Camping...

Growing up, I went camping a lot.  As I got older it didn't happen as much, but I always missed it.  

My husband did not go camping growing up.   He had gone a few times in his twenties, but it wasn't anything he did often.  

Last month he and our son went camping in Wasa, BC with our friends who live in Canada.  They loved it.  Minus a few 'situations' that were out of their control.  So of course they wanted to take me.  

 

With our new tent in tow and lots (and lots!) of other stuff, that I had NO idea how we got it all in the car, we arrived at our site.  

I put up our six man tent with no help...

While they put up a two man tent. Together.

Being as we're newbie campers, we went with basics: tents, sleeping bags, cooler and a campfire.  Sleeping on the ground.  ugh.

We went the next day and bought inflatable mats to sleep on.  ;)

It rained the first morning and so we went to breakfast at Denny's!  HA!

And, oh my. The mosquitoes....they were out in full force and I'm still feeling the effects.  I honestly think bites are still popping up!  I am scratching like crazy!!!

We did the hot dogs and s'mores thing the first night, but since it rained, we got pizza for dinner (there's a little pizza/ice cream place right on  the way to camp) the second night.

Canada has a thing for heart shaped rocks.  A few weeks ago we  took a little road trip there and I found some others...I kinda love it!!

The wildlife was minimal: Wasa Lions, which are like squirrels, and a few deer.  Also, we saw an amazing moth (I know, not wildlife, but still) that was snow white.  Pure white that looked almost pearly!  I took a picture, but it doesn't do it justice.

Anyway...

This is the lake.  It's not really that big and has a cute little town surrounding it.  I loved the colors and clouds in this shot and was so glad it came out so true to what I saw.

There were so many variables that could have made it our last camping trip, but we muddled through and can't wait for our next one!

I think we may look into a camper/trailer of some sort, though!  lol...

To do today:

Make pancakes!

It's been pretty hot around these parts.

So there hasn't been a lot of good sleep being had.

(OK, I know it's been pretty hot around most parts lately).

Today we were given a reprieve and it's greatly appreciated.

No sun. No humidity. No sweating.

In fact it looks and feels like rain.  But cool rain. 

It is with a bit of shame and lots of rest that I tell you we all woke up and fell back asleep at different intervals all morning.  

I got up for real at about 11:30 a.m. and it was awesome!

My son got up at 12:15 p.m.!
After the good mornings were said, he asks "What's for breakfast?"

Seriously.

I just looked at him and said "Lunch."  He claims to have no idea what time it was.
Apparently the clock in his room goes unnoticed.

Then he goes into the kitchen and comes out with a silent plea.

He's been asking for a few days (I know, how mean of me to not make them before now), so I suppose I best get to it....

Copy-cat!!

Debbie is having a Copy-cat party and I wanted to attend, so here I am!!

I recently spied the cutest outdoor checkers set in which the board was a small vintage style tablecloth with the checker pattern in the center. The game pieces were vintage looking buttons.

Super cute.

And I wanted it, but for $27, I figured dragging our original style checkers game outside would suffice. Not super cute, but it would get the job done. ;)

Until one day I was trolling through the local Goodwill store and not finding anything, started to walk out and I spotted a brown wooden checker board! For $ .99....it was a no brainer, so it came home with me.

Imagine my surprise when I bought the recent Woman's Day mag (with the cute 'corn' cupcakes on the cover) and flipped through and saw that they copied me!!

Well, not really, but I bought my board way before I saw the how-to article. So there!

The board I bought had light and dark squares on it so it made a great template. All I did was spray it with primer, then taped off stripes to paint. I then sanded it down to give it a worn look and trimmed it out with an antique white craft paint. A light poly coat and she was done.

Except I didn't have any playing pieces. Not to worry! Another trip to the GW (after forgoing finding buttons) and I found a checkers/chess game for $1.99 and painted the pieces coordinating colors.

(I just noticed this pic is off center and it's bugging me!! Sorry 'bout that...)

I love how it looks and have it all set up for a game if you wanna come over....

Check out the party!! Lots of cute ideas to see!!

C'mon...

Please tell me you love strawberry pancakes with sour cream as much as I do...

YUMMY!!!!

May Already?

Yes, it's been a while....again. Seriously, I can't make up my mind about this blogging thing.

Anyway, this is a shot of the roses I got for Mother's Day. They were shoved into a too small vase by my son and husband, but after a day or two, it occurred to me that they'd look really cute in the canning thing I bought at Wal-Mart along with the four jars I recently bought.

Love those boys!

Hmmm...

Yeah, so it's been a while. And my last post was pretty lame to boot! ;)

I got a part time job that feels like it is just sucking the life right out of me. Not a good feeling, but I guess that's life, huh? I'm working on a little something that will definitely help that feeling, but it's not anything that I want to share just yet.

There's been lots swirling around my brain to blog about, but I haven't had the energy to do anything about it. I have been keeping up reading all my favorites though and sometimes it feels better to just traipse through other people's days, don't you think?

This weekend is my birthday and our son has a hockey tournament, so I asked for four days off. I got them, which is awesome, and so I decided that when not at hockey, I am going to learn how to sew. And start painting all the furniture/stuff I've collecting.

No excuses!

I hope I can do it and not get too frustrated...I'd love to make something useful. I know I've written about this before but I haven't done anything about it.

Now's the time! Wish me luck....

As usual...

❤ My soon to be 14 (on Friday!) y.o. son taught me something new. ❤

☞ He showed me what the 'Special Characters' thingy does. ☜

☼ And I have two things to say about it: "awesome!" and "duh!" ☼

I am in ♡ with both him and this new-found fun!

I promise to show some control with this knowledge since

you all probably already knew about it.

☺

*edited to add

uh oh....and in color ✴

hot diggity!