4th of July Camping

Well, we took a trip to the Farwell camping ground in Oregon. It was right outside Ontario. I went with Grandma and Grandpa G, Corin and her kids, and my kids Lilly and Miah. Cameron went camping with his Uncle Jeremy and grandparents H. He had a great time with them and it made it so that there was less fighting with us. Doug had work he couldn't get out of, so he ended up staying home.

We left on Wednesday and got there at 4:00pm. It was burning hot and we had to set every thing up. I set up my tent and then we tryed to get together and set up the canopy. They didn't bring the directions on how to put it together, so we had to figure it out ourselves. Dad to one look at all of the pieces and walked away. So Mom, Corin and Me started putting it together. Man I started getting light heading and a little dizzy out there, it was so hot. We managered to get it up and then I worked on making dinner. We were having BBQ ribs in the dutch oven. I made the rub and sauce and mom helped me cut them up. We cooked them and they weren't ready to eat until 10 or 10:30. Oh my goodness, they were amazing, so delicious. The receipe is:

Easy Barbecue Beef Ribs
8 lbs. beef back ribs; well trimmed 4 cloves garlic; minced
Emeril's Rustic Rub* to taste 3 Tbs. dry minced onion
1 (12 oz.) bottle hickory barbecue sauce 1-2 tsp. red pepper flakes (to taste)
1 (12 oz.) bottle chili sauce

Separate ribs by cutting between the bones so they are in single rib pieces. Trim excess fat from both skin and membrane sides of each rib. Season ribs with Emeril's Rustic Rub then place in a large ziploc bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Arrange ribs in a 12" deep Dutch oven. In a medium bowl mix together the remaining ingredients and spoon over ribs. Cover oven and bake using 8-10 briquettes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top (325° F.) for 2 hours. Baste with pan drippings every 15-20 minutes. Replenish briquettes after 1 hours cooking time.

*The recipe for Emeril's Rustic Rub can be found on my Recipes page under Seasonings.

Serves: 8
You must try it.




When we were eating dinner, all of a sudden a sworm of nats covered us. We grabbed everthing and went into the camper but they followed us. It was seriously disgusting. They were all over the table and walls, in the sink flying in circles around the light. We grabbed our tooth brushes and walked to the bathroom where the water in the toilets were black with dead nats. I couldn't even set my stuff down because all the surfaces in the bathroom were covered with them. Yuck.





This is Dad trying to vacuum up the sworming nats. If any water touched them they would die so the ones on the counter were dead and easier to clean up. Yuck.

The rest of the days we didn't have as much trouble with bugs, but that was horrible. The bugs didn't come out as much because it was soo windy. It was windy for the rest of the weekend so it made it nice to not burn up in the heat. The only thing that was not nice was the fact that during the night I was freaked out because I thought my tent was going to blow over. But over all it was great.



We ended up driving a lot because swimming was not allowed at the camp ground. Miah did pretty well during the trip. I was trying to keep her happy with the cookies her has. We drove out some where each day so the kids kind of got tired of it.



Mortimer thinks he is the size of susie. He kept trying to jump onto grandpas lap. It was funny and this time grandpa let mortimer drive with he. Mortimer is a big dog but he is also a sweet one to.



We went swimming every day. That was the best part for the kids. We found some pretty good places too. Miah was hilarious. I would take her into the water with me and she would just laugh and grunt and splash around over and over again because she was so happy. Lilly was afraid of the water and would not go farther than 3 steps by herself into the water. Hyrum had a hard time the first day getting used to the water but the rest of the time he had no trouble laying and playing in the water. Nathan was just every where and into everything.

This spot in the picture is at the sand dunes. There was a great beach to play at there.



At the sand dunes we all had a chance to ride on the four wheeler. It was so much fun because there were trails and jumps all over. What a great place for that activity. It made the trip even more worth it.

We did take the time to watch a girly movie together. I brought Pride and Prejudice. We watched it and grandma was smitten by it. She watched the whole 6 hours of it in one night starting at 10:00. Wow. I really liked it too. It is one of my favorite movies. I knew she would like it though. Corin didn't finish it all so the next day we watched it again, only the last hour or so of it. I thought it was funny.

Well I had a great weekend. The kids enjoyed it and it was something different from every other day.

Thanks for taking us along Mom and Dad.