Labor Day Weekend

Summer is sure going out with a bang. The weather is perfect, so nice for the last hurrah before school starts. We went to the lake to do some cross country 4-wheeling and it couldn't have been nicer.

D was almost asleep within 10 or 15 minutes but he woke up when we started crossing streams and going over big rocks!

We stopped to check out a beautiful little pond. The men were drooling as they figured it was filled with trout!

The grand kids rode with us.

Getting ready to cross a stream.

Whoops! We're stuck! Let me out of here!

Getting the winch hooked to the tree to pull us out. We were on a big rock!

Notice white scrape marks....... :o(

You can see that we were really out in the wilderness!

We finally made it to the little country store where we had a nutritious lunch....ahem....that really wasn't coffee that D was drinking it was a Slurpy.

Time to load up and head back.

It was amazing that we didn't see any wildlife but I guess with four vehicles all the noise scared them off. Tomorrow we close up the cottage for the season. We leave the heat on all winter as we like to go down occasionally but we'll pull the dock in, bring the boat home, put all the outdoor chairs away, clean out the refrigerator and make sure all windows are closed and locked.

Monday, Labor Day

We headed back down to the lake this morning to get everything done. It was windy and a bit brisk out but we decided we would go for one last boat ride. T and I donned our hooded sweatshirts and rode in the bow of the boat at first.

It started to get choppy as we went towards the big end of the lake with white caps everywhere.

The spray started coming up over the bow so we went back behind the windshield as we were getting wet.

When we got back T and D decided to go swimming in the COLD water! Brrrrrrrrr!

The men got the docks taken out at our place and at BIL's next door.

DIL and I got things taken care of in the cottage and we all headed for home. Summer at the lake is over for another year. We will be down in the fall though, going 4-wheeling some more and seeing the gorgeous foliage. I'll have some beautiful pictures in a couple of months.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!!! We sure did and feel very blessed to have these things to do as a family! :o)

Cooking With Miss T

Oh my, it's Wednesday already. Will someone please put the brakes on time for a while! Summer is fast fleeting around here with mornings in the 40's. The air is crisp which is just exactly what I like. I have a friend that just luuuuveeesss hot humid weather. I think she is nuts.

I know many of you read The Pioneer Woman as I do. I think Ree is just a hoot and has some wonderful stick to your ribs type recipes on her blog. These are not for you salad and fat free yogurt types but for those of us meat and potato people they are great.

T spent the day with me last Monday and wanted to help me get dinner ready so I had her make dessert. It was a new recipe that Pioneer Woman had just posted called Apple Dumplings. This is not low-cal and I wouldn't make it every night, although it was good enough to do that, but for a special treat you can't beat this funky culinary delight.

Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples

2 cans crescent rolls

2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoons vanilla

cinnamon

1 small can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauce from the pan over the top.

Go to thepioneerwoman.com and click on desserts for her pictures and directions if you want but here are ours:

Let me tell you these things are to die for! Eat them piping hot with a scoop of ice cream and you will be in hog heaven! Amen.

My little itty bitty gal pals over at Izzy and Emmy's tagged me for a meme. You can see their button on my sidebar. I'm supposed to list 6 weird things about myself. Some days I feel like everything is weird but let me see if I can come up with some that you don't already know.

1. I don't like perfume, I would rather smell fresh hay or newly cut grass.

2. I don't like fresh tomatoes but I do like them cooked in just about anything.

3. I think cows stink but LOVE the smell of horses.

4. I don't like to be interrupted when I am in the middle of a project, but does anyone?

5. I am not a numbers person and never balance my check book, that's what the receipt from the ATM is for!

6. If I am over tired I very often dream that I am back in my hair salon doing hair. The bad part is nothing good happens, it's always that I am WAY behind with 25 people waiting or someones hair turns purple or falls out on the floor.

Nancy over at Nancy's Nonsense has given all of her readers multiple awards! You can find them on my sidebar and I would like to pass them along to all of my readers. You all are very special to me and I enjoy your posts so much! Nancy has the biggest heart when it comes to her beautiful cats. She goes to great lengths to see that they have the best care possible. Go on over and check her out, you will be impressed with all she does! :o)

I have a long time friend coming this morning for a visit. She has moved about 30 miles away so I don't see her that often so this is a real treat. We always pick right up as if we saw each other an hour ago not months ago. True friends are like that. :o)

Weekend Recap

Another beautiful day in paradise! The rains have stopped, the sun has come out and the sky is a beautiful pale blue with fluffy clouds drifting by. Too bad it hadn't been this way when Hubby's relatives were here on vacation. They got about three days out of the whole vacation when it didn't rain. They made the most of it though and did lots of fun things and ate lots of great local food. Now they are back in VA and Penn. and we won't see them again till October when we go to Nephews wedding.

My friend Ann and I went trail riding on Wednesday as we always do. Once again we had traffic to deal with but made it okay. We have to go on the main road to get to the trails.

As always we took the guys to the river to play. There's a nice boat landing so we don't have to worry about getting mired in the mud.

Some of the trees are starting to turn already.

This is an old barn that we go by each time we ride. They have cleaned out the inside and have events there such as wedding receptions.

This is a shot of some of the other horses at the stable. This pasture goes right down to the river.

We finally got a day to go to our cottage. They have been few and far between this summer as we have had lots of other commitments on the weekends. We took a long boat ride all around the lake. These are my toes (blush, blush)!

When we first got there the boat wouldn't start as someone left the bilge pump on. We had to charge the battery and then we were off and running.

This is looking out from the lawn. We are in the 'narrows' that connects the two large lake areas.

You can hardly see our tiny cottage nestled in the trees.

This is the only cottage on the lake smaller then ours! ha! Actually it is an ice fishing shack left from the winter.

There are lots of big rocks on our lake so you have to know where you are going. Some of them you can see and some you can't. We have taken out our propeller several times! :o(

We went by FIL's place. Looks like no one is staying there this weekend.

It was just a glorious time and Dad fed the boys so we could stay even longer. We had 8 friends staying at our place this weekend and I was so glad they got good weather.

Now it's off to church and then we are meeting old friends for brunch at Muddy Rudder. They lived here for years but have retired and moved to Florida. They are here visiting family for a week.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! :o) Funsize is in Ireland on a vacation!!