Toddler Approved Snack Mix

Summer is officially here and my family is super excited because we bought a camper! My husband and I grew up camping in tents, but we have been bit by the GLAMping bug and have found just how much easier camping is when you have everything contained in one spot.

We've already been out a couple times in the last month and the girls have been watching me each week as I methodically prepare the camper for the next upcoming adventure. Setting aside clean clothes for the weekend, filling the fridge and pantry with our meals and most importantly - the snacks.

The other day Ruby (my two year old) says "Mama, I help you?" and I thought to myself about how can I involve the kids in prepping for our camping trips. So I sent them upstairs and instructed them to set out two sets of clothes for camping and to fill their backpacks with books and a few toys to play with.

When they were done we started to prepare their snack mix for the weekend. It's really to veg-out and pull out all the junk food when you're camping, but why when good nutrition is so easy to prepare ahead of time? Involving the girls in their meal planning helps them get a sense of what is a good choice for snacking and we also get to work on skills like measuring, scooping, pouring, shaking and ingredient identification.

Ingredients:
Gerber Lil' Beanies (original or white cheddar broccoli)
1/2 cup of cashew halves
1/2 cup of dried blueberries
1/2 cup of dried sweetened cherries or cranberries
1 cup of lightly salted popcorn














And into the camper is goes, ready for this weekend's adventure!

I could not have made up this natural beauty if I tried. Camping at Panoramic Point off Baker Lake in the Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest. #pierogiemamaGLamps #bakerlake #mountshuksan #northcascades #mountbakersnoqualmienationalforest #pnwisbest

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Jun 5, 2016 at 12:07pm PDT

...Not before a taste test first, mom!

My appreciation for this snack mix is because it is chock full of protein from navy beans, thanks to the Lil' Beanies and cashews with a mixture of sweet from the berries and salty from the popcorn and nuts. The non-messy crunch factor is also a big deal! Knowing that Gerber now offers non-gmo kid snacks  makes this an easy choice.

What kind of snack mix do you prep for your kids?
Gerber Lil' Beanies are an easy way to add crunchy, yummy protein into any kid snack! 
You can find them in the kids snack section at Walmart. 

2015 Wrap Up

Hi everyone! I am checking in at the midway point of my trip to Germany. If you've been following along on instagram, you've seen a ton of posts on some of the awesome sights that we have visited. By the way, you don't need to have an instagram account to see the pictures, so do go on and check them out!

Whether you've been following along with me for the last *almost* 4 years or have jumped in just recently, fret not - in the new year I'll be sure to "re-introduce" myself as it's been a long time since I've really done it officially. A lot changes when you start a blog in the month before you expect your first child, when 4 years later you find yourself with two daughters that are pre-school and toddler age. And a blog that has grown and maintained over that whole time and all you really needed was somewhere to write out your thoughts in a somewhat coherent manner! Anyways, I digress. Back to 2015.

Here's a round up of my 9 most popular posts of 2015 from Instagram -

1. I finally made Monte Cristo waffles. So good, but fair warning - the raspberry preserves are not easy (read: impossible) to clean off your waffle iron. Lesson learned. 2. Though I've been a babywearing mama from the beginning with Penny, just a few months ago I dove into the world of woven wraps. My dear friend That Mama Gretchen and I took a mama's night out and took MommyCon Seattle by storm. I fell in love with Cassiope Wovens and was positive that one way or another, I would be leaving MommyCon with a wrap. I took a chance, entered in Cassiope Woven's giveaway and I was the extremely lucky winner of a limited edition MommyCon exclusive wrap. Woo hoo! That's what you heard if you were at the announcement of the giveaway - I wooped with careless abandon. So here you see my Ruby and I in our first wrap job. 3. Here is an old fashioned, no calories spared pound cake made from no less than 10 eggs from my own chickens. I started keeping a small flock of backyard chickens right before Ruby's birth in 2014 and have been so in love with the delicious eggs these girls provide. This photo reminds me that not only should I make this again, and that I need to share this recipe with you, but also that I should at some point make a post about how my flock of 5 increased to a flock of 9 over the summer. Ooops. 4.  2015 was a year of a ton of work travel for my husband, and one time while he was out of town I treated myself to an avocado mask after I *thought* the girls were asleep. I heard Penny call for me, so I came up to comfort her. I forgot about the mask and she FREAKED out. She had no idea who I was, and I had to convince her that I am mama and not some random person. 5. This is the view from Zugspitze, the tallest peak in Germany. More pictures are on instagram, but I do promise you that I will give you the full details once we come home.  6. I have so much love for my husband, but there is very little more that tugs on my heart strings than when I see him wear our girls. One of our family traditions (which has been a tradition from his family of origin) is visiting family bible camp in the Okanagan mountains in British Columbia. This picture is from family camp this year while agate hunting.  7. Cloth diaper reviews & giveaways are still going strong on the blog! 8. Another babywearing daddy shot! 9. Sharing recipes is another favorite on the blog, and this past summer I shared my ever favorite summer recipe - lime cilantro chicken tacos.

And finally, if you need any more reading beyond what I've shared above, here's a few of my favorite blog posts this year too.

• Love salmon? I do too. Here's two ways that I absolutely love to cook it. 
• Visiting zoos and aquariums is kind of my thing. We did quite a bit of travel in 2015 and I absolutely loved the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. 
• Babywearing takes me everywhere - even the pool!
• I got a little crafty this year and did a bit of a Pinterest copy. Do you have a child in your life that loves model cars? This model car photo frame is so easy!
• With a team of friends, I sewed over 160 cloth menstrual pads for girls in developing countries. 
• On that same thread - why are cloth menstrual pads awesome?

Thanks for sticking along with me this year!

Don't miss out on the chance to win $20 PayPal from me as a New Year gift!

Family Camp 2015

A quick word about something close to my heart - fundraising for cancer research.
_________________

This past week my family and I took off for the Great White North and attended DVM Bible Camp in the Canadian Okanagan. My husband's family has been attending this camp since the very beginning, 49 years ago, and it's been a wonderful tradition that gets us together and replenish our souls and faith together.

DVM Bible Camp was started by my husband's great uncle and his son. The land was homesteaded upon for several years (the main lodge was built in 1924) and in the 1960's it was bought by the family. It was ranched upon and later converted as a campground and the owners invited the local church to come out in the summer for "family camp." My husband's mother grew up going to this camp every year, subsequently taking her family and children throughout their lives too. This was the third time that I've attended.

The camp runs rich with family history. Each time I've gone up there I discover a memory of a family member who had been there years before. A quilt, displayed on the wall. Photo albums filled with pictures of my husband as an awkward teen (so great!). The best yet - the welcoming arms of distant in-laws so treat me like a cousin, even though we may have not met or seen each other in several years.

Walking through this camp for a week makes me think of what a time capsule it is. It's about 15 miles from the nearest town, and 40 miles until you can get some wifi. It wasn't until fairly recently that they harnessed the hydro-electric power that they can gain from the creek flowing through the property that gives the lodge consistent lighting and hot showers for everyone. Chapel and classes are held in the old lean to that was the cattle stable when it was a working ranch. There are several other original buildings on the property that were clearly hand chopped log houses. Each year that I've visited I sneak a Laura Ingalls Wilder book from their library and dive myself into the pioneer days with this view above my book.

Each day has two chapels (worship and a message) and there is a morning class. Throughout the day there are different family activities available; from "killer" croquet to gold panning, agate hunting, a ropes course or swimming in the lake. The best part is that you just let your kids run free. This is an age where disconnecting is sometimes harder for children than the adults, where many haven't ever truly experienced what it's like to play outside and imagine for yourself what to do. Heading out to camp every year is a a reprieve for all of us.

Oh - and you betcha that I cloth diapered for a whole week while camping!

Camping While Cloth Diapering

When parents consider the pros and cons of cloth diapering, they go through different scenarios where they envision it being difficult – typically travel. It’s a break from the routine, might be difficult to find a suitable place to wash the diapers, and then there’s also the transportation issue. Sure, it’s easy to temporarily switch to ‘sposies for a short period of time, but cloth diapering is totally versatile and not difficult to accomplish outside of the home.  

We exclusively cloth diaper with the exception of travel via plane. Camping with cloth, on the other hand, I've got down pat. We've gone camping about half a dozen times with cloth from a weekend to a week at a time. In the coming week we will be camping for a week at my husband's family church camp in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. It's a very remote area (as in, drive at least 45 minutes to get to the closest wifi location) and whenever we visit I like to imagine what it would be like to live like a pioneer. 

 Along the way I’ve found a few tips on how to make it workable.

• Cut down prep time at camp and keep it all in one place. If you use pockets, stuff your diapers at home. Then bring the diapers, wipes, detergent and wetbags in their own container (like a big duffel bag, rubbermaid or even a laundry basket). I have a big travel bag that I’ve dubbed “The Fluff Bag.”
• Engineer a “camp washer” or take a look at this gal’s DIY bucket washer video.
• Pack clothes line and clothes pins. That’ll be pretty important to dry them effectively!
• When in a pinch, use your travel wet bag as a portable washing machine. Genius! Planet Wise tweeted this idea – and I couldn’t agree more!

When we camped for the full week we utilized the camp washer with the instructions from the video above. We boiled water and tried to replicate our wash cycle at home as best we could. Are the diapers going to be as clean as they are at home? Likely not. You can bring disposables just in case. Plus, you definitely get street cred for washing your cloth diapers like a pioneer!

Some notes:

• Prefolds always wash and dry quickly. If you don’t normally use them, but have some stashed away (we primarily used prefolds when Penny was a newborn), bring them back out for camping.
• Remember to adjust your detergent use based on you’ll be using less water.
• Check out Dirty Diaper Laundry's annual Flats Challenge to get some ideas on how to wash diapers by hand. It's a good idea to know how to wash cloth diapers by hand in case of an emergency! 

Have you camped with cloth diapers before? 

What tips would you add? 

If you haven't, what concerns do you have?

Find more of my cloth diaper related topics here

The Pierogie Babies v.8

In the last month her vocabulary has totally exploded. She's talking about things that we've never talked about before, talks to herself constantly and now sings songs. One thing I've noticed about her in comparison to some of the other kids in her age group is that she spends a lot of time describing the world around her versus making statements or requests. She has very much become a girly girl; the other day I saw her standing by the front door wearing a hat, her Hello Kitty Purse, a bracelet and had her princess shoes (little play shoes with a bit of a heel) on. She announced "Time to go to the store, mama!"

Since visiting our local Touch A Truck event and meeting a few real live princesses, she has gone into full princess mode and loves our Friday night family movie nights and always insists on a princess movie. When given the choice, she chooses Belle as her favorite princess, but her favorite movie is The Princess and the Frog. Elmo has slowly fallen out of favor and she prefers to watch an episode of Super Why in the morning while I take a shower and get ready for the day. Because of that, she's learned phoenetics much faster than I expected and is starting to connect letters on the screen with what sound they make. We are working on asking politely ("can I please" versus "Penny wants") and she has a few chores that she helps with (putting away tupperware out of the dishwasher, throwing dirty clothes in the hamper).

Her imagination is also going at full force. She has a couple baby dolls that she dances around with (waltz style) and feeds them. She has started to pretend making food and eating it. She also started swim lessons with her daddy!

Hilarious things Penny says (which I think I might start writing as a new series):

• She poked at my post partum muffin top and said "mama, this is HUGE!"
• "Mama crab pants" (what Penny meant to say) "Mama crap pants" (what Penny really said)
• Penny: it's mama's birthday!B: not today. Do you know who's birthday is next? Mia's! We're going to Mia's cowgirl party soon.P: (wide eyes) No!B: yep!P: PENNY'S BIRTHDAY NEXT!B: no, Mia's birthday is next. Then Jack and Pammy's.P: Noooo!! Penny birthday!B: you're being a little irrational. well, your birthday is in 9 months but it'll be soon.P: I-rash-nal...cake.B: yes, we can have some irrational cake too. 
• Your eggs are deeee-wish-us, mama! I must be huuuuuuungry!

Rolls go on for days. And days. She's now very happy and comfortable laying on the floor and hanging out in the play gym, or on a towel in the backyard looking up at our maple tree's leaves. For her 4 month weigh in she was 15 lbs 2 oz.

She recently got her own amber necklace, straight from Poland, and probably in the knick of time because I took a look at her gums and I can see those little two bottom teeth making their journey northward. I haven't seen a lot of signs of teething just yet, but I'm happy that we got her started around the same time that we did for Penny.

She's now a roller and goes from back to tummy with ease. Crinkly toys blow her mind and she loooves this bird that I hang from her car seat. She's also working on blowing raspberries, which is absolutely adorable.

Penny singing the "Ruby Roo" song:

The Recipe Crucible: Pillsbury Biscuit Turkey & Muenster Grilled Sammies

A little Bianca factoid...yes, I keep a very healthy Pinterest account. But when a recipe has been tried and true, it makes its way into my legit recipe box. It's written on paper and hopefully immortalized for the next 50 years (or more, if one of my children end up loving cooking too!).

September has always been a time of transition for myself and many other families. It's the start of school, obviously a change in season and it always seems like I am moving in September / October. I'm going to say this one last time - this better be the last time we move for like 15 years!! ;)

During this time of transition families are busier than usual and honestly the time and energy spent in cooking sometimes takes a nosedive. Our family doesn't have anyone starting school (not for a couple more years), but the transition of moving into our new home and the renovation taking place in the kitchen has definitely made things a little tighter, less comfortable and not as easy to prepare full on dishes like I normally like to.

So this little quick and easy recipe that I'm going to share with you below is in the beginning stages of this crucible - initially saved via the internet/this blog, and maybe one day will graduate into recipe cardhood.

Originally adapted from Grands! Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

You will need:1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury® Grands!® refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)
8 thick slices of Muenster cheese (I went straight to the Deli counter and asked for nice thick slices)
1/2 lb of pepper crusted sliced turkey breast meat (also found at your Deli counter)
honey mustard
extras: avocado, tomato, bacon
Makes 4 sandwiches


You will do:
1. Heat a non-stick skillet on high heat. 
2. Meanwhile, flatten the biscuits into discs, similar to mini personal pizzas. The key here is to get them nice and thin, otherwise you'll end up with regular biscuits! You can stretch them like pizza dough or use a rolling pin.

3. Once the pan is hot and the biscuits are flat, add one or two biscuits at a time to the hot pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes per side. Once it is brown (like a pancake) flip it over and cook the other side. Set aside when cooked.
4. After the biscuits are cooked, layer on a spread on a little bit of honey mustard, add two slices of cheese, some meat and any of your additional toppings. Sandwich together.
5. Return the sammies to the hot pan, adjusting the temperature to medium/low so that the cheese can melt without burning the biscuit. 

6. Bon appetit! These are so simple that you can really adjust them to fit whatever you have in your fridge for a hot sandwich.

What would you fill your sammy with?
Download the Pillsbury recipe booklet for more easy recipes and comment with a Pillsbury Grands! Biscuits recipe you'd love to try!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. The content and opinions expressed here are all my own and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of General Mills. Compensation was provided by General Mills via Clever Girls Collective.

Camping with Cloth Diapers: Guest Post on My Cloth Diaper Stash

I've written a guest post over at My Cloth Diaper Stash 

on my experience with cloth diapering while camping in the great outdoors! 

Check it out and let me know if you've braved this old timey experience. 

What tips would you add?

My Kia, My Life Stage: Go forth and propagate mode

Let's face it: I'm in "go big or go home" mode.

As a family of five - two parents, one child and two large-ish dogs, we've got a hefty list of requirements when it comes to the family hauler. Our current family car gets us where we need to be on the daily (and most weekends), but...spoiler alert: we plan to have more kids (no, I'm not pregnant currently). We need room to grow!

I suppose you can say that our tipping point are the dogs and cargo space, because most cars and cross overs can easily fit parents plus two kids. Our current ride works for our daily requirements, like play dates or trips to the grocery store because I don't bring both of our dogs with us everywhere. But the truth is that we are a family on the move all the time.  We spend less than 25% of our weekends at home. We're very close with both sides of our family and do love our fair share of road tripping and camping. So when we upgrade to our next car, it's going to have to accommodate additional kids and the ability to pack us all up for our trips (of all kinds). That's a little bit of a tall order, isn't it?

When looking at the options available to us, minivans have come up. Sure, you won't see me mudding it though off road trails, but oh the ease of access! Sliding doors, captain seating, features built in with busy moms in mind. How can one not take a look at "the dark side"?

Out of the major minivan competitors, the Kia Sedona comes at the most affordable base price. It features seating for 7 with removable seating for when the hubs decides to take it to the hardware store. 

Kia's website

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

A Nursing Mom's BFF: The Nursing Pillow

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Comfort and Harmony. All opinions are 100% mine.

High five to myself and Penny for making it to the 15 month  mark of our nursing relationship!

It wasn't always easy; early on we battled positioning issues and a difficult latch. But our triumphs outweigh our hardships! We successfully ditched the shield after 3 weeks and even maintained a sense of humor while learning how to nurse in public while traveling. Nowadays, this seasoned mama can scope out a comfortable spot *like that* and settle in with her nursling. Like in the back of our suburban on our recent camping trip.

One of my biggest aids has been our nursing pillow. It's kept Penny up to the right level, gave my arms a rest and even freed my fingers for a quick email or text here and there. A lot of moms use their nursing pillows for other uses - like positioning the baby to help encourage sitting up on their own or for tummy time. Penny didn't start to enjoy using the nursing pillow for other uses until toddlerhood - now she loves sitting in the comfortable U-shape while watching her daily allowance of Elmo (and I get a bit of house work done while I have the chance!).

The Comfort & Harmony mombo nursing pillow has 2 really cool features that my standard pillow does not:

• Its two sides differ in firmness. The nursing side is supportive to help Mom get her baby close and secure for a comfortable nursing session. The other side is softer, which helps the baby with tummy time.
• It has a "vibe inside," to offer a soft vibration to help soothe the baby. Gosh, I wish I had that for the early days!

The mombo nursing pillow is available at Toys 'R Us and Babies 'R Us, along with a variety of other Comfort and Harmony products - ranging from bouncers, swings and shopping cart covers.

Follow Comfort & Harmony on Facebook and Comfort & Harmony on Twitter so that you can be in the know for deals!

The S'Nookie

During my recent camping trip (read Part I and Part II), my friend Sarah and I made a delicious discovery. As you are aware, I love combining my favorite foods into a whole new meal (Baked Spaghetti Pizza and Red Velvet Brownies, for example).

And thus, behold:

 Are you ready to change life as you know it?

You will need:
2 chocolate chip cookies
Nutella
1 large marshmallow
A camp fire
Tin foil
*Note: it's helpful to have an extra set of hands for this one.

You will do:
1. Start your campfire. Ideally you don't want a super hot fire, it should be a little subdued with coals to help warm the marshmallows and cookies slowly and evenly.
2. Place tin foil on fire ring grate (if available) and arrange cookies evenly on the tin foil. Allow to warm up.

3. While the cookies are warming, start roasting your mashmallow.
4. As your marshmallow nears preparation, have an extra set of hands turn your two cookies over (so the bottom is facing up) and smear some delicious Nutella on.

5. Make a S'mores sandwich by laying the roasted marshmallow between the two Nutella smeared cookies.

6. Enjoy, and try not to get marshmallow or Nutella smeared across your face. Brush off those cookie crumbs too :)

Memorial Day Recap Part II

Part I of our Memorial Day weekend camping trip

Friends, I am not what you would call a "fair weather camper." I've grown up in the Pacific Northwest where rain is just something you deal with. It's an act of God if you go camping in Western Washington and you don't get any rain. So I'm fine with that. I'm totally fine that my and Penny's fingernails came home with dirt in the cuticles. I'm even fine with the fact that we didn't shower for 4 days. What I'm not fine with is being too cold to go to sleep!

We took this first camping trip with Penny with open eyes to see if we tent camping was still a possibility with our mini circus of toddler + 2 dogs. Penny really surprised us with how able she was. We taught her from the moment that she noticed the (empty) fire pit, that it was hot and that she needs to be careful. She never strayed from the site (but thought it was fun to run around the car and meet us at the other side) and didn't eat too much dirt. Camping with this very mobile and interested toddler was easy and fun, which is not entirely what we expected. We prepared ourselves for sleeping at night to be difficult for her due to the cold or natural noises, or that she would just get into too much trouble. What ended up happening is that we realized that for Adam and I that camping in a tent is no longer fun or comfortable. I, sadly, am becoming a fair weather camper.  So a trailer is in our very near future. And I think I'm coming to terms with it. Besides comfort being a factor for us, a camper would also give us a place to safely leave our dogs in case we wanted to go somewhere not dog friendly. Leaving dogs at a campsite isn't responsible and having them cooped up in a possibly hot car all day isn't an option either. Perhaps more on that in the future.

As an aside, this whole weekend was made easier by the addition of our new family rig. We bought a older suburban after spending this last year realizing that our beloved Volvo V70 station wagon just isn't cutting it anymore. I know, a car is like a purse. You get a bigger purse, you start to stuff it with more stuff. The issue is primarily with the two of us, 2 dogs and *currently* one child, we quickly fill up the Volvo on our weekends. We visit both sides of our family very regularly. The car is pretty full with just a weekend full of stuff and our 5 bodies. Eventually, we'll have more kids, which will take up more space and come with more stuff. We are also transitioning to having most of our family vacations be road trips. So naturally the idea would be to get a bigger car. Unfortunately, bigger usually means horrible gas mileage, which doesn't really jive with this mama's ecofriendly goals and this family's desire to stay single income!

So what the husband has decided to do is create what is called a DuraBurb. For those of you who don't know, Adam has a degree in vehicle engineering and knows a thing or two about cars. Can you guess how many cars we have? I can tell you that each member of our little family (2 of us, Penny and the 2 dogs) would each have a car to themself and more. Yea, we're those people. We try to justify that each car we have has it's own purpose, even though we currently have 2 "toys." Ok, I am making every attempt to keeping this post relevant and keeping boy-stuff out of it. But the hubs wants his little spotlight here every once in a while too..

Back to the DuraBurb. It's a Suburban (traditionally gas guzzler) with a Duramax diesel engine + other parts swapped in. Modern diesels are much more energy efficient (and quieter) than their older counterparts were. All said and done, this Family Rig will go from getting 13 MPG on a good day to about 27 MPG. And seat 9 passengers, and tow whatever we want. So now all my friends are joking that I need to fill it with kids and we're good to go. We started by getting a donor truck with the desired diesel engine + parts, took all that stuff out, got the Suburban, and next step is to do the swap - which will be this weekend. Hopefully it'll all go smoothly and it'll be up and running before the end of the summer!

Stay tuned for that tasty recipe that I've been tantalizing you with for 2 posts...

What is your family "rig"? Is it the ideal size for your family?

Now, honestly, readers of mine - 

is the Duraburb project something you'd be interested 

in reading about  in future posts? If not, I'll definitely spare you :)

Memorial Day Recap Part I

This weekend we took off for a 4 day weekend down Highway 20 in Northern Washington and ended up at the Colonial Creek campground in the Northern Cascades.  We were a little worried about holiday traffic and crowed campgrounds, but incidentally the bridge collapse in Burlington and the wet weather report must have scared most of the travelers away.

We drove up the scenic highway, found our camp ground and quickly set up camp.

So.. we jokingly call our tent "The Condo." Because it is really big. It's 15 x 17 ft. Adam has had it for about 8 years and we've definitely gotten our use out of it. It's large enough to fit a queen sized air mattress, ample space for our 2 dogs to sleep and all of our gear (and this time we even brought the pack n play in case). Plus.. it has a freaking foyer. Not kidding. This tent is probably bigger than my college dorm room was!

The funny part is that in the roughly two dozen times we've set it up together, this weekend was the first time that we got to set up camp in daylight AND no rain! There have been several camping trips where we show up after dark, because we left after work, or it's dumping rain. So we were really pleased that getting everything in camp set up took under an hour - even with a little kid running around!

Speaking of my little kid, gotta say.. Super proud of her. Even though she's been walking for well over 6 months, this was one of the very few times she's walked on rough terrain without having our assistance each step of the way. I got her these cute Oshkosh shoes and she was so capable of maneuvering through roots, through rocky patches, over logs and up and down steep slopes. Even when she did fall down, she quickly picked herself up and went on to whatever she was up to. Then there's times at home where she trips over a rug or gets knocked over by a dog and she waaaaaails like there's no tomorrow. LOL! I suppose the saying "everything is different at camp" applies to toddler falls too.

We explored around our camp grounds and found that the Thunder Knob hiking trail starts by the walk in sites. We were still waiting on our friends to show up so we decided to just take a quick look over the creek beds and then went back to camp to have dinner. This night's dinner was not up to the level of quality that I had intended on - we just had some turkey chili and chicken apple sausages.

The following morning, our friends met up with us and we took a hike up Thunder Knob. It was a 3.8 mile round trip, easy ~630 ft elevation gain hike. Even with our 2nd trimester pregnant friend we made it up quickly and enjoyed the beautiful view laid out before us. The first part of the hike has you cross a couple babbling creeks and takes you through lichen-y forest which gets a little sparser as you get to the top.

Our brother and sister in law with their son Jack showed up one evening for a few hours, and we also took a day trip to Winthrop to escape the rain. We only went through the main street area, but took advantage of some yummy ice cream, mini golf and a picnic lunch down by the water.

We ended the weekend with a visit to the Diablo Dam for some birthday cake in my honor :)

PS: Don't judge Penny because she's wearing such a frumpy little outfit. It's comfy for driving long distances in! ;)

So.. stay tuned for 2 more posts regarding this weekend!  One about our new family rig and another with a taste bud achingly delicious recipe.

Memorial Day Weekend Camping Menu

Typical Bianca. Instead of actually packing and preparing for the impending camping trip that we are leaving tomorrow for, I'm at the computer writing about it. My husband is so right that I'm a procrastinator incarnate.

But I'm going to justify that this is a way for me to organize myself ;)

Tomorrow morning we are taking off for a 4 day camping trip. It'll be our first one with Penelope, but at 15 months I think everything will go just fine. Naps might be a little tough, but if she doesn't want to lay down in the tent we can always put her in the Ergo and go for a hike or snuggle up in the Maya wrap at the campsite and bop around until she lulls herself to sleep. I'm flexible.

Now I'm going to preface that when I say we're going camping, it may not mean the same thing to everyone. To some people, that means packing a backpack and heading out into the woods. To others, that means loading up the camper - complete with DVD player, oven, and shower. For us, camping is sort of in the middle. We "car camp," as many might say. We go to campsites that definitely have running water, preferably showers, allow dogs and I use a Coleman propane cooktop to prepare most of our food. This time around, I am bringing my Lodge cast iron dutch oven and am planning on putting it to good use! I feel really legit now! ;)

We're camping with another couple and are splitting the meal responsibility, but I am excited to share what I am planning on bringing for us.

Tales of A Mountain Mama's Dutch Oven Stew
Amelia, thank you so much for posting this on such short notice for my benefit :)
Home made pasta salad
Dirty Gourmet's Campfire Breakfast Potatoes
Mommy's Kitchen's S'mores Trail Mix (and regular S'mores too!)
Martha's Turkey Sloppy Joes
Moms and Munchkins' Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

I haven't made any of these recipes before - but I'm sure they'll be a hit!  

What are your camping favorites?