You don't even have to go camping to get these

This little bit of heaven is a Golden Graham smore. You will never want to go back to the traditional smore after this AND you can make them anytime of year without having to brave camping with 5 kiddos.
P.S. I am working on my food photography skills right now. I was so worried about the "natural lighting" and making sure that it did not fall off the rock that I put it on, or that it did not get eaten by ants that were crawling on said rock, or that lizard that was also crawling/slithering around it would not appear in the picture that I did not realize that there was a rip in the dumb paper plate. How do you photography people do it? So many details to watch for!

Golden Graham Smores

3/4 cup of light corn syrup
3 TBSP butter
1 pkg (11.5oz) milk chocolate chips - you can also use semi sweet in a pinch
1 tsp vanilla
9 cups of Golden Graham cereal
1/2 bag of mini marshmallows

Grease a 9x13 pan. Heat syrup,butter, and chocolate chips in a pan to boiling. Stir constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over cereal and toss until coated. This is a tricky part and requires a lot of arm muscles: Fold in marshmallows. Spread out in pan. You will not be able to wait til they are cool. Trust me.

A little time out

Charles and I headed out for a quick 24 hours way from the kids to celebrate our 13 year anniversary. I guess that it was unlucky number 13 because on the actually day I was sick with strep throat, Brigham was still laid out on the couch from his injury and that night I had been asked to teach a class on "Simplified Entertaining". ( Too bad that I was a day late in finding this lady's blog. She is my new favorite person. I spent way too much time dissecting her 10 commandments of entertaining. Plus she loves to can. Kindred spirits I tell you. That is a whole other post.) Not much of an anniversary. Oh well.
My brother let us use some of his rewards points to stay at the Berkeley Marina. It was great. It was right on the marina and we could just walk out and go see all of the cool boats. Some were old, some were fancy, some were majestic. We stopped in at this little greasy spoon to share some fish and chips. It is always one of those things that I think sounds good and then I get it and wonder why I did. This one was pretty good though. I guess that it was not too much of a greasy spoon since they did have a wonderful fruit stand inside and they did not have milkshakes. What did you expect, we were in Berkeley!

This is Charles and I on a chocolate factory tour. Lame shot I know but this is the only one that I took. I promise that is Charles in the picture with me. We tested different grades of chocolate and it is official: I am definitely a MILK CHOCOLATE girl. The dark stuff just dries my mouth out and gets it all chalky.


It had been so foggy when we got there that it was not until the next morning that we that we could see the Golden Gate bridge from our hotel. There was no one out on the docks to ask for a picture so her I am - all by my lonely self!



We enjoyed Chicago style pizza that night at the recommendation of Brent and Amber. A really fun little place in Berkeley called Zachary's pizza. They are in Oakland and San Ramon too. I was a little unsure about Chicago style pizza , in fact I almost chickened out at the register but I am glad that I didn't, it was super. We also stopped by Omega Salvage. Fun place to look around. Charles was not too amused with the place. He thought that their slogan should be, " We sell used stuff for way more than you can buy it for new" Some of the items there were unique but ALOT of it was stuff that you honestly buy anywhere. I guess that is the fun of it to find the treasure hiding away.
All in all it was a much needed 24 hours away. And we certainly enjoyed the hotel's free amazing ( I think the best that I have ever had but not quite worth $10.99 for 6 to take home - the kids would not have appreciated them properly) chocolate chip cookies.

A girl can be proud, right?

So I have to brag for a moment. I might get in trouble for this but I am going to be a rebel and do it anyway. I have to brag not about my incredibly brave, good looking, always obedient, uber smart....the list goes on and on......children. This post is for bragging about my amazing manly man of a husband. This is a picture of Charles with a few friends riding around Lake Tahoe. Yes the whole lake! Not only do I deem that an amazing feat in itself BUT he did it riding a bike that is a hand- me-down, honestly older than he is, weighs more than he is bike. When he goes riding with friends they commonly refer to this as the "cash register" because it makes so much noise when it shifts gears. As if that were not enough he has had to revise this bike and make it a SINGLE speed bike people just to get it to go! Single speed I say. You know those mountains that surround Lake Tahoe? Yes those. Well he went up and down those on pure manly man strength. No help from any sissy gears. Who needs gears? I do believe that he earned some serious man respect among the ranks when he showed up with that thing. Luckily he finished just in time to get back to help me take Brigham to Urgent care. ( I know that I am probably so busted for posting this and that Charles may come in right behind me and delete it so read fast people because this may be gone in a minute)



Charles took some of the kids on a bike ride back to the scene of the crime of Brigham's accident and this time they made it all the way down to the water. These are not all my children. Lauren and Jason Hall were with us also.

Boy + Bike = Urgent Care

Well here is a picture that a few people have been waiting for. We went camping up at Sugar Pine Point in Lake Tahoe. It was beautiful as always. However within 24 hours of being there we were frantically driving around the lake trying to find an Urgent Care Center. Brigham had gone on a bike ride with Grandma and Grandpa and a few other kids. Charles was on a bike ride around Lake Tahoe with some friends and so I was just waiting back at camp with the little ones for all my biker family to return. Charles got back from his ride and with in 10 minutes of his arrival Grandma was bringing Brigham back with her. He was holding something up to his mouth and she told us that he had had an accident on his bike. He was such a trooper and got back up on his bike and rode back about a mile and a half and did not cry until he saw his dad. His lip and mouth were really bloody and we decided that we should find a place to have him looked at. Our friends were also in Tahoe for a family reunion and they have a brother in law that is an ER doctor. I debated on calling them but I did not want to bother them on their vacation. So off we went to find a doctor. When we went to the ranger station the girl had NO IDEA where to send us and just handed us a phone book to look it up. No good. We called 411 on our cell phone and they were unable to give us anything close. We said a prayer in the car along the way and soon after we passed a fire station that actually had a fireman standing outside. What luck. No- not luck - answer to a prayer. She told us some rough directions how to get to an Urgent Care that was about 5 miles away. When we got where we thought that she told us to go we were still lost. Guess what? Another fire station with more firemen out front. We were able to get better directions and they even stopped traffic so we could get back on the busy highway. Once we were there we had a short wait where we had the nicest nurse, who had all boys and reassured Brigham that everything was going to be ok but that he was going to need to get stitches. He was very nervous at that point but she was great with him and really helped calm his fears. Then we had a great young lady doctor who stitched him up something great! She was very calming and complimented him on his bravery. She said that she has had grown men not do as well and she was serious. 6 stitches, 2 lost teeth, 2 screwed up front permanent teeth, 2 bottle of Motrin, 1 bottle of Tylenol, countless straws and $400.00 later we had a cleaned up Brigham who showed how brave he could be and was such a good sport to still go to the beach with us and tried so hard not to ruin our family vacation. He was such a trooper. Here is his picture about 24 hours later. He kept telling us not to take anymore picture picture of him. He could not even stand to look at himself in the mirror for a while until the swelling went down. After we got back from camping he was still down and out on the couch. That was ok because I joined him there for a few days coming down with strep throat the day after we got back from camping. All in all it was really a fun trip despite the bear getting all the way in to the cab of the truck for a brownie bite, 4 of my 5 kids sick (on Motrin,Tylenol or Robitussin), and raining ash over our entire camp for the last 2 days from all the fires, but seriously it was FUN! That is what makes life interesting. It would be so boring if everything always went smoothly.

If I gave you a million dollars....

If I told you that I would give you a million dollars if you could identify these VERY well known icons do you think that you could do it? Easy you say? I say not. For if you answered Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Piglet then you would be wrong dead wrong! For what I did not tell you was that we were talking about reality according to Hudson. IF you knew this little piece of information you would have clearly guessed these guys: Alvin, Simon and Theodore! For the past 2 weeks we have had these little guys traveling everywhere we go. And I mean everywhere. I am constantly hearing the humming of the Chipmunk theme song. Never mind the fact that just 2 weeks ago these little ones were the Wonderpets. But we have SO moved on from that. Have I mentioned that my child goes OCD on stuff like this? Let just say that this is how last night went:
I was on the computer finishing up some stuff and he ahas already been tucked into bed which really means nothing in his world because there are always 10 more trips out of his room after that.
He walk up to me and bows his head and folds his arms and starts praying.
Mom: Did you want to say your prayers again?
Hudson: yeah
Mom: Ok sit here and we can say them together.
Well he did not need any help. He knew exactly what he wanted to say.
Hudson (in his Little mouse tiny whisper of a voice that he always uses to say prayers): Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Please bless I say "Mom Can I have the Alvin and the chipmunks movie" and mom says ok Hudson you can have the movie. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

One track mind I tell you. ONE TRACK! Funny enough he was out again 5 minutes sitting on Charles' lap doing the exact same thing and repeating the EXACT same prayer verbatim! Did I say one track mind? Yes ONE TRACK!