Sunday, August 28, 2011

Camping - Smith & Morehouse

To celebrate the first week of school (and to get away from it all), we decided to camp at Smith & Morehouse. This campground has long been one of my family favorites, even an area my Dad used to camp, ride horses, and hunt. It's dry camping so there are no hookups. But we just replaced our truck battery and had some maintenance on the generator, so that was nice to have the peace of mind. Unfortunately, the generator didn't work as well as it should have so we may have to take it back in for further maintenance. But it was nice to get away and enjoy being outdoors; or, as I call it, forest therapy.

It was a nice campground, with three loops. the sites were far enough away from each other but still close enough to hear conversations. Luckily there were no loud evening parties or other noises.

After sitting in DeeAnns boss's chairs, DeeAnn made a special trip to Cabelas to buy us two of the chairs. The chairs are very comfortable, even reclining nearly all the way. But to have to go to Cabelas for shopping must have been a real hardship for DeeAnn.

The creek runs to the east of the campground but is down a very steep hill. It can be heard but was hard to hear over the rustling of the trees in the wind in the evening. Saturday morning was better as all the trees were still. Now if someone could take whistles away from kids, it would have been nice and quiet.


No hookups, a fairly level site (site 15). It's one of those campgrounds we will be happy to suggest to others and plan to return to some day. And it's only about an hour and a half away (assuming there is no major construction along the way).

The forest has nice, mature pine trees and aspens throughout. Our site was fairly shady even though it was a little wider than most (it was designated as a handicapped site).

A very rocky dam that could be fished from. There is a boat ramp just up the road a bit. And there is additional camping at Ledgefork as well. Boating is allowed on the lake but must be wakeless. That maintains the peaceful and tranquility of the setting.

The road leading in and out of the campground is lines with trees, almost creating a canopy over the road.

I brought the bike but just about wore myself out riding up to the lake. I later discovered that some our neighbors were also camping the same weekend. I probably would have seen them if I had bothered to explore the lower campground.

Disneyland - August 2011

Here we are at Disneyland, again. With this trip, we enjoyed the company of the Minors, another family of past (and future) students of DeeAnn. They are a fun family and enjoy Disneyland as much as we do!

Since we last visited, The Little Mermaid and Goofy's Sky School rides were finished and opened, along with a new restaurant in the area of Goofy's sky school. This is a picture of the chicken kabob DeeAnn ordered. Pretty good. I had a ravioli (not pictured here) that was pretty good as well. I look forward to going back. They have seating for lots of people so it should be a popular destination.

Disneyland cannot be complete without characters, in any form. Here Jaycie and Brenda meet Goofy.

One of the fun events we wanted them to experience, was a breakfast with the characters. i don't think they were disappointed! And the food is surprisingly good.

Braden and Jaycie meet Geppetto.

The kids and Rusty meet Rafiki.

Rusty and Rafiki have a "man" moment

Captain Hook made an appearance, even though he shamelessly flirted with my wife.

Eeyore greets Jaycie

Geppetto is asked to sign his autograph

The Fairy Godmother makes wishes come true

And a penguin from Mary Poppins dances into the scene

Max is cool!

Minnie Alyssa, Jaycie and DeeAnn

Honorary bugs


Drivers ed

The princesses

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger greet Jaycie

Here's a few pictures from the new Little Mermaid Ride. Very cute ride though it only takes 2 minutes for the whole ride.


We usually really enjoy Disneyland, but it was very crowded and hot. I'm ready to take a break from Disneyland though I am looking forward to Orlando this fall.

Hidden Mickey's all over the park


Woody in Lego's

The mist machines were certainly popular

And the water rides were popular, with good reason!

The Minors