The Van Leuven's: August 2010

we went on a little hike/camping trip. i guess people call that a back packing trip.

i was soooo excited.

it was beautiful!

see for yourself...

i think our camp site was the best out of all of them. it was up on the mountain.

everyone else camped down lower.

we had the best view.

it was perfect.

we were super tired when we got there, we just wanted to lay down.

and so we did.

and ryan had lasagna in a pouch. just add boiling water!

they were actually quite tasty.

we played cards (yes daeg, i played a game)

and then ate more lasagna and had some herbal tea, and decided it was time to crash.

we made pillows with our extra clothes and whatever else we could find and stuffed it all in one of the tent bags, or maybe it was a sleeping bag bag. it was lumpy.

we didn't sleep well, with all the crazy noises.

there was some noise, like foot steps, and ryan would shine the light out and it would stop.

it was creeping me out.

and while he was shining the light, a MOUSE jumped out of one of the lasagna pouches!

i am glad it was out side of the tent. mice a gross.

morning came, and i was finally getting some sleep.

and a stupid dog from someone else's camp spot started barking at something.

ugh.

oh well.

we had some oatmeal for breakfast and packed up to leave, because we didn't want to hike back in the heat of the day.

my pack was a ton lighter on the way back. i was glad for that.

i enjoyed the hike back a lot more than i did when we hiked in.

it was beautiful.

the trees reminded me of Driggs.

i loved it.

ryan and i talked about food all the way back to our car.

it made us really hungry, so when we got back to town. we went to great harvest.

yum.

then we chilled for the rest of the day.

and my house was left mess. and i could care less.

(notice the rhyme)

oh! and i can't forget later that night ryan made some italian pizza!!!!!

double yum!

what a good weekend.

we were not super excited to drive all the way up to washington. we were glad that we could break it up a bit and stop in boise.

george took us rafting. it was so much fun. holy and jeff's poor boys were frightened though. there were some pretty big waves.

ryan got sunburned because his wife failed the attempt to put sunscreen on. i blame the wind.

it was a ton of fun though.

so we made sure we got enough sleep to drive the next morning for 7 1/2 hours. at least that's what we thought. we of course got a late start. and started our drive.

i was actually excited, because this drive is not boring like the horrible drive to boise from logan is. there is nothing to look at and i ALWAYS fall asleep. Plus i was thinking that i only have hours before i get to see my sister's family.

ryan's brother jeff let us take his nifty gps. it's pretty cool, except we didn't know you could take different routes.

daegan called and asked what way we were going. i told her i didn't know, but that i am pretty sure that we would be going more the back way.

we got to stop at ryan's sister's cute little house in la grande for about an hour then we headed out again.

i kept wondering why it didn't look like the drive sierra and i drove last time we went up there.

we got caught in some kind of traffic. and when we got to the end of it, it made no sense at all why. it was horrible.

i realized we didn't go the way we planned when ryan asked if i knew where puyallup was. ugh. oh well, at least it was a pretty drive.

and i didn't fall asleep one time! ryan was amazed by that.

we finally arrived. daegan puts her kids to bed way early, so we only got to say hi to them an then they went to bed. I said my hello to foston in his bed. and my hello to boog on the potty while he was pooping and telling me that he didn't really like his haircut.

we stayed up and chatted for a while, and i can't remember what we did the first day. watched a movie?

so here are all the fun things we did.

washington is so beautiful, so we just had to go on a walk...

boog liked to pic flowers for me...

quite the collection, wouldn't you say?

ok, see the guy in the background? we were quite impressed by his moves. oh, and he only had one leg.

there is beauty all around...

we seriously had so much fun. we stayed home most of the week, so we tried to find things to do like,
we would watch ryan shoot the boys with the nerf gun. put bouncy balls on the tramp and they would throw them at my face. and we played bache ball.
it was my first time playing, and i pretty much kicked trash.

or we...
looked at this site i found on my friends blog. ha ha HA! this is where i was proved wrong that opossum starts with a silent "o".

ryan read an entire fact book. i guess he got bored. sorry love.

and i heard a lot of these things while i was there...
boog: "dom-ee-no..."
daeg: "her name is not dom-EE-no, it's dom-I-no"
...
fos: " CHAR!!!!!" (from outside at the top of his lungs)
me: (open sliding door, or window) "what fos?" (i knew what he was going to ask, every time)
fos: "i need your help. i need you to help me inside"
you see, they just recently got a puppy. not just any puppy, a great dane. and foston is afraid of dogs.
this happened a lot.

the dog pooped on the deck, i think every time he had to poop. and daegan would growl every time.
i couldn't ever remember his name, so i called him puppy.

we liked to play the family fued game all together on facebook. ryan is still addicted :)

i loved that i got an extra hour, to sleep in. :) and every morning when we woke up, the boys were laying on the ground outside our door.

daegan really wanted some of the good stuff ryan makes me, so she asked him to bring his recipes.
and he made us...
ravioli,