A NEW "Kitchen" and appliance!

August 18 turned out to be a good and bad day for us!  The "good" part was attending our great-nephew Ethan's 4th birthday party, and thanks to the generosity of our niece and nephew, Amy & Chris Silvertooth, we brought home a new KITCHEN....

....Needless to say, our grandchildren LOVE it!  They already had "playfood" here and a decorated cardboard box for an oven (that Cailyn used for pretend baking)...but now, they are really "in business" with this cute kitchen, complete with pretend phone, blender, refrigerator, cd player, stove and oven!  THANKS, Chris & Amy!

The "bad" part of that Saturday was when we discovered that our 14-year old refrigerator was no longer working...(see story next paragraph!) I secretly hated this particular appliance because of its design.  I'm not a fan of "side-by-side" refrigerators, but we live and learn, and 14 years ago, it was the "latest and greatest"!  Vince blames me for the breakdown (not really!) as I had been profusely grumbling at the fridge just one day earlier, as I was trying to find things in the freezer and make room for new frozen food items!  This is never easy in a side-by-side, and he thinks the fridge "heard me and called it quits!"

After a pizza dinner with our children Saturday evening, I got out the ice cream for dessert...OR shall I say, we ate "ice cream soup" for dessert!!  The realization hit quickly, and Vince ran to the store for dry ice and blocks of ice.  This is where I then became grateful for the FOUR ice chests that my husband cannot part with...because we did have room for most of our food, and were able to salvage almost everything.  I sent home some fresh and frozen foods with our children...and Jen stopped on Sunday night to buy MORE dry ice to get us through Monday with ice chests in the kitchen.

We shopped for a new refrigerator on Sunday after church. We went to three different stores...and Spencer's delivered this new Whirlpool model on Monday afternoon! 

We couldn't wait to "move in" on Monday evening...and I LOVE IT!!  Even though the cubic feet measurement of the two appliances is the same, we now seem to have more storage...with the freezer drawer on the bottom and the "frenchdoor" refrigerator on top, (minus the water/ice dispenser in the door!)  Our very first refrigerator in our old house on Kiva in Mesa was 20 years old and still running when we sold the house and moved in 1998 to Gilbert. Sadly, the salesman says the average life of today's refrigerators is 7 or 8 years....that's all!  "They just don't make things like they used to!"  which is so true!

CAMPING WEEKEND

Two weekends ago, Jen, Vince and I headed north early on a Saturday morning to the Mogollon Rim to enjoy some cool mountain air and relaxation.  We like the Canyon Point Campground, and had a site reserved.  Lucky #13 was very spacious and behind us was open forest land. 

After setting up our campsite, which surprisingly only took 90 minutes even with the tent, we relaxed and watched the thunderclouds move in. 

The rains came, but we kept our firewood dry.
Vince and Jen went to Forest Lakes store for their fishing licenses to be used on Sunday.  I had prepared chili and cornbread the week ahead, so meal preparation was easy. 

On Sunday morning we left early for fishing on Canyon Creek...Vince tried out his 4-wheel drive on the truck (worked great)!  

They fished for a couple hours; I did some reading and watched for wildlife, mostly cows grazing across the road from the creek.  Fortunately, we didn't see any bears! However, as we headed back to camp on Young Road we were surprised to see FOUR beautiful bull-elk galloping down the mountain right in front of the truck...It was a thrill to see such huge animals so close, but also made me realize how lucky we were to not have been on the road a few seconds later as we would have been right in their path...they ran across the road and down the other side of the steep incline of the mountainside in a matter of seconds!

Mike, Corissa, Cailyn & Landon drove up for the day on Sunday, arriving around 10:30.  We enjoyed a leisurely walk in the fresh air; Cailyn loved playing in the dirt, and Landon loved "roaming" around! 

After a peanut butter sandwich lunch, we all headed to Willow Springs Lake for an outing.  Landon fell asleep in the car (naptime), so everyone headed to the Lake while I stayed back with Landon in the car so he would nap longer and I read my book.  When he awoke good naturedly, he and I went to the lake to find everyone...Jen and Vince were fishing and had both caught fish.  Cailyn and Landon both liked splashing their feet in the water and digging in the sand on the "beach"...typical children!

Back at camp, we warmed up our beef stew for an early dinner, and cooked some hotdogs.  Unfortunately, because of the rainy weather on Saturday, the gnats arrived on Sunday during our picnic supper.  It was a bit difficult to relax and eat, while trying to ward off the invaders.  We so appreciate Mike, Corissa and family driving so far for a one-day outing! 

Sunday night after the "kids" left, we built another campfire and enjoyed "somemores"...well, I enjoyed the traditional somemore...Jen eats her ingredients separately, and Vince eats ONLY the Hershey chocolate bar!  They don't know what they're missing!

Monday morning was to be our "big breakfast" before breaking camp...and we slept until 6:00 a.m. instead of 5:00 a.m. WooHoo!!  Vince cooked delicious scrambled eggs and sausage...and our old drip pot made the best coffee! 

We played a game of Yahtzee and relaxed a bit before tackling the tent. A friendly squirrel finally made an appearance on our last morning, and we had fun feeding him unsalted peanuts in the shell...

 I made more peanut butter sandwiches for our picnic lunch on the Rim trail near Woods Canyon Lake on the way home. 

Dairy Queen was also a required pit stop in Payson as we headed back to the valley.  We are thankful to Jen for encouraging us to go camping again and for wanting to "hang out" with her old folks for a weekend!