trailer life

We are done with tents, sleeping bags and coolers!  Keith has always had a dream of driving across the country in an RV and seeing all the sights.  I've never been 100% with him on that dream, because the thought of driving in an RV (and not having a car to easily get in and out of places) was not my idea of fun.  But a trailer on the other hand----something you could unhitch and have the freedom of your car, but the luxury of coming back to something that is NOT a tent, well, that sounded nice.  We did our research and voila!  Here we are.

We found a trailer that is perfect for the three of us.  A cushy queen bed for me and Keith, and a nice fold out bed for Luke.  A full kitchen and (yay) a bathroom (no more freezing middle of the night treks with the flashlight to the yucky campground bathroom with fear of wild animals lurking in the dark).

There's so much more than just hitching up and driving off into the sunset, so we've been learning how to use this new toy.  We just went on our first trial run on an overnight trip to Belfair State Park.  Somewhere close to home, yet not too far into the wilderness, just in case we needed to ask for help on how to use this thing!

First of all . . . Belfair?  I don't know about you, but Belfair has not been at the top of my list of favorite places to visit.  I've been to Belfair State Park before (years ago) and it was just so-so in my memory.  But when we went to check out an RV site to camp on, I was pleasantly surprised at how pretty the RV area was.

We reserved a site right on the water.  Just look at the view outside our door.





Since this was going to be the first week of fall, it felt and looked like fall on our camping day.  It was raining everywhere else, but here it was breezy and sunny.  The tall grass was golden, the queen anne's lace had beautifully dried, there were yellow daisies and wild roses, still with a few blooms and lots of rose hips. (and high tide).







Sunset was serene.





Early the next morning, it was calm, still and the water was like glass.



Low tide.

It was so fun.  We LOVED having our little "home away from home" complete with all the luxuries (tv and fireplace too).  Our goal is to take the trailer somewhere at least once a month, maybe more in the nicer months.

I realize I didn't take any pictures of the inside, but I will next time.  My favorite part had to be getting up early in the morning and walking right outside the door with my camera.  More adventures are coming!

grandkids only

I was going to title this "our anniversary" (which it was), but hey, its all grandkids.  Calley had asked us weeks in advance if we could babysit for her this day (yes!), and it just happened to be on our 38th anniversary.  We can't believe we've been married for all those years!  Time really has flown by.  Not meaning to sound trite, but its so true.

Back to the grandkids.  These guys have been gone most of the summer!!  School had just started, but Claire, who's in all day kindergarten now (can't believe that either) didn't start school until the following day.  We missed Summer and Abby, but it was so fun to spend so much one on one time with Claire and Lee.



Lee is growing up so fast!  Look at those curls!  I just can't get enough of them.





Claire requested making cupcakes with me.  The only cake mix and frosting in my pantry was orange creamsicle cake and strawberry frosting.  I didn't have time to run to the store to get any other flavors, so this is what we whipped up.  So fun that she likes to do this.





I'm apologizing in advance for the overload of Lee pics, but I can't help myself.









That face!













Yes, he got quite dirty playing outside.  It wasn't until I came home and was looking over my pictures that I saw that his hands were nearly black with dirt from the trampoline or something else.  And I was horrified when I realized I had put him down for his nap with those filthy hands and never even cleaned him up.  I guess a little dirt never hurts.  So happy to spend this time with them!

end of summer roundup

Rounding up what I didn't blog about, catching up with the rest of our summer.  Just the facts:

Star Valley Wyoming Temple.  We stopped by here as we were driving down from the Tetons to Utah.  A photo I didn't include---they have alpine strawberries as part of their landscaping!  Tiny, very delicious, and yes, we ate some.  I think that's okay, isn't it?







Mt. Timpanogos Temple.  Toby lives super close to it (5 or so minutes away?), so we went there for a little walk-around on Sunday afternoon.  Since the last time we were there, they surrounded it with fencing.  It was HOT that day (same day we went to Sundance).







Calley and fam got home from their 6 week RV trip about 2:00am on Sunday.  She and Claire came over after our church to pick up the pets, and we got to give Claire her birthday presents.  She turned five while on their vacation.



She's into Monster High dolls, which personally I'm not a fan of, but she was so happy.





Keith trimmed the trees along our driveway.  You're probably saying, what's the big deal, but it was a HUGE deal.  He's been wanting to do this for years.  They were so big and grew over so much of our driveway, that they were starting to form a tree tunnel.  At least three big delivery trucks have refused to drive up our driveway this year.  This isn't even the finished picture, because he went back and got more of them.  He enlisted Luke's help to drag the branches to a giant burn pile.  Luke impressed us all with his work skills----he worked hard because we bribed him with a dinner from Sonic when the job was done.



Our summer garden is growing like crazy.  Keith planted tons of tomatoes, as always.  Also green beans, corn, and squash (summer and winter).  Down in our field, we plowed out a joint garden with our neighbors Wayne and Lora.  (not "we" but Keith and Wayne, now that they're both retired).  Planted down there are tons of corn, more squash, and Wayne and Lora planted their own little vegetable patch that they bring their grandkids up to pick veggies when they come over to visit.





This is not a pumpkin.  Keith planted some of the winter squash in big pots on the patio.  This is some type of a hubbard squash---which are normally a blue/gray color.  But on each of the plants (from the new seed packets) we've got both blue/gray and orange.  Weird and interesting.



And last, I did zero flower planting this year.  Anything that grew was from the last season.  This hydrangea is a plant I put in a pot last summer.  It starts out white, gets a little pink on the edges, and then turns this pretty shade of . . . everything.



I'm pretty much caught up on the blog!  Hopefully I can keep more current from here on out!