leave a note for the boys and head over to the playground by the pool . There was a lot of swinging, sliding and goofing off on the playground. It is just so much fun to watch these little people of our family interact with each other and the world around them.


We had a sweet dinner and had a little visitor in our camp- A RAT!! He was into our precious supply of bananas- eeeeew. I so don't do rodents and this thing was brave and not afraid of my shooing and stomping to get him to move along.

More about day three soon~

Death Valley Camping- Day 1

Last week we took off a half day on Wednesday, all day Thursday and Friday from work and enjoyed a very nice, extended weekend with my husband's sister and her family. We headed south of Reno down to Death Valley National Park for a family camp out. Camping with two 18month old boys and one 3.5 year old girl is certainly different then going at it with just adults, but I wouldn't trade the stories or the laughter that our three little monkeys brought along for anything in the world.
We got into camp late (around 9 or 9:30) on Wednesday evening and set up camp in the dark and pretty much crashed out in our tents without so much as a wimper. On Thursday we woke up to an amazing blue sky and warm sun. We ate breakfast and had our coffee/milk.

We lathered up the kids and ourselves with sun screen and then took a little walk to a big open area just behind the campground limits. The site we stayed at was right next to the Airport road, that is flanked between the green-green of the Furnice Creek Golf Course and the Furnice Creek Camp Ground.

We found a big open area off the road (the service vehicles BLAST by on this road so keeping the kids off of it for safety reasons was a really good idea) The adults all took turns getting light headed while blowing up these super long balloons that, when let loose, whistle and whine, up up up and then rocket there way back to the hard pan desert floor.

This kept everyone totally occupied and entertained for about half an hour/forty minutes. At which point we all decided that we were getting hot- we had heard that the pool at the Furnace Creek Resort was open to campers for a small fee. We also needed to check in to the campsite and get our park pass for the cars. With each of the kids in a hiking pack we headed over to the visitor's center for more info and check in then we got our shower pass and headed to the pool.
I was a little worried that O wouldn't have any fun in the water. Last summer he would scream bloody murder at just his big toe touching the surface of anything but the bathwater and so we were pleasantly surprised that he not only got in, but that he was incredibly happy while in the pool, as well as incredibly difficult to get back out of the water!

I think seeing the two other kids going for it made it okay for him. Peer pressure can be a bitch, but it can also be a total blessing! He floated and splashed and jumped off the side of the pool over and over again. I think we need to get this kid into swimming lessons asap!

On a side note, the older boys (aka the dads) kept the sun bathers entertained while they played, "who can hold their breath longer" and other such games- I caught one older, leathery gentleman giggling at them at one point.

We all headed back to camp once evreyone had prune fingers and toes and of course on the walk home our little guy and the two other kids conked out in the packs and were put down for naps.

We made lunch and hung out, getting our shade structure put up and more substantial. It was hot, especially since we have been in winter mode up here in Reno and haven't had any weather over 65 for the past few months.

This looks totally wonky, but there wasn't much for us to tie it off to in order to keep it from being totally lopsided. It worked and we had a good amount of shade to hide under during the hottest part of the day.

The kids got up there was more playing around camp-that is when I looked up and noticed that the mountains west of camp were looking a little grey. I was hoping that the weather was headed a different direction then for us....
(note, this is the road and set of hills as the photo above of the to little dudes in the morning!)
Not more than 10 minutes after snapping this picture did we get slammed with a crazy dust storm that lasted for well over 3 hours, the wind not dying down until well into Friday. Now I grew up on the edge of the Black Rock Desert, and for any of you who have attended the annual Burning Man Festival, you know that the playa can get crazy windy/dusty- but I always had a house to huddle up into when a good old wind storm whipped thru the area. Only having a tent and a giant tamarisk tree to wait it out under while a sand storms hits is just an entirely different experience. I don't think I have every encountered anything quite so crazy.
I didn't get my camera out for any of this because I was so scared it would get ruined but believe me, after the largest and dirtiest gusts we all looked like we had been coated in baby powder- where our hands had covered our face we had a mask out line left behind. It was pretty crazy. The kids all took it pretty well- I referred to the experience as "Death Valley spa treatment" first we bake you then we exfoliate you- it's a good moto.

At some point during this chaos Grandma and Grandpa S. showed up (they had been a big RVing tour to SoCal and meet up with us in DV as their last stop on their loop back up to Reno). They offered to buy us dinner since the storm sort of coated camp in dirt, but we had brought so much food and were really worried that it would all spoil if we didn't get to it. We were lucky enough to have a nice window of calm and got to work and had ourselves a fine fajita dinner, complete with margaritas and guacamole. yum.

A wild and fun start to our first camp trip of 2010. More stories (and pictures) to come.....

cabin christmas

Just got back in from a great weekend 'up at the cabin'. We did our annual Christmas gathering with my husband's family. It was super sweet and really a great time.
We got in late on Friday evening to Greagle and got settled in and visited with everyone. We were sad that one of the cousins had come down with a super high fever and wouldn't be joining us but we defenitly had fun all the same.



On Saturday morning it was a big yummy breakfast of make ahead blueberry french toast with blueberry syrup (I felt a little like "buddy" in elf with all that syrup in my day) and also an egg and ham casserole. We cleaned up the kitchen and got dressed then headed outside to play in the snow.



Despite all the snow that Reno has gotten in the past week or so the storm managed to miss them and so it was sort of hard and crunch not so much the white and fluffy variety. That didn't stop us though. There was a snow fort to be made and sledding to be had. Papa built a fire in the fire pit so we could stand around the flames but still watch the action.

Nap time rolled around so in we went for a little hot chocolate and put the babies down for a rest. I walked into town with my sis-in law, her hubby and my dad-in law. There are surprisingly cute stores in 'downtown' and I found a few little stocking stuffer for super reasonable prices. I liked supporting the local businesses and when you find something that you haven't been able to find anywhere else you have to go for it.



Once we were back to the house it was time to start prepping dinner. A few glasses of funny nog were pored and a beer or two were cracked open.



We got our salad going, bread and the shrimp thawed.
Then we realized that the crab had to be cleaned. Not the most pretty job in the world, but at least we all know how to do it! Thanks Grammie for jumping in at the clutch moment. We got those bad boys cleaned and then into the pot then went.


We found a good breaking spot and got all the kids rounded up for gift opening. Nothing better than a bunch of wrapping paper flying and new toys to play with. The KidO made out with a few new books, hand made jammie bottoms, a new helicopter toy, a see'n'say, play dough, and bubbles.

Lots of fun. We broke for the table hoping the kids would be entertained enough with their new gear for the adults to eat. It worked relatively well I must say!

Dinner was served and it was a lovely free for all. And as always there was the question of, "How do you eat your crab? Are you a piler or an eat as you go"??? Do you pull all the meat out and get a good pile going to enjoy or do you get a piece, eat and then get another piece? I am an eat as I go, I like the crab to be still warm.



There was desert and then bed time for the kids. In all honesty I didn't really make it past kid bed time. The house was super warm with the fire they had built and was tuckered out from our walk, snow play and all that rich food. I snuck up to bed and put MrO down and then promptly followed suite. I guess I missed a very lively and fun game of Cranium but trust me a well rested Vanessa is well worth it!


Thanks again Grammie and Grandpa for letting us play up at the cabin! we sure do love you guys.
We got up leisurely this morning and got the house packed up and cleaned. Back home again, home again jiggity jig.


~~
We have a little neighborhood holiday party to attend this evening so I have some cookie bars in the oven. (I will share the recipe later this week, I am calling them North Pole Bars and they are gooood!) I will be headed down the street with my boys soon. I hope you had as nice of a weekend as I did!