Lucky

I was sitting on my bed the other day thinking how lucky I was.

NOT because I was feeling well. Nope. Not feeling well at all. I had spent the morning vigorously cleaning the house for 3.5 hours. Then homeschooled for several hours. I was tired ......and hungry.

So I was sitting on my bed. There is not a lot of(okay, virtually none) easy grab food at my house. So if you want something to eat you have to make it. That includes making the bread ...if you want a sandwich... making the tortillas if you want a taco. Make the cookies ...if you want a cookie. I swear to you this is the secret to not getting FAT .....but that secret is for another blog post.

So I was sitting on my bed tired and hungry, and the kids came in asking to watch a movie.

! ! !

I said I would make them a deal. Make dinner, and you can watch a movie. :D

Ellie was suspicious. James was eager to agree.

A fortunate thing, or unfortunate thing of my pregnancies is my food tolerance. If I crave a certain food, that food and only that food is what I can eat. Nothing else will do.

Unfortunately for the kids, I was craving Shepard's Pie.

When I mentioned this to the kid's, Ellie groaned.

I chuckled and said "If they made me Shepard's Pie, I would up the anti a bit and let them watch A BARBIE MOVIE.

This sealed the deal, but Ellie said, I wasn't allowed in the kitchen, and could only give advice from afar.

I am amazed at my children.

Those sweet children all worked together and browned the hamburger. Cut onions(James cried :) ) and peeled and cut up carrots.
Made mashed potatoes! Grated cheese. Made the Shepard's Sauce from scratch. Located the very difficult to find paprika in the pantry :) Combined, and baked everything. Ellie even made her special Parmesan bread sticks to go along with the dinner.

I just laid on my bed, resting, and thought how lucky I was :) ......while intermittently calling out reminders to turn off the stove and oven, and to not chop off their fingers.

 By the time Barry came home dinner was hot and ready, the table was set(by Emma), and the kids were all snuggling on my bed watching a movie.

The Shepard's Pie was delicious and just what I wanted. The breadsticks were amazing.  The movie was dumb. ;)

My kids are amazing! I am blessed.



You can google your own Shepard's Pie recipe. They are all so very different, so make what you like....or crave. ;)

Ellie's Parmesan Bread Sticks

5 tsp of yeast
2 cups of warm water
2 teaspoons sugar
4 T Oil (vegetable, olive, canola, corn) 
2 teaspoons salt
5 cups of AP flour ( you can half it with whole wheat)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the yeast and sugar in warm water. Mix in the oil, mix in salt. Stir in flour. Beat 30 strokes or in the mixer for a minute. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
Spread on greased stone or cookie sheet. Top with softened butter, Parmesan and whatever seasoning you like. Cut breadsticks with a pizza slicer. Bake bread sticks until edges are browned,17 to 20 mins. Bread sticks will be large and very fluffy. :) 
*IF you l like thinner more crispy bread sticks, simply half the recipe.

BJ's Stroganoff

 

When Barry and I first got married a million years ago, he could make about three things. Pie Crust, Taco Soup and Stroganoff. 

Disclaimer: Talking to him about this, he claims there were more things, but I sure don't remember them.

My cooking abilities were also extremely limited. Dad's Ramen Noodle Stir Fry, Rice and Slop and Spaghetti.

 

Barry's Stroganoff recipe was quite unique, and unlike anything I had ever tasted. I'm still not sure if I like it, but man whenever I make it, it sure brings back the memories. :)

.....AND if you're looking for an easy, filling recipe that your kids will eat. This is it! (well if you leave out the mushrooms)

(Now I know this may not be technically a "true" Stroganoff, but that's what he always called it.)


BJ's Stroganoff (As simple as it gets)

1 lb hamburger. Cooked and drained
salt and pepper to taste
1 can Tomato SOUP
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup Sour cream.
1 can of mushrooms drained, or use fried up fresh ones

*Cook and drain the hamburger.
Add the slug of tomato soup, and Worcestershire Sauce, and mushrooms. Stir and Heat.
*When heated through, add the sour cream and just heat until back to temperature.

Sauce will be pink. :)
Serve hot over Egg Noodles!

Just thought you should know!

Black Magic Canyon

"Gunna go outside today, gunna see what we can find today!"

A friend recommended we go to Black Magic Canyon for our next adventure.

I had never heard of it, and it hadn't come up on any of my "cool places in Idaho" internet searches. We decided to try it, not really knowing what to expect. After driving for about 30 minutes into the middle of nowhere, I was pretty sure we weren't going to find it. After driving for 60 minutes, I began to remark to Barry that we really should have told someone where we were going ...........because we were truly in the back of beyond. After, some pretty rough roads, we came to an old dam and a small open area. SO we parked the car and went out to explore.

After a short walk in the wrong direction, and a longer walk in the right direction. We found it! A little crazy slot canyon in the middle of what looked like a barren wasteland.

We scrambled down into the canyon.  

I had everyone stop so I could take their picture at the beginning of a new adventure!

 

The wind was quite blustery on the surface, so we all dressed warmly. Once we got down in the canyon and sun-warmed rocks, it was quite warm.

A nice bath tub in a cool crevice. Barry asked James to take a bath in it. He declined.

Lot's of scrambling. I was left behind.

 Emma taking a needed rest.

Lauren taking a needed rest???

 

Lauren found a cool cave. If you look close you can see Barry's legs. It went straight up!

 

Stopping for snacks. I think I was the only one that was tired, but they were nice and agreed to stop for awhile.  We found a spot where the canyon had opened up and stopped and rested in the sunshine.

Then, they were off again!

James had stopped and climbed up on a big blouder to empty the little rocks out of his shoe. I caught them for a picture, just in time.

Yep! I was there too. I asked Ellie to take this picture for posterity's sake. James and Emma just randomly added themselves to the picture while Ellie was trying to figure out how to make my camera take a picture.

Mountain goat Lauren. She was tired, but did an awesome job!

No James! Please don't! He did. Another little mountain goat.

There were little pools of water everywhere! Emmy loved them.

She even found Daddy in one and tried to help him out. He didn't fit. He had to go around. :) Ellie, Emma and Lauren had already come up through the hole. James and I went around. We don't like tight places.

Barry placed Emma in a little crevice to help another kid. Emma just sat there and played.

The rocks were amazing. A rock collectors dream! We may, or may not have brought a few samples home. :)

The Giant's NOSE Rock. I asked the kids if they had seen "the nose" rock, and they didn't know what I was talking about. I simply don't see how they could've missed it. :)

We climbed out on top of the canyon for awhile. The water was red-colored from moss.

James said this puddle was the Snake River.

Nobody wanted to wait for slow Mommy.  I was on my own most of the time, and would catch glimpses of the random family members up ahead.

James gave Emma a real cool rock he found. She promptly tossed it in one of these holes. He wasn't about to reach in and grab it.

Up on top again.

Looking back!

Heading back. The kids had laden themselves down with rocks a long the way. At one point I made them drop them on the grass and told them we would come back for them.  I probably had picked up about extra 10 lbs myself.

Lauren was more selective. Just two.
I asked Barry to find us a nice rock that would remind us of the canyon. He found one. It was much larger than I expected, but pretty awesome! He only made it back to the road carrying it a little before I did. ;)
We came home and lined the flower bed with our new treasures.


 

Box Canyon Adventure

On Wednesday morning I was snuggling with Barry and his alarm clock went off and he tried to get up to get ready for work, but I just held him tight and said. "Please don't go to work today, stay home and let's go on an adventure." He said. "Ok!", and called in work and took the day off.

I was super surprised, because he's been soo stressed and busy at work, but we weren't going to argue.

 

We did an abbreviated session of school with the kids. It was so nice to have another adult there to help me. Then it was field trip time!

 

For our adventure, 

 

 We decided to try and find Box Canyon.

 

This wasn't our first time trying to find the place, it's pretty elusive and I haven't actually met anyone who's been there ..........but I've had seen pictures on the internet and I wanted to try.

 

 

After about an hour of driving around, some in the right direction, most in the wrong, we found it!

We'll we found a small parking lot with a sign that said Box Canyon. It was on the edge of a very large field and there was no canyon in sight. We started off down the trail very unsure of what we would find. The wind was whipping, but the kids were having a grand ol' time racing and galloping their imaginary horses. James had brought his backpack with him, which he informed me contained 1 bottle of soda, my water bottle, a metal rod he had found somewhere, a wooden stake, some Para cord. and My bottle of tums ;). It was heavy, but he didn't complain once. The crazy boy decided he needed to ADD to his rock collection as we walked and began stuffing his pockets with interesting rocks. We walked for about a mile before we could even see the canyon rim.

 

 

 

 

 WOW! a nice picture of everyone! Emma is "rearing" to go!

 We came to an overlook area. It was about a 200 foot drop down into the canyon and even with binoculars Barry and I could see no way of getting down to the beautiful water. The crystal clear water all comes from a natural underground spring and forms a very fast moving creek. It's an amphitheater canyon, so there is only one entrance into the canyon, and we were at the wrong end.

We decided to keep walking, I knew there was a way down,
because of pictures I had seen of people swimming in the cold cold water. I just hoped they hadn't repelled down. There were no signs to guide us, but we found a little trail(sort of) along the canyon rim. We followed it about another mile.
 

 There were eagles and Peregrine flacons soaring above us, they were pretty awesome to watch.

 AND then we found it! Someone had hooked a metal cable to some rock and had made a walkway down the canyon wall. (Sorry, no pictures) I was holding on to my children, camera, and sore pelvis for dear life. After a lot of scrambling we made it down into the canyon safely.  This is what we saw. :)

 The water was incredible! The park service at one time had put in a little platform and stairs by the waterfall, but that wasn't really close enough for the kids.

 Sorry! I might have got a little carried away, taking picture of the beautiful falls.

 Lauren, at one point on the trail, had face-planted it, and had given herself a bloody nose. Of course no Pate pictures would be complete without someone with a bloody nose.

 Where Barry leads, the kids follow.

 The spray from the waterfall was getting my camera wet, so I had to be careful.

 Emma was just so happy almost the whole time. She loves to be outside, and loves to scramble over rocks. The only time she wasn't happy was when she was being carried. "Let go, put me down Dad!" :)

 Perhaps, I should have cleaned off the lens.

 Barry and Em had left us and had walked further on down the path, I found them sitting out on a rock in the creek. Eating ALL of our snacks.

 You know those moments that time just seems to slow down and you know that you'll remember them forever. This was one of those for me. It was a little taste of heaven.  I love my family, I love that they are willing to take adventures with me.

 Watching falcons up on the cliff. No you can't see them. ;) One day, I will have a telephoto lens. :)

 Then Barry decided to stick his face in the water to see what he could see.  He said it was like looking through glass. I totally believed him ......the kids wanted to see for themselves. ;)

 Lauren did it too, but was busy holding too many things, included Emma, to get a picture.

 Time to head back home.

The kids were such good hikers. No complaints. Lauren walked the WHOLE way herself and Emma a ton of it. It's about 5 miles.  Barry rewarded them with strawberry milkshakes and chicken nuggets at the park. They couldn't have been happier.

 P.S. On the hike back, I found a way down to the inviting, but mysterious blue pools. It was very steep and there was no metal cable. I think I would probably have to scoot down on my bottom.  I don't think we'll be taking the kids that way for a few years, but we'll definitely we returning to beautiful, peaceful Box Canyon.