Baking Bread and Camping Craziness!

I said last week that I wasn't going to post about my bread making until I had pictures, but then I totally didn't post anything . . . well, I have my camera and I'm putting pictures with this post. So there.

Last last Saturday (August 1) my friend and I got together to make homemade bread. We made my recipe (Grandpa Crapo's) because it doesn't need a mixer, and because it's the best homemade bread recipe on the face of the planet (seriously guys, molasses AND honey? come on). The only thing is that it's the kind that takes all day, because it's got to rise and get beaten down and rise and get beaten down and rise again before you bake it.

So I taught Kayla how to make bread by hand (the best way, of course) and between exercising sessions, we watched Hairspray! It was good, because that's one of those movies that neither of us can get our husbands to watch with us, so we watched it together. I love girl time! :)

Look at my delicious golden-brown loaves of deliciousness! They were amazing! I'm pretty sure Mike made himself sick eating so much warm bread with homemade jam on it (thanks, mom!). Mmmmmmm, it's making me want to make more. :)Well, last week was pretty exciting, because my boss got back from her trip, and now we have eight billion things to do. It's like, crazy. And let me just tell you, it's really true that the Department of Statistics doesn't function without Ruth. :)

Well, this last weekend, Michael and I went to our Ward Campout. We didn't get home from work until 5:15 on Friday, so we were planning to throw everything in the car and get out as fast as possible to get to dinner by seven. So I had everything packed and ready to go by 5:40. But Michael couldn't find the directions to the campsite. Don't tell him, but I think he accidentally threw them away. :S

So, we didn't leave until like 6:15, at which point we filled up the car with gas and hurdled down the freeway toward Spanish Fork. When we finally got there (at 8!) everyone was finishing dinner, so we got some. It was quite delicious. Then Mike and I went to set up our tent before it got dark, but the only spot left in our campsite that was flat enough for a tent was right in the middle of the field. Gross. And cold. But we set it up anyways.

After that we went to the fireside (literally!) where we played Mafia first and then the Bishop gave a devotional about living a simple life. It was really good. Then we went back to the campsite and had dutch oven cobbler (so good! MMMMMMM!!!!) and went to bed.

Oh my goodness. Let me tell you, we have never had such a miserable night. We had to use the camping equipment provided by the ward, because we don't have anything, and the tent was pretty good, but the sleeping bags were the wimpiest thing I've ever seen. They were so thin, and they weren't even the kind we could zip together to share body heat. I'm pretty sure Michael and I got four hours of sleep between us because we spent all night shivering.

Needless to say, we went back to the campfire as soon as we heard voices outside, because it wasn't worth it to try to stay warm in the tent for much longer. We stayed around the campfire for a few hours, trying to thaw our feet. I'm pretty sure Mike's sneakers started to melt at one point because he kept them so close to the fire. We had delicious breakfast casserole and played a few games of Kubb before packing up and going home.

Exciting fact: Terrence, our hearty little Taurus, somehow survived the trip. It wasn't exactly smooth running. I'm pretty sure Terrence got more dirty than he ever has in his entire life. We were offroading like crazy. There were huge cliffs, giant logs, bushes scraping off all the paint on the front of our car. . . it was crazy. But he lived. He may have taken quite a beating to his shocks, but he lived. :) Aren't you jealous of the picturesque mountain scenery? It was so beautiful up there. Even when we were freezing our brains off we were admiring what a beautiful place it was.

So, after we got home, we slept most of the afternoon, wrapped in all our blankets. It was warm. and then we watched an episode of Psych and crashed. And I thinked we deserved a good hearty crash for one night :)

Sunday was a fabulous day. My hair got ACTUALLY STRAIGHT. It was amazing. Okay, so my hair's not really that curly, but it never goes the direction I want it to. BUT YESTERDAY IT DID!!!!! It was wonderful! I felt really good. And then I played the organ (with the bass coupler--I was too stressed out to try to play the pedals this week :) and taught relief society, and everybody was really nice to me and said I did well even though I felt totally flustered. :)

After church I made bbq . . . steak . . . bites . . . yeah. They were huge steaks, but I cut them into chunks and cooked them in the crock pot with bbq sauce. Then I made mashed potatoes and veggies, and Mike's and my red meat craving was quite thoroughly satisfied. :) It was delicious. Then we went to bed pretty early last night as well, since we still had some leftover tired.

Overall, a successful week, don't you think? To celebrate, a few not very flattering pictures of our life this last week. Yes, this is my ultra-handsome husband, sporting his ultra-stylin' pink tie. Yes, tough Mikes wear pink ties.

This is at the campout. Pretend I'm not there, okay? SO unflattering. Isn't it great that our only sweatshirts happen to all be the same color? We just accidentally match whenever we're cold! :)

Here. I posted a cute picture with cute hair to make up for the incredibly unflattering one posted previously. Although. . . .still matching . . . what's with us and wearing blue? ;)