Labor Day Camping

 This is probably the first year we have ever gone camping on Labor Day weekend. Growing up we always went to my grandparent's cabin. Ever since they sold the cabin we just haven't gone anywhere. Well, about 6 months ago or so Curtis's siblings got together and decided to plan a Butterfield reunion. We decided to do a family camping trip for the weekend of Labor Day.

One of Curtis's brothers reserved a group site at Cold Springs Campground just North of Council, ID. It was a very beautiful site. The only negative thing was the outhouse we had to use. It smelled so bad during the day and there were lots of flies in one and lots of ants in the other. But we dealt with it.

We took off after school and work on Friday afternoon around 4pm and didn't arrive until 7pm when the sun was starting to set. Fortunately we bought new tents this year that are instant set up so it only took a few minutes to get the tents up and not long after we filled the tents with our gear. Just the weekend before I was able to find 3 used cots w/pads to use for camping. Two of them are nearly new and we got a great deal on them. Curtis and I used those ones and they were comfortable. Nikki used the other one and it was a lot older and wasn't comfortable for her. It was missing a few springs. We learned that we need some better quality sleeping bags to be able to sleep more comfortably. Steve (Curtis's brother) let us borrow a couple of sleeping bags since apparently we lost one on the way up and also the kids sleeping bags weren't the warmest. Our small orange sleeping bag must have fallen out of the trailer at some point because we didn't find it when we returned home either.

Most of the road up there was on the highway but we did have to get off on some side roads that were dirt. At some points it was really difficult to see but this looked so beautiful I had to take a picture. The sun was cutting through what looked like dirt in the air but I think it was actually caused by wildfire smoke.

Once we got camp set up we just spent some time talking with everyone who was there already. The site we got was really nice. We had to walk a little ways from the truck back to the camp site and even cross a little bridge but we were secluded with no one else around us and plenty of room for everyone's tents. They even had several picnic tables for us to use and built in benches by the large fire pit. 

The next morning we were up early to cook breakfast in our dutch oven, something we have rarely used. We ate a breakfast casserole that included hash browns, eggs, cheese, onions, peppers and sausage. It was really good and we thought it would make too much but our family of 7 gobbled it right up! After breakfast we just relaxed around camp. The boys saw their cousins chopping wood and I encouraged them to go do it also. I figured they never get this opportunity and they are old enough to learn how to chop wood. They ended up loving it. Jack picked up on how to do it quicker than Garrett but that's because Garrett is a little more cautious and was afraid to hit too hard. It was fun just watching them.

Alice was making friends with Athena. She's a very good natured lab. She didn't bark, growl, or jump on people and she's still very young. She belongs to my niece Rachel and her husband Carl.

Sitting by the fire Saturday morning. Those are our tents in the background.

Enjoying some hot cocoa and cider.

The fire pit area.

Just got ourselves dressed and ready for the day.

Playing on the small bridge that leads to our camp site.

Their cousin Wyatt is showing his drawings.

Getting the dogs to do tricks.

The girls are coloring with papers and markers provided by grandma.

It was fairly windy out so we had to bring her picture into the tent to get a picture. 

Curtis brought his dart board and hung it on a tree.

Chopping wood.

A bunch of us decided to drive over to Brundage near McCall and take a ride on the ski lift. You can see so much and it's so beautiful! We had to wear a mask while getting on the lift but could take them off while riding. Then put them on again just before getting off.

The look out at the top of the mountain.

When our ride was done we headed back to camp to quickly change into our swim suits and drove back into McCall to swim at the beach there at Ponderosa State Park. We only stayed for about an hour though because we wanted to get back to camp to eat dinner. Not to mention the lake was pretty cold!

Carrying her towel and swim shirt in her new swim bag. Our friend Ashlie gave one to both of the girls since she got them for only $1 on clearance.

Nikki talking with her cousin Ambrey on the beach. It was so great to see her finally talking and connecting with some Butterfield cousins this weekend. Having a job has been so good for her to get out of her shy shell.

After we got back from swimming and changed we got started on dinner and soon after dessert. We decided to try something one of Curtis's friends had done when they were younger by having store bought pizza wrapped in foil as our tin foil dinner. Well, it didn't work out so well for us. We precooked the pizza at home that we bought from Papa Murphy's (it was so hard not to eat it!) and then wrapped each slice in foil so that we could just warm it up over the fire. The pepperoni pizza was put on the fire first and for too long. All of the toppings kept sticking to the foil and we couldn't get hardly any of it off so we basically just ate sauce on breadsticks. Also, some of the crust got a little burned. The chicken garlic wasn't as bad since we learned to take them off the fire sooner. The problem was the slice I ate could have been a little warmer but at least most of the toppings stayed on the pizza. 

A little later we started working on another dutch oven cooking project, this time dessert. It was upside down apple cinnamon rolls. We didn't watch them close enough and the dough around the outside edge and bottom got burned. After we cut the burnt stuff off it was good. Every family brought their own thing to do for dessert that night and Steve brought a projector and set up a white sheet on a canopy so we could watch a movie. We ate our desserts while watching "The Sandlot". It was fun!

Sunday morning was an easier day for food. We brought muffins, fruit (grapes, apples) and drinks (orange juice, milk, cocoa, cider). We slowly started to pack our things and then paused for awhile to have a Come Follow Me lesson and discussion. 

One of Charlotte's favorite things to do at camp was to pull Alice around in a wagon.

Alice was getting pulled around while eating her breakfast. She had to be bundled up because it was pretty chilly in the morning. It was so cold you could see your breath.

Here's our family group sitting around the camp fire for our Come Follow Me lesson/discussion.

Once the sun came up it warmed up fast.

It was a good lesson and discussion even though it went on a little long but we were happy to be there and be a part of it. Immediately after, we finished packing up and headed back home. The original plan was to rush home to meet Cindy, my brother Colby's girl friend, who were going to come up from Utah. Unfortunately because her son was diagnosed with Covid they had to cancel. Stillman's family was planning on coming down from Lewiston so they could meet her also and at first they were going to cancel after Colby cancelled but their kids had other plans. They decided to come anyway. So we rushed home unloaded our truck and the trailer we borrowed from my dad. Then everyone quickly showered and got dressed all in 1 hour before we headed over to my grandma's to have a potluck dinner with some of my family, including my brother Stillman's family. I was too tired however to get pictures while there. We ate food, visited, and played some games. It was good to see them. The next day (on Labor Day) we spent most of the day cleaning up the house and getting laundry done and watched some movies while doing so. Curtis also cooked up some home made applesauce from apples given to us from his sister, Jeanie's, tree. While he did that I took Nikki and her friend Angie to do a bit of shopping. They decided to get a head start on their Halloween costumes. It was so nice to have that extra day to be home after being gone to catch up on sleep and get things cleaned up. However, I'm still trying to recover from the weekend. Sometimes it's just hard to get back into a routine after a vacation, especially when you've pigged out on a bunch of sweets. Oh well, it was worth it!

Alice's First Day of Preschool

I have a friend (Chrystal) who decided that she was going to teach a small group of preschool kids this year since the preschool she had been using for her own kids had to close because of Covid. She asked if Alice wanted to be in the preschool. I have never paid for any of my other kids to do preschool but we decided that since she's the youngest and all the other kids are doing school from home, she needs something for her. So we signed her up and her first day of school was yesterday. She was super excited at first but got a little shy after we got there. 

Since Chrystal's husband is a teacher at Skyview High School and he's certified to be a PE teacher they decided to have PE on Wednesdays and invite any siblings who are in Kindergarten or 1st grade to join the PE. Since yesterday was Wednesday, they started with PE. There are 4 preschoolers and each has one sibling that comes for PE on the first half of Wednesday. They decided that the older kids could also eat lunch with the preschoolers after they do PE, then the older kids get picked up. The preschool kids are there from 11am-2pm. The older kids are there from 11-12:30. Alice started to do the PE activities yesterday but then she said she was tired (shy is more like it). I stuck around to let Charlotte do the PE. I wasn't going to at first but finally after about an hour and when Alice was starting to play I slipped out with Charlotte to go home and leave Alice to do her preschool thing. I was told she cried for a little bit when she realized I was gone but then she was fine and did really well following directions. I think this will be really good for her.

Last night we were sitting down to eat dinner and we happen to be eating some beer battered fish filets as part of our meal. So our cat Sage smelled it and decided to join us at the table. Sage seems to be so photogenic and so cute.

Our New Band Boy

 Last Friday Jack had instrument placement night where he got to go to the middle school and try certain instrument mouth pieces for the instruments that he was interested in doing for band this year. Don't worry, they cleaned each mouth piece after each student tried one and they had social distancing. It was also done outside. At the beginning of the summer Jack wanted to play the trumpet. Before school started he was thinking of percussion since we already have two percussion sets from Garrett doing percussion. Then he decided he would rather play the clarinet because he had been practicing on the recorder that we own, which looks like a clarinet only much smaller and simpler. Then he started thinking of the saxophone. By the time we went to instrument placement night he really wanted to play the saxophone. I'm so glad that they got to try these out first because by the end of the night he changed his mind again! 

He tried the trumpet and trombone pieces first because he was waiting in line anyway for the other instruments but he already knew he didn't want to do those ones because he had tried them when Garrett had both of those instruments two years ago. Next he was able to try the clarinet and saxophone. We had to bring our own reeds to be able to try those. At that point Jack was the only one who had brought one for the saxophone so he was the first student to try it. However, he found that the saxophone was more difficult than the clarinet so he changed his mind about the saxophone. And since the flute was sitting right there I told him to go ahead and try the flute just to see. He turned out to be one of the best who had tried it so far. The teachers were impressed by him on the flute and the clarinet. So then they asked him what his top two preferences were on all the instruments he had tried. Jack said clarinet was his first choice and then flute. They wrote it down. On the way home Jack was thinking about it and decided that he'd rather have flute as his number one choice and clarinet as his second. So I texted the band teacher to let him know.

This is either the saxophone or the clarinet mouthpiece. I think it's the saxophone but I can't remember. I only took one picture of him so he wouldn't feel self conscience since other people were watching also.

The band teacher never did respond to my text about switching instrument preferences but I think he might have gotten the message. We were told that the band teachers would send out an email on Monday (yesterday) on instrument assignments. Jack and I were anxiously waiting and continually checking our emails. I was in the kitchen getting lunch ready for the girls when all of a sudden I could hear Jack yelling from the office with excitement. "I got the flute!" I heard him say. He was so excited that he ran around telling everyone in the house! Now that we knew what instrument he is going to play this year he was very anxious to go get one. I originally thought I would just rent from Dorsey Music but I decided to look on craigslist and facebook marketplace to see if they might have anything good. I was fortunate to find a good deal on a used flute for $100. Before purchasing it I messaged Mr. Sene, the head band teacher, about if it was good and he said it was. 

So, after school was over Jack and I anxiously waited for the time to take Nikki to work and then headed to meet the lady who was selling it on craigslist. I had to stop by the bank on the way to get some cash but then we dropped by Curtis's work to pick him up to come with us to look at it. Since the lady lives in North Boise she was gracious enough to meet us halfway at the St. Luke's hospital parking lot in Meridian right off the freeway. We went ahead and purchased it after Jack got to try it out. Then took Curtis back to work. Jack is so excited to learn the flute. He practiced blowing it on the way home. Then we got some pictures.

Yes I know he was holding it wrong in the picture but afterwards he looked up a video that showed him the correct hand placement.

I am also super excited for him to play the flute! I hope he sticks with it and plays to adulthood. It's an instrument that he could play for a long time and even in church.

Plums, Peaches and First Day of School

 Last week I was able to go down the street to pick some plums from a tree an elderly sister in our ward has in her back yard. For years now I've been getting plums from her tree to make plum jelly. The girls were excited to help me clean them and I guess that motivated me to get going on making more jelly sooner rather than later. 

This is the first time Curtis was able to help me. Most years he was gone or had school.

Nikki was disappointed that I used all of the plums that I had picked because she wanted to eat them fresh. Well, Sister Cable still had some plums on her tree and said I could take as many as I wanted. So I went back and picked pretty much the rest of them, except a few that were just too difficult to reach even with a ladder. Since I had more plums not only did I make more jelly but I also decided to try making fruit leather. Some of the fruit leather got over dried (cooked) so I ended up throwing out about half of it but was able to roll up the rest like fruit roll ups and have them for snacking. Charlotte loves them!

I had to cook the plums for a short time to soften them up after I cut them in halves and removed the seeds. Then let them cool down and into the food processor they went. My processor has a crack in it and I didn't use it for the longest time because of that but I needed it since I don't have a big blender so I put regular clear tape over the crack just for now and it worked!

The pans are lined with parchment paper. 

I dried them in the oven on the lowest temp possible which was 170. They told me to preheat it and then turn it off for an hour. Then repeat the process until they were dry. I rotated them a couple times. The pan on the very bottom dried very quickly so I took that one out way before the others. We were able to eat about 2/3 of that pan.

I tried to make fruit leather years ago with leftover plum juice and I don't think it turned out back then but thankfully I was able to get half of this batch to work. I looked up a recipe online that looked really simple, just very time consuming. I ended up making two quart size bags filled with roll ups and 19 jars of jelly, some of them smaller but most were pint size. Most of my jars have the regular size mouth. I used the lids I had leftover from last year but then couldn't find any more when I went to Walmart. I had to buy some wide mouth lids and use the few jars that I had with wide mouths. I did find that some of my regular half pint jars had a lid that looked like I could use (like it hadn't been used yet or at least didn't have a deep impression in it) so I used 2 or 3 of those. I just wish I had some homemade strawberry jam. That's my favorite. Maybe next year or if I find a good deal on strawberries. I would have to make freezer jam though since there seems to be a lid shortage.

Wednesday evening Curtis, Jack and I went out to pick peaches at the church orchard. Nikki had to work and Garrett watched the girls at home. It was the first day for people to begin picking so there were a lot of groups there, however we were the only ones from our ward. We started our row and worked for an hour to get 3 trees done. I posted on the Facebook page what we had done to hopefully motivate people to come out. The next morning I heard that the Relief Society President and at least her son (not sure if her husband went too) went out and did 4 more trees. I have no clue if anyone else has gone out since and I know the orchard was wanting them done by today I think. Hopefully somebody did. 

Thursday night Charlotte had a virtual open house (we had picked up her ipad on Tuesday) where she got to see her principal and teacher via an app called zoom. It's been a long weekend, especially on Sunday, getting caught up on school emails that started to pour in on Friday. I had planned to do it on Saturday but ran out of time so I spent most of Sunday going through emails and watching tutorial videos with the kids, etc. I felt a lot better but still felt a little unready for the 1st day of school the next day. 

Yesterday was the first day of school for the 4 oldest kids and online distance learning. Even though I woke up early to try and get things ready I was still rushing around when it came close to school start time. It wouldn't have been so bad if Charlotte and Alice hadn't tried to unclog a toilet without my help. I was in the bathroom I think when they couldn't find me to tell me it was clogged. After I got out and was going to get the hair brush and spray bottle to do their hair I saw the entire bathroom floor was covered in water. At first I thought it was Garrett who made the mess from taking a shower but then Charlotte told me that she and Alice unclogged the toilet because they couldn't find me. NOT what I needed on the morning of the first day of school but it was hard to be mad when they were trying to do something good. That being said I still had to rush to soak up the water with lot of towels then mop it up. Nikki was there to help get me towels and then got the mop bucket ready for me. I got most of it done but then decided I would have to finish rinsing out the bucket and mop later. I still needed to brush Charlotte's hair and figure out how to get her logged on to her first zoom meeting with her teacher. I was able to figure it out just in time. After the zoom meeting I gave her a little break and then she colored a picture of herself for an assignment. She also had to make a recording to go with the picture telling about herself. Then we had a nice long break until her library specials zoom meeting at 12:30. Charlotte, Alice and I went outside to get some air and recess time (after I finished cleaning up the mop and starting the washing machine).

Alice spilled a bunch of lemonade at lunch time and I'm just thinking "Another mess?!!". But that's okay because we got it cleaned up. Thankfully the 3 oldest kids have been able to get onto all their class meetings without my help and without problems! Garrett has been there to help Jack when needed.

Charlotte is set up in our bedroom. We needed a quiet place with the fewest distractions.

Nikki was in her room yesterday but today she's trying out the office with the boys, using my office desk.

We brought in our fold up table to set the boys up on in the office.

Alice was doing Starfall, an educational website so Charlotte joined her on her break.

Got my signs printed out finally and got some pictures. Alice will be doing preschool this year. A friend of ours is doing a small group and invited her to join. We decided it would be good for her to have something like this for her with all the other kids doing school at home. She's excited.

Nikki wanted to make her own sign design. The problem was that she wanted a black back ground and used up our black ink. She still wanted to use it even though it ran out of ink.

If it looks like Charlotte's teeth are a little dark it's because she had just finished eating some plum fruit leather, ha ha!

After school was done my friend Whitney needed a ride out to her boss's place to pick up more work to do. She's been sanding boxes that he has made for people to buy for their animal's ashes when they die. He must sell a lot because she's been doing it for 3 months now. She needed a ride because her car is not working and she's waiting for car parts to be delivered. Anyway, this guy has goats and horses. I found this out when I took her out their the first time last week. So I thought the girls might like a little field trip to see the animals and of course they did! I didn't get pictures of them with the horses but I did when they were feeding the goats some green weeds.