Last Minute Trip

On Sunday, the 25th, we jumped in with Scotty and Lacey and headed to Jackpot.  They had tickets to Larry the Cable Guy and on Friday they begged us to tag along.  We were both lucky enough to take Monday off and jump in and go!  When we got down there, they hurried of to the concert.  Webb, Jenn, Joshlyn, and Bobby were also down and I'm pretty sure half of Rupert-Burley too.  Since Tarbet and I didn't have concert tickets we made our way to the buffet.  It was really good for a buffet and I would definitely go back.  After dinner we walked out to the concert and we really scored because we ended up watching most all of Larry the Cable Guy for free!  We stood right outside the grandstand entrance, we could see Larry the whole time, and we were right next to the concessions.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out with everyone and gambled a little.  Tarbet tried his hand at the tables, which confused the hell out of me, and I only spent $3 dollars all night in the machines and came out with $40+ and was extremely excited that I won that much.  Jenn had a free room that she wasn't using so we all stayed in it that night.  Thank-you Jenn! 

It was totally not planned for us to join in and go, but I'm so glad we had the opportunity to.  Last minute trips always turn out the funnest!  (:

My Try at Canning

If you know me very well, you know I am far from being a domestic housewife. Not even close, bud!  I'm more on the other side of the fence...the one where I would prefer to be in my boots and carhartts in the tractor or out in a dirty field any day over some office.  I'm different...let's just get that out there.  One of those things is my hate of being in the house / kitchen for long periods of time.  HATE.

It all started when Jerry, who I work with, mentioned he had a tree loaded with peaches and we should all come get as many as we wanted. He was leaving on a cruise for the week and said they would just go to waste otherwise. I love all fruits and Kent loves peaches so I thought I really should go pick some but knew we would never eat them before they go bad, so I thought to CANNING. First of all, I am not a fan of pressure cookers and I also didn't have much time or patience for that kind of crap either.    After reading a bunch on the Internet, I learned how to do it using a water bath instead. 

I picked three grocery sacks of peaches at Jerry's and Friday night I got everything out and ready to go for Saturday.  While I was learning about canning peaches I found a strawberry jam recipe that was pretty simple so I gave that a shot also Friday night.  It tasted good while it was in the making, so we will have to crack open a jar for breakfast one of these mornings.

One batch of fresh strawberry jam

Saturday I worked on the peaches.  I was really wishing I had a partner to help because there sure is a lot of steps in canning anything, especially the peaches.  I'm proud to say that I did a couple batches all by myself and every jar sealed! 

Peaches!

Kent was home the next day and after eating a jar of them, he decided we needed to go get more.  We cooked up a few more batches and called it quits for the weekend.  It's not hard, but it sure is time consuming!  Good deal it was a crappy day outside because thats about the only thing that will make me want to stay in and do something like this.  It really was worth it since I now have a bunch of jars that are better than any peaches you could buy at the store and they were practically free other than buying the jars that I will get to use over and over again.  The only part that will be tricky...hiding them from Kent so they don't all get eaten in the next week.  :)

Lacey and Webb's Birthdays

Saturday we went to Twin and celebrated Lacey’s birthday at Café Ole.  We had a table full of Scotty, the kids, his parents, Tarbet and I, Jen and Webb.  It was Webb's birthday also so they both ended up with a sombrero and a tequila shot.  

We had an early dinner then went back to Jerome to Bobby and Rita’s house (Scotty’s parents).  They have a really nice patio and we sat outside til a good midnight having so much fun.  It was a pretty calm night but I had the best time.  Those people are great!

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Over the Labor Day weekend, I met up with Skip, Mom, Ashley, Bryce, and Liam to drive up to Sun Valley for the car show.  It felt like old times.  When we were growing up, we went camping to Bakers Creek outside of Sun Valley every Labor Day.  Since we were up there we always went to the car show.  Once we got there we had lunch at Wise Guy Pizza Pie.  Skip, like always, wanted to go into the second hand stores.  Ashley and I found some practically new baby and toddler clothes there and bought around 6 items for $7.  Wow!  I think I will remember that when shopping for baby clothes!  We went to the car show and watched some of the auction which is always interesting.  I kept my arms folded real good.  Am I the only one that worries about accidentally bidding on something?!  :)  When we were walking around looking at all the cars, Skip came over to us and said Arnold Schwarzenegger was standing next to Bryce.  They were both checking out the same car and it was pretty funny...he was such a short guy compared to Bryce.  Well, after my Mom followed him around trying to get a good picture, we left and did some shopping down town.  I found Tarbet a funny shirt since he was working all day while I was playing and we hit up Tully's for coffee drinks and smoothies.  It was really fun to hang out with them and I hope we can do it again, just with Tarbet next time.