Friday, July 19, 2013

Family Summer Vacation



It definitely has been a long week since coming back from our family vacation to Mammoth.  We left last Monday night and stayed until Sunday.  It was so needed by all of us and we had a nice relaxing time.

We brought up the bikes and had lots of bike rides.  Did some fishing, which this girl needs some training in...


She is deathly afraid of any bug.  Which makes fishing really hard.  She screams constantly from the bank.  Something fishermen love.


There is definitely nothing better than the calm waters, gentle breeze, serene views, and the screams of a four year old girl that all fishermen experience in Mammoth...when we are there.



Riley loves it though.  Everything about it.  Madi will probably get there, but I'm not holding my breath for it being any time soon.  So, Tim and I decided fishing will be a one on one experience for now.  With Riley being the one and Tim and I being the other one.




I think the fishermen that can hear Madi's screams from near and far will thank us.


We really did enjoy being up alone as a family, just the four of us.  As much as I love spending time with my Mom and Dad, I think it is important to do things as just our family.







But, I'll tell you what, it doesn't take long for word that the Rush's are in Mammoth to reach Corona.  Where people hear that word, and just can't stay away for long.


They bring their kayaks and take the Rush's out for dinner to make up for infiltrating the Rush family vacation.  So we forgive them.


Poor Madi had a fever the second to last day that we were there, and when we were kayaking, she fell asleep on Uncle Sean.

You can tell he is the youngest of my siblings.  Because my Mom does this, when his hands are not free.


Disgusting.

And on top of these people coming to butt in on our vacation, my Mom invites her friends over for dinner the last night we are there.  It's a good thing I like her friends.  Or it never would have been allowed ;)

Plus the girls kind of liked their little grandson.  So, it all worked out.  I think I'll let it slide...just this once.

;)


Fourth of July

The Fourth was a blast, like always.  We brought our World Famous pulled pork over to my Mom's a bit early so that we could enjoy a little bit of time before everyone else showed up.  My Mom had everything so festive.




The guests started to arrive a little later, and man, do I enjoy the people that come.  Everyone is just so nice, enjoys each other, and just enjoys the day.  It doesn't take long before everyone knows everyone and we are all sitting around the pool watching these guys swim...  






The girls owned the pool and all the party goers as well.  It was the cutest thing.  These kids :)

Anyway, you know once everyone gets there and you start mingling, and laughing, there is never enough time for pictures.  So I put my camera down and enjoyed the day.

The people.
The pork (approved and agreed upon by all guests, as the most world famous as they come)
The helicopters.
The swimming.
The horseshoes.
The chatting.
The laughing.
The fireworks.
The homemade icecream.
The hosts.
The day.

Could not have been any better.  Thanks Mom, for such a great Fourth of July.  The only problem with that day is it just goes by way too fast.

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Best, I mean, World Famous Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Have you ever had someone advertise a dish you will be bringing to a party as, World Famous..., but in all reality, you've never made it before, like ever?

Well, that my friends, happened to my Dear Husband, Timmy.  My Mom's Fourth of July invite this year clearly had his world famous pulled pork sandwiches advertised as just that, world famous.

The nerve of some people (my mother).  First of all, this bad boy...


was still in a box in the garage at the time that invite was sent out.  We bought this 4 in 1 smoker/bbq combo thing at Sams.  For a great deal.  And it works amazingly.  Tim wanted to make pulled pork last year for the Fourth, but we ran out of time.  So this year, he had no excuse.  He got the smoker together about 1.5 weeks before the Fourth and we got everything needed to smoke a trial run of his famous pulled pork.  A 3 pound butt shoulder, or shoulder butt.  We had a big conversation about this.  I just didn't understand how a shoulder could have a butt, or a butt could have a shoulder.  I get it now.  I think.  Email me if you are confused.  I'll explain it to you.

So, after picking up the wood chunks, and charcoal at Home Depot, the butt shoulder or shoulder butt, and a beer.  We were ready to go.


He smoked it, we ate it.  It was delicious, of course, it took longer than that.  Like 3-4 hours to smoke it.  Anyway, we made changes that needed to be made to our recipe.  And were ready to smoke the big 16 pound pork butt shoulder, or shoulder butt, for Tim's famous pulled pork sandwiches.

He made his rub.  With a bit more of a kick the second time.  Not like a big kick, just enough of a kick, so that our mild mouthed friends would still be able to enjoy it.


While that sat and got to room temp, Tim got his smoker at the correct temp.


Please excuse the mess on the hill.  We planted some shrubs and ground cover and then thought we could fill in with some "wild flower seed".  It ended up being just a weed.  So we have a mess.  Anyway.  Tim seared this bad boy on both sides and got to smoking.  After 4 hours, he flipped it.


It smelled so good.  Like so good.  Like you could taste the smell good.  Tim had a long job, he had to take the day off before the Fourth to get this done.  But his Dad was here to help.  And we were there to keep him company.






So how did the famous pulled pork turn out?  We pulled it apart.  Some for me...some for tomorrow...some for me...some for tomorrow.  Lick your chops good.  Let it sit in the fridge.  Made our own bbq sauce for it and mixed that in the next day.

Was it world famous?

You bet your pork butt it was.  

Girls, Goggles, and a Giggle

The girls have been loving the pool and are swimming so good.  But, they have to have their goggles.  Or they can't swim, or forget how to swim all together.  I think the goggles must be magic.



And when they don't have their goggles, well...


But then we find them, and well....


I'm not exactly sure where they get this obsession with goggles, but I have a really good guess as to why.


How did he get in here?  Crazy town.

Happy swimming!

The Girl & Her Hair


I'm wondering.  Does everyone have that one child that no matter what you do, she ends up destroying or almost destroying her beautiful hair?  Or is it just me?

Riley, Riley, Riley, Riley.  Did you not learn from this incident?  From now on, just don't touch your hair.  At all.  Since the extreme hair loss the first time, she has cut it once more.  I'm happy to say that she no longer cuts her hair.  But the other day, I go into my room, following the whimpers, and find Riley on my bed with a round brush stuck, as close to her scalp as possible, with as much hair in it as she could get in it.  Right in the front, on the side of her head.

I did not panic.  I'd like to write that down for the record.  I searched the googles.  The googles told me nothing.  Except for conditioner, possibly.  So we started with just trying to get her hair out of it.  Which was too painful.

So we moved to the bath.  Conditioner, water, conditioner, water.  Little by little it started to come out.  
So then I got a scissor, to try to cut the brush out of her hair.  Which started to work.

Then Daddy got home and he took over.

The rest is history.






We did it, success!!  And she only lost a little bit of hair.  Thank goodness.  This better be the last ordeal with her hair.  Or I'm giving her back.

First Time on Crawley Lake

What a great summer we have had so far.  The girls are sleeping in, we are playing in the pool, going up to Mammoth, it's been busy.  But fun.

About a month ago, we all headed up to Mammoth to do some fishing, and some riding of the bikes.  And what we didn't expect is that our new friends (I should say my Mom's new friends, but seriously, I think they like us better ;) Sara and Steve would be inviting us all out on their boat.  So we packed up the truck with the essentials.  Fishing poles, people, and beer.




We were all seriously excited.  We haven't been out on a boat as a family in forever.  We used to camp at Havasu as kids, but that was many, many moons ago.



Madi screamed the first 15 minutes of being out on the boat.  It was her first time I believe.  Not cool.  We thought Sara and Steve were going to kick us off the boat.  Thank goodness they were patient with us.  Riley loved it right away.


Crawley was so much fun.  They took us to a little cove where we shored it and did some fishing.  The girls both "caught" their very first fish.  Riley is so into it.  Madi, not so much.  




Did you want to meet Sara and Steve?


Funny story about Steve.  We parked it on the boat and Steve took is shirt off to get some sun.  Madi took one look at him and said, "why are you naked Pop Pop?"  Um...first of all Madi, that is not Pop Pop.  And second of all...he's not naked.  He is on a boat, with his flippy floppies.  Catching some rays.  Anyway, Steve earned himself the name of naked Pop Pop for the remainder of the day.  Which was just as funny the 12th time someone said it as it was the 1st.

They became best friends by the way.  Here is Madi helping naked Pop Pop get the boat out of the water.


She got in the car and instantly asked him if he had any gum.  That is the first thing she asks everybody though.  Lucky for her, naked Pop Pop did have some gum.


After our great day, we headed back to Sara's house for some card playing and pizza eating.  We had such a great time.  


Can't wait till next time!

 

Me

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I'm Kristi, the wife of one very lucky and handsome husband, and mother to two beautiful little girls. I'm honest and sarcastic, funny and easy going. I love to eat and love to hate that I love butter. And wine. And did I mention butter? I'm always learning new things, happy to lend a hand, and love my life. This is a blog of my family and the day to day crazy that we call Rush Hour. I hope while you are here that you enjoy yourself and come back often!

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