A Pep Talk

This video totally made my day.

You should watch it right now.

Not cool Robert Frost!

Island Park!

As usual we had a total blast camping in Island Park over Labor Day weekend. The weird thing about this year is we had almost the entire campground to ourselves. It's usually packed every holiday weekend but this time there were only two other campsites being used besides ours. It rained half the time and was sunny half the time. Rob and I were really grateful that we borrowed his parent's wall tent this time because it rained so much one night that there was a puddle of water under our tent but it never soaked through. Phew! We took advantage of the sunshine by taking the girls and their cousins down to the water to go for boat rides, to swim and play in the mud and catch crayfish. Piper loved holding the baby crayfish. Ellie and her cousin spent lots of time burying each other's legs in the mud. 

I went for a run on Saturday morning and it was four miles of heaven. It was chilly and overcast which is my favorite running weather. The only thing I don't like about running in Island Park is the chance that I may cross paths with a bear. As much as I'd love to do some trail running up there, I tend to stick to higher traffic areas in hopes that there will be fewer bears. I've never personally seen one in my 10+years of camping in Island Park but every year it seems like there are more rules and warnings concerning bears and campsites and hiking and it freaks me out just a little bit. So I'll either be sticking to the roads or I'll have to buy a bear gun to take running with me.

Also check this out

Epic Hash Browns

Photographic proof of the best hash browns I've ever had in my life:

Courtesy of Rob and his brother Rich and my super awesome idea to flip them all at once. That's one big slab of heaven right there. 

Ride, Ride, Ride

Seriously love autumn. We had the best day the other day. Ellie had the day off of school so we loaded up and drove to the fields to take our yearly ride in the beet truck with Grandma Marti. The girls always have a fantastic time because everyone we see smiles and waves because they love seeing these two cute little redheads bouncing along in the truck and of course Grandma always has a bag full of the best treats ever. We couldn't have asked for better weather. 

After our awesome ride in Grandma's truck we headed over to Uncle Bruce and Aunt Valerie's to ride their horse, Splash, play on their swing set, jump on the trampoline and pick pumpkins and apples. The girls were in absolute heaven. Aren't they just so cute? :) Thanks Bruce and Valerie for a super fun afternoon!

Guilt-driven Canning Totally Pays Off

A good portion of my domesticity this autumn is driven by guilt. Anyone else feel that way? I get loads of produce from family and neighbors and I feel bad letting it go to waste so this year I decided to learn how to do some canning. It has always been super intimidating to me so I started with something easy like peaches,  then my mom offered to help me do tomatoes. Everything went perfectly. Canning isn't as scary as I thought.  I also tried this recipe found HERE. So delicious and super easy - you just wash the plums, pack them in a jar, fill with a honey syrup, pop in a cinnamon stick & vanilla bean, then process. I made four quarts and after tasting them I promptly made eight more. Even Piper loved it and that kid hardly eats anything. So far I've eaten them with vanilla yogurt, warmed up over ice cream, and on my protein pancake with almond butter for breakfast. When we've polished off all the plums in this jar I want to try reducing & thickening the syrup and putting it on everything I eat. I guess sometimes it pays to feel a little guilty.

(Picture included to make my grandma proud. Hi Grandma!)

Snuggle Bugs

I love it when my girls get along and actually want to hang out together. Even better is when they want to snuggle in bed before getting up for the day. 

and when they want to snuggle during movie time

Junior Racers

Our girls crack me up. Yesterday afternoon they asked me to come outside and watch them run a race. They were very official with their arm warmers, compression leg sleeves, and aid stations. I see race directors and racers in our future!