Charlie.

My boys are all about Go Go's these days. I love them too, so we encourage this.

You can submit Go Go videos on the website, which the boys have gotten super excited about.

So, taking cue from Lori's stop motion Sundays, we give you: Charlie.

at dinner...

Mom: I officially give everyone permission

NOT to eat the mushy green beans.

Jake: Sweet.

Dad: They're not that bad.

It's like eating slugs.

Slugs are yummy.

Dani: gross.

Andy: Mom, it's like those chicken poop beans.

Mom: Uh, you mean chickpeas, Andy.

Andy: {pause} yup.

good one.

the long drive.

I can't let go of the summer.

After Nauvoo, we stopped in St. Louis and did the zoo.

Which wore Joey out.

Then we stopped in Omaha to catch a movie (Despicable Me) and eat good food from Brewburgers...a Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives feature. (When I die I want Conan to drive me across the country in an RV so I can eat everything I've ever seen on this show) I ate this:

Those are french fries drowning in Alfredo sauce, with bacon and chives.
I dream about them at night.

Then we headed to Mount Rushmore. and ate awesome ice cream.

Conan couldn't go with us all the way because of work, so we dropped him off in Great Falls to fly home (boohoo) and drove the rest of the way el solo. Just me and my GPS, who accidentally on purpose told me to take the wrong turn so we ended up driving an extra hour; no biggie. It was a beautiful mistake through the mountains. I kept stopping to take pictures like this:

And the kids would yell at me from the car to stop taking pictures and just take them to Canada already.
To which I'd reply...I brought you here and I can leave you here, so leave me and my camera alone!
To which they'd yell...You have 50 million pictures already! It's just a boring mountain!
And I...Someday you'll appreciate this mountain! You'll have this picture hanging in your living room! Stop yelling at me!
To which the nice biker couple snapping photos a couple feet away would reply...Oh, they grow up so fast. Enjoy them sweetie.
And so I offered to take their picture in front of the beautiful boring mountain so they could send it to their grandkids to hang on their wall. Which really irritated the van load of whiny kids.

Our destination was only 35 minutes away from the battle of click and shoot vs. adolescence. My home and native land, where we spent 2 1/2 weeks of cool weather bliss.

But this long winded post is about the drive, not the stay. Let's continue.

Now we go home, which was much faster. We didn't even stop at any of the other delicious drive-ins Conan mapped out because we were anxious to get home. A decision I now regret in my hungry state.

We met Conan in Great Falls, he admired our tans, pointed out my awesome Canadian accent I always pick up, we hugged like crazy, and drove.

When you have 5 kids who need to go 2 different kinds of potty 5 times a day for 4 days, that's 5x2x5x4, which equals a lot of this:

ew. public restrooms. I will say, I love those Xelerator hand dryers. You know, those ones that blow so hard the skin on your hands look all creepy and the kids cheeks blow up and look hilarious when they put their faces under them like they're not supposed? love 'em.

We stopped in Yellowstone:

right in time for those escaped convicts from Arizona to hide out there. We just barely escaped.

and in Wall South Dakota we stopped at a place called Wall Drug (they have 10 million signs all over the world with 9.8 million of them on the Interstate we stared at for 3 days), which was so completely unenjoyable because there were so many cool things to look at and eat and I loved it so much that Conan and I almost had a heart attack keeping track of the kids.

They had really great doughnuts. We love doughnuts.

So that's it. Let's end this trip with the doughnuts.

Whew. That took forever.

i love food.

{graham bars. a busy nest.}

Seriously, I love food. It makes me happy. And I love smart ideas with food. And pretty food. And fresh food. And preserving food. And growing food. And gourmet food. And simple food.

I love it so much I want to marry it.

There's a girl I know, her name is Jennifer Hughes, who has a very envious relationship with food. She is a genius in the kitchen, has a garden I dream about, and enters her own recipes in the Tennessee Valley Fair every year. And wins.

She's a dream.

So last night we had a class on what to do with your garden, and Jennifer shared some pretty awesome stuff. Then told me she had a food blog with her mom and her sister.

Uh...what?

I said.

You mean, all this delicious Jennifer goodness is consolidated into one wonderful place of convenience and public knowledge?

I said.

You mean, I have an official online resource manual to my unspoken personal journey of becoming a real live Jennifer?

No way.

I said.

It's called A Busy Nest. And it's pretty much awesome. I'm sharing it so we can all aspire together to make and eat great food, because they have made it simple for us. And I'm pretty sure sometime soon they'll be inspired to add an official "Tips in the Kitchen" section that will give us that "ah-hah" moment we love so well on a regular basis. maybe. please.

{Peach Raspberry Pie for later. a busy nest.}

This Peach Raspberry Pie idea was my favorite. You freeze everything in the pie plate, then put the whole thing in a freezer bag. Then all you do when you want a pie is slide it into your pie plate, put crust on top, and bake it! really? yes. really.

I had to share, because I'm just assuming some of you have the same ongoing quest I do to make my kitchen a place of delicious, organized, genius yummy goodness.

I'm hungry.

Nauvoo.

We spent two days in Nauvoo, Illinois.

This is such a wonderful place;

you can't help but disregard the sweltering heat

and soak up the history and the reverence.

I didn't really want to leave.

“I was in Nauvoo on the 26th day of May, 1846,

for the last time,

and left the city of the Saints feeling that most likely

I was taking a final farewell of Nauvoo for this life.

I looked upon the temple and City as they receded from view

and asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of his Saints.”

Wilford Woodruff

Metropolis.

All right. Summer's done. Lunches are under control. Design Star is over. Pictures are (semi)organized. Early morning wake up wonky brain syndrome is becoming...manageable.

Travelogue: commence.

We're pretty big Superman fans around here. He's just cool. So when we mapped out our trek to Canada this summer, we had to stop in Metropolis. duh.

Metropolis, Illinois is a tiny, old, charming little town, with a big statue of the man in front of Town Hall. awesome.

And there's a pretty sweet store.

We hung out for a while, browsed the comics, then ate Sonic Burgers in our car because it was too hot to eat at the park.

Then we drove.

to the Midwest.

Then the Great White North.

Lots of summer to share.

and then maybe we'll put the vacation officially to rest

and do some crafts or something.

It's hard to let go.

ps. Joey turned into a ninja sometime in June. makes it interesting.

the Great Canadian Andy Dance

I know, I haven't blogged.

I'm still trying to edit and sort my 836 pictures and videos from our trip, and get used to making school lunches again. ugh.

So in the mean time, here's Andy and his sweet moves at the Great Canadian Barn Dance in Hill Springs, Alberta.

be inspired.

happy end of summer.