Day Trip Weekend

We recently ignored the gas prices and took a weekend day trip up to the ranch in Birch Creek on Saturday, and had so much fun we decided to wander over to Virginia City, Montana on Sunday. We had all kinds of fun just taking in the beauty of nature and of course spending quality time together.

This is our ranch...it's where my roots are. My great-grandpa built the old ranch house over a hundred years ago. It's not livable now, needs some serious TLC, but the property is the best for taking the kids to just run and play, go fishing, ride 4wheelers, play in the creek...it's classic fun. And the panoramic views are out of this world.
At the ranch the kids had a blast wading and splashing in the creek.

On Saturday we hiked up to the Indian caves in Indianhead Canyon and then over to the Charcoal Kilns, where we roasted hot dogs and made smores. It is so pretty there, it's like stepping right into chalk art.

This is Indianhead Canyon...the caves have Indian paintings all over in them...and black sappy stuff...we think is rat or bat dung.

Here is one of the charcoal kilns...they were used to melt gold out of rocks in the wild west gold rush days. Cool that they are still standing.

So Sunday, we found a perfect park in Ennis for the kids to play. Now I understand why people keep moving to Montana. It's so laid back and relaxed there, takes you back about 100 years. We enjoyed the old buildings and wild west feel all around. I think I was born about a hundred years too late, but I wouldn't trade technology for old time wild west. I like indoor plumbing and modern appliances...hahaha

What a fun weekend!

Girlz

We're Cooking This Summer!

In high school, I was quite notorious for my (and these are direct quotes from guys I grew up with) "CHICKEN DOUGH SOUP" and "DUMP BARS". Not much left for the imagination in those titles, eh. ;D

I have managed to transform "CHICKEN DOUGH SOUP" into a scrumptious "Chicken NOODLE Soup" that would make my grandma (an excellent cook) proud. She showed me how to make the noodles from scratch before she left this world. Her homemade noodles were very popular amongst grandchildren, and now mine are equally loved. (I just had to learn from trial and error that you never put the noodles in first...This is how my blond brain works...I am not blond by hair color, just brain waves.)


I absorbed a mother load of interest in cooking when I was pregnant (pun intended) because I was hungry all the time, which sparked an addiction to The Food Network and all of their yumma little recipes. (I was like the girl, Jody, [ironic?] on Smallville who eats everything and everyone in sight, except I haven't ever eaten people to my knowledge...although I swear something about Taco Bell meat is not quite beef.) Anyway, ever since the food network obsession I have been much more conscious about healthy eating and making food from scratch instead of prepackaged...Yay!

So, I have come up with some really yumma recipes recently. The first one was chicken teriaki with steamed veggies over steamed rice. Obviously I didn't invent the dish, but I did not follow a recipe, just kinda dumped stuff in there. Even the kids ate it up, and if you know my kids (or at least one of them), you know that is as rare as a flying purple elephant. I guess I just get all excited when I can get the kids to eat something I cook besides mac & cheese....LOL




Million Dollar Cupcakes...
Also, a new cupcake cafe opened in my town recently, and just the idea of a cupcake cafe made me happy all over. So I walked in there, all ready to order everything on the menu...and then I saw the price list. Holy cupcakes, Batman! (they better be pretty holy and sacred for that price!!!) Yikes, they are...comparatively...3 times more than a gallon of gas for half a dozen cupcakes....that's SIX cupcakes for the price of 3 gallons of gas (depending on where you live).
So my brain is thinking, "I can buy a cake mix for $0.88 and make two dozen cupcakes including frosting for like a buck and a half." But they looked very appealing and I had to judge for myself if they were worth the price, so I splurged enough to get the girls and myself each one...okay, two for me and one for each of the girls. Shhhhh...don't tell anyone. They were very yummy, but nothing I couldn't whip up at home myself in practically no time if I could stand the heat of the oven in the summer long enough to bake them.


So I came home and tried my hand at cupcake copying from scratch for Father's Day...and mine were just as good (only slightly smaller) as the million dollar cupcakes downtown. The family all gobbled them up and approved of my recipe. I wish I would have taken pictures of the ones I bought so we could compare, but we did not take time for that as we all devoured them like cheetahs on their prey.
I did manage to take a picture of a couple that I made. The chocolate one got smooshed a little on the trip back from our Father's Day party, but it started out as puffy as the chocolate mint one. Keep in mind, these pictures were also taken the day after I made them, so the frosting had dried slightly. They look very similar to the ones at the cupcake cafe, and they were a piece of cake!!! (wink)


Gee, I'm not making you hungry now am I?

Weather Can't Stop Our Fun!

Summer is here (except the warm sunny part), but that isn't going to stop us from having fun! Last week we went to the park and played our guts out, wind, cold and all. At least it wasn't snowing, right? Here are Leesie, Jessie, Amber, and our neighbor friends Rosie and Angel. These girls are practically inseparable. We have a lot of sleepovers and fun together. BFF ;D

They tried all kinds of little tricks on the slide and climbing wall just to be silly. What a fun bunch of kids. (It's a good thing we like them all because my house seems to be the neighborhood hang out.) ;D

It's all fun and games until someone gets an eye poked out...haha...well we did get a few bumps and bruises, but no blood and no broken bones, so we are good, right? Leesie dressed herself, in case you couldn't guess. (wink) She so badly wants to wear her summer dresses, but it's still not warm enough and mama is so mean I won't let her go outside uncovered to catch a cold.

Isn't Maddie so cute!!?!?!