The Last Camping Hoorah for 2008

We took our pop-up up to the Dunes State Park in Chesterton for one last camping trip for this year. We had a lot of fun!

One of the things I was excited about was cooking. I hadn't made any new camping recipes for a few years and I figured since we'll probably be camping a lot more now I should try to mix it up and not only make our favorite pizza pudgie pies. My friend Dawn gave me this recipe for a great breakfast and it really turned out good! You take a sausage patty and put it on tin foil. You make a nest of hash browns on top of it then crack an egg in the middle of the nest. You top it with some salt and pepper and then fold it up into a pouch and heat it on the fire for about 30 minutes. I was a little scared of the eggs not being done enough for me but they were really good!!! Check it out!

Before

After

The park there was all redone last year so it is really nice. They also had a lot of organized activities at the nature center. We took the kids on a "swamp adventure" and they got to use nets to find different living things in the marshy area. One fun fact we learned was that the Dunes is the #3 park for having the most number of different plants and animals in the US. The other two are the Grand Canyon and the Smokey Mountain National parks. Hard to believe that's right by our house!! Anyway, check out some of the pictures from the swamp adventure below.

Ready to go!

Hiking the trail

Let's see what we can find!

We only found snails but they were still neat because they would start coming out of their shells!

Emma even touched a snake!!

Sunday morning we decided to try a long hike with the kids just to see how they would do. We were amazed at how well they did. Jackson of course got a bit tired during the second leg of the hike where it was all sand but we expected that. I was tired and he's only three! One of the things that we enjoyed the most was the beautiful views. At one point Jack said he thought if someone blind folded him and dropped in in that spot he would've sworn he was in Tennessee. It really was beautiful.

Scenery

Checking out where to go next

That's a long way down!!!

Yay!! We made it to the beach! (some of these we from driving over to the beach the day before. Notice the wardrobe change)

Going up the dunes wasn't so much fun but coming down was!!

Jack left Emma in the dust :(

Jackson's body went a little faster than his feet!

The parking lot had a huge restricted area where it caved in from the lake rising from all the rain. It was unbelieveable!

We are definitely glad that we bought the pop-up. It was such a fun cheap way to get away for the weekend. We're already trying to check out places to go next summer!

One more week!

One more week until I will be heading up to O'Hare to pick up three of my best friends, Dave, Jenni & Erin!!!! Last time I saw them was a little over seven months ago and this is what they looked like.
I can't wait to see that baby girl in person to see how much she's grown and hug my Dave & Jenni!

And finally..... the Purdue and Colts games

Emma had a friend from school ask her to go to the Purdue University football game last weekend. I'm actually not much for letting her go with people from school. Just paranoid I guess :) but Jack knows her mom from school (who doesn't he know around here!!) and felt it would be OK for her to go. I reluctantly dropped her off at Halle's house Saturday morning at 7:30. She was also a little apprehensive but was excited to see this BIG drum that daddy had been telling about. She and Halle got all packed up in the truck as you can see. She said she had a very fun time and Halle's mom even bought her a Boilermaker foam hammer!

After I dropped her off I went back home to pack for our adventure weekend to Indianapolis. I got meet my friend Lisa for breakfast that morning as well since she was in town. I always love to get to spend time with her!! This time she came into town with no kids or husband so just the two of us got to sit and talk and laugh for a little over an hour. So fun!

Jack and I dropped Jackson off to Grandma Kathy and then headed on our way to Indy. I know it sounds weird but one thing I miss about not living in Michigan anymore is the car ride to and from Indiana. Whenever Jack and I get in the car together we never turn the radio on. We just sit and talk and talk. For those of you that don't know, Jack and I met on a trip to Florida and the whole 16 hour ride home we both stayed up and talked and got to know each other. I guess maybe it's just our thing. With the busyness of work and kids and church and family, it was so nice to get in the car together for that ride to Indy.

Our first stop was to see our good friends Keith and Tara. They had just had a baby boy, Dylan, and we couldn't wait to see him. He was such a cutie and their little boy Tyler, who is almost two, was also a lot of fun to play with. We tried to give him some extra attention since we know how it can be when a little brother comes along.

After visiting them we went on to Jack's Aunt Stacey's house where we met up with Tom, Stacey and Kevin to go out to BW's for some wings. Of course the guys were all into the games on the 30 million TV's they have there so Stacey and I were able to catch up on the new job she has and all of the intense training that she's been doing. Sounds like A LOT of work but sounds like it will be very rewarding and she'll get to be home more which will be nice. We had a lot of fun visiting and played cards into the night but then it was time for some rest before the big day :)

We got up Sunday morning and got ready and Uncle Tom, Kevin, Jack and I headed over to Wendy's to meet up with everyone before tailgating. We got to meet the newest little Rosenberger, Trevor. He looks just like his big brother Thomas! We all got together for a few shots in Pete & Wendy's front yard before we left. Some sweet and some crazy, just like the people in the Hamstra group :)

Sweet

Crazy

Tailgating was a lot of fun with Pete being the master chef, as he is the professional tailgater. We enjoyed a lot of conversation and a few games of bean bags. To me, tailgating just makes the game. Having the time to visit with one another and just having a cookout is the best!

Pete

Jill made birthday cupcakes for Karen & Mary

Shooting the breeze

Jack in awe.

The girls

We got to walk over to the amazing new Colts stadium and enjoy checking everything out for a while before the game. It is HUGE and has an amazing view from pretty much anywhere including while your out to get a snack. We, of course, had tickets in the nose bleed section because we're all poor :( That doesn't really bother me ( the nose bleed part, not the poor part) usually except this time it seems that the air vents are up there and froze us to death. No seriously, I literally looked over at my mother-in-law and thought she might actually keel over!! She's naturally a cold person anyway but in that situation, she was FROZEN.

This is right when you walk in the front door!

The Colts ending up losing in the last few seconds of the game which was very disappointing but it was still a great experience. It's so nice to have opportunities to visit with family such as this. Jack's cousin Brian happen to be on leave from Iraq so it was so great to visit with him and there are a few others in the family that are going through some hard times so it was nice to talk and encourage them and just see them have some fun. We had been doing these games every year but then last year we weren't able to. I'm hoping the tradition has started again.

Six Year Picture

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I need your votes. Comment and let me know you're favorite. So.... those of you who read and never comment, now's the time!

PS - I took these. I know I'm not a professional!

Coupon Nerd

So I thought I would share a few of my favorite deals that I've done over the past few weeks as I am now at this coupon thing full force :)

Target last week:

Iams dog food 12.19
(3)Johnson's Buddies soap 2.97
5 pack spiral notebook 0.12 (75% clearance, yeah baby!)

-$7.00 Iams coupon requested from their website (thanks Dawn!!)
-$5.00 Target Iams coupon from afullcup.com
-$3.00 Johnson's $3 off 3 coupon

Subtotal before tax $0.28!!! Total $1 with tax AND THEN I paid that with the gift card I had received from the week before where if you bought 4 Kashi products for $11 they gave you a $5 gift card and I had $6 in Kashi coupons that time so I got those for free as well! I still have $4 on my gift card to play with next time!!

Walmart last week:

My favorite thing about Walmart (besides the low low prices) is that they are one of the only stores that price match. I've started going through every sale paper and I have a notebook (insert your nerd comment here) where I write the prices and then just do all my shopping at Walmart but get the other store's prices. Unless..... if the store has their own coupons that I can match with a manufacturer coupon I go there (hence the target dog food). Anway.......

Kotex .97
-$1 off coupon
= free!
(Kat - I think pads are going to be the thing I'm banned from "buying" soon)

Smart Ones
price matched to County Market for .99 each bought 5 = 4.95
smart one dessert 1.98
-3 off if you buy 5 smart ones
-1.98 from one free dessert if you buy five meals coupon.
=1.95 for five meals and one dessert!

CVS from last week:
Excedrin 3.99
paid 3.99
got 3.99 extra bucks (like cash for your next transaction)
= free

Aleve 3.99
(3)Purex Detergent 8.97
-.50 off one purex
-1.00 off two purex
-1.00 off Aleve
-2.00 off at 10.00 purchase CVS coupon
-3.99 extra buck from above
-4.00 extra buck from the week before
=.47 before tax
earned $6 in extra bucks for next time

I know this is probably boring to the rest of you but it is exciting to me. I can't believe that just a little bit of my time (and ink in my printer) can save me so much money. I have a trip to Walgreens mapped out for this afternoon that should be pretty good. I went there a few weeks ago and spent $39 for $107 worth of stuff and then they gave me $32 to spend the next time and those are expiring this weekend so I'm hoping to use those up today and get stuff and more rewards for next time.

Sorry to bore you with my nerdiness :)

Stay tuned for the Purdue and Colts game coverage...........

Wizard of Oz Festival 2008

We started a tradition last year of going the Wizard of Oz Festival in Valparaiso/Chesterton. When we found out about it last year tickets to "Dorothy's Birthday Party" were all sold out so this year I actually thought early and got some tickets. It was very windy that day because of the hurricane effects coming through so we didn't do much of the activities outside but we did get to enjoy the birthday party. They had pizza, cake, drinks and a photo-op with all the characters. Jack and I thought it was actually a bit cheesy but of course the kids loved it!

I took a few pictures of the kids before we left that morning. I can't believe Jackson actually looked at the camera and wore his hat!! Maybe there is hope for good pictures after all :)

Emma had a very tough time deciding whether she wanted to be Dorothy or Glinda but as you can see she ended up with Dorothy.
She even got to meet the "real" Dorothy ;)
Why not throw your little dog in a basket and call her Toto?!?

Sorry!

I'm working on new posts!!! I know I've been slacking, busy busy! Look forward to the wizard of oz festival, Emma's trip to the Purdue game and our trip to the Colts game soon!!!