Men and their "toys"~

Deron is an avid gun man. He loves to shoot guns, talk about guns, look at gun magazines and do anything "guns". He has always liked to take the kids shooting from the time they were about 12 years old (some got to go learn earlier than others) and teach them how to be a safe shooter. They have shot cans, logs, water balloons, clay pigeons and targets. Its a fun time for Dad and kids to bond...so I let them have fun without voicing (too loudly) how I feel about guns. I am NOT against guns at at...I just personally don't like them or like to shoot them. When I was taking hunters safety, years ago when I was 12, I was doing the shooting test and one of the bullets (in my gun) backfired and blew up in my face...no harm was done, but it scared me to death and I have hated guns since. I think I have only shot one once since that time and will probably keep it that way. During our Labor Day adventures this year, Deron taught Halle how to shoot. He had been telling her for some time now that he wanted to teach her how to shoot, but she would never go with him. WELL...he thought that their little camping trip would be the perfect opportunity to put the plan into motion. At first she didn't want anything to do with learning...BUT after experiencing it, she loved it. She couldn't get enough of it!!!! So...Deron has another one hooked. I think all of my kids love to shoot guns, not as much as their dad does....but its still one of their favorite times with him. They all talk about the memories that they have going up to the shooting range or somewhere else and spending that time with their dad. Deron is such a wonderful dad. He has so much patience and likes to spend time with the kids, no matter how old they are. Sometimes its things that he likes to do and sometimes they
get to pick what they want to do with Dad... but not matter what it is, he gladly goes along and enjoys every minute of it!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...oh my!

Saturday, Kim and I decided we were going to pack a lunch and drive up the canyon for a hike. Deron called and said that we should change our plans and come up to the little "hide-away" where they had camped. He said they had gone on a hike earlier that morning and had found an amazing trail that would take us clear back into the mountains, through the brush, the pines and even a small creek. WOW...it sounded fun, so we finished packing our lunch and headed up to pay them a visit....thinking that we would ALL go, but when we got there, nobody wanted to venture up the trail again. After a little debate, Cameron decided that he wanted to come- so off we went. It was a gorgeous path. Lots of pine tree's, squirrels, birds and even a little rain. We ate our lunch along the trail, took lots of pictures and even sang some goofy songs that I used to sing with the kids when they were little. Kim kept saying that we had been on the trail long enough and was ready to go back...I wanted to hike for at least an hour and THEN turn around. We were at the "5 more minutes" mark, when we stopped to rest and I told them, "Just 5 more minutes, and then we'll turn around". We were looking around at the way the path was going. It was heading up into some pretty thick bushes and narrowing...not that it bothered any of us, but just observing. Cameron was the first to see the markings on the tree's right by us...YES a bear had left its mark in several tree's right there next to us and YES they were fresh! At first we thought maybe we were just freaking ourselves out...but NO, we looked closer and could see that they defiantly were bear markings. Earlier (not too far back on the trail), we had passed some "FRESH DUNG" on the trail...I thought it looked like bear poop then, but I didn't want to say anything to the kids or scare them so we just said "Hmmm...animal poop" and kept walking. NOW we were scared...at least a tad bit nervous to say the least. I've always wanted to see a bear in the wild...but I wanted to be DRIVING when I did...and we WEREN"T driving!...We had walked 55 minutes up the trail and decided that we had gone far enough...(and we were a bit scared)...so we turned around and headed back. We were making as much noise as possible and still trying to hurry without running...but somewhere along the way, I think we must have ran because we made it back to camp in 15 minutes....We were all happy to be back safe and sound and glad that the bear kept to himself, where ever he was.

Labor...what is it?...Whatever you make it~

"Labor= work, especially hard work"...anyway-that's what the dictionary tells me. Therefore that means this weekend is supposed to be full of WORK, RIGHT?!...SO why do we all leave, vacation and celebrate like its a holiday?? Well...work didn't happen in my house either..(I guess there is still tomorrow though). Being the last weekend of the "Summer Holidays", Deron wanted to go camping. I started out loving the idea, but as the days were getting closer I got dreading it more and more. I love to camp, don't get my wrong, I went camping once this year already and it burnt me out and I haven't been able to go since. Camping is just as fun as you make it, I absolutely believe that...but as a woman, it also entails a lot of work without the convinces of home and I think that one has to gear themselves up for such things. Like cooking (love to cook) over a campfire (not my favorite way to cook), cleaning (I actually like to clean...to some degree-I like to have a clean environment) without the ability to BE clean...washing dishes in a dish pan of "sort of" clean water-not my idea of fun. Preparing meals for a good part of the day (do that 2x a year, Thanksgiving and Christmas...not wanting to do that any other time of the year), at least if you want to eat something other than hot dogs and cereal...anyway, you get the idea. So I opted out of the Labor Day camping trip. Deron and Cameron and Halle still wanted to go, which I thought was awesome for them to be able to spend some time together...you know "Dad and kid time". So Kim and I stayed home to have "Mom and daughter time". Without anyone else home, we decided we were going to have a PJ party "SCARY movie" marathon, eat food in front of the TV and pop popcorn. We started right at 5:30, when the "caravan" pulled out of the driveway. Our first movie of choice wasn't a scary one, but one that we both had wanted to watch. Then we watched "The Passengers"! It ended up NOT being scary and we were both bummed...the show was good, but left us both feeling let down that our time was running out and we hadn't even scared ourselves yet. Then we watched "The Haunting of Molly Hartley"...it was pretty scary (at least the part that I stayed awake for). Kim kept saying, "Mom, wake up"...it just wasn't the kind of scary we were looking for...But regardless, we had fun. We both ended up sleeping in our own beds because we weren't terrified enough to sleep out of our comfort zone (we had planned on both sleeping in my bed because we were going to be too scared to sleep alone...but it didn't happen). BUT....Halloween is coming and I will find a movie to scare the socks right off of us...I always do! I know- there are many of you out there wondering "what kind of mother allows her children to watch scary movies?"...ME! I've always like them, and I guess some of my kids inherited my love for a good scare once in awhile~

Friends come in all kinds of packages~

I love to look at other peoples blogs...I love to read what the world and the people out there are doing! I know there are some of you out there in the world that are just like me. I would love to know who you are-- like those of you visiting my blog and reading up on my families goofy moments, comings and goings and life in general...leave me a comment or become a follower of my blog, I would love to check out your blog as well.

Looking forward to meeting many new friends~

Autumn chores~

I love raspberries. They are my most favorite berry in the world...(at least as far as I know, I haven't tasted all that many). I could eats pounds and pounds of them, literally...BUT I don't. Several years back I got some raspberry bush starts from my mom and step-dad's house over in Vernal. She had 2 different kinds of berries. An early raspberry that comes on earlier in the summer and then a late berry that starts to come on anywhere from the middle of August to the end of August. The later berry is a bigger berry and has tons of berries on the bushes....(makes for easier picking). I figured that by getting the later berry producing bushes I would be more "ready" for them when they came on. NOT QUITE so....Two years ago we picked and froze over 10- 1 gallon bags. I don't know if this year is going to be quite as profitable but I think that if we stay with the picking and if the weather holds out, we might come close. We've already made 2 batches of freezer jam and I plan on making many more...its just too bad that all the fruit and veggies seem to come on all at once and make the canning/freezing season seem WAY overwhelming. I went out yesterday and picked for an hour and came back in with an entire gallon of berries...and that WASN'T counting what was in my belly! Next time I will try and restrain myself from eating so many, then maybe I can get alot more into my bucket.

AND that my friend...is a peek into one day, in the life of being me...much work, many berries!

Death never sounded so appealing...until now!

This really is so rich and yummy that you will feel as though you could just die at any moment and be fine. It can be made both sugar-free and NOT sugar-free....you choose your choice of death. I've tried both and they are equally as good!!!

Dayna's Death By Chocolate

Ingredients: Sugar Free Brownies (or regular)

Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding (or regular)

Sugar Free Whipped Topping (or regular)

Sugar Free chocolate bars (or snickers bar)

When layering this, it can be made in a big bowl with multiple layers or doing just a single layer in a cake pan.

Sugar-Free Brownies:

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 1/4 c. splenda (or regular sugar)

1/4 c. sugar-free chocolate syrup (or regular)

3/4 c. flour

1/4 t. salt

1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8" pan (I doubled mine and did a 9x13 pan)

In a medium saucepan melt butter and cocoa stirring it until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl add the eggs, splenda and chocolate syrup, beat until smooth and combine with butter and cocoa mixture. Add remaining ingredients and stir until everything is mixed in

. Bake for 25- 30 minutes (if you've doubled it then your time is different...mine ended up being almost 45 minutes..just watch it and check on it every few minutes after the 30 minutes is up, I am sure that oven temps vary and so will the time). When done cooking, cool completely.

Once the brownies are cooled, break them up until they are bite sized chunks.

Layer them on the bottom of your dish. Layer pudding on top of the brownies. Layer whipped topping on top of pudding, repeat layers until it fills your bowl, ending with the whipped topping on top. Then crush your candy bars up and sprinkle them on the the whipped topping. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve and then refrigerate any leftovers. Lasts well for days as long as its kept cold. Enjoy & let me know how you like it!

~Happy Cooking~

September MOURN....

I think Autumn is officially here...at least all the produce thinks so. My tomato's have been so slow coming on and so I haven't been able to even eat very many...BUT today as I was roaming around the garden, I saw that they are all turning red at the SAME time! So I need to get them all picked and get canning (oh you all KNOW how much I LOVE THAT...NOT!!!!!!) The raspberries are coming on full force (already made 1 batch of freezer jam...and raspberry freezer jam is the BEST!) and our cute little peach tree (it really is little, only 2 years old) is loaded with peaches. Probably only enough to eat or make a little bit of jam, but regardless, its got alot of fruit on it. Our Plum tree has finally got some fruit on it as well, not very much but it will give us all an opportunity to taste whatever is there. In a couple of years, if the trees keep going like they are, I might have to hire some "happy help" to come and help me pick, wash and bottle everything...and help me to be "happy" during the process. I just have a hard time looking past all of the work! Having summer coming to a close saddens me, it almost puts me into a grieving state of mind, not that I don't love Autumn because I DO, but because that means that winter is right around the corner and I despise WINTER!...so if you see me laying in my yard, doing nothing else but soaking up the rays...its just because I am trying to "preserve" them to help me make it through the winter...you know- get my "bottling" of sunshine done, Hey that sounds like more fun than bottling veggies and fruit...doesn't it?! At least it does to ME~