Baking and Packing

Today we start packing for a trip to one of our old haunts, Lake Mayfield, in central Washington. We used to go there every summer when the kids were little. We were die-hard tent campers in those years. I kind of forget when we bought our first small fifth wheel, but it was after the boys grew up and stopped going with us. They have gone a few more times since then, and those are special times.

I was looking back through old pictures trying to figure out our last visit to Lake Mayfield. The last time seems to be in 2009, but the boys weren't with us. The last time they came was apparently in 2007. That was when we took one of my favorite family photos.

That's our friend, Sam, hiding behind my head there. I was mad at him for ducking out of the picture at the time, but now I'm kind of glad it was just the five of us. This was pre-Valerie days, and so she wasn't with us. The boys look like little kids then. It was ten years ago, after all...before Erik and Mae were married.

So, this trip down memory lane is brought to you by our new trip, which starts tomorrow. We've always stayed at one of the state parks, but this time, we're staying at a nearby RV park where we can rent a slip for our boat. Not only that, they'll hitch our boat to their tractor and get it launched for us. With the kitties riding along and us in our truck camper, having them launch the boat will save a lot of wear and tear on everyone's nerves. We can just park the truck, set up, and not move it again until we come home. We're looking forward to a relaxing couple of days. Oh yes, and this will be Smitty and Sadie's first trip in the truck camper. They're good travelers when we take the fifth wheel. We're just hoping for fiasco-free feline fun this time around. (Awesome alliteration.)

Today I'm going to be making some Blue Cherry Hand Pies. They're definitely not on our diet, but for the next three days, hand pies will be our one guilty pleasure. Otherwise, we're dragging along the food ball-and-chain (so to speak). Also today, I'm making some sandwich spread that we'll be able to stretch out for the three days we're there. A while back, I made some breakfast muffins from the diet plan. Those have been in the freezer, but we'll take them along for breakfast and I'll poach some eggs to go with them. Mainly, we're just going to hang out and relax, and we'll take our boat out on the lake and bob around. It's a beautiful clear and clean lake, and this time of year, the water is pretty warm. We'll probably do a little swimming while we're at it.

The only sewing I had time for yesterday was to make up the last of the embroidered blocks for the Summer Holiday quilt. This one is the Sunset Picnic. This is the picture of the block from the book:

This is the one I made up.

After I had it all drawn out, I realized the checkered tablecloth doesn't really work with the embroidered basket. The cat will be stitched with long and short stitches, and the stitching will cover the tablecloth pattern. As for the basket, I'm going to do a basket weave satin stitch, and that should cover it. Looking at Lynette Anderson's version above, she's using a plain fabric for her tablecloth. My background fabric also has a pattern, and so one way or another, the basket was going to have mismatched fabrics. I think the solution I've worked out will take care of it. Also, I'm thinking the dog may have had too much fun on this trip. These have always seemed like a real dog and cat to me, and so I can only think that's a bandage on his back.

Depending on how much I'm able to get done today, I'll try to get another post written before we take off. It's possible I won't have time though. I'm taking along my laptop and I'll blog if (1) I have internet access, and (2) I have anything to tell you. No doubt, Smitty and Sadie will want to take you on a tour of the camper, and so they'll want to write a blog post too, I imagine. Sadie, especially, can get fairly talkative when she's in the mood. Either way, we'll be back on Friday afternoon, so look for me on Saturday no matter what happens.