Monday, November 21, 2011

Cookie Campout 2011

21 Girls
7 adults
22 cookie recipes
To fill 22 boxes - 1 for each girl - with an assortment
Baking all day

Playing all day
Mattress races....
(even the adults can't resist that one!)

Crafting all day (the moms were all interested in the pop tab braclets)

10 Sit-upons made
Fastest assembly line ever to make Buckeyes
1 Through the Ages Girl Scout Uniform Fashion Show

Fire circle at night
2 pranked Juniors and 1 pranked Cadette (think toilet paper)
Roll-a-bag relays (to teach the young campers to roll their own bags!)

Playing with sticks!

21 tired girls
7 zombie tired adults

Everyones' favorite campout.
The best ever adult volunteers.
The best behaved campers.
1 of the best memories I will take with me.



Thursday, November 10, 2011

Road Trip PartII

After an overnight in Canton we got up and hit this road again.  This time...
...Good morning Cleveland!  Which was only an hour up the road.  And with the time change we got there a little early.  No problem as I wanted to see the Great Lake.  I have never been to see a Great Lake before and it was on my bucket list. Checked off.

What I didn't realize on a crisp November morning...was that I had left mine and Mouses winter coats hanging in the hotel closet.

Oh yes I did.

But it didn't stop me.


Mouse wasn't thrilled.

 But soon it was time for ...
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
Who knew Ohio was so cool?  I guess I missed that since its mostly on the other side of the state! LOL!

And yes we did stop at the hotel on the way home and pick up our coats. It was only 20 miles out of the way so I didn't feel so bad. Cheaper to drive it than have them mailed to the house.

And that was our wonderful, spur of the moment fall vacation.

And a big shout out to Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace budgeting program....because that way of life made it easy to pull the cash from various places and do this without running up a credit card.

And that just makes it so much better.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Road Trip Part I

I have to say that some of my very best times or trips have been spur of the moment events.  When we lived in Iceland you had to be able to function that way because you never knew what the weather would bring each day. Don't get me wrong...I like a "plan"....but I don't have to have one to function. And last weekend was one of those great weekends that just falls together with no pre-planning.

My very first best friend from when I was 10 and living in Germany, lives in the DC metro (that covers about 4 states, right??). She also travels to Ohio now and then to see family or friends.  But not my area Ohio.....North East Ohio.  And luckily I actually checked FB Thursday and saw that she was getting ready to leave for a road trip.  And I wondered...

Really we don't know how much time we have left in Ohio so I hoped she was coming this way.  This time I was going to make sure to go meet her and see her. Last time I saw her was on a trip home from Iceland about ten years ago. Long time.

When I found out she was staying not all that far from Canton...well I called Hubs because he had expressed regret recently about not getting up there.  And in the space of about an hour and a half Friday morning we had a weekend vacation planned.  And all I can say is thank goodness for cell phone technology because I arranged it all -- friend, hubs, dog sitters, child that needed to change plans and come home on the bus, etc...all from my car while running errands. Nice.

So early Saturday morning our family jumped in the car and headed for Canton. My friend met us at our hotel and I took off with her for a nice lunch while the crew went their own way. And it was a wonderful lunch. Of course it was way way too short but at least I had that little time.  And all these years later I can still say I wish I lived closer to her because I would love to have her in my every-day life.  Love you girl!!

And after she dropped me back off to my family...we jumped in the car and went to the place Hubs really wanted to see.
Do you know I had no idea that Ohio is where things got started?  Well - actually that should be no shocker as I don't watch football. But the museum was lots of fun. Loved the movie they showed and the displays.  The girls really loved it also. And I even bought the teen a Giants shirt....much against her fathers wishes. LOL. He offers to get me a jersey all the time...to which I tell him that's fine as long as its green. But he has a problem with that. And I have no jersey.
And of course we finished up the day at the hotel in the pool.  Mouse cannot live without a pool at the hotel. I think if you ask her the favorite part of any trip the answer is "the pool".  And the hot tub was Hubs friend since he threw his back out last week. He felt much better afterwards.

And tomorrow I will show you what we did on Sunday.....