Outdoor Cooking Emergency Style

A couple of weeks ago, Alan and I decided that we wanted to cook a whole meal with our emergency cooking devices, so we pulled out our new rocket stove and used it for the first time.  The rocket stove is a very fuel efficient method of cooking. You can get a very good flame with little wood and things heat up very quickly.  You can boil water in less than 6 minutes.   Much of our emergency food supply is dehydrated food, which means that all we would need to do to prepare those meals is to boil water and add it to the food. I like things to be simple.  For this meal we decided to cook something simple, but not dehydrated.  We chose a can of stew.

To go along with the beef stew, I made cornbread and baked it in our solar oven.  It turned out very good. 

Buttered and ready to eat.

For dessert I made some "baked" apples, but I actually fried them instead of baking them. (Alan ate about half of them before I could take the photo)

After heating up the stew, the fire was still hot so we decided to fry some burgers for a future meal.  You can also put a grill over the flame and barbeque meats with the rocket stove.  Very nice little cooking device.  I am glad that we have it in our arsenal in case of a power outage.

Carlsbad State Beach

While we were in Carlsbad for Legoland, Cheryl really wanted to go to the beach.  Since the Carlsbad State Beach was just a mile from our hotel, we decided to head over there before eating dinner wearing the clothes we wore to Legoland.  The plan was to just walk along the beach and enjoy the view.  Livi had fallen asleep in the car so Nicole lovingly held her while everyone else enjoyed the beach.

It didn't take long for Livi to wake up.  When she did, she really enjoyed the beach.  She loved running away from the waves.

Ethan and Ella loved playing in the sand and in the water.

Although the plan was not to get wet, it didn't take long for that plan to get foiled. A rogue wave caught me unaware while I was taking photos and my jeans (although rolled up to the knees) were wet to my mid thighs.  Nicole took a picture of it, but I don't have a copy.  Here is a picture of Ethan soaking wet and finding the beach very enjoyable.

 

I tried to include a short video of the kids getting wet but it wouldn't upload.

When we got back to the hotel, everyone was ready for showers and pizza.

Girls Day Out!

Two weeks ago while Cheryl, Nicole, and the grandchildren were visiting here, Cheryl and I decided to have some fun by going to get a pedicure (Nicole didn't want to go).  Ella heard about our plan and asked if she could go.  We were delighted to have her come along.  In fact, it made it even that much more fun for us, especially since this was Ella's first pedicure.  As we entered the salon, we first picked out the color we wanted.  I jokingly held up the blue polish, but definitely didn't pick that!

Since Ella's favorite color is pink, I was not surprised by her pick!  She looks happy to have that color.

One of the best parts of a pedicure is soaking your feet in that warm water and Ella is definitely enjoying it.  She didn't enjoy the built-in massager...these are made for adults and the mechanism was massaging her head at some points instead of her back or shoulders.

I love getting pampered this way!  It all felt awesome.

Here is the end result.  We paid a couple extra dollars so she could get little flowers pained on them.  I think they turned out very cute!

This was a fun little outing for all three of us.  Sorry, Cheryl, we should have been taking photos of you too.  Can we turn back time?  I guess we will have to do it again sometime.

Legoland

Last Friday I got the chance to take my grandchildren (along with Nicole and Cheryl) to Legoland in Carlsbad, California.  I had been wanting to do this for quite some time.  Ethan is 9 and loves Legos so I knew he would really enjoy it.  Ella is 7 and Livi is 3 1/2 and I knew that even though they are not into Lego's as much as Ethan is they would enjoy it too.

This was taken right after we entered the park.  To smile for the picture, I told the kids to say "Legoland" so Ethan emphatically complied and this was the result.

The rides at Legoland are definitely tame, especially compared to Magic Mountain.  On this boat ride, we got to see scenes from many different childhood stories, like the 3 little pigs, the Billy Goat's Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.  It was a fun little ride.



Cheryl was even able to find a new "beach bum" friend - made of Lego's of course

Livi couldn't ride some of the "wilder" rides, but she loved this airplane ride where she could control it's up and down movement with a joy stick.  We went on a lot more rides than are pictured.  Ethan and Ella's favorite ride was the roller coaster, but I didn't have a picture of that one.  We even went on it twice.

 One section of Legoland was where they had put together mini scenes.  You can kind of see it here if you look past the kids.  Nicole and the Beesley's are big Star Wars fans and it has rubbed off onto Ethan.  Here he and Livi are pictured with Chewbacca and R2D2 - made out of Lego's, of course.

Since Eric's family lives near Mt. Rushmore, it was fun for everyone to see this Lego-style Mt. Rushmore.

This is a mini New York City made out of Lego's, of course.  It is so amazing what can be done with Lego's.

Well, I have lived in Southern California for 31 years and this was my first trip to Legoland - definitely way overdue.  The park is definitely for younger children.  That's why I wanted to take my grandchildren while they were still young enough to enjoy it.  I am glad we went!