Labor Day Camping - Trout Creek

For Labor Day in Portland, we did what a vast number of Pacific North-Westerners do and went camping. Thanks to a friendly post over at Good Stuff NW we decided to try out Trout Creek in the Willamette National Forest. 

We were very pleased with our choice. We had a nice big site with easy creek access, close to the bathrooms & close to the water pumps.

Trout Creek campground is located about 20 miles east of Sweet Home - far enough away from civilization that you feel like you're off the grid (umm.. no cell reception!) but close enough to a town that when you run out of beer and milk you can run to Safeway and back within an hour or so.

Everyone had a great time. Drew enjoyed mucking about in the sand and dirt, Zoey enjoyed jumping around in the creek (also mucking about in the sand and dirt), Mom & Dad enjoyed stolen moments of peace and quiet around the campfire at night. Our good friend, Kaija & her frenchie, Dash, joined in the festivities as well. 

Below are just a spattering of pictures from our weekend. 

We highly recommend Trout Creek for anyone looking for a good family camp ground in the PDX area. However, I am keeping our site number top secret so it doesn't all-of-a-sudden become the most popular. Sorry, guys... have to protect treasures!  

Drew.. dressed by his dad.. checking out the creek.

Zoey - swimming like a champ!

Drew and Zo

Drew in the creek

Dash!

Drew & Dad 

Not sure if you can see Drew in this picture since he is wearing 2 different camo
prints - he blends in pretty well. 

More cute Drew & Dad. Dad was explaining that Drew needed to
take the rocks slow & carefully since they can be super slippery. Drew did pretty well!

Kaija & Dashy

Someone came before us & put up these cool cairns.
I'm hoping they really weren't using them to mark their path since Drew
immediately knocked them down. 

My camp banner!

Open-Flame Cooking Champ: Dad!

Kaija & Drew posing for Instagram selfies - they turned out really cute

My selfie - just to prove I was there

Drew's version of a silly face
(we have some work to do on this!)

Being silly...

Zo & Dashy had a great time playing

XOXO

Happy New Year!

I'm a bit late, but sincere none-the-less. Happy New Year!!

I've been seeing a lot of bloggers posting about their new year's resolutions so I figured, why not jump on the bandwagon?

Typically, every year I make a laundry list of things I want to accomplish in the new year. Last year's list was fairly attainable.. or so I thought. When I recently re-read it, I laughed & realized I had completed or achieved about 1/4 of the list. Even easy things like "read 3 books" was only met by 1/3 completion. Eek! So this year, I'm keeping the list short and simple.

Read More

Family Art Night 

Make Date Nights truly dates

Open Etsy Shop

Cook New Things

Drink more water

Silly... probably. Doable... yes!



Read More
I used to be quite the avid reader before my little sprout was born. I read tons of fiction and even some non-fiction (especially when we decided to start our family). I read one book this year for fun and realized how much I had missed it. I found myself easily blowing off TV to go read.

A few things I have on my list...

Photo Credits: Amazon.com

Does anyone have any good suggestions for books? Chances are I have not read it!


Family Art Night
When I was pregnant with Drew I was already planning family traditions in my head. I am a huge sucker for traditions and wanted to start them as soon as possible. I think they are important for kids while they grow up to have fun things that they can look forward to. Family Art Night will be once a month (to start) and will just be a fun night of some new art or craft activity that all of us do together. Our first project will be some Valentine's Day cards to send out to our family.

Photo Credit: Miscellaneous Pinterest

Date Nights
My mother-in-law has graciously come over one night every week since Drew was born and allowed me and Mark the opportunity to spend some time, just the two of us. For a while we were making efforts about going fun places but then it kind of turned into errand running or just staying home. Mark and I agreed that we should turn these nights back into "dates." I don't think we'll go as far to get dressed up or anything (maybe every so often) but definitely put the effort back into these special nights.

Just a picture of me and Mark... a very old picture.. Look how young I am! 

Etsy Shop
I mentioned in a previous post that I was working on a Etsy shop. I am still hoping to be able to get some inventory in stock soon so I can launch away.

Banners, Buntings and Garlands, oh my!

Cook New Things
What are we serving? Chicken or Chicken?

This wasn't on my original list but after reading the 7-day Challenge over at Dinner: A Love Story I decided to join in the fun & add some new recipes into our dinner repertoire. This week I already have 3 new things on the menu!

Photo Credits: Dinner: A Love Story, Skinny Taste

Drink More Water
This one is fairly self-explanatory. When we were training for our Ragnar races it was always super important that we hydrated before the race and, even though it made me have to use the facilities every 30 minutes, I always felt so much better when my body was fully hydrated. My company moved into a new office this January and it has a filtered water & ice machine and I am super excited about the ice. Is that silly? Yes... but it makes me want to drink water so it's cool.

 I wish everyone a very Happy, Healthy & Blessed 2013!


Amy

Christmas Cookies: Ginger Snaps with White Chocolate

One of the big holiday traditions in my house growing up was Christmas cookies. My mom would bake at least 10 different kinds of cookies and we would eat them through out the holiday season. It was always fun to have all the different options to choose from for assuaging my cookie cravings. (If you didn't know, I have a pretty sizable sweet tooth.) I love to bake but can never seem to get my act together to bake that many cookies. Plus, I am not sure I need that many cookies in my house or else it could be bye-bye waistline! (or maybe it is "hello, bigger waistline?")

Every year I am invited to at least one cookie exchange and this year, for the first one, I made Ginger Snaps with a White Chocolate Drizzle. I like ginger snaps because they are very "Christmasy" and also fairly simple to make.

I apologize for a lack of photos but I had this really cute & helpful sous chef assisting me and he was not favorable to me stopping to take pictures.

It is always better with help. Especially help wearing a cute owl apron.

 Baking, baking, baking...

 Cooling, cooling, cooling...

The finished product - how festive!

I have to say, adding a simple drizzle of chocolate to things makes it that much better. 

Plus, everyone is impressed by it! 

Ginger Snaps with White Chocolate Drizzle

Source Unknown

Ingredients

1 cup - packed brown sugar

3/4 cup - vegetable oil

1/4 cup - molasses

1 egg

2 cup - all-purpose flour

2 tsp - baking soda

1/4 tsp - salt

1/2 tsp - ground cloves

1 tsp - ground cinnamon

1 tsp - ground ginger

1/3 cup - white sugar (for decoration)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees; cover baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar, oil, molasses & egg. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon & ginger. Stir into the molasses mixture.

Roll dough into 1-1/4 inch balls; roll each ball in white sugar before placing onto baking sheets 2" apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until center is a bit firm to the touch & edges are slightly dark. Cool completely on wire racks. 

Place waxed paper underneath the wire racks. In a plastic decorator's bag (or sandwich bag), melt white chocolate (chips or chopped bark) in the microwave on half-power for about 2 minutes, checking the chocolate every 30 seconds to avoid over-cooking. When chocolate is soft & melted, snip about 1/4" off the tip of the bag (or corner if using a sandwich bag) and quickly drizzle over cooled cookies. 

Let chocolate set for at least 10 minutes. Serve or store in air-tight container for 3-5 days.

Merry Christmas!