Cookies, Cookies, Cookies, and Pie...

When it comes to an upriver trip, one of the must haves, at least food wise, is cookies. And since people like to consume cookies in large quantities, I have the honor of making them in large quantities, thus requires baking days.

On this particular day, my baking goals were somewhere around 200 cookies, 2 pies and some granola. This actually is a quite small amount so instead of pumping out one mega batch of chocolate chip cookies I decided to try out several new recipes. We did everything from molasses cookies to chocolate chip to peanut butter and more, all from the old Betty crocker recipe book of course, it is my favorite. 

And that was only the cookies. Mom put together some pretty tasty apple pies, and we got a good double batch of granola going as well. 

Mom and I had a grand old time, but I'll tell you after 6 hours in the kitchen you start to get a little loopy and messy, or maybe I just always am. Unfortunately I didn't get and pictures of Mom, but she was just as goofy and messy, non the less. 

All in all, it was some great mother daughter bonding time and mostly everything turned out good. We over shot our cookie goal and ended up with over 325 so we are still munching on the cookies yet. As always, it's and adventure in Canada! 

Staff Trip to the Trout Lakes

When we have a day off in Canada, which are few and far between, you might ask what is there to do. Immediately I would say SLEEP, but sometimes we opt for a little more adventure and thus began our outing to the Trout Lakes.

The Trout Lakes are a chain of lakes across from Mt. Sinai and all it takes is a short hike to enjoy some beautiful country, making it perfect for our little outing. There are 5 lakes in all (or so I've been told) but we just make our way to the third one for the time being.

 In order to continue on the trail to the second lake, a canoe ride across the first lake is required. You can see the water is pretty low on this lake because the beaver dam blew out a couple years ago, but it is still navigable by canoe... mostly. I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried that Wes was going to get me soaking wet, but it turned out he didn't need to because we got caught in a little cloud burst. Thankfully it passed through and we continued on our way, a little soggy.

Of course we had to stop for a break (it was our day off!) and Mom, Wes and I were quick to sport our camel backs. I think we make wonderful models don't you? Maybe we'll be on some backpacking magazine someday.

The trail proved to be a nice one, and after another 2 min we found ourselves at the end of the third lake, (the second one is nothing much to mention) We had the interesting experience of crossing the beaver dam, thus re wetting our feet. It always amazes me how the beavers can build such a strong dam, that was holding back a LOT of water. One of God many great intricate designs! Of course I had to pose as Sacagawea... and pick on Wes a bit. I can't be to normal you see, because that would make Steve to happy (for those of you who don't know, Steve's goal for the summer is to make me normal... not happening!)

I love my Mom and Dad!

From the point on we bushwhacked our way to a large rocky lookout, the culmination of our trip. It took some climbing to get up there, but the view was gorgeous. What a great way to spend the day: in God's creation and with the best of company. (For those of you wondering where Dylan was, this was back when he was still sick, but don't worry, he has been here twice since) As always, it's an adventure in Canada!