Penner Lake

Bill had this crazy idea to take all of us on a overnight backpacking trip to Penner Lake. It's a three mile hike one way. It was actually pretty great.




Everyone was pretty happy at the start of our trip. Ready to go and ready for a new adventure.

Our first mile down. Two miles left to Penner Lake. There were actually several lakes and ponds on this hike, very pretty scenery.

This was Lennon's first time carrying a real pack. He's doing good here, but just wait.

We found some cows right in that first mile area. The kids all claimed one for their own Abby's was black, Meghan's was the smallest brown one, Lennon's was the big bull.

By about half way Lennon started having a really tough time. He's a little upset here. Dad had to lighten his load a bit.

Ninja boy!

Bill trying to get a picture of himself with a little of me.

Bill and Meghan discover this stump, they also discovered that it had a little hole perfect to fit the camera in and take a shot of Meghan looking in. Cute!

Swimming at the lake. My camera wasn't taking pictures right. It would only take them on the landscape setting which made them turn out a little blurry. The water was freezing, but the kids went in anyway!

Camping out under the stars. Well this is in the morning. We made it alive. Meghan was trashing around all night so it wasn't a great night sleep for me. Meghan doesn't like her arms down she likes them out. After Bill got up he put his jacket on her and she stole his sleeping pad for a pillow. Plus the footsteps we heard in the night. Bill scared whatever it was away. (It wasn't something as big as a bear but it still freaked me out) The stars were gorgeous and we saw several shooting stars.

Some early morning fishing for Lennon. Bill did some fishing too and caught one.

Beautiful Penner Lake in the early morning.

Bill jumping off the rock.

Bill snorkeling.

We're ready to leave.

Bill's loaded down.

This cool tree we found.

Lennon got a bloody nose on the trail back; it was pretty gross.

Meghan crawling under the log in the middle of the path.

Our happy filthy kids.

Yea! the car. We made it back. Bye Penner Lake. Hello Carl's Jr., hello home.

Davey Crockett Day

Bill found out from reading a Boy's Life magazine that Davey Crockett's birthday was August 17th. Davey Crockett was one of Bill's heroes when he was a kid. His mom even made him a costume that we still have. Anyways, Bill mentioned this to his mom and they decided that Sunday the 16th we would celebrate with a Davey Crockett dinner. Gayle (Bill's Mom) made us Buffalo burgers, corn bread (made in a skillet), baked beans, and blueberry scones. It was quite the feast.

I made the kids these hats for the party. They were very rough looking but kinda cute in an awkward sort of way...

And yes, Abby's pants are totally unbuttoned.

Last Day for this great Safeway Deal

This is hopefully the only time I'll do this. I feel so cheesy. I'm totally copying my favorite savings websites, but who cares. My sister-in-law, Kelly told me about these deals that end at Safeway today August 18th. You need a Safeway ad (you can get at the store either by the front door or at the customer service desk.) So what you see here is 4 boxes of cereal, 5 boxes of Caprisun juice pouches, 5 bottles of ocean spray juice, 4 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars and 4 boxes of gushers. I got all of this for $25.50 a $44.28 savings.

I had a few troubles so let me tell you about my experience. First off I had my three kids with me They like to roam the isles and get in everyone's way and won't stay by the cart. (enough said). They were pretty good considering we had to go to customer serivce 2 times.

The deals were 4 boxes of cereal (trix and cheerios) for $6 with in ad coupon on that same coupon was 4 boxes of the granola bars for 6 with a limit of 4 and you have to buy 4 to get the price. I bought 4 boxes of cereal and 4 boxes of granola bars but they scanned the coupon only once giving me the sale price on just the granola bars and not the cereal. I had to go to customer service and asked what happened and if I did something wrong. We were both confused so she just gave me the difference in cash. Plus I had two $0.55 coupons for the Trix cereal and a $1 off 2 for the Cheerios making them $0.98 a box. For the granola bars I only had a $0.40 coupon for 1 box so I got them for $1.40 per box. The Gushers had an in ad coupon 4 for $4 and I had an additional coupon for $0.50 off one box making them $0.87 per box. The ocean spray was $0.99 when you buy 5 and the Caprisuns were $1.50 when you buy 5 (you could mix and match but this was a pretty good deal and worth it for me to buy 5 of each to stock up) My other mix up was that I bought 4 roaring waters and one 100% juice Caprisun(the ad said Caprisun or Caprisun roaring waters so basically you get the ones that are the same price and you're safe) and aparently that didn't include the 100% juice so I had to return that one and buy another roaring water so customer service gave me the difference on that one too.

On top of all of this I got a catalina coupon (a coupon that prints out at the register) for $2 off of 5 General Mills cereals, 2 - $2.50 off next safeway purchase (from buying the granola bars and gushers), a 19.99 oil change and tire rotation from Midas and a 20% off coupon from Payless. I'm going to go back tonight and get an even better deal using my $2.50 off coupons!

******UPDATE******

Ok so I went back to Safeway this time a little more prepared. Before I left I printed off enough coupons for the things that I wanted and my $2.50 catalinas and headed back. I got 2 gallons of milk (just because I needed some) and I got 4 boxes of gushers (remember they were 4 for $4) and had a 50 cents off 2 coupon so I used two of those. Then I bought 4 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars and had 4 coupons for 40 cents off 1. I also used my $2.50 catalinas and walked out of there paying $6.68 the milk was $4.40 so I got 8 boxes of snacks for a little over $2. Check out your ads for a few good deals starting 8/19

Chicken Quesadilla to Die for

My wonderful husband Bill came home late from a productive day of fishing with his talented brother Bobby. He was tired, but so was I after dealing with my 3 young children. He could tell that I needed something to lift my spirits (although just seeing his handsome face and fit body did quite a lot towards that end). He asked me what he could do for me, and I told him "oh nothing, I was just about to get myself a bowl of cereal." "Sweetheart," he replied. "for all the wonderful things that you do, you deserve more than a bowl of cereal. If you can wait a few more minutes, I'll whip up a batch of my gourmet chicken quesadillas. We have cheese right?"

With that, he went to work as I sat back and enjoyed the view. He cooked up a chicken breast with his special blend of seasoning and spices, put the chicken and cheese in between two tortillas and then he cooked me one of the most delicious late night snacks that I have ever had. I mean a chicken quesadilla sounds easy, some might even say "simple" put Bill's chicken quesadillas were a culinary tour de force. And he's so dreamy.

Here's a few pics. Hope you enjoy them. (Too bad for you that you couldn't enjoy the quesadillas!)

*****BILL'S 1ST BLOG

Abby's Baptism

Abby's baptism was really nice. Our family was there. Abby looked beautiful and was really sweet. Our family is so supportive and helpful. Thank you everyone for your help with bringing and serving food. We love you!

Swim Lessons

The kids started swim lessons on the 3rd of August. They are having fun. The weather has been quite cool. The kids freeze in the pool.

Girl's Camp

So July 21st-the 25 we went family camping, Sunday the 26th was Abby's birthday and Monday the 27th I left for Girl's Camp. I was a cabin counselor over Level 3. The theme was "Sweet is the Work" and our cabin was the Nerds. We had so much fun doing nerdy things all week. Especially the laugh, our skit, my socks and tie (I must say), our glasses.

Abby's Birthday

Happy Birthday Abby! Abby turned 8 on Sunday, July 26th. Here is some pictures from her party at Nana and Papa's house. Sorry none from the Elmers' my camera batteries were dead. I'll have to have some of my family send over a picture or two.

Family Camp

Family camp is a week long camping trip my family takes every year. We've been camping at secret location for longer than I can remember. My mom used to camp there when she was young and then we started going again when my brother Joe was a baby (and he is very close to thirty) we've almost had the same campsite every year. We've even moved after we were set up at another campsite. Anyways, several years ago we started having a theme for the week and did a special activity with the kids. I think our first one was a pirate theme and we had a scavenger hunt for a treasure, then we had a Dora/Diego the explorer theme and again did a scavenger hunt. Last year we had a castle theme and changed it so we had a daily activity for the kids ending with a pinata on Friday. We had an obstacle course one day that was a knights training thing, and a scavenger hunt to fight the dragon and find the treasure he was hiding and then Sam and Olivia brought the pinata one that was so hard to break when we finally did break it the candy was powder inside.

That brings me to this year. This year we had a holiday theme. It was super cute and fun. We had Halloween, hosted by Red, I did Easter, Olivia did Valentine's day and Leah did Christmas, Jessica and Joe did the pinata this year.

Elizabeth had the kids wear masks and trick or treat to the tents, one of the tents (mine) was a trick. I dressed up like a witch and me and Elizabeth sprayed silly string on the kids when they came to my tent. We scared poor Iris half to death but we had fun. (P.S. my camera wasn't working Tuesday so I don't have pictures of Halloween :( )For Easter all the kids had a prize bag, and we made these little chicks for a craft. Olivia had the kids decorate cookies and played a get cupid game (trying to get Sam the cupid wet with cups of water). Leah decorated a tree with lights that plugged into the car and paper chains and fake snow underneath. She also had a Christmas music cd. It was so cute. All the kids got a present and had a blast.

The pinata was super crazy. Well first the kids got one for them that broke open easy enough. Then Joe brought out a separate pinata for the adults. Made of wood, metal mesh stuff, cement and who know what else.

Houston brought up the quad this year which was a lot of fun for everyone. Even Mom went on it and had a blast. We played Farkel, Nertz and Spades (Mom and Dad finally beat Patti and I.) We went on a few hikes (one to a double waterfall and also a nature trail/hike near Bowman Lake) with the kids. I must also add log rolling. We went to the Yuba River and swam there after our hike. There was this awesome log in the water and we played with that thing the whole time, we tried standing on it and Bill tried to log roll it and we gave the kids rides on it. It was so fun. The kids also swam/got wet in the creek everyday and they went to the waterhole on Friday.