Dinner and a Hike

Scott went for a looong hike this weekend. He and his zany friends went to New Hampshire to the Presidential Range, where Mt. Washington is (the mountain he ran up in June). Instead of hiking one mountain, they hiked the entire range. 19 miles going up and down mountains. They started hiking at 5:30 in the morning and finished at 7:00 that night. I asked Scott what his favorite part of the hike was and he said, "the whole thing was fun." He definitely got his "mountain fix," which I think he needs every once in awhile.

While Scott hiked, Bruce and I went to a friend's house (her hubby was also hiking). Bruce ran in circles with kids while we chatted and ate. I had grand visions of painting nails and watching chick flicks, but when it came down to it, I was too tired and found that I really had no desire to paint my nails.

Tonight we invited a few people over for dinner: the missionaries from church, a guy whose wife went out of town for a few weeks, and a new lady at church that just moved from Haiti. I made internet-inspired Haitian food; I found recipes for red beans and rice, pineapple nog, and fried bananas. Perhaps I should know better than to cook Haitian food for a Haitian. Ahhh. Turns out that she brought red beans and rice AND fried bananas too. So we had this totally unplanned cook-off. We all tasted the authentic rice and beans versus my overcooked mushy version. Our bananas turned out like a sugary dessert and hers were saltier. As for the "pineapple nog," she said it was good but that it wasn't Haitian. So much for international internet recipes.

Breakdancing?

Blackberries at Camp

Blackberries

Camp Pictures

Campout Anniversary

This weekend was the annual church campout in Vermont. Last year, we had a tiny tent and it rained and rained. This year the weather was gorgeous and we brought our new mansion of a tent. Bruce and I drove up to Vermont on Thursday and set up camp; I was in charge of it, so I had to be there. Scott finished up a few projects on Friday and drove up with friends that night.


It took me and my friend, Sarah, at least a half-hour to figure out how my tent was supposed to go up. The past few trips, I've always entertained Bruce while Scott put the tent up singlehandedly. Now I'm totally in awe of him. I'm not sure how he did that by himself. I sure appreciated him a little more that night. Very fitting since it was our 5-year anniversary!

After we got the tent up on Thursday night, we were too tired to make a real meal so Bruce had a dinner of trail mix before going to bed. The next morning he ate three pancakes and about 4 cups of blackberries picked off the bushes.

We spent the day swimming in the pond and chatting with people from church. Scott made it to camp around dinnertime and helped put Bruce to bed, then we went by the campfire and made s'mores while listening to a lady from church play the guitar and sing songs.

On Saturday we served up a breakfast of bagels, cereal, danishes, muffins, and fruit to everyone at camp and then had a service project: pulling weeds in flower gardens and chopping wood. That afternoon Bruce must have been feeling a little attention-deprived. He picked up a soccer ball and chucked it at a month-old baby's head! I was quite upset; he had a serious time-out, then Scott took him on a hike before we packed up and headed home.

All in all, camp went well. No injuries. Maybe a few tears: there was a chorus of wailing babies every night. But still, everything went well.

Catching Up

Now that we're back from our travels, it's time to make up for lost time on the beach. Bruce loves to dig his hands in the sand and then make huge piles of sand before stomping on them.
At the beginning of the summer, he screamed when we put him in the water. Now he wades in up to his chin and blows out his mouth to make little bubbles. No pictures of that move; I'm always out there lifeguarding.
He makes the funniest faces.
He tried his hand at beach volleyball, but I think he will make a better runner.
Finally! A new hiding spot when playing hide and seek. This may sound completely stupid to pretty much everyone reading this, but this is a big deal since we play hide and seek at least twice a day. Until now, hiding has been limited to three places: behind a chair, under the covers in his bed, and inside the play kitchen cupboard.

Lots of Links

Tiffany pointed out that I'm not very well-connected in terms of links. I added a bunch, but didn't really organize them. Right now everyone is lumped together as "friends and colleagues." Maybe someday I'll actually divide links into BYU peeps, high school buddies, church families, and so on. But I'd rather watch the Olympics right about now.

And by the way, go Josh! He will be running the 3,000-meter steeplechase: prelims are on Friday and finals are on the following Monday. Josh went to high school in northeast Ohio (like me) and is Mormon (like me) and went to BYU (like me) and is now at the Olympics (not like me).

Montana Reunion

Beware, this may be the longest post ever. I just have so many pictures that I wanted to include. So while the Marses had their Cousin Camp, we headed to Montana for the Raymond Reunion. We spent a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's house (those pictures will have to come later) and then went to a cabin in the mountains and spent a few days there.
The cabin had a big dining room/living room/pseudo-kitchen and a little sleeping area, so half of the party slept inside and the other half slept in tents. We got this lovely tent and for the first time in our many camping trips, we kept the rain fly off for a few nights (it seems like it always rains when we go camping).

There were several lakes by the cabin and we took a dip at least once a day in them. The water was cold.

I got Scott this awesome Chuck Norris T-shirt at a close-out store in Ohio.
Bruce's cousin, Kenzie, with Aunt Nancy.
The ladies took the raft out.

Bruce's cousin, Annie, took a breather at the side of the lake.
This is Scott's youngest brother, Mark. He's a total Montana Mountain Man: he loves skiing (Scott and Mark hiked up Mount Blackmore and Mark skied a bit a few days ago - yes, in August), hiking, biking, and all things manly.
This is the view from the cabin at night. It was so peaceful.
This is Bruce in the morning. He popped right out of bed and is ready to go.
Grandpa made scrambled eggs for breakfast on the fire.

Scott is striking a lovely pose here.
Here is the busy "dining hall." We packed a ton of food.
This hike was a bit disastrous at first. We hiked for an hour, lost the rest of the group, and then trampled through scratchy sage and briars to find a lake.
Bruce borrowed Grandpa's binoculars. He would hold them up and say, "I see you!"
Once we got to the lake, we sat down and had some snacks: peanut M&Ms.

On the way back to the cabin, we crossed a stream.
This made the hike worthwhile. Bruce found a wooly caterpillar all by himself and was simply thrilled.
Back at the cabin, we had more snacks with Kenzie.
Grandma took the kids out to the horse pasture. They swung on the gate and thought it was cooler than a roller coaster.
All the grandkids couldn't stop smiling.

Here is my one picture of me on the trip. I'm wearing my mom's "hippie hat" that survived the '60s and kept me from burning to a crisp (with the help of lots of sunblock too). Yes, Bruce is on my lap in the car. The cabin was at the top of a hill and the lake was about a third of a mile downhill, so we had to drive to get us and all the boats and lifejackets and gear down and up again. I let Bruce sit on my lap for that (no one else was on the road), but yesterday he asked to sit on my lap on the way home from the airport. Um, no.
Scott's sis, Lana, and her son, Jared, playing in the lake.
Here's Mark taking a jump off the rope swing.
Scott took his turn too. He's making a great face in these shots.

Nancy was a bit scared.
Nancy climbed on Scott's raft, which started deflating.
Nancy and Scott started to paddle to shore in their raft while Mark, Leslie, and I paddled the canoe back. Then in the middle of the lake, Leslie decided to ambush their already-deflating raft.
This crowd of kids watched as the raft war went on.
They ended up swimming most of the way back and towing the raft to shore.

I got Bruce a pair of Tevas for $1 at the same close-out store where I got the Chuck Norris shirt. Those came in handy.
In the evenings, the Raymond siblings would tease each other and tell stories while making s'mores.
Annie had a nicely roasted marshmallow. It became a competition to see who could roast the best marshmallow: gooey in the middle, lightly browned and crisp on the outside, and not a speck of black on it.
The three generations of Raymond men. Unfortunately Bruce the Younger was not very cooperative.
After a week of camping, my legs were pretty hairy. Just kidding. They were bad, but not this bad. These are Mark's legs. He slept on the cabin's porch every night next to a can of bear spray. On the last night, there was a big wind storm and our tent kept folding and flapping so we ended up moving in the middle of the night to the porch right next to him. We slept under the stars, which would have been romantic except that Bruce climbed in the sleeping bag with us and peed his pants.