While the cat's away...

Chad had the wonderful opportunity to go up to boy scout camp for the last half of the week. Not only is he thrilled to be camping for 3 nights in the rain, he is super stoked about all the merit badges that will be happening ;)

And while he is partying at camp, I get to party at home solo style. Which means falling asleep at 8 o'clock to Netflix and eating mine + Chad's share of cookies.

The only glitch was at 1 am when Rukia decides to start barking and running around like crazy because she heard something. Yeah, she didn't actually hear anything but that didn't stop me from creeping downstairs ninja style to search the whole house before going back to sleep.

Up on the schedule for tonight. Visiting teachers, popcorn for dinner, and hopefully a nice long walk with the pup. That's only if I can manage to stay awake that long though.

Awkard and Awesome Thursday

Chad tried to scoot this little guy back into the bunny nest only to scare the crap out of him and send him running into the neighbors yard. Chad of course then ran after it, thinking the poor bunny would not be able to find his way home and really needed his help now. The bunny then starts crying and "yelling", running in and out of the road. Finally Chad caught him, only because the poor thing was exhausted. But, mission accomplished, he slipped him back into his little bunny nest, only to find all the other ones gone. Apparently they were just old enough to be allowed outside :)

 

Awkward:

• The guy that we pulled up to at a red light on a motorcycle in full on snow gear. I'm talking a coat, hat and gloves in 80 degree weather + humidity.
• I brought one pair of shoes camping that remained wet the whole time. Rather than wear wet shoes around the campsite I channeled my inner Brittney Spears and used the restrooms barefoot the full 3 days. That's how I roll when camping.
• The old woman who got mad at me when I informed her that she was in my seat on the plane. I apologized that she had to move and she proceeded to grumble about how rude I was. Sorry you still don't have a handle on your numbers lady.
• Getting upset with Chad when he lost our SD cards for a hot second. Then I proceeded to loose my glasses after we got home from camping. He of course was super helpful and optimistic about it all. Luckily Nikki and Matt were able to find all of the lost things.

Awesome:

• Spending all last week with friends and family. We are lucky ducks.
• Nikki and Matt had a nest full of baby bunnies right by their front door.
• Death by Chocolate Ice Cream... and Strawberry for Chad.
• Kieli teaching Chad how to do handstands. She was a rockin' teacher and he is a lot better now!

Happy Campers

Clifty Falls! Chad and I love this place and were super stoked to be able to go back with Nikki, Matt and all the kids.

After we got the fire situation under control we were good to go. While we aren't allowed to build fires at home anymore, something about burning the whole west down, the Midwest is just so darn humid and wet that nothing wanted to burn. I'm talking 95% humidity at night, and it wasn't raining. But everything was still wet. The wood, the grass... our pillows. Fun stuff. The second night was a much better fire night.

We had great food the whole time! Nikki had it all planned out and everything was delicious. Much better than the nachos we attempted on our car last time we were camping together :) The kids, Matt and Chad each had a s'more. Then I'm pretty sure Nikki and I ate the rest of them.

We spent 3 awesome days there. I loved all of the trees and water! While the desert has perks, and is definitely majestic and beautiful, I feel at home surrounded by green, trees, lakes and rivers.

We saw our share of wildlife: water snakes "attacked" Kieli, Blake ran into a dead turtle, we found a cool salamander, tons of fish and tadpoles, and Chad picked ticks off of me. Don't be jealous.

We hiked through rivers to the bases of waterfalls, through the woods to the tops of waterfalls, and Chad helped everyone get in some rock climbing. Kieli was a rockstar and tried climbing everything that Chad did. Blake and Greyson were super stars too. They had no fear, and were fast! They were able to get just as high as everyone else!

We can't wait to see where our next annual camping trip will be with Nikki and Matt ;)

We're the girls from Beverly Hills, shopping is our greatest thrill!

Friday morning we packed up all our camping gear, food, clothes, and camera gear. We then all stood outside our tiny little ford focus, with our dog, and contemplated how it was all going to fit in there. I was fairly confident that Nikki and Matt didn't want to drive for 5 hours with a giant dog on their laps. Did I mention the A/C in our car bit the dust for real? Yeah.... good times.

It was a loooooong, HOT drive.

Once we got to the Visitor's Center we had to go over the rules for back country camping. My favorites?

• Do not walk on/disturb the dirt. Set your tent up on the large rocks.
• No pets allowed
• Bury your human waste at least 4 inches deep. Better yet?! Carry it out with you!

Chad cheerfully agreed, "Oh yes, of course!". When the lady mentioned carrying out our waste he replied with "Sure, we've brought bags for that". We love sleeping on rocks and carrying around our own poo! If you think I was going to carry my poo out in a plastic grocery bag you've lost you mind. There weren't any garbages in the whole park except the visitors center, so we would have had to drive a half hour with that stuff. Nope. Not going to happen. In fact, let's just be real here, there wasn't going to be any poo-ing outside for any of us. We happily drove to the pit toilets every morning. Too much potty talk? Yeah, I agree.

Friday night we hiked up to Delicate Arch to take some night shots. Not researching anything before hand, we're super prepared like that, we thought it would be more of a walk. Not a strenuous hike up mountains and along mountain ledges with our puppy in the middle of the night. We made it though and were "pooped" (ha) by the time we finished.

Trying to find our tent in the middle of the night was super fun. There was no moon so that was also super helpful. There were however, lots of cactuses. Cacti? Whatever they are technically called there were lots. We basically had to tiptoe through a field of cactuses to make it to our tent. We had little to no faith in Rukia's ability to avoid the cactuses, so I ended up carrying her the last stretch. Overprotective much?

So we were supposed to sleep on the rock. We all know that didn't happen. Rock or sand? What would you choose? Add in to that decision making process the fact that we forgot pillows. Pretty much the easiest choice of our lives.

One of us ::cough::Matt::cough::  might have been afraid that they were going to get eaten in the night. The visitor's center had all kids of pelts and skulls of animals from the area. That didn't really help the situation. Chad might have pointed out animal tracks on the way to our camping area as well. Again, not super helpful. He may or may not have thought that Rukia's breathing was a wild animal waiting outside their tent to eat his face. Once he survived the first night the paranoia seemed to fade a bit. Just a bit.

That morning we were t-i-r-e-d from our midnight hike, so we thought we would do the other most strenuous hike in the park! Woot. It was blazing hot! 4 hours later we had walked 6 miles and seen a handful of arches. The views were amazing!

We weren't about to eat peanut butter and jelly after that afternoon so we went into town and ate pizza until we couldn't eat anymore. We also stopped at a general store to pick up "pillows". Our cheap selves weren't about to buy new pillows so Matt, Chad and I bought packs of napkins to use. Nikki already had her pack of toilet paper, which explained why she slept like a baby compared to the rest of us the night before :)  FYI jeans don't make a good pillow no matter how they're folded.

Sunday morning was chilly! It also looked like it was going to rain, so we packed up fast and took some pictures by "our" arch on the hike out. This was the arch that we camped by. If you look really close you can see Matt and Chad on top of the arch on the right.

We decided to take the scenic route home and hit up Bryce Canyon and Zion's National Park. All we had to do was take one road south. That was it. Just follow the road south. Done. Easy Peasy. After a gas stop we managed to somehow start heading west instead. BAH! We figured this out after driving for 45 minutes. Bryce Canyon was all of a sudden over an hour east. We reluctantly let that dream die and just enjoyed Dixie National Forest. We also were able to stop at Cedar Breaks National Monument.

After a terrifying drive down a horrific mountain we were back on an interstate and back on track. Our car is now in desperate need of new breaks. We decided to save Zion's for another day and instead high tailed it home so we could eat ridiculous amounts of Mexican food. Mmmmm. Cafe Rio, no better way to end a camping trip.

We couldn't quite get the timing down. I've now decided that jumping photos are mandatory. They are fantastic! Even more fantastic when they fail!

Meatless Monday: Camping & Parmesean Tilapia

 
Phew! It was a whirlwind of a weekend! We headed out on the five hour drive to Arches National Park on Friday morning, after gorging ourselves on Kneaders French toast of course. The drive was long and hot and windy in our car without any A/C but we made it!

The weekend was full of destroying precious dirt, flashing teenage boys, cooking on the car's engine, and getting lost on the way home (on the one road that goes south). We survived despite forgetting pillows, very cold nights, and the threat of being eaten by wolves, cougars, and bears (oh my!). There are many stories and pictures on the way!

There were a few challenges on our meatless camping trip:

1. No meat, duh! I don't know about you but when I camp I eat hot dogs. If we decide to get really fancy we eat hamburgers. There is also a lot of beef jerky involved.
2. While the fire ban has been lifted around here it is still in full force up north. No fire makes it slightly difficult to cook anything.

We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, trail mix, cliff bars, and lots of these wonderful little fruit packs. We brought boca burgers to have for dinner one night but the no fire thing squashed those dreams real fast. The first night we made nachos. Chips, cheese and refried beans. Spread it all out in some tin foil and through it on top of the fire. We had to improvise and use the car engine. A fire would probably work better and a whole lot faster. And when I say probably, I mean definitley. As for dinner the second night. After a 4 hour hike in the desert sun a peanut butter and jelly wasn't going to cut it. We drove into town and pigged out on pizza! :)

First camping trip without our beloved hot dogs and jerky was a success!

For this Meatless Monday I thought I would share Chad's new favorite dinner with you! We definitley go through eating spurts and get stuck on one food for a while, and this is the latest. Now before anyone decides to lecture me on what a vegetarian is let me explain ourselves :)

Obviously if you've been following along you know that we do eat fish. So I guess technically we are called pescatarians. Thanks Tay! ;) Fish are full of healthiness so we add them into our diet.

Ok, ok, on to the recipe! I found this on pinterest a while ago and we've loved it ever since. I bought the frozen tilapia fillets at Costco and thought I would try new recipes on all of them. Wrooong. We found this recipe and haven't tried anything since! Ha!

So give it a try, it's cheesy and delicious and goes great with a side of pasta, twice baked potato, salad, or garlicy green beans. We've tried it with the Walmart frozen tilapia fillets but found those to be smaller and much more fishy. So if "fishy" isn't your thing, is it really anyones?, try the frozen tilapia from Costco!

Tilapia Parmesan

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs tilapia fillets (orange roughy, cod or red snapper can be substituted)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• black pepper
• 1 dash hot pepper sauce
• Panko bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil (hello easy cleanup!). Lie your fillets down flat and brush the top with lemon juice.

2. Bake the fish for 15 minutes. 

3. Meanwhile mix together the remaining ingredients, except Panko. Spread this cheese mixture on top. Sprinkle top with as much panko as you like and continue cooking for 5 more minutes.  Turn your oven on broil for the last minute just to get the breadcrumbs toasty and crunchy! Keep an eye on them so they don't burn though!

Workless Monday!

Happy Labor Day!

I'll take any reason for a day off work! We were originally planning on going camping this weekend. Up to MOAB, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, somewhere sweet.

Yeah.... we stayed home instead.

The last time we went "camping" without a real game plan we ended up at Nikki and Matt's for a few days. We camped on their couch and played lots of Pretty Pretty Princess. It was a good time.

Unfortunately if we decided to bail on this camping trip we weren't going be an hour from someone we know. We would be out in the middle of nowhere with the bears. And the mountain lions. Plus we were planning on doing some night photography but the full moon killed that dream. We are re-planning for when the moon is cooperating and we aren't so exhausted. If Nikki and Matt were closer we would have totally "camped" there again this weekend.

After our crazy last week it was nice just to stay home. I cleaned, Chad studied. We watched movies, gave the pup a bath, took a long Sunday drive and just relaxed. It was awesome.

 

Rukia frekaing out from her bath. Girl hates to be wet.

We weren't able to go to the annual Labor Day party in Wacousta, we are a little far away, so we are having our own "party" just the two of us. Veggie burgers, potato chips and dip, deviled eggs and Strawberry Shortcake. Any excuse for potato chips.

Happy Labor Day!

MIA

Our normal slow paced, easy life was interrupted as of late. Starting out Friday and continuing for a while... and we couldn't be happier!!! I'll start at the beginning...

It was a C-R-A-Z-Y weekend! Chad was told last minute about a scouting camp out that he needed to go to. Sweet. So... he managed to sneak in a test early and make it to the camp out. What did I do without my lovely husband? Something super awesome and girly? Wrong.

Poor Rukia and Penny were very concerned that Chad was never going to come home.

We also had Scott come down to visit! It was exciting to see him and hang out, especially since we hadn't seen him for 2 1/2 years! Chad got home from the camp out just in time to change and shower and then went and picked up Scott. He spent the night after being abandoned by his roommate and hung out all morning. Chad dropped him off and then headed out to church to teach his lesson. I was a super slacker and stayed home and cleaned, a little, just enough to avoid the nursery really. Then Chad and I had to fit in all the cleaning and grocery shopping we were planning on doing all weekend into a couple hours Sunday night. Eeeek! We managed to fit it all in though, except the whole grocery shopping thing, and it was totally worth it to be able to have such a surprising and fun weekend! We really could have managed to get to the grocery store but we HAD to watch The Killing. Was that not the BEST?! Seriously, I need more. Thank you AMC for delivering all kinds of TV awesomeness! Aaaaand to top it all off? We've got Chad's family in town with us for the week!

Kristy, Dylan, Debi and all the babies managed to survive the drive out west! It's a long and horrible drive and I was glad to be on the welcoming end this time. Every other summer growing up my family and I would trek out to Idaho to visit all our family. The first day was always fun with the movies and treats every 100 miles... but it gets old real quick, the second day is just the worse. Nebraska is not a kind state. It's exciting to have our family travel that far to see us now! :)

Monday we hiked the Narrows at Zion's after a delish lunch at Cafe Rio. Chad made us dinner and brownie sundaes when we finally made it home. Last night was veggie burgers, Trampoline land, and frozen yogurt. Who knows what fun today will bring?

Date Night

When I came home from work and saw graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows I knew that it was gonna be a good night! Chad found an awesome spot to have a date night when he was running on one of the bluffs near us.

After we got to the bluff we had to hike up to our spot, about a mile and half, hauling a bunch of wood and food. The promise of smore's was a good enough motivator though and we finally made it up the steep climb to the edge of the bluff. It was gorgeous!


The best part was the ridiculous amount of time it took to build a fire. In Michigan we are used to struggling to get a fire going. The wood always seems to be wet and nothing wants to light. It's taken the boys a long time to get fires going. Not here! It was super crazy easy with all the very dry wood. It lit up real fast, and then proceeded to burn real fast as well. Lucky for us someone had used that spot to build a fire before so we were able to "borrow" their stash of wood.


We had a great night snuggling by the fire, roasting smore's, seeing the full moon rise, watching Rukia run around and explore, and taking lots of pictures.