*SPOILED*

Jordan needs butt kicked.
Desi Stroad got this demon caught on tape.
Check out the silent exaggerated laugh. This is his new talent.

Comfortable Camping

There is roughing it, an then there is ROUGHING it.. we do not go without our creature comforts
After many trips to REI, we have air cushions, sleeping bags, tent with rainfly and various essentials.

My bag is a Nebo Black Bear extra wide, lined with flannel and good to 0°F (-18°C), the boys are REI Zephyr nylon and good to 10°F (-12°C).

all of our pads are thermarest and they are wonderful, mine is an XL and the boys are just Large. The only problem that we have is one or both of the boys rolling down between the pads and sleeping directly on the floor of the tent. Short of sewing a couple of sheets together and putting the pads in there, we do not have a solution. We have been slipping a thermarest down in each of the OLD cheap sleeping bags to make them more fluffy and to further protect them from punctures, but we still get a lot of sliding around by morning with all the snuggling and burrowing that the boys do at night.

We are currently in an Ozark Trail tent, and while roomy as hell, it is also COLD at hell. That is next on my list to alleviate. not sure what the solution is, but there has got to be something big but warm out there. It sleeps 6, so maybe one small hiking tents INSIDE would solve the problem. what I do know is just about every other ozark trail tent that we have had, and this is our 6th, the poles bust faster than you can say bacon and eggs, the first two, the poles survived, but not the fasteners that anchored them to the tent. the next two tents, the poles busted when the kids were manhandling it. the 5th one busted the second setup, which replacement were more expensive than just buying a new tent. I was not at all amused.

As for accessories: when it comes to cooking, I went through three Coleman stoves until I found one that didn't fall apart. I resorted to Ozark Trail from Wal-mart, who would have thunk. The Portable Kitchen broke the first weekend, but has continued to work despite that, being a Coleman, I am not not surprised.

other than that, we have made a lot of use of the Battery Operated Lanterns, and car auxiliary air pumps for the pads. Now the only thing left is the Laptop Movie base, we do watching a movie at night before turning in and it tends to get buried in all the bedding, so that needs to be elevated the camp stool super handy.

Raven Lake @ huntsville state park

View from the tent looking at raven lake @ Huntsville state park. Gonna be an outstanding weekend!

It was definitely a great weekend. smores. alligators. horseback riding. Jalapeno stuffed with back strap steak and wrapped in bacon.

Jazz? Krys?

Krys of course. Going to Butte for St Patty's day drinking party wahoo

Jazz

Stress Stress stress

seems like my life is back to normal, running on 100 Octane and not enough hours in the day, ESPECIALLY today with daylight savings time. GRACIOUS! Just what I do not need.

so work is really going full tilt, that is a good thing. the kids are out of school and will get underfoot the first two days that I am working, that will quickly resolve itself since then we can go play the rest of the spring break.

I totally need some help with rebuilding the lawn mower.. it is a mess and has been for months. someone needs to go to the grocery store and get supplies, I do not have time, but I can not leave the car for Sverre so I may have to make a list and send him on his bike with Magnus on the Picalo.

as for the Girls in my family. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH, so many good things and bad things and stressful things.

did I mention that the scales went to 163? CRAP!

In SLC and looking at

In SLC and looking at a tiny tiny 35 passenger plane-let! My least favorite size - 10 rows only. Like flying in the honda civic.

On the plane - headed

On the plane - headed south to SLC: Delta Airlines - arrive IAH 2:08 pm

Owe owe owe

Magnus bit in three places by aggressive dog. It was a Boxer.

It Charged out of the door when a little girl answered Magnus's knock when he was looking for Erik.

The dog jumped on him, biting his arm at the armpit, tripped him, biting his side, and then while he was down, biting his leg, drawing blood in all three places. Magnus was very sad, scared and sad that he was just looking for Erik and didn't do anything to make the Boxer mad.