Baptising the Man-cub

Long ago,

In a brief distant time period,

There was a short summer.

And in those few days,

We went camping for a weekend.

And in that weekend,

We celebrated our socks off!

It was most definitely the hottest weekend of the year.

Almost too hot.

But we live in paradise here,

so the river was a puddle-jump away......

 Silas had his birthday,

and baptism.

The most special birthday in his entire existense.

 We had friends join us in celebration,

and family from states away....

Dad announced Silas' choice to follow Jesus,

and desire to folow in obedience to him.

baptism was a natural next step choice. 

 

A very special friend of Dad's was honored to perform the ceremony.

I never pictured my boy old enough to do this: 

Mercy,

Was I proud.

Another special friend Barbara came and brought mud pie dessert.

 

Cousins and friends brought gifts and company.

Does he look excited or what?

Almost as excited at the monkey right?

 Even though this was 4 months ago,
I am committed to revisiting his story,
long enough to share it,
and remembering it like it was yesterday,
The day my man-cub
Became less of a cub,
And more like a man. 



Camping Adventures.

We managed to find TONS of creatures that are unusual to us

(even though we were only about 30 min. from home)

Lauren found a snail with a crazy shell.

She was quickly disgusted and almost killed the poor thing

When she changed her mind about holding it in the first place.

Silas found his first wild pet of the season.

It was so impressive watching my man cub capture the thing.

It was a fast bugger.

I made him hold it by the tail- just in case it was poisonous ;)
We made a home school adventure out of it.

The day we got home,

We walked to the pet store

(suspended licence)
Silas got the scoop on his little guy.

He named it
"Rick Bob" or "Ricky Bobby"

Another amazing spectacle:

Silas having a real conversation with another adult.

Intelligently inquiring on very specific details.

It was impressive.

Here's what the pet store guy told him:

Not poisonous
Most likely a male.

Easily tamed. Yay!

Feed crickets, earthworms, and other non predatory bugs.

Can change their color to match their habitat
Very low maintenance

(because it is indigenous to our area, we can keep it outside! Double Yay!)

After an entire year, I am finally able to put our garage sale terrarium to use

So here's the deal,
Supposedly they're all over Southern Oregon and California,
Easy to maintain,
Are known to hang out on high things (like fence posts)
To bask in the sun.

So what are you waiting for????

Here's the kicker:
We bought some crickets for Rick to eat.
Because I am deathly afraid of crickets, he was completely on his own.
We do not have a lid for our habitat, so the poor guy had to pull the jumper legs off of the crickets with his bare paws.
He was a trooper and decided that his lizard was worth it.
What a guy.

For Heather.

Before I post about camping last weekend,

A recipe.

The kids favorite granola.

We tried making some for Monica,

But Monica wasn't home,

so we ate it.

Then had to make more to share with Monica.

3 cups dry oats (not instant)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup ground flax (flax meal)

In a small sauce pan,

melt butter and honey together

Mix remaining ingredients into the butter/honey

Bake 375 for 15 minutes,

Optional: stir occasionally throughout baking process.

For granola shapes:

before granola has cooled,

Form into desired shapes with hands or cookie cutter.

I wanted to wait to post this recipe until I had incorporated peanut butter,

But Heather asked before I could experiment.

Try it and enjoy.

Last Weekend........

We went camping.
Yes again.

It was our last planned trip of the summer.

Hopefully there will be a couple of last minute getaways,

but no guarantees.

Lauren used a bike with training wheels for the first time.

She was awesome at it.
The shirt my Grandma made for Claire.
Claire Great Grandma made it.

I got the idea for making hoola hoops from my long distance friend

Stephanie.

Daddy brought some pipe from work,

And I found decorative duct tape at Ace.

Silas learned to ride without training wheels.

He rode 'till his legs hurt

then rode some more.

And nearly gave his Daddy a heart attack.

I'm not sure if it was because of the fear for his son's life

or all the running.Oh how I will miss camping land.

Where babies stay in their jammies all day,

There's time for reading a cookbook or two.

Ice cream for breakfast.

bathing in the river.

Catching and eating.

Doing nothing....

camping Humbug

I did not mean to publish this post last night. I had a couple more pictures to post.

Blogger sometimes pulls fast ones on me.

I have actual proof that I was in the Frigid Oregon ocean water.

For the first time since being a kid, I boogie boarded.

I used to do it all the time as a kid (in the WARM SO Cal ocean)
and hadn't done it since.

to say that the water hurt is an understatement
It was like shards of ice, especially when it hit the belly.

I hadn't been full bodied into the ocean water since I was 18, but the salt in the eyes, ears, mouth brought back many memories of boarding as a kid.

The first time for both of them on roller blades.

This creek was about 10 feet from our campsite!

Homemade gram crackers

All of her naps were in the pack.

There were so many trails, we didn't even touch most of them.

There's a story behind this one.

This is our clothes line.

I walked out of the tent with Claire and found him doing this:

CAMPING ACCOMPLISHED

So, guess what?

We can camp!

I was so stinkin nervous- especially about bringing baby. It was amazing! We only stayed one night, but we made so many memories.

We went with some friends.
It was great to be with them.
They too have three kids.
This is their mom Linda.

Sand Stache

Campfire devotions.

One of her favorite people.....

A little too daring for me.
Claire's first encounter with deer.

Twirling in her 'Flicka' dress.

The weather was warm, and our kids behaved so well! We came home tonight exhausted, but read to go again next weekend.