Cruise to Cabo San Lucas

We took a cruise on Carnival Cruise lines for our anniversary in 2011 to Cabo San Lucas The first day was fun, everything was new and exciting. The next day we felt trapped and it got kinda boring, we wanted to explore. Finally we docked at Cabo and it was beautiful. We went shopping and had lunch at Cabo Wabo, that may have been the funnest part, there was a band playing at the bar and it was packed at noon time. We took an excursion that included a boat ride, then a meal on the beach, we even had a bucket of Corona like a TV commercial. Then we went shopping at the mall, which was too much like the American Malls, so that part we could have skipped. The authentic shops and flee markets
are a better shopping experience.
As Far as cruising goes, it was not my favorite
I got sea sick, and medication just makes you sleepy.
I would definitely go back to Cabo, but next time, by air.

View of Cabo at night from the ship.

View of Cabo from the ship

Bucket of Corona on the beach :)

Creamy chicken pasta caserole

Creamy Chicken Pasta Caserole

I wanted something fast and easy, so I threw a few things together and came up with this. It was delicious!
4 tbsp Butter
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 C of spinach
Saute garlic for 2 min. then add spinach and cook about 3 more min.
Then add
1 Can of chicken
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 C sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 to 1 tsp of Curry
                                             1/4 C Parmesan cheese
Stir together and cook over medium heat until combined and smooth then add cooked past of choice (I used penne pasta, cause it is my family's favorite shape.                                            

Maple Grove

One of the spots we like to camp at every summer is Maple Grove Hot Springs in Idaho. It is not a real well known place, so I am almost hesitant to mention it, but here it is. It is right next to the Onieda Resevoir, there is fishing, boating, swimming and hot tubs. The kids like it because of the swimming. We like it because the kids can swim and we can just relax without hearing "I am bored". Some times the camp ground is a little over grown with weeds, and it can be expensive staying in the camp ground, you have to pay for each person to use the facilities, weather you want to swim or not. But it is still one of our favorites.

Jamaica

The beach at Sandals Resort- Ocho Rios

The beautiful sunset on the beach.
Every time we snapped a picture it was more amazing than the first.

 For our first anniversary, we took a trip to Jamaica. We stayed at the all inclusive resort Sandals. It was our first experience with all inclusive resort. That is a great way to travel, you don't have to worry about carrying money around, you eat when you want and all drinks, including alcohol, is included. (Unlike a cruise where they gouge you with alcohol sales.)  They have several Sandals Resort on Jamaica and would bus you around to the others if you wanted to explore or eat at a different place. The food was surprising great. We enjoyed everything we ate. Our favorite was a little place they set up on the dock, it was so romantic. Everything about this trip was romantic. We did try one excursion hiking up a very large waterfall with a group. It took about and hour. We had a whole disk of pictures that got destroyed in our luggage on the flight home :(  But the hike was amazing. While you are staying at the resort, they encourage you not to leave alone and only go to where they bus you to, and that is what we did. It is our only regret of the trip. We wished we would have ventured out and explored more of Jamaica. But it was an incredible trip.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

We finally, for the first time ever, got a usable crop of strawberries. I have already made crisp with it. Now we have enough to make strawberry jam. We had about 7 cups of berries. We cleaned and halved them. We put them in a pot with 1/2 tsp. of margarine and a package of canning gel, we like the Kroger brand. Bring to a rolling boil, then add 7 cups of sugar all  at once. Bring to a boil again. Stir and skim (push the foam to the sides) for 5 min. Then it is ready to put in the clean jars. Put the lids on and tun upside down for a few minutes to help the lid seal.

Hanging Planter Boxes

 Here is another use for recycled wood. Last year for father's day, I wanted to create something cool. I had seen one of these boxes at Home Depot and thought " I can do that." So I took some of the old wood we had collected, including old fencing and old pallets, and created these. They really are pretty easy to make and turned out nice. I made one for my husband and both of our fathers. It is just a box with sections inside and then a front piece to hold in the dirt and a back piece- (8 pieces of wood). Some of them use chicken wire over the front of the squares to hold the dirt in, but I opted not to. For the boxes I gave away, I put brackets on the back making it easy to just hang on the deck or over the fence. If you have a chop saw, tape measure and old wood, you can do this.

Moab, Utah

We love going to Moab, UT. It may be one of our all time favorite places. We have gone and stayed in numerous B&B's and have taken our camp trailer down with ATVs, either way you do it, it is beautiful country. I highly recommend the ATV riding there. If you haven't done it, it is a definite "must add" to the bucket list. You can rent them locally or take your own. When you are out there riding one of the thousands of trails, you feel like there is no one else around.  This particular trip we took the trailer and borrowed an ATV. We have also rented an AWD vehicle, a Jeep, and driven many miles of back roads. Maps of the back country are available  everywhere. This area is warm so be prepared for the heat, take lots of water, not a bottle or two of water but rather a gallon or two of water. Sun screen and a hat must have items.
   There are many activities to be enjoyed while in Moab. A few activities we have participated in were a Guided River Rafting Trip down the Colorado River and a Guided Rock Climbing Tour in a Hummer. There are also great shops and restaurants.
   

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

I picked about 1 cup of ripe strawberries from my garden and I have never gotten that many at one time (because the strawberry patch wasn't big enough). I really wanted to make something cool with them, they are the best tasting strawberries ever! I search the web and found a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, and we just so happen to have rhubarb in the garden, so I whipped up a batch. (I only had enough stuff to do 1/4 of the recipe, but it turned out delicious.) My family loved it.

Recycled wood fence

            

                                                             

 This is a recycled old wood fence that my parents were tearing out and throwing away. We said "we'll take it". We put it just off the patio, we park our RV right there and this is the perfect screen so we don't have to stare at the trailer from the porch. I have attached some various decor to it, including some flower pots along the top, and my husband built the flower box below it. It just add so much character to the porch. We love it! There is another one right next to it with more flower pots attached and my potting bench in front of it. Our yard is fenced with vinyl, so this allows us to have the country charm we like without going against the neighborhood Codes.

Chicken burrito filling

A couple of nights ago I wanted to make some chicken tacos, not the fried kind that are so delicious, but a healthier version. I started the chicken and realized I had no salsa, no sour cream and did not want to make a run to the store. So I tried to make salsa with what I had, it was not quite right and too spicy because of the Jalapeno, so I kept adding things until I ended up with some weird sauce like stuff. It tasted too much like onion so I threw it in the pan with everything else and whalaa!! It was so good, my family loved it. We used the whole grain tortillas, which were surprisingly good, I prefer the flavor to the regular tortillas.

It turned out so good I had to hurry and type it up before I forgot what I put in there.

Chicken Burrito Filling Cook Chicken breast in a skillet, then add 1/4 C of taco seasoning and ¾ C Water In a blender add – 4oz of Cream cheese 1 Can of tomatoes 1 Jalapeño 1 Can of black beans 1/2 Onion 2 Cloves of garlic Pinch of parsley and salt to flavor- Blend until smooth Add to the pan with chicken and simmer for 5 min. or until warm Serve with some Spanish Rice and cheese in a tortilla

The Garden

This is our garden! One day I was looking at garden plans on various web sites, Better Homes & Gardens ( BHG garden plan) has some great garden plans, that is where I found the one I wanted. I printed it out, gave it to my husband and said "I want this." In a few weeks, I had it. He is so wonderful! It turn out better than the picture. (Above is this year, just getting started; below is last year around July.) The first year I tried to plant very close to the same things as the plan. The next year I modified a bit. This year I put everything where I wanted, but I always plan  it out on paper and keep a map of what I plant so I don't forget what goes where.

Bryce Canyon

Another one of our favorite things to do is travel. We went to Bryce Canyon, Utah over Thanksgiving 2012, I just did not want to cook that year. (I get to do it every year and normally I love it, but I needed a break.) Anyway, it was a wonderful time of year to visit this area, it was not crowded and the weather was pretty nice, just needed a jacket. This place is gorgeous as you can see, we only had 2 restaurants to choose from as everything else was closed for the season, a hotel with a kitchen would have been handy. But if you are traveling with your trailer, your set. There was one restaurant right in the middle of town that was open on Thanksgiving, it was a buffet, they had everything you could want. Luckily we went early because by the time we were done there was an hour wait. It was a nice way to spend the holiday.

Rhubarb leaf stepping stones

I have a couple of projects I did last year that I want to share. We always get comments on how cute they are. I found the first one on pintrest. It is a pathway made of cement stepping stones in the shape of a leaf.

• First I laid out weed barrier in the shape of my pathway.
•  Then I cut around a rhubarb leaf for each stone and dug about 4 inches into the ground.
•  Next I filled in with about an inch of gravel and the rest with cement.
•  I pushed the leaf into the wet cement to make the print of the veins and made them a little more defined with a stick.