What?!?!?

Excuse Me???

I LOVE to read - love, love, love it - so much so that my hubby hates it when I get sucked into a book because he knows I'm "gone" until I'm done with it. I gravitate towards mysteries - that's always been my first choice. So a few weeks ago, when I was checking out the book selection in Sam's Club, I grabbed this book for some reason (probably because I've heard a lot about the author and his other books) - thought I'd branch out a little and try something different. (Spoiler Alert!) Ha. Now I know why I like my mysteries so much. This started out a little boring, then picked up in the middle, and I was actually really enjoying this sweet love story . . . . and then wham! It kicked me in the stomach. The ending was AWFUL (in my opinion). Just sad, sad, sad. Why couldn't this guy just let a happy ending be a happy ending? What ever happened to happily ever after? Tell me, are any of his other books any better? What a bummer. Back to my trusty old mysteries.

Pickles

Moving on . . . Mark reminded me after my last post that I didn't mention our evening of pickling a couple weeks ago. It's been our tradition each September to can pickles - mainly for Mark who is our resident pickle addict. We first started this back when we were newly married, and we'd do it in Minnesota with Mark's family, under the direction of his grandma, and would do over 100 jars (no joke) at a time. Now we just do it at home, and only make enough for our family. Jack and Noah have gotten into this as well, and each do their own jars. I wish I would have taken some pictures of the process, but I was up to my elbows in vinegar, salt and cucumbers. Here's a sample of our handiwork:

Camping

We had a fantastic weekend camping last weekend - beautiful weather, great friends, it was all just perfect. We stayed at a campground on the Mickelson Trail so we were able to bike a few miles - it was just beautiful. Our friends have a camper with a bedroom in it that has 4 bunk beds, and so they invited Jack and Noah to stay in their camper one night - their son and our guys had a little slumber party - oh my word, were they excited. Their first "friend overnight" ever. Here they are climbing rocks off the Mickelson Trail . . . .

Look at this -- beautiful!! I LOVE where we live!!!! Wow, am I going to miss camping season.