Lake Tahoe Part 2

Shirts by Jon - OF COURSE!!

Our true selves emerge:

Collin rowing me around the lake:

Chattin with Em:

The boys before their nightly Crawdad trap setting. Yes, they are posers. No, it was not coordinated.

Hanging around the fire and the next days spoils from the crawdad trap.

Kaya (aka mini Seth), Tevai (aka mini Dave), Grace (aka mini Jon), Eva (aka mini Libbs): best buds.

Ok "babes", here is our Girls Night Out picture. THANK YOU husbands for it. We know the price you paid (which was high).

Cousins playing Ants on a Log or something.

Yes, more posers. Getting ready to jump off the rock. The initiatory rite of passage.

Look at my honey fly!

Phid and Collin.

Even more posing . . . anything to stay warm!! (Em, Collin, Garrett, Jon, Joz - in stealth mode, Phid and Seeth)

Air Guitar?

Jon and the third or fourth chair he broke (they were cheap, ok?)

Gathering to see Collin get rid of the mop:

Jon playing barber and Mullet fun:

Ta DA!! My baby boy is back!

Last night of fun. A bowl of popcorn that MIGHT be big enough for all the Bybees - adults that is.

Ok, Who's up for Round Two??? Next summer???

Tahoe Part One

Can y'all say "BEAUTY! . . . JOY! . . .LOVE"

Backing up though, on our 9 hour journey to get to the lake, some sort of alien invaded Collin and he turned into a snarling, growling, crying, writhing, kicking ball of meanness, then he threw up and was his happy loving self. It was so weird! In the first one he's growling, "NO PICTURES!" The second is taken about 5 minutes later.

CAMP BYBEE!! Yes, every one of those tents and cars is ours.

Collin, aka PYRO BOY building one of several mini bonfires while his best pal Cora watches. And one (of many) of Howard's beauty naps.

Doing what we love to do most - siting around the fire, eating and chatting.

The older generation passing on the very valuable S'mores making skills.

I love this picture . . . too bad I never got one of Howard being Death at night in that hoodie!!

So, um . . . let's just say it was FREEZING at night. I slept with 5-6 layers a hat and hoodie at night, and still froze.

Good ol' Garrett - the kids favorite uncle giving Grace a ride (yes, he has swimming trunks on) in Baby Bumper - the one Jon and his brothers played in when they were young. And Collin chopping wood - he could have done that till his arms came out of the sockets!

The kids all drawing. They had SO much fun together!

The Bybee boys (Yes, we claim you as a Bybee Garret!) chewin' the fat while cookin' their fat. Yes, that is bacon wrapped around their sticks. They bought it for "catching crawdads". Uh-huh.

Jon frying up lamb on our night to cook.

The bathing beauties on the beach. Tevai, Noni, Grace, Eva, Kaya . . . and Seth.

Stay tuned!! We're only half way through!

Birthday Fun

We had a great day yesterday! The kids got a day off school and I agree with Grace when she said that Jon shouldn't have to work on his birthday. I asked Collin what he wanted to do for his birthday and without hesitation he said, "RA!". That's my sushi lovin' boy! Ok, he's more Jon's sushi lovin' boy, but I like it too. Collin went there with some scout leaders months ago and he's been talking about it ever since.

We heard all about the "upside down mushroom lights"

AND most of all, the crunchy spicy tuna. It seems it was a little more spicy than he remembered!

Jon was glad to have any excuse to eat sushi! Sorry for the not-so-great pics. Someone, who shall remain anonymous, would NOT let me use a flash.

The aftermath of when I thought we were done.

A sushi lovin' Midge. She has decided she wants to go to RA for her birthday too.

The real aftermath (minus a few plates!!). Thank goodness for Happy Hour!

Singing Happy Birthday - Bybee style and chocolate divine - of course!!

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday!!

Jon - Sept. 22, 1971

Collin - Sept. 22, 1998

Pre-Tahoe Pictures

We went to Albertsons for groceries and when we came out, we were greeted by this scene. I love mountains!

The rest are of our favorite people: the Winters. Jeffery and Collin & Brianna and Grace all go WAAAyyyyyy back. We had to get them together to play!

Ems met us at moms for a Tomato Soup canning lesson. It was so fun! Thanks mom!

We also ate at all our favs in "the Valley" and we got to go to lunch with Grandma at the Pizza Factory

Collin and his best bud Christian with Maya the Moezel looking on

Grace and her buddy Lia. They are exactly 1 week apart.

Grace lost her OTHER front tooth in Utah and she looks so cute!

Me and my adorable niece Alice. She showed me all the baNAAAAAna's in the book.

We also got to be there for our Priday Labor Day Breakfast tradition. Every Labor Day, 9am at Grandma Pridays house. We have missed out on the last 2!!

Top: Ems and Laura, Me, Yon, Sarah, Noth and Lia.

The kids and Grandma (their GREAT Grandma) Priday. They love being at her house and kept asking to go back. Collin said, "You can never get bored at Grandma Pridays!!"

We had such a great time and we miss you all!! I am still trying to choose out of 957 pictures of Lake Tahoe which ones to post. Should be soon though.

Don't Know What you Got till it's Gone

Number of boxes of tomatoes used to make soup: 1

Days it took to make soup: 5

Number of repairmen in the last 5 days: 3

Cost of labor and parts for a new stove breaker: $488.75

Quarts of tomato soup made: 15

Number of new grey hairs from the last 5 days: 11

Having use of this again:

Very wishful thinking

Priceless!!!

So Long, Farewell!

Dear Neighbor Who Stole my Recycling Bin,

I hope you love it as much as I did.

I hope you use it as much as I did.

I hope you find as much satisfaction as I did annoyance from this.

I hope you . . . . have a GREAT day.

Still no stove, even after $250. Too distracted for pictures.

MY Tomato Soup

(Enough for 7-9 quarts - depending on all sorts of things)

14 Quarts tomatoes (about 1/4 bushel)

7 Med. Onions

4 celery stalks

14 Springs Parsley

3 Bay Leaves

3 Tbsp. Salt

3-4 Tbsp. Sweetener

2 tsp. Black Pepper

1 c. butter

1 c. flour

Cut up vegetables . . . .

Cook until celery is tender . . .

Put through sieve - IF you have one. I don't, so I blend mine up in my Blendtec in about 27 batches.

At this point you make a roux out of the flour and butter and thin it with some of the juice from the vegetables and add to the rest of the soup. But when you are ME (and what makes my recipe unique), your stove breaks at this point and you have to make room in your fridge for 14 quarts of liquid magma and wait till Monday to call a repairman. Hopefully, in the very near future, I can:

Fill jars to 1" (or where the ring hits). Screw tightly. Put in canner and fill water to tops of jars. Bring to boil, lower heat to a med. boil and boil for 20- 30 min.

P.S. Still sorting through 972 pictures from our trip, so I'll get to those when I get the stove and soup taken care of.

P.P. S. 2 of my 3 sisters were making soup Saturday too. HA!

We're Baaaaaa-aaaaaaaack!!

How we feel about leaving our family

I am up to my sunburned scalp in camping laundry (which is about 7 times dirtier than regular laundry), getting the house back in order, getting the kids going in school and routine again, starting our science class at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and our GOCO Co-op, Enrichment, looking for a canner to start bottling tomato soup, and . . . . so more posts till next week.