Happy Grandparents Day!

Making cookies

Danica had her first adventure in baking last week. I decided to make some cake mix cookies with her. Reason for cake mix ones over regular cookies were: alot faster, fewer ingredients, and they don't make tons and tons (that I will then eat!) Plus they're yummy.

I mixed anything that needed a mixer first and then let Danica add stuff. She suprised me by being patient and not getting upset when I needed to take the bowl back and mix it some more.
She spilled a tiny bit of the mix on the table and was very concerned by it. Once I told her it was okay she was fine with it.
She really liked stirring the mix. She did not however like it when she got a little of the batter on her hands. I can't wait to try something that requires hand mixing with her! That will be interesting!
Adding the chocolate chips!
Danica's job while I scooped out the dough was to say "plop!" when the mounds of dough hit the pan. She was very amused. And so proud of her cookies.

She had to have a little snack of chocolate chips while we waited for the cookies to bake. If you look carefully you can see the chocolate drool out the side of her mouth!She was very proud of her cookies. And they turned out quite tasty too. It is kind of a cross between cookie, cake and brownie in taste and texture. They are definitely better fresh. Two days later...not so good.

The Redwoods

Danica's Grandma and Grandpa Ryther came out to visit a week ago. None of us had ever been to the Redwoods so we had decided that would be a good time to go. Danica was a champ in the car driving down there. I think it took about 6 hours of drive time. We stopped in southern Oregon at some wineries that Jason and I had wanted to go to. It helped break up the drive. Jeanine (Jason's mom) found a great cabin to stay in. It was at the Redwoods RV campground by Cresent City. They looked really new and were comfortable enough for the 5 of us.

Here's Danica sitting on the couch with Papa and Daddy. What you don't see is that they were trying to get her to give them some of her Kix cereal. She wasn't havin' any of that. Danica doesn't share food! (She get's that from her dad:)

We went on a trail that lead to what is known as the boy scout tree. Here you see Danica in the carrier backpack. She did however walk at least a mile on the trail before becoming tired enough to go in the carrier.

This is is in front of the boy scout tree. It doesn't even begin to show how big it is.
Danica had worn herself out walking. Plus it was naptime. So she slept on quite a bit of the hike back out. Did I mention that it was a 5.4 total mile hike?
Jason and Don went on a separate, more challenging hike (that Jeanine and I passed on) the next morning. This is Don standing on a tree that has fallen down.


There was some mist in the forest that morning and Jason got some amazing pictures of it. I can't wait to see how they look developed!

The campground had a big playstructure for kids who stay there. Danica loved it. It didn't have a swing but the 4 slides made up for it.
She loved the speaking tube thing.
We had a great time down there and found a couple of good places to eat. Eagle eye Don spotted an burger joint that proved very yummy. Old fashioned ice cream treats were has there as well! We also had some tasty seafood. It was a good trip and nice to make it down there before we move. A few more days would have been nice but since it basically takes a day to go and a day to come back and Don and Jeanine were only here for a limited time, that wasn't possible. It does make me want to see the Sequoia forest.