Camping at Pyramid Lake

We went camping! In February we thought it'd be fun to go camping over Memorial Day weekend since Jake would be out of school for the summer. We haven't done a legit camping trip, pretty much ever other than one or two over-nighters. Never with three children. Lots of places were booked up but we found this little gem of a spot near Pyramid Lake, CA. It's about 2 hours from where we live in Yucaipa so close enough but far enough kinda thing. We invited friends to book the weekend with us and were able to con the Hebdon and Price family into spending a weekend in the wilderness with the Frys. The area we camped in was beautiful, the weather was perfect during the day, the lake was really pretty and kinda crowded but not bad for a holiday weekend in my opinion. 

We planned for weeks before and made a menu for every dang meal. All of our food was really good. Next time I won't plan on anything for lunches besides some sandwich fixings and snacks. Our breakfasts and dinners were so yummy and filling. We cooked in dutch ovens that Brandon had for the weekend and had some GOOD meals! Mountain man breakfast and peach cobbler were some of the favorites. We brought ingredients to make our own ice cream in a bag, turned out great and it was fun to do. And we tried the recipe to bake brownies in orange peels, those were also tasty. 

The kids had fun climbing the mountain sides right by us, playing with friends, riding bikes, going on a few short hikes with dad, swimming at the lake, roasting mallows and sleeping in tents. All three did really well sleeping, better than I anticipated. Griffin the dog did way better than I thought he would too. The Prices left Sunday morning. That night after playing cards and going to bed the wind picked up and by 1:30am we decided it was time to go. None of the adults could fall asleep. The wind was blowing so hard and was so gusty that we kept being sandblasted in the face. Luckily we had packed just about every thing up so we really only had to wake up the kids and get them in the car, take down the tents and go. It was just in time too because as we were taking down Megan and Brandon's B&B, I mean tent, (their tent was HUGE!) it caved in due to the wind. We're guessing the wind was blowing atleast 40mph with stronger gusts. It was nuts! And as we were driving out at 2am we noticed lots of people in their cars, lots of EZ-ups blown over and trash everywhere. We pulled into the drive way just after 4am and took the most amazing shower ever after getting the kids into their beds. 

Even after the little fiasco that had us coming home in the middle of the night we still had a blast this weekend and look forward to camping again.

Brandon and Jake were our official fire/cook guys and did super great

My handsome mountain man

Cooper showing off the tent site

lots of bike rides and walks all weekend

Colton was thrilled he could turn the water on

Making our official camp flag

Brandon's patriotic Memorial Day flag

Nicole, Brach and their sleeping contraption

Boys being boys

Cooper P. showing our camp flag, the kids named our camp "Camp Mountain" and each had a nickname

I call this one, "Men around a Fire"

Brach and Connor

BF and GF Connor and Adele

Jake had smudges on his forehead and we let him walk around like that for a while

Griffin the dog

Lots of climbing

more climbing and hiking

....also....lots of peeing in the woods

Beans and weenies! and Meg and B

weenie roastin'

ice cream makin'

s'more assemblin'

the kids, Connor was happy all morning til he biffed it in the gravel. hated life after that.

there weren't showers so we washed our hair in a bucket Sunday morning before some "church" we had. Best hair dunk in a bucket I've ever had!

taking a big walk before the lake on Sunday

couple of the year! Love these guys :)

Pooped.Out.

BFFs

BFFs again

Polka dot dancer

peach cobbler

brownie oranges

view from the top of camp....by the bathrooms

before the wind

Events and happenings from the last two months

-Easter brunch with friends
-Cooper was in spring soccer
-My mom came to visit
     -Paige and Danny came to visit
           -My friend Debbie came to visit
-We all went to the beach a lot
-We started potty training Adele....so far it's been harder than the boys. She's not totally in to it but I refuse to use swim diapers all summer.
-My bucket garden is growing, and we built cinder block garden beds. Seeds and plants go in tomorrow!
-I planted a strawberry patch in my front yard
-Our transmission went out, and our sway bars broke, and the DVD player, the vacuum, the fridge, jack's tooth, the printer. All in two weeks. All we could really do was laugh, seriously!
-I started an etsy shop
-Bike rally festival in Yucaipa
-Spontaneous trip to LA Natural History Museum and the Science Center last week
-Muffins for Mom in Cooper's kindergarten class
-Mother's Day and my birthday in the same week. Talk about spoiled!
-And the best one of all......Jake finished his first year of law school (!!!!!)

Here's a few of my favorite photos:

Two pins, one stone and good news.

There are two pinterest projects I've had on my mind and I combined them into one today. I've wanted to make this pallet art for some time but let's be real, it's not gonna happen soon. I also wanted to do this project. So I put the quote from the pallet project onto the canvas one. Voila!

Bought the art at a thrift store for $2 and the vinyl letters at Target for $2.99. The paint I used was a left over sample size I had in my stash.

After putting the stickers where I wanted them I added some water to the paint to have a washed effect so I could still see some of the painting through.

I peeled the stickers after a few minutes (it dried quick out in the sun and probably quicker than straight paint because it had water in it). There was some mess to clean up so I grab some Q-tips then decided to use a wet washcloth.

Used the wet washcloth to rub away some of the paint and add texture to the edges of the painting.

This fine piece of art is going with all the others in the family room. It's a work in progress....Maybe I'll post a picture one day when I feel the time is right? whatever that means.

Also: my plants have started to bud this week(week2); peas, brussel sprouts and carrots. #Griffinthedog has been getting into the buckets a little here and a little there (DANG PUPPY!) but I think he's learning that's a big no-no. Time for more buckets and some new seeds in the next couple of weeks!

***Good news today, Jake's hard work pays off again; he just aced his mid-term for criminal law. When the professor started to talk about scores he said that this was the worst any of his classes had EVER done.

Over half failed, Jake got an A. WHAT A STUD!****

Something happy & Something embarrassing.

Last night after we put the kids to bed I made a trip to the store. We needed a couple of things (Jake asked me to buy him some pudding) including more children's fever reducer. We're on round three for the year so far. My poor Adele slept for all but maybe three or four hours combined yesterday. As I was shopping I took my time, walked slowly and actually compared labels. Things you can never do when shopping with children. Then I heard the announcement. The one I swear plays exactly two minutes after I enter ANY store.

"Thank you for shopping at.....Please remember to keep your children....." yadda yadda.

It played while I had NO children with me! I've been convinced for the last few years that an employee sees us walk in and that's the que for them to push the "special reminder announcement button." Not last night folks!!! It was someone else this time.

Now you know how it is at night at the store right? There is only one, maybe two cashiers. It's a long line of people buying a few items each. That guy buying his late night dinner after work. That other young-ish guy buying energy drinks and chips. That old lady buying cat food. Then there's me with half a cart full of random stuff. All those people are behind me and as the cashier is swiping some of the last of my items I open up my wallet and BOOM. No card.

So I'm that person. I write a check. Then she asks for my ID. BOOM. No ID, it's with my card in my pants from yesterday. They hold the items while I run home and come back and do it all again. And you'll never guess what one of my items was that I was buying. It was embarrassing to have to buy it once, but yesterday because I was a dum dum I got to go through the embarrassment twice. Should I tell you? No, it'll be TMI. Let's just say it was worse than tampons or anti-diarrhea medicine, not quite as bad as condoms and KY.

But hey, no special announcements directed at me and my kids last night. No one begging to go home or accidentally tipping carts over (yep, three times so far).  Just three sleeping kids at home, a studious husband, hulu and my friends Ben & Jerry.