Top Chef Camp and Competition!

This week the kids attended camp at Lonestar Community College. Paige and Allison attended "Design on a Dime" and Will and Abbey attended "Top Chef." The kids had a blast. Paige and Allison said that the other girls in the class were all getting new bedrooms so the teacher let them work on designing their new bedrooms (and other projects of course). Will and Abbey could not stop talking about what a wonderful time they had at Top Chef. They learned how to cook several good recipes! The recipes were pretty sophisticated and tasted yummy! They also learned kitchen safety and other things that go along with cooking. On Wednesday, we decided to conduct a Top Chef competition at our house! We were watching Isabella because Corrin and Dave had to spend the night at the hospital with Sophia getting her tonsils out. Isabella and Sophia were "Team Princess" and Will and Allison were "Team Bacon Cobbler." I told the teams that I would made the main dish. Each team would have to come up with a side dish for the meal and a dessert. It was very cute how they strategized and picked out recipes. I let them go through a few cookbooks to get ideas and recipes. Isabella was so cute! She was super excited to be on Abbey's team. Abbey is VERY good with kids and was the perfect partner. Abbey and Isabella decided to make the pizza (homemade crust) that they learned how to make in camp. They also decided to make chocolate mud pudding. It was funny because I told Isabella several times that she could not lick the whip creme and then put the spoon in the different serving bowls that people were going to eat from. When she was licking the crushed up oreos, she said "I am only eating the oreas that are stuck to my fingers!" Ha ha! Will and Allison decided to make the macaroni and cheese that they learned how to make at camp (from scratch), hot dogs wrapped in bacon and peach cobbler for dessert. My mom bottled tons of cherries, peaches, jelly, pepper jelly, etc for us. We have consumed most of the jellies but the fruit is harder for us. I don't know why because I now realized that it can be used for anything. Allison used a jar of my mom's canned peaches and her peach cobbler was the best peach cobbler that I have ever eaten!!!! The homemade pizza was also amazing. I really liked how the kids made the bacon wrapped hot dogs. Will cut the hot dogs in thirds and wrapped them in bacon. He cooked them in the oven at 350 degrees for about half an hour. They were very easy to make and tasted very good! The kids had a great time competing and the cobbler and pizza were the winners. They were very mature in how they handled cooking. I helped them when needed but they did most of the stuff on their own. They also did a great job cleaning up as they went. We will definitely do this again!

Family Vacation Summer 2012

Day 1:
We picked up Abbey and Allison around 9:30 on Friday morning
and left straight from the Woodlands on our vacation. We drove all day long and ended up in Roswell, NMabout ten and a half hours later. Roswell is famous for a“suspected” UFO crash. We stayed in a Hampton Inn that had a fake Alien at the front. His name was “Juan.” Too
funny. On Saturday, we woke up and took the kids to the UFO shaped McDonalds where the kids played. After, we went to visit the UFO Museum. On the drive up, the kids made UFO
outfits. They were mainly head things. At the museum, Brad took our
change for the entrance fee from the lady and said “thank you sir.” She just laughed but I was mortified. The museum was interesting. We drove to Santa Fe (three hours) and checked into ourhotel, the Hotel Santa Fe and Spa.

Day 2:
After we arrived in Santa Fe, we walked to the city plaza and had lunch. We exploered the city and visited the Loretto Chapel which is famous for its staircase.
After exploring the city, we ended up going to a kid friendly restaurant
where they had live music. We spent the final part of our evening relaxing on the patio of our hotel. If I had to do it again, I would definitely
stay in the plaza. That is the way to go.

Day 3:
This was one of the highlights of our trip. We drove about an hour to visit Bandelier Park.
I had no idea what this was about. We ended up at a state park where you could walk around a trail. The walk was about three and a halfmiles. As you walked and enjoyed the
beautiful scenery, there were ladders you could climb to look in various caves
where people thousands of years ago lived. It was the neatest experience.
Even the little kids (2 year old Sophia) had a blast. We had to stay in one of the caves for about
ten minutes to let a rain cloud pass. For dinner, we found a pizza place with wonderful pizza. It was called the Rooftop Pizzeria. One of the pizzas we tried had duck on it. It
was delicious.

Day 4:
We got up super early and drove to Colorado. The drive was about six and a half hours where we stopped near Denver to have lunch withBrad’s 95 year old grandma. It was a
great lunch. It was a Chinese place and it was one of the best Chinese restaurants that I have ever eaten at! After lunch, we headed towards Estes Park for the YMCA camp. We stopped at a local
Kmart where we bought an air mattress. The girl at the Kmart wouldn’t open her lane until she finished up her red popsicle. I have never seen anything like it. We arrived an hour later at Estes Park. Two years ago, Corrin’s family and my familydid this vacation. We rented a three
bedroom cabin. This year we decided torent a three bedroom house. We found out
later that Michelle wanted to come so we just decided to squeeze in. The house had more space but was no wherenear the main campus of the YMCA camp. The cabin we rented two years before was within walking distance of all the activities. I think we would rent a
cabin if we do it again so we can be by all of the activities. Tylercooked pork and we played board games. The kids decided they wanted to do a talent show so they practiced for
it.

Day 5:
Brad, the kids, Michelle, Morgan and I all went whitewater rafting in Fort Collins. We had a blast! The river was low so it wasn’t a crazy ride but it was still lots of fun. The kids
got to swim in the river for a little while. I scraped my leg on a rock and there was a little blood. All I could think about was getting an infection with the river water (that flesh eating disease). I told Brad that I needed Neosporin soon so I wouldn’t have to get my arms and legs cut off.
Brad stopped at the grocery store on the way back and picked me up some Neosporin when he picked up a few items. I think he didn’t want to be stuck caring for me without legs or
arms. Ha ha. Corrin and the younger kids spent the day at the craft center and went fishing.
Corrin cooked an awesome chicken alfredo fettuccini for dinner. Later on, the kids put on their talent show. It was SOOOOOO cute! Sophia and Paige ended up being the
winners. I will put a video of their skit.

Day 6:
Wednesday was spent making crafts at the craft center and
relaxing. The kids had a blast back at the house where they spent hours playing “The Hunger Games.” Each kid made his or her own bow and arrow. Even the little ones played. It was a blast. For dinner, Brad and I made pasta and sliders (hamburgers). After dinner, the kids put
on another show. It was fantastic. Brad and I decided on our next vacation, though that we were getting a real bed. We spent the first three nights on a couch bed and then the next three
nights on an air mattress. Because we are a big family, we need two hotel rooms.
Next time we will for sure get two rooms.

Day 7:
We woke up Thursday and headed off to Beaver Creek, Colorado. On the way, we decided to go to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive took about an hour to the top. It
was amazing! The views were breathtaking. It was neat driving up the
mountain and seeing the temperature quickly drop. We started at about 85 degrees and at the top it was 55 degrees. We then drove to Beaver Creek and ended up at our hotel, the Hyatt Resort Beavercreek. This resort is absolutely amazing. We are right in the middle of the “village” where
everything is located. The resort itself is amazing. The lawns are beautiful with all the
different amenities (ping pong, play set, volleyball, washers (bean bags),
swimming, etc. We had drinks on the patio while the kids played. We had
pizza for dinner and then went back to the resort for the movie night on the
lawn. The kids had a blast watching Peter Pan and drinking hot coco.

Day 8:
We woke up early and took the ski lift to the top of the mountain. We then took a hike up at the
top of the mountain. The views were beautiful and the hike was a lot of fun.
We even saw blue bonnets!!!! After lunch on the mountain, we headed back down the mountain. The kids were thrilled because we let them do a bungee jump thing. During the latter part of the day, it started to rain. They Hyatt puts on a kid’s even every Friday night where they have arts and crafts, pony rides, face painting, and other fun things. They had to cancel
it because of the rain. We went to dinner and then headed back to the hotel where
the kids rented The Hunger Games. Tomorrow we plan on driving to Wichita Falls, TX (13 hours
away). We will get home on Sunday. We loved this vacation!!!!