THE ANNUAL YOUNG CAMPOUT

was at Cascadia State Park this year and wow, did we ever love it there!

We went on a hike that took us to petrglyphs - we were told they are thought to be the oldest in the NW.
Unfortunately, people have tried to carve their initials and other things in the rock and many are gone due to vandalism.
It's a really amazing wonder tucked into the forest.

The water was super duper cold, but of course it didn't stop us from having shenanigans and loads of fun.

We also hiked up to Soda Creek Falls.  It's a really pretty, 3/4 mile STEEP hike.  We had so much fun.

This is an ancient Indian burial site.  It is so quiet and peaceful in this area - and would you believe it, it's the pet exercise area.
Luckily for us, we were the only ones there so we could feel it's reverence.

The weekend ended with a dead battery, car sickness and a dead van.  Other that those minor setbacks, the weekend was a smashing success.
We're already looking forward to the 2014 campout!

IT'S OFFICIAL - HE'S SIX!

Lach makes us laugh everyday.  

He thoroughly loves being inappropriate and the reactions he gets.  

He is a riot and you never know what he is going to do or say.  

We are SO happy he was born.

He is a joy to our family and he is the perfect caboose to our clan.  

That face melts our hearts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LACH!

WE LOVE YOU!!

LAURA RAE DESIGNS

I'm really excited - we've decided to sell the wood letters and symbols again.    

42 inches - $75
Custom fonts and colors available.
And, of course, smaller custom sizes are an option.  $2 an inch.

Happy, happy!

SNEAK PEEK - LONGBOARDLARRY BENCH

This is the COOLEST bench.  It's coming soon to the LongBoardLarry website.  AND, the best part is that Larry will be doing custom colors.

EXPLOSION CAKE

Lach is turning six and we celebrated his birthday early with a family party.  We had a pasta potluck because this boy loves his macaroni and cheese.  Then, of course, it was presents and cake.

Lach's cake was a hot mess.  Thankfully, this happy go lucky boy of ours turned it to a positive and saved his mama lots of tears.

I put blue cake balls in it as a surprise for him and as I was icing it, the cake was peeling away in front of our eyes.  No amount of icing could save it.  The weight of the icing would actually make it peel away even more.  Lach decided that the blue cake balls were lava bombs and made the cake explode.  So this was named the year of the explosion cake.

He was spoiled with presents and it was a pure joy watching him unwrap them.  He is a little ball of excitement.  Only six more days until he's officially six!

HOT DOG BAR

My aunt and uncle are visiting from Utah, so we had a family bbq - a hot dog bar, to celebrate.

On the menu:

Polynesian dog - hoisin sauce, pineapple, scallions
American dog - ketchup, mustard, relish
MacDaddy dog - mac and cheese, salsa
Thai dog - cilantro, peanut sauce, carrots
Chili dog - chili, cheese, sour cream

Everyone brought a side dish to share and their favorite drink and voila, we had a feast to go along with the laughter and chitchat.

I am one lucky gal.  I seriously have the BEST relatives and John and Ann are two of my favorite.

And for those of you wondering about the hot dog bar.  All of the dogs got rave reviews but there was a clear favorite - the Polynesian dog.

SWIMMING PARTY

The older boys were out for the evening having teenager fun.  Our parent's ward was having a swim party and they invited us to bring the wee ones.

I have titled this photo as Farmer Tans and Loosing Britches

The lovebirds on the left are celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary on Tuesday.
The lovebirds on the right just celebrated their 45th.
Our parents rock and I'm so glad they are best friends!

It was a fun summer evening and a super fun ward activity.  Hopefully we'll get an invite next year! (hint, hint)

ARMPIT FUDGE

Landon learned how to make armpit fudge at scout camp and has been teaching anyone and everyone he can about his new culinary skill.

We had Elder Lightheart and Elder Adams over for dinner and now they have a new skill.

Want to make it yourself?  Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP butter
2 tsp cream cheese
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp vanilla

Put in a ziplock bag, seal well, and mix with your hands.  Once it starts getting incorporated, put in in your armpit and move it to keep mixing.

We don't have any vegan cream cheese on hand, so I haven't tasted it yet.  Larry said it tastes like chocolate icing.  It's a hit with the boys and has them laughing like crazy during the armpit mixing.

Lach is already making plans to teach his children.

ANCESTOR CAKE

Tonight we started a new family tradition that will help the family learn, in a fun way, a little bit of their family history.  Ancestor cake.
I went back six generations and wrote down all the grandmas and grandpas birthdays and did the same for Larry's family.  This month we have eight ancestors who had birthdays.
I looked to see if we had a photo of them, wrote down their vitals and if there were any interesting tidbits about their life.
We took turns reading a life snip-it of a birthday ancestor and then sang happy birthday to them.  The kiddos got to blow out the candles and then we talked about family history memories over dessert.
I hope that with us doing this every month, it will help our family realize their ancestors were real people.
Also, I hope it ignites some family history interest.  Some of our ancestors, all we know is a birth and death date.  No photos.  No personal information about their life.  Some ancestors have a few mysteries to solve.  Some have skeletons in their closet.  Some information is heartbreaking.  Some, we have loads of information about, including fun journal entries that really help bring alive their personalities.  I hope when my children are studying something in school, like the Civil War, for example, they come home and ask me, "remember that one grandpa that fought in the Civil War?  Can you tell me more about him?"
More importantly, I hope they connect with an ancestor and want to help fill in 'the dash' between their birth and death dates.
This new family tradition, besides being delicious, is enlightening, humbling and exciting.