CAMPING!!

 We are campers. But camping in the midwest is different. There are no mountains, but luckily there is plenty of camping-approved foliage places. However, without going up in elevation to pitch a tent, the temperature is the same in the campground as it is at home. Which means unless you have a fancy trailer with air conditioning, no one camps between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. So of course we took advantage of the long weekend in May and LOVED it.

We found this place in Illinois and it was even better than we thought it would be. If you look hard in the picture you can see the lake through the trees beyond our tent. Pretty cool!

I've always wondered why everything tastes better camping. The extra dirt? The extra labor? Not sure.

Hiking. My definition of a hike is to find a trail in the mountains. Remember, no mountains here. So Dan and I kind of laughed when we saw a sign for a hike. It was definitely pretty, and to be honest, I kind of liked that I didn't have to climb up a mountain. And since we got lost it was REALLY long, so it seemed a little more like a "hike." (Note to self, all roads do NOT lead back to the campground).

Um, squirrel hunting? Gross.

Suddenly we came upon this place. It looked like something from Lost.

 This is what it said on the door. Of course we went in. But it actually did smell like death, so we promptly turned around and left.

 Yay for love! And for camping by yourselves so you don't care what you look like (don't judge).

 Literally, the second we made it back from our "hike," the rains started. We hunkered down in the tent to ride-out the storm (thank goodness for Dominion). It let up for about 30 minutes - just enough time to get a fire and dinner going. I was bound and determined to have delicious dutch oven chicken (I did) and peach cobbler (I did). But it took some TLC to keep the coals dry and hot.

The end.

Oh SNAPple

I am the worst blogger ever. In my defense, I work full-time and I'm the rsp in our ward. It doesn't leave much time for blogging, but I'm committing to be better. Rather than give a huge photo dump from the last several months, I'll just give you a highlight of this last weekend and eventually I'll catch-up. Promise.

After surviving the St. Louie tornado Friday night (it was about 25 miles away . . . right next to where I work. Please don't judge me for hoping that the power wouldn't come back on before work started Monday morning. I was "this" close to having the day off. Sigh.) So after surviving the tornado, we headed out Saturday morning for some Dragon Boat Racing. No, we've never done it before. Dan's new MBA program (did I mention husband is now getting an MBA concurrently with his bLaw degree? Talk about over-achiever.) Anyway - his program was competing in this corporate Dragon Boat competition and he signed up to be one of the rowers. And since I'm the wife I went along for the ride. Well, due to some post-tornado bad weather, the races were postponed and a few of the female team members had to leave early, which meant they were desperate for another girl rower. Good thing the wife came along!

Remember how when you go skiing for the first time in a long time you get really sore and find out you have muscles you didn't know you had? Welcome to Dragon Boat racing. Talk about an upper body workout that would make Jillian Michael's proud. I'm still sore. The cool thing is that we took 3rd place and I am now the favorite among Dan's new MBA friends.

We think we're cool.

Oh, and I promise the title to this post has meaning. Due to my awesome couponing skills, Snapple's were on sale for 18 cents each. Husband "made" us buy a LOT of them (I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many we really bought. Don't judge.) If you come visit, I promise we will have an ice-cold Snapple waiting for you in the fridge.