Summer To Do List

At the beginning of the summer Cali and her friend Kat made quite an extensive To Do list - fun activities they wanted to do together.

I posted the entire list over on my other blog. You can read their To Do list here.

If any of you knew Jim as a teenager you will see that Cali takes after her father more than her mother in some of her interests!!

This week she and Kat have been busy finishing up their list before Kat heads to Germany to nanny next week.

I came home from a meeting the other night to a fresh batch of banana ice cream - yum. Cross making ice cream off the list

We finally got some rain this week so they went ice blocking last night and crossed that one off the list.

The backyard campout got rained out though and four teenage girls ended up sleeping in our King size bed while Jim and I slept in Tessa's Queen.

They crossed rollerskating off the list too. Dressing up like total crazy people was not on the list but they did it any way.

I take no responsibility for Cali's fashion sense!!

Yes, they actually went out in public like this - and it wasn't Halloween!!

Not only did they go to the roller rink but they also went to Red Robin dressed up!!

Thanks to Tina and Dave Appel they were able to cross boating off their list too..

Tessa and Cali spent two days reading and studying for their boater's permit so they could drive their own jet ski. They both passed - danger!!

Yes, Tessa was the designated driver and she doesn't even have a regular driver's license yet!!

Both girls were incredibly stiff and sore the next morning and walked around like old women all day moaning and groaning!

There are a few things still on the list. They are running out of time so a few of the things may get left undone. Let's hope skinny dipping is one of them!!

Backyard Campout

We had a fun and busy weekend!

I spent the best part of Friday cooking.

Our neighbor Sheri's sister passed away this last week. Lisa, was diagnosed with a brain tumor 10 years ago. Despite some failing health in the last year or so her death was unexpected and very hard on her family.

I offered to make some food for the family dinner after the service. I made a Texas Almond sheet cake and some zucchini cupcakes with caramel icing - they were yummy.

Tessa and I drove out to Gladstone to attend the funeral. It was a nice service but long - 2 hours. It was at a Luthern Church. One of Sheri and Lisa's sisters is LDS and her husband was one of the speakers at the service. It was a bit strange to hear someone quoting James Talmage and the prophet Alma in a Luthern church! One thing was made clear though - the spirit always accompanies true doctrine. The first half of the service had included lots of readings, scriptures, song and some preaching from the minister but it wasn't until Chris spoke and taught true doctrine that I felt the spirit.

We were invited to the family dinner afterwards but I needed to get back home to prepare the food for the next event - a family BBQ at our friends the Densleys

One of my CM team members had shared a piece of very fresh salmon her husband had caught with us so I fixed it for the BBQ - it had rave reviews and several people told me it was the best salmon they had ever had. I don't care for salmon but I liked this!

I also made a yummy grape salad - a weird combination of sour cream, cream cheese, brown sugar, almonds and grapes but so yummy!! Both recipes will be on the blog soon!

We had a fun Saturday with a trip to the Farmer's Market and the Garlic Festival which I already blogged about and then dinner at Helvetia Tavern.

Because it had been hard week for our neighbors Cali and Tessa invited the kids - Brock and Olivia over for a backyard campout Saturday night.

They pitched the tent in the back yard and slept in it.

They had to wake up early in order to get ready for church.

I managed to entice them into the house with freshly baked blueberry muffins!