camp gvl

just a few snaps of our labor day weekend at camp gvl...

3 or 4 times a year we have an "artisan tour" where artists show off their wares and with newly pierced ears, we went a little nuts on new earrings. i do love to support local artists though so i feel ok with breaking the bank a bit. i managed to get an order in for christmas presents for the girls as well. christmas? egad this year is going by fast!

new likes

a few blogs i have been enjoying lately... my garden is pumping tomatoes out like crazy so gardening has been on my mind a lot. i was lucky to have plot neighbors who watered regularly while i was in utah and now another two weeks coming up with my mom in london, hoping for some more of that good neighborly help

the yellow house

and tend , my new roots , oh she glows and salt water farm... just a few places i have been visiting often. i really love the idea of a taking a vacation at a working farm and experiencing some hands on hard work that includes animals... oh to have a horse of my own!! for now though, it's enough to be working full time, gardening my 20 x 30 foot plot of mish mash, getting two camp fire groups up and running for a new year... so much to do!

 

 

my counter after a quick tomato picking trip. i make huge tubs of salsa that last about a week and a half. we eat caprese salads nightly and i made cheese enchiladas and added tomatoes/garlic/onions. STILL i have about a dozen left, what to do? (oh and more on the vines of 9 plants!)



this years tomatoes were the best ever! the winners were "purple cherokee" and "big rainbow" hands down! the sweet 100's cherry tomatoes started early and continue producing, sweet and plump picked right off the vine and eaten. i planted winter squash in late spring, early summer and have already harvested about 30 (acorn, several japanese pumpkin varieties) i popped in some seeds about a week ago and hope a few more vines pop up while i am on vacation. we just had a thunderstorm roll through, rain is good!!! more on the garden when i return from london!

cross country, southern utah

a few pix of our drive to bryce...

the dixie national forest

we have met up with my inlaws in moab several times, staying near or in arches national park so we have traveled through the desert many times. this drive into bryce was new and even more gorgeous than just the straight desert route. there were twisty mountain roads with aspen trees, pines, oaks and rivers. we even saw a large eagle nest with an eagle on top (sorry we went too fast for a photo). scenery like this sure makes a long drive easier!

the view at our KOA... fantastic!

trailer time

loving our new trailer

 

 

pop up

this is our second tent trailer, they are a bit of work to put up and down but over all a great way to camp. i am lucky my husband does so much of the setting up and the girls have been pretty good at helping out too. i am in charge of the cooking... i've had lots of practice from camp shiwaka... i bought two new campfire cookery books (one just for dutch ovens) and am looking forward to trying out a few new recipes (for the next camping trip). one is for a cake that uses dr pepper and spice cake, yum!



our camp site at bryce was neat, an upper and lower level with a great view



we made hobo packets, mock tacos, s'mores and donuts (didn't turn out unfortunately), cheesy potatoes and roasted acorn squash... good stuff!



so our 3 days at Bryce National Park camping went very well, i highly recommend staying in the campsites within the park. this time of year was hot but we had many afternoon thunderstorms to cool us down (and several late night storms to lull us in and out of sleep). the air was fresh and clean and the views around Bryce were so stunning i had to pinch myself to remind me i was awake and not dreaming. we spent the last night in the lodge listening to a lecture on utah prairie dogs (the ranger who spoke about the prairie dogs and other wildlife was captivating!) what a great way to end our trip at Bryce. hoping to see zion sometime soon and revisit Bryce as well... maybe when the rivers are flowing. wouldn't that be nice?

bryce

how do you describe bryce national park in utah? hmm... well it is just about the most beautiful place i have ever seen in my life

i promise to bore everyone who would ever read my blog as much as i bored all my facebook friends with an endless borage of bryce photos (borage? is that spelled right?)
so for maybe a few weeks or months on end i will post all the photos i took.. for now though here are the fabulous pool pics from the KOA we stayed in just outside of bryce:


our first 4 days we spent in the "luxury" of a koa with showers and a pool... then we moved on to bryce, no hook ups (no electricity or water), luckily we had a wonderful bathroom and showers for 2 bucks. our solar panel worked wonders to keep our battery charged for evening lights (loved reading before bed)... i think the luxurious koa eased us into the roughing it at bryce. a few more pool pix:

i highly recommend southern utah for your next family vacation, what a beautiful and amazing state. national parks have never failed us and i feel such pride every time i visit a new one. i wish we could get our government to run as smoothly as our national parks...

bryce

we made it to bryce and all i can say is WOW!!! it's an amazing mix of desert and forest, can't believe we drove past it a dozen times over the years and never stopped. i think this will be our new favorite place! here is a photo from yesterday and i will post a whole lot more when i get a chance:

cooking over the campfire

so i thought i would share a bit about how we cook our meals during daycamp at camp shiwaka... the first day we spend a lot of time setting up our campsite so we just eat sack lunches at noon. tuesday and wednesday we cook our lunch, thursday we cook our dinner and sleep over and then cook our breakfast friday morning. the camp fire cookbook we use has the same recipes i used as a kid so i like to choose the same meals i remember... often repeating them each year to reinforce the tradition of certain recipes. i am sure most camp fire members will know what "mock tacos" and "banana boats" are and local members will know what "shiwaka stew" and "hobo pockets" are. my favorite dessert as a kid was the gingerbread applesauce cake but when we made it a few years ago, none of my kids liked it :( i think the hands down favorite is mock tacos which is just frito chips with ground beef (i use veggie crumbles) cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and salsa. the chips start out crunchy but end up a bit soggy toward the end, sorta like cornbread. super yummy!

this year after making the fruit salad we realized we forgot to cut up the pineapple so we quickly chopped it up and threw it on the fire. it was AMAZING!




it is camp fire tradition to build low tables where everyone can sit close to the ground and chat during meal times. i find it so relaxing to sit with the girls and listen to their conversations. the thursday dinner this year was especially nice because we had extra time to lounge around before our ceremonial fire.



we have daily capers that the girls rotate through each day and this year the hosts were particularly creative with the table decor...i also noticed the girls helping each other even when it wasn't their chore to do, especially the icky chores. lots of team work all around. i am so glad i was able to take a week off of work to spend this special time with my daughters and their friends. more shiwaka to come...