The Autumn Leaves

Fall is here!

What are you looking forward to doing most this autumn?

Root Beer Floats, Anyone?

Sunday afternoon we went on a little hike, spur the moment. Afterwards we stopped at XXX Root Beer, for what else other than root beer! Some of us actually went with root beer floats this time and they were delicious, as usual.

There's a giant sign on top of the building that looks like a giant barrel. The whole place is themed like an old drive-in.

We also got the "Tool Box", which is all sorts of fried foods. My favorite is the curly fries. Only four of us could eat it, since Tiana and my mom are gluten-free, and we could barely finish it.

What did you do this past Sunday?

The Roses

We have three rose bushes in our backyard. When they bloom, I have fun taking all sorts of pictures of them. They look so pretty!

This summer I made several bouquets to set on the tables when we had friends over for dinner in the backyard. I used roses as the main flowers, along with lavender, hostas, violets, maple leaves, and some little white flowers that I don't know the name of.

Red roses would have to be my favorite.



What's your favorite flower?

Chocolate Fudge

One day while browsing Pinterest, I came across a chocolate fudge recipe. It looked simple to make and I had all of the ingredients on hand, so I went of to the kitchen to make some. We had family visiting us from out of town and it was a hit with everyone.

The directions were to make it in the microwave, but I prefer to use the stove, so that's what I did. I also added chopped up pecans, cause I like the crunchy-ness it adds.

Chocolate Fudge

Recipe from About.com

Ingredients:

12oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 14oz can sweetened condescend milk

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon milk
a couple handfuls of chopped pecans or other nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small pot on a medium heat. Stir until completely melted. If using nuts, add them and stir to combine.

2. Pour the fudge into a well greased 8x8 pan. Let sit until the fudge is hard (I placed mine in the fridge after it cooled down a bit), then slice into bit sized pieces.

Gino, The Neighbor Cat

Gino may be the neighbors cat, but he almost seems like one of ours. He's only a little over a year old, but it feels like he's lived here much longer than that. Our two cats, Koko and Doji, hang out with Gino all the time. You'll see the three of them in the yard, sometimes just sitting around, other times playing and chasing each other. Doji is the one who usually just watches and keeps an eye on them, while Gino and Koko will goof off. They're such fun cats and it's quite entertaining to watch them play from the living room window.

Gino, at the end of July.

Adorable Gino as a kitten, back in August of 2011, right after the neigbors got him.

Do you have any pets?

Ohanapecosh // Camping 2012

This years camping trip was at Mt. Rainier again, just a the Ohanapecosh campground instead. Only one family went with us and we booked sites right next to each other. The sites were next to a creek, which was lots of fun to play in. We would also set our chairs in the water and sit and enjoy the creek.



Our first dinner was hot dogs roasted over the fire. They taste much better fire roasted! Plus they were fun to cook!



Since we were just at Mt. Rainier last year, we didn't go to Paradise or go to view the mountain. We stayed at our campground the whole trip. There is a hiking trail that starts and ends in the campground and takes you up to the falls.





Emmalyn and Alina who had fun exploring the creeks along the trail.



And here it is folks, Silver Falls!




Daniel's Junior Ranger patch. He was the only one who did the Junior Ranger Program, since all of us girls had done it in 2006.




My perfectly toasted marshmallow. Roasting marshmallows is one of my favorite things to do camping.



Daniel caught this frog, which stayed in his hands just long enough for me to get one picture. Then he jumped out of his hands.




On our last day we walked around the campsite looking for a place to walk down to the river. We found this neat area with lots of rocks to sit on and just enjoyed the river for a while.




And that was our trip! We all had a great time and we were sad to leave. Us kids all had fun playing card games, going on walks in the dark of night, talking about cave deer, and chatting around the campfire. I had a wonderful time.

What was your favorite place you visited this summer?