Family camping

We were invited to go camping with John's half sister's family last weekend, what a blast!
For the dogs first camping trip they did really well, only whining when I left to go on the four wheeler. Other than that they just laid in the dirt next to our chairs and napped.

Friday night after setting up camp my brother in law and I went for a ride on the four wheelers. Just a few minutes out with me in the lead I crashed into a bush :). Let me explain, I was coming down a hill that went right into a turn, I hit a bump, lost the hand breaks (since my finger tips barely hit them when they're not compressed), missed the turn and went into the bush. After Ben and I had a good laugh at my expense he pushed me out and we carried on our way.
After some dinner Ben, John and I went back out. I took Enna along to see how she'd do. She loved it. She would stand on her hind legs when we went really fast so she could get more wind and loved watching the wild life fly by.

The first night I slept awful, our air mattress was on a slight hill so I felt like I was sliding the whole night. An appendage would also fall asleep no matter what way I slept so I'd have to wake up a hand or foot all night long.
At least the dogs slept peacefully and didn't make a peep until the next morning.

Here they are looking sleepy in their crate. Poor Enna was shivering, but I don't know if it was from the cold or that she wanted out really badly.

Only one off leash walk with the dogs since it's an ATV campground and it was a quick one, but the dogs loved jumping through the tall grass and chasing the potguts.

During the day everyone convinced my mother in law to get on the back of a four wheeler. Looks like she had a blast doesn't it?

Saturday night we went on a short hike around the campsite with the kids. They found this cute teeter totter and had to hop on for a ride.

Sunday morning we took our time getting packed back up and took one more trip out on the four wheelers. This time I finally took my camera along and shot some pictures. It was gorgeous there. Fairview Canyon is on of my favorite places to camp, could be because that's where I went the most as a child.

This is the back of John's head as I try not to fall off the back of the four wheeler.

When we got back to camp we finished packing up and headed on home. Everyone got a bath when we got home and washed about 20 pounds of dirt off.

Movie Reviews

Check out my other blog: http://voshells1001movies.blogspot.com/ to see some movie reviews I just posted.

1001

John and I consider ourselves pretty big movie buffs, we love all types and usually don't judge too harshly. So we're starting the goal of watching all the movies on the 1001 movies to see before you die list.
As a side experiment I started a new blog to review each movie we watch. It's still in test mode and I don't know if I'll follow through on it yet. (depends on if anyone even likes it)

Some movies will get short reviews and some will get long. Of course I'll be recruiting people to write some of the reviews for me since I don't do all genres i.e. horror.
Also some of the movies on the 1001 list I have seen already but aren't in the "ready to review" list because I either (A) dont remember them well enough and (B) dont know if John has seen them.
Some are just too popular to review since everyone and their dog has seen the movie.
(I dont think I've ever used the word "some" so much in my life!)
Let me know what you think!

Granite, epic journey part 3

Last Wednesday our living room looking like this:

Now it looks like this:


What a good birthday present. The TV and couch have also been moved back into the room until we get the money for the ceiling. As I napped on the couch yesterday I thought of how much I loved having the room back...for now.

How our home remodeling goes

Day 1: Be really excited about new project. Go to Lowe's 7,000 times to get supplies and wander around the store deciding on what we'll buy for future projects that have nothing to do with project we're working on now.

Day 10: still be excited and have gotten a handful of things done. Make goals that everything will be done in 2 weeks knowing full well that this isn't true. Be excited that project will be finished in 2 weeks and make plans to throw a party to show off work.

Day 13: Work on project with a little less enthusiasm. Nikki will lay on the floor, feet propped up on wall, telling John that we need to work harder and this has to get done SOON! Nikki will then whine when John asks her to go to Lowe's because then she'll have to put on real pants and try to not look homeless. Wouldn't want Lisa at Lowe's to think less of her.

Day 18: Work in short spurts, disappointed that more hasn't gotten done. After 15 minutes of work, give up and go watch 12" TV in bedroom because if we hook up the big TV we wont work on project. Also 12" TV cant be hooked up to satellite for same reason so only movies can be watched.

Day 23: Get really excited again because something big is going to happen with project. Go out for ice cream to celebrate. Come home and watch 12" TV because you still have ___ number of days until big thing happens.

This is where we're at in the "dry" bar project. Stuff has gotten done but not really. The cabinets still aren't fully installed but we're blaming this on the fact that we had to paint a wall.
BUT!!!! Our granite is done!!! so that means we get to install it on Saturday (this is me hoping that it will be installed Saturday, when I talked to John about it he said, "We just have to go get it Saturday, doesn't mean it has to be installed." I better get my way!!) So we're working hard on getting everything prepared for the granite.

Sadly after this nothing will be getting done until we save up the money for sheetrock and lights. Then after that we have to save up the money for cabinet doors and drawer fronts. So after the glorious granite post dont expect anything on the "dry" bar for a few weeks.

P.S. The saltwater fish tank wont be complete for a REALLY long time because of how much it costs so the room will be considered done before that.

I miss my friend

I miss Dana.
I dont go to Tanner nearly as much as I use to because I dont have anyone who really wants to go with me.
I miss not seeing Makoa get super excited the minute Dana comes into view, I miss how he ran up to her with his whole body wiggling and his puppy smile.
I miss kumo, so does Enna. I asked her last night how much she missed him and she whined, licked my nose then ran to the front door waiting for Kumo to show up.

I'm happy for Dana's new life in Cali but I wish I could clone her and Kumo. They could live with me forever and we could have lots of puppy adventures.

BBQ beef brisket

I love using my slow cooker and I've been trying to use it a couple times a week to make dinner easier. Yesterday was BBQ beef brisket and it was delish!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 pounds beef brisket, trimmed of fat (unless you're lazy like me, then I just put it in fat side up and scrap it off when it's done cooking)
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring (dont have liquid smoke so I used more BBQ sauce)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups barbeque sauce

Directions
1.Combine thyme, paprika, pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, and cumin in a small bowl; set aside. Rub brisket all over with liquid smoke, then rub with spice mixture.
2.Pour Worcestershire and barbeque sauces into a slow cooker; place beef on top. Cover, and cook on LOW 8 to 10 hours, until fork tender.

I cut the brisket in half and marinated it over night in the rub, a little BBQ sauce, and John's grandmother's homemade chili sauce. When I got home I could smell it cooking before I even opened the garage door.

This morning hasn't been that great. My allergies are kicking my butt so I didn't sleep well, I had to rush call a payment that was due two days ago that I asked John to pay but never got done (I dont know why I even asked him, if I wasn't around nothing would get paid) and when I tried to put some baked potato soup in the crock pot everything was going against me.
We had no milk for the soup so I grabbed a can of evaporated milk. When I started pouring it in (trying not to drop my cell phone in the pot while the lady on the other end had me repeat my account number for the 5th time) it was lumpy. "Oh crap!" I thought and looked at the expiration date. October of 2007, dang.
Looks like I'll be running to the store after work to get more milk, totally defeating the convince of the crock pot.

But I hope this brisket gets you in the mood for summer!