Monday, August 13, 2012

Vintage Games, Nail Make-Overs, and Wishes


We play lots of games while camping.  One of the games we've been playing on this trip is Bonkers!!  Anyone remember this one?  I know my sister Beth will.  We spent hours playing this as girls.  I don't know if it can be called Vintage yet, but for me, it's a classic.  The girls are loving it too.  If you see it at DI or a yard sale, I highly recommend nabbing it.  In another year or two I'll have to teach them Payday, and then maybe Stop Thief!  Oh, the joy.
  
We also set up beauty shop and did our nails.  Last week we did toes and fingers.  Today, we decided that our fingers needed a little touch-up.  No better way to let your nails dry than laying in a hammock in the breeze reading a good book.  : )



 And finally, the girls made Wish Necklaces.  Add glitter and sparkly things to a little bottle, string it onto ribbon and there you have it.  If you want to make a wish, just rub the bottle, think real hard, and Voila!!  If only it were that simple, right?

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Mountain Lions and Foxes and Bears, Oh My!!

We arrive tonight in Woodland.  Yay!!  I didn't really want to leave Coalville, but I'm really happy to be back here.  We have a totally new campsite in a totally different section of the campground.  Lily picked it.  I'm quite particular about campsites.  Hope we love this one.  If not, she's in trouble!!
The exciting thing about this post though is the hike Kev and the girls went on after we got here.  If you'll recall, 3 weeks ago when we were here, the whole family, including our guest Jacob, went on a big hike.  Kevin wanted to set up some trail cameras, for the purpose of stalking elk.  Well, tonight when we arrive back, he and the girls hiked back up to check the cameras.  The cameras are motion sensitive, so he sets them and it snaps a picture of anything that moves.  He's caught all sorts of wildlife on it before, but in this batch he hit the jackpot.  Oh there was your normal boring elk, there was a mama deer with her two fawns which were cute, but look what else was on it!!

Hello Foxey Loxey.

This bear was captured multiple times.  He's got to live really really close to where this camera was hung.
Mountain Lions.  Not just one, but two!!  If you look at the pic closely, on the left edge about half way up, you can see the tail of the 2nd one.  Holy crap!

I'm thinking that maybe Kev needs to be packing something a little faster to fire than a dang bow when he hunts!!

Moving Day

Unfortunately, we're on the move today.  I've enjoyed the week at Coalville - there's a lot to do here - and it might be nice to stay, but our week is up and Kevin needs to get us moved and settled before the work week starts for him tomorrow, so off we go.  We're headed back to Woodland, which really is my all around favorite.  Kevin will probably hunt there for the opener of the bowhunt next weekend, I hope.  It's nice to have him around on the weekends.

Kevin took the girls fishing and shooting this morning, and though we're starting to load up now, we may float the river one more time before we pull the party wagon out.  Peace Out City Dwellers.

This is our water cooler.  I made a cover for it to keep the sun off.  It evolved from there - belt, 4 heads.  You know.
We didn't leave it like this all week, btw.  That would be embarrassing.  ; )

Sun bathing by the river.
Lily found a dead snake (right), then made a paper snake (left). 
She's gross!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Just Another Saturday at Camperworld

We had a fun day today!  This weekend was Camperworld Coalville's famous Swap Meet.  They have it every year in August and generally I try to avoid it, because it means the park is VERY busy.  But we switched camping locations around to accommodate Kev's hunting schedule next weekend so here we are.  It has ended up being pretty fun.  Camperworld had activities going all day.  There was a swap meet in the morning where members peddled everything from handicrafts to yard sale items, then a kid's treasure hunt, games in the afternoon, a BBQ dinner, entertainment.  We didn't do it all, but what we did, we enjoyed.

This morning we got up early and went to the swap meet, then the treasure hunt.  After that, we drove around through town looking for yard sales.  We ended up driving on bunch of back country roads, so Kevin decided to give Brinkley a driving lesson.  She was nervous, but did really well.  She kept saying, "I'm not supposed to be doing this.  I'm not sixteen."  She's such a rule follower.  Lily drove a little and didn't care one bit about rules or the law. 



She had to sit on Kevin's lap so she could see over the dashboard, but she did the steering wheel and both pedals all by herself.

When we got back, it was in the heat of the day so Kev laid down with the girls and watched a movie while I read.  When that was over, about 3pm, we floated our tubes down the Weber River.  I'd really wanted to do this and I thought it was a lot of fun.  We started with just a small section of the river that runs through the campground, but ended up venturing a couple of miles up the river and putting our tubes in total unknown waters.  We weren't sure what to expect, but it was pretty smooth sailing for the most part, though we did run into (not literally, but almost) a few barbed wired fences crossing the river.  After that, the girls warmed up in the pool a little while Kev and I relaxed in the hot tub. 

We're now ready for a nice dinner and an early bedtime so we're ready for moving day tomorrow.

If we added 10 more people and 10 more tubes hanging out all windows, out the back and sitting on top, we'd look pretty close to how we do at Lava each June.
The Weber River is behind us.  We're ready to jump in unknown waters for our grand adventure.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Tye the Great's Playdate

As my previous post tells about, yesterday I went into town to go to the LDS Bookshow.  Kev was going to work and the girls were going with him.  We couldn't leave Tye up at camp all day alone, couldn't leave him in the car all day, and didn't want to drive him all the way back to Bountiful at 7:00 in the morning.  Luckily, Kev's cousin and his wife (who live near Kev's work) agreed to let Tye come and have a playdate with their dog, Babs, all day.  They have a huge backyard and 4 fun kids, and a girlfriend for Tye.  What could possibly be more fun?  Well, apparently Tye didn't agree.  He seemed excited when we dropped him off at 8am, but by the time we came back for him at 5:30pm, he'd apparently had enough.

 

I rang their door bell and was escorted in.  "I think Tye is ready to leave.  He's hard a hard day," Allan says with a chuckle.  "Oh, no, what has he done?" of course is my first thought.  "Oh, nothing," Allan replies, "but come look".  He leads me through the living room and around to the door that heads into the garage and also houses a small doggie door.  And there is Tye, completely oblivious to the door bell or our voices, laying on the floor with his nose shoved as far as it will go, through that tiny doggie door.  He didn't even move, as we whispered behind him.  I was able to usher Kev and the kids to look (I'm so sad I didn't get a picture).  It wasn't until I said, "Tye.  What's the matter?", that he wrangled himself free and ran to say hello.  He greeted us for less than a minute and then ran to the front door.  He was done!  As a ten year old dog, he's definitely become a homebody.  He likes to be with his family, whether at home or camping, he's only happy if he's within ten feet of Kevin and I.  Bless his little old heart.


And even though Tye doesn't concur, we're still grateful for the excellent care we know he received with the Horrocks family all day.

The Book Show

My dad is a member of the LDS Book Sellers Association, and each year is invited to their annual book show at the South Town Exp Center.  It offers members an opportunity to meet new authors, preview new books and mingle with other book dealers.  Mom always accompanies him and sometimes, since it's such a harried event, he invites me.  I help keep track of schedules - when it's time to pick up tickets, when it's time for an author signing, etc.  Back in it's glory days (before computers and kindles and such) it was big excitement.  But even now that it's smaller, it's still a lot of fun and I enjoy going. 
Dad invited me this year and even though I'm camping, thanks to my AWESOME husband, I was able to work out going.  He made an extra trip up here on Wednesday night and spent the night.  We all got up at the crack of dawn and headed into town.  Kevin took the girls to work with him for the morning and I headed to the Expo Center. 

As we browsed, I told my mom about a book that my neighbor loaned me this week and that I read the day before.  It was called Edenbrooke by first time author Julianne Donaldson and I LOVED it.  It was a fun, well-written regency romance.  Mom said that she'd heard of it and wondered if I'd ask my neighbor if she could borrow it for her vacation next week.  I didn't really want to, but said I would.  Just about then, I noticed on the schedule that Julianne Donaldson herself was going to be there that morning to sign copies of Edenbrooke!  I was beyond excited.  That alone, made it worth going.  We each walked away with our own signed copy, plus I got to gush to the author and embarrass her.  This is her first book, so she is still very humble.  It was a really fun day.
When the show was over, we met back up with Kevin, picked up Tye (see next post), and headed to Bountiful.  Kevin had Search and Rescue that night, so I did some laundry and watered my gardens.  Finally, close to 10pm, we headed back to Coalville, exhausted.  It was a fun day for me and the girls, but a long day for Kev (and harder still, since he had to get up and be back to work at 8am this morning).  What a good guy!
Mom, with Richard Paul Evans.

Me, with mom and dad, waiting in line to meet an author. 
A note about my outfit, I was a little worried about it (especially when, as I was dressing, Kevin said, "Is that Salmon??!!) but I ended up getting 4 or 5 compliments and one lady said it very passionately.  Of course all the compliments were from old people, so the jury is still out.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Country Livin'

Monday night, when Kev was here we went for a bike ride.  Usually when we leave the campground, we turn left, heading into town.  On Monday, however, Lily requested that turn right, heading away from town.  This country road took us along the freeway for about  a ½ mile, then twisted and turned towards the mountains, into the country, and right through Hoytsville, where Country Livin’ abounds.  How fun it was to get a sneak peek into the lives of our country neighbors. 

First, there is roadkill.
 I mean LOTS of roadkill.
Did I mention the roadkill?

Also, you could live in a BEAUTIFUL home like this (last night there was a gorgeous dog laying on the mat in front of the door.  It looked like a statue.  Just lovely!)
Or INSTEAD, you could live in a mobile home, but own a Bayliner, two Winnebagos, and multiple cars (including a red convertible sports car, which was there last night and the night before, but not today).
Or INSTEAD, you could live in a beautiful home, with a beautifully landscaped front yard, with three horses that live right in the yard to keep the grass mowed and fertilized (my girls better never again complain about having to pick-up dog poop in the yard - it could always be bigger).

Oh, we may make fun of country dwellers a little here and there.  But mostly we envy them, especially Kevin.  Maybe one of these days we’ll be fortunate enough to buy a small spread among the foothills.  We could buy some goats and pigs (my favorite), horses (the girls favorite), an elk or two for Kev, a girlfriend for Tye, cats to catch mice, and plant some alfalfa.  Until then, we’ll just enjoy our short rides into the country where everyone waves and say hello, and whether it’s true or not, life seems a little bit simpler.

Monday, August 6, 2012

River Rats

As I said, the Weber River runs right through our campground and for some reason the girls "discovered" it today.  In one area, there is a flat bank and a nice little swimming hole.  I was telling them how I used to swim in a river when visiting my grandmother each summer so they decided to give it a try.

I set up a chair to watch, they donned their swimsuits and life jackets and jumped in.  The first discovery  they made was that it was really cold.  After recovering from that one, they discovered the current.  It was like a real, live lazy river pulling them downstream, and they loved it.  Then I talked them into jumping off a rock into the pool, which they discovered was like a natural diving board. 

They had a BLAST!!  They didn't want to leave, are so excited to go back tomorrow, and have decided that they are never going to swim in the pool again.  I love them to discover new things.  Yes, we do camp in a camper with an air conditioner, microwave and a small TV.  Our campground has a clubhouse and pool. BUT we do still have great outdoor adventures.  Days like this solitify my love of camping.





Tye the Great


Today we took Tye for a swim in the river that runs through the camp ground.  He paddled around a little and finally made it over onto a rock almost to the opposite bank .  He stood there for a few minutes, realizing that they only way back to shore was off the rock, through the water again.  After some hesitation he finally leapt off the rock with a big splash and swam to back shore.  It really was cute and the girls thought it was the CUTEST EVER!!  It earned squeals of delight from them and a full round of applause.  Another amazing stunt from Tye the Great!

Tiffeny's Terrific Camping Store

When we camp in Woodland, we’re about 10 miles from the nearest store.  We’ll go into Kamas a couple of times a week and get forgotten groceries or ice cream or the girls get a treat, but those are really the only money spending opportunities. 

In Coalville however, the town is less than 2 miles.  A perfect bike ride over the freeway and onto Coalville’s quiet Main Street.  When we were here two weeks ago, the girls discovered how fun it was to ride into town and spend their money on a fun treat.  The problem was, their fun treats were kind of expensive.  There are just a couple of country grocery stores with very little penny candy.  And as you know, if you’re buying a full-sized candy bar these days, it’s going to cost you a dollar or more!

So, before our current trip, I came up the idea of setting up my own Camp Store.  We still like to ride our bikes into town, because it’s fun.  But then we’ll come back, and the girls can buy treats from Tiffeny’s  Terrific Camp Store.  Last week, before we left home, I went to the Poor People’s Store (or if you prefer, the dented can store or the out of date food store or NPS Market [which is it’s real name, but I still prefer to call it PPS or the Poor People’s Store]) and stocked up on treats - full-sized candy bars, beef jerky, Funyuns, Sun Chips, Donuts, Cookies, all for 25¢ or less.  I put them in a big Rubbermaid container, priced them 10–25¢, and the girls can buy up to two a day. 

Today was the store’s grand opening and both girl’s declare it “Awesome!!”  Brinkley spent 35¢ on donuts and Funyuns and Lily spent 20¢ on Funyons and Scoobie Snacks.  Yay!  We might be on to something great!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Too Much is Never Enough . . .When Camping

After a one week hiatus, we're back.  We checkout out of Camperworld Coalville one week ago today, but as soon as I got home, I knew it was time to go back.  So, I spent the week unloading the camper, cleaning the camper, loading it back up.  And of course doing all those totally unimportant things like cleaning my house, doing laundry, tending to my garden and flowers.  After church today, we determined we were ready, so we ran - not walked - but ran, back.  We planned to go to Woodland this week and Coalville next week, but because of Kevin's hunting schedule we swapped it.  Feels good baby.  It feels good.