Evacuation Situation

So, let's talk Girls' Camp. It takes months to plan, train for, and get organized, which is silly because honestly, it is a camping trip. But it turns out that it only takes a few smokey clouds to cause all the preparations to be abandoned for safety's sake.

We drove to Camp Shalom through Schofield because the Fairview route was closed due to a fire in the area. (We have had hundreds of fires in our state this year!) We no sooner arrived and hauled dozens of heavy coolers up the mountainside then another fire started near Schofield. We watched the smoke get closer from both sides and brushed the ash off our shoulders. It was actually quite ominous, and it looked like we might get trapped. I thought there was no way we were going to be able to stay all week because we were almost certain to be evacuated.

Sure enough, at 5:30 the next morning, we were told to evacuate. We were supposed to skip breakfast and get out as fast as we could pack up. We had to haul those dang coolers back down the mountain to pack them up! Being evacuated turned out to be the best thing for us because our group of girls got to go off on their own and continue the camping trip real-style! (It was the first time some of the girls had ever camped in a tent before! What is this world coming to?)

Stay tuned for a glimpse of what Plan B looked like for us.

Wedding Cake

The latest installment of Kirk's desserts:

This delectable wedding cake with gourmet peanut butter and banana frosting was topped with the only figurines close enough to use on the top. They reminded us of the village people. If a cake could party rock, this one would be shufflin' every day.

Sunset in the Mountains

My artist sister and I took another mountainous trip to jot down a quickly disappearing sunset. This time, instead of hiking to our destination, we drove up a bumpy dirt road and sat on an old wooden fence for so long that our bums fell asleep. I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, but here is my super quick pastel sketch to show for it:

This was the first time my sister had ever used pastels and I was proud of her for trying something new under pressure. (The sun always seems to go down faster when you'd like it to hold still!) It's been nice to squeeze in some art, which is my favorite thing in the world. I'd forgotten how much it speaks to me. My soul feels whole when I'm creating art, but I sometimes get caught up in all the bustling of living that I forget to make time for it. That is going to be fixed from now on. Here's to savoring each moment.

Petting Zoo

Do you remember when I told about our bumpkin's love for animals earlier? In a neighboring town, there is an old man who has an awesome menagerie he lets people enjoy. We knew it would be the perfect date for us to take our baby on. It totally was, and she loved it:

What a kind man for sharing his exotic animals with others. Fun, don't you think?

Squaw Peak Hike

I made my sister go on a hike with me by bribing her with magical silhouette photographs. She obliged and we completed our hike, but not before having some goofy moments in the sunset:

Alas, I feel sorry for all those poor lovers who were trying to be romantic at the lookout point. Their magical moments must have been surprisingly traumatic with our presence.

Painting Hike

My youngest sis and I share a love of many things, two of which are spending time outdoors and creating beautiful works of art. We booked it up one of our frequented hiking trails to make it in time to catch the sunset so we could paint it:

I use the term 'paint it' loosely here. We actually used watercolor pencils and brought along this awesome waterbrush found here that is perfect for on-the-go painting. Don't tell anyone we cheated, okay?

The Most Rewarding Parade

Not to boast (well, maybe just a little), but Kirk and I have some pretty awesome skills. We are super good at packing lightly (comes in handy on any vacation), can catch a tumbling toddler with a split-second's notice, and rock the breakfast-cooking scene. Breakfast burritos anyone? However, there is a skill that I didn't know the full power of until our city's parade shed some light on it.

Our family (apparently the baby is Kirk and me squared, skills included) consists of the most excellent parade spectators. We are super good at going to parades, and our skills did not go unrewarded:

The final tally was a 2-liter bottle of soda, a T-shirt, too much candy, a frisbee (aka candy scooper to get those pieces on the ground just out of reach), 2 pencils, a toothbrush, a jumprope, a few glowsticks, and a bunch of awesome coupons for freebies like ties and delicious sandwiches. (We already ate more candy than I'd like to admit before I took this picture.) So, would you like to know a few tricks? We have turned parade-going into an art and have learned many things, which I would love to share.

• Sit near the beginning of the parade route (but not at the very beginning) because paraders throwing stuff usually run out of goodies before they get to the end. And, they're not pooped out yet and cranky from walking a couple of hot miles.
• Try and find a place where you won't have stacks of neighbors in front and behind you. It is pretty essential to be at the front of the blanket lines if you want to get anything at all.
• Take anything that paraders hand out. We scored some sweet coupons by not being too snobby about people using the parade to advertise. I'm pretty sure that advertising is what parades are all about these days. Just embrace it.
• Take a cute baby with you that will bat her ridiculously long eyelashes and clap at everything. I know it seems like a cheap shot, but only if you're not serious about parades. Around here, we take parades seriously and aren't afraid to bring out the big guns.
• Bring a backpack (just pretend it's a diaper bag for the eye-batting baby) to put things in as you receive them so that you don't have a conspicuously large pile of booty to dissuade others from adding to your stash.
• Heckle your little heart out. Say things like, "Pop a wheelie!" to old guys on motorcycles and ladies on horses because it's funny. Cheer for the politicians even if you don't care and yell at the drum majors to have their bands "Play something!" instead of walking by just tapping on their drums. Cheer loudly the whole time, make eye contact with the good, the bad, and the ugly, and keep people in the parade excited. When people are excited and happy, they tend to be more generous. And if you yell, "Do a trick!" It turns out that throwing candy at your head is the most common trick paraders know.