Another Adventure

Early morning photo session with Linda.  As in early-before the sun gets up and it's still dark, early.

preview...this shot the evening before our early morning session

early morning light

Island Park, Idaho

Linda is amazing with landscapes.  It was such a treat to tag along and get a mini-workshop!

geysers and buffalos

If you ask Layne what we saw on our trip, she can sum it up in 2 words:  buffalos and geysers

waiting for Old Faithful 

This accurately depicts how she felt about the geysers!  Something about them spooked her.  The buffalo on the otherhand were no big deal.  Especially by the time we spotted our 5th or 6th...she would say, "Dad, it's just nother buffalo."  

On this fun family adventure, we spent one full day in Yellowstone, seeing amazing things!  There were quite a few geysers...large, small, spewing, boiling, rainbow-colored, muddy, steaming, smoking...all much more dangerous than they seem.

Old Faithful making its appearance

And then there were buffalo.  And elk.  And deer.  There were bears, and Aunt Lori's car and Aunt Marva's car saw bears.  But we Californians, did not see a bear.  I was pretty disappointed.

We did see Buffalo walking down the road.  The cars backed up, on both sides of the road, and we watched this enormous animal meander back and forth in between traffic.  It was a riot!  We came up right behind him and then took our pass around him.  We could have touched him.  He was walking within inches of the driver's side window, which was open so I could get a shot!  Amazing!

our friend the buffalo...the rim of the car door at the bottom

It really was the "real" version of the tram ride at the Wild Animal Park.  By the end of the day, Layne could tell you what kind of animal she just spotted.  She loved the aminals.

Abbey loved the geysers.  She took Royal's camera and took her own shots of everything she found interesting.  She was her own little field guide.

Landen loved the cousins.  He always wanted to know where Canyon was and when we were going to stop next and play.  

I highly recommend a visit to Yellowstone.  There are a million amazing things to see.  The geysers and the buffalos do rank high up there on the list.  If you get close enough, even though you may be tempted, you would be better off not touching either.  

FAMILY reunion

So, the best part of a family reunion is the FAMILY!  The cousins, the brothers and sisters, grandma and grandpa...all out on one big adventure together.

This is the Lantzy clan...just missing Ted!  Overlooking a beautiful Yellowstone waterfall.

The girls...Morgan and Abbey loved getting to hang out with their cute college cousin Kaitlyn!

The Jones kiddos.  Marva and I have the littlest people, so they are instant buddies for the trip.
They hot-tubbed.

High Adventure

YW River Rafting Trip!

I was recently released from my all-time favorite calling and put into what I always dreamed of as being my all time favorite calling.  It isn't quite measuring up.  I traded in a fantastic group of 35 young women for playing piano in a primary of 200 kids.  I get to work with some amazing gals and keep my piano skills sharp, but I miss the adventures of young women!

This was one adventure I couldn't miss.  I was grandfathered in.  I was one of the few leaders that was crazy enough to sign up for class 4 rapids, so I packed my Tevas and put on the "I'm a tough leader who will never let anything happen to you cute girls" face!  A few rapids made me a little nervous though.  I'm not gonna lie.

This was serious business.  Serious fun, too.  We spent two days on the river.  In these awesome life jackets and helmets.  The first time you put them on, back at the ranch, before boarding the bus that takes you up river some 30 miles, you don't really love them.  A few hours in, and a few serious rapids later, you LOVE them!  You tighten them up and make sure that they aren't going anywhere!

We lunched alongside the river.  We camped alongside the river.  Dinner, games, skits, campfire, testimonies.  Then we slept alongside the river.  We woke up the next day, had breakfast, and headed back out on the river for day 2.  It was amazing!

I shed a few tears when I had to say goodbye to these girls and take a seat in primary.  Spending the weekend on rubber boats with all of them was such a treat.  They are amazing examples to me.  I loved seeing them take on new challenges, paddle hard, jump cliffs, and take care of one another.  My favorite part of being with these girls is to see how they navigate life.  They each know who they are and they know where they are headed.  Their actions, their words, their good choices in all they do exemplifies this.  And they are huge examples to me.

They took on this river just like they have to take on life.  Fearless!

For the record, I did some cliff jumping myself.  And, I looked really tough in my helmet and life jacket.

Pink is the New Green

in goggles that is.  for this little swimmer.

First Lost Tooth!

This little boy lost a tooth!  His first one.  Sometime during cooking camp, Landen told me his tooth was wiggly.  WIGGLY!  I looked at him closely and asked him how old he was.  He told me 5 1/2.  How in the world is he old enough to lose a tooth?  How is he 5 1/2?  As a mom, I am still struggling to understand where the time goes.  In a flash his tooth was wiggly.  In another flash, it was out of his mouth!  I think Dad helped it along a little.  I really was in no hurry to see a hole in his mouth.  He is a whole new boy.  Those baby-teeth smiles are gone forever.

He was having a hard time smiling...with that big hole in the front and all!  He is talking with a lisp!  His tongue goes right through that hole and a few sounds just won't come out right!

We sent a special note to the toothfairy.

Dear toothfairy,
You have not been to the Erickson house in quite some time.  The lost-tooth business slowed a bit here.  But, vacation is over!  Somehow Landen is 5 1/2 and somehow his teeth are loosening and dropping right out!  There is one lost tooth headed under his pillow tonight.  Your attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.  To be fair to Abbey, I think your payment rates should remain the same.  


Thank you!


P.S. The children would appreciate it if you came the same night that the tooth goes under the pillow.  Rather than a day or 2 or 3 later.  I know it is hard to remember sometimes.  Really hard to remember sometimes!  Do your best!

CHINA vs ITALY

CHINA

most intriguing cookie to make

the most fun you can have with a food processor


ITALY

best aroma of the week:  homemade marinara

most fun making lunch

most crowd-pleasing entree

prettiest cookie dough

prettiest cookies

It wasn't hard to pick a winner...we love ITALY!  It doesn't get any tastier!  But, experiencing a new country each day made for a great variety of flavors and ingredients to learn about and cook with.  Cooking Around the World made for a great week!

Alright cooking campers, who had fun?

We had a blast cooking with you!  

Who's coming back in August??  We hope to see you right back in the kitchen with us! 

BOYS vs GIRLS

This week's cooking campers fell into one of two groups:  the give-me-the-recipe-and-I've-got-it GIRLS  or the I-love-it-but-I'm-not-quite-sure-what-to-do-with-it BOYS.  It made for a fun and exciting week!

The GIRLS did a great job!  They wrote recipes for us, mixed up the cookie dough without one bit of help,  and always asked what was next and what could they do!  It was awesome to watch them work and teach them a few new skills and a few new recipes.

squeezing limes

making cinnamon chips

rolling taquitos

The BOYS did a great job!  They were so eager to cook and were great at following directions!  They learned a ton about working in the kitchen and it was so fun to watch them figure out how to scoop flour and how to roll cookie dough into balls!  They jumped right in, always asked when they could make this or that, and were so happy to do anything we asked!

lime juice

painting tortillas 

cutting chipscinnamon and sugar flavored fingers

We had a few little competitions to keep them on their toes.  BOYS vs GIRLS: which OREO cookie dough came together first.  GIRLS vs BOYS:  which pizza dough formed the smoothest ball, without being too sticky. BOYS vs GIRLS:  who had the most creative pizza shapes?  KANSAS!  That's right Mia!  Your KANSAS shaped pizza made it to the hall of fame!

The score board for the rest was pretty tied up.  We made some pretty tasty food all week.  Every pair of hands was needed to get it done!

Cooking Camp: Batch 2

The second batch is always a little tastier.  You get all the ingredients right.  You know the instructions better.  You get the oven temp right on and have figured out the perfect amount of time to cook/bake so that there will be no overcooking or undercooking.

Hillary and I put our feet up on Thursday afternoon, smiled ear to ear about the thought of the fun, long, holiday weekend, and felt confident about week 2, because it would be the second batch.  Same recipes, same schedule.

One major ingredient changed however.  Our cooking campers.  Ten smiling kiddos showed up bright and early on Tuesday morning for some serious cooking fun.  They walked in the door, and we noticed they were a little groggy from all the saltwater, sun, hot dogs, pasta salad, red-white-&-blue cupcakes, and late-night fireworks from the day before.  So, we broke out the homemade oreos.

Good morning campers!  Homemade OREOS for breakfast?  You are at the right place!

My little buddy Carson-dude here, grinning, and sniffing those OREOs baking away.  Coming up next, cream filling!

Celebrating the 4th

HAPPY 4TH!

We pooled it.   The big kids swam, and Layne rode her "skateboard" through the fountains...and wore these awesome green goggles!  

We stayed cool in the afternoon, then walked down the street for the neighborhood block party.  The kids had fun in the bounce house, we grilled up some food, then watched the mini-fireworks display in the street!

It didn't take Layne long to figure out the fire and noise was not her thing!  She yelled all the way down the street as Royal took her home.  So, we decided to watch the pier fireworks from afar.  Not near as fun as sitting in the sand below, but we got to see them, and Layne was a little happier!