Happy Valentines Day

I wanted to make something fun for Valentines day... when the kids were little I would make a few (like 6 to 10) dozen cupcakes and invite all their friends over. Sit them all around the table where there are bowls of different frostings and sprinkles and let them all have at it. I remember kids stacking cupcakes with layers of frosting.. and kids just eating their cupcakes.. and sometimes just eating the sprinkles or the frosting. Lots of good fun memories. I always had so many kids running around that it was about how many I could make. When it came to cookies they could eat them as fast as I pulled them out of the oven. That and sneaking bites of cookie dough. I would have to triple or quadruple the recipes.

I made a cake this weekend... had not been thinking about Valentines day, I had just wanted cake... so I wanted to do something different today. I made big soft old fashioned sour cream sugar cookies and had printed out a friends recipe for butter cream to frost them with. Was just getting ready to mix up the frosting when my friend posted on facebook that she had just made the best butter cream frosting ever... she was sweet enough to email me a copy of it real quick and I gave it a try.

The frosting was so easy to make... I had to make a few changes as I only made half a batch and did not have the cream so just used milk. I added a bit of food coloring to it because I wanted pink and then I did a tiny bit of almond flavoring with the vanilla. This recipe will be used many more times.... even though I only made half a recipe I had a bunch left over.. I put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the fridge.. not sure how it will hold up but I only made 2 dozen cookies. I will update on that in a day or two when I make some cupcakes to put it on :)

*update on the frosting keeping* it keeps like a charm.. I scooped all that was left into a ziplock bag and stuck it in the fridge... pulled it out a couple of days later... sat it on the counter for a short bit... massaged the bag a bit and nipped off the corner and put it on some cupcakes.. looked great and tasted wonderful! Sorry no pictures... everyone was eating them as fast as I could frost them.

Here is the link to the frosting recipe, along with some beautiful cupcakes, recipe is at the bottom of this post ~ Butter Cream Frosting at Java Cup Cakes

Here is the cookie recipe

Old fashioned sour cream cookies

This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe... well one of them! This one is really easy and always taste great.

Mix together

1/2 cup ( one cube ) softened butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla *you could add a little dash of peppermint too if you wanted*
1 egg

add in

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Today I wanted to make heart cookies so I scooped out some dough and using floured hand I patted it flat on a floured sheet until I had them as thick as I wanted them and then used the heart cookie cutter. You can also just roll into a ball and then roll in sprinkles and press flat onto the cookie sheet. The cookies do not get any bigger when they bake.. so don't make them too flat. I like them pretty thick and soft. I bake them in the oven at 350 for about 7 minutes.. I watch them pretty close.. I do not want the edges to start turning brown.. then they can get a bit crunchy.. still good.. but I like mine softer.

~Michelle

My Beach ~ Aerial Photos

This is not an open invite *smile* to take over my beach, but I wanted to share with you something cool I found today... I found a site that shows Aerial Photos of the shoreline in Washington State. You just click the shoreline you want to peek at and there you go. I thought it would be nice to share where it is that I spend so much time. These pictures are not of current day... because in this first one.. my house is in it.. but none of my neighbors are here yet.. I plan on spending some time reading through the site and seeing what is what but wanted to share these with you now. I am guessing they are from the late 80's ( clicking on the photos will take you to full size one on the site.. they don't fit so well on here )

I start most days about the middle of that photo... and when looking at it.. I head to the right. This is my favorite part of the beach... my secret island part... where I have to either climb over trees or wait for a really low tide to get to but it feels like no one ever comes here... can't see a house to either side.. it is all high bank.. not where I want to be if a tsunami came ashore.

When you are on their website you can click either way to take the whole tour.. sometimes I go to the left... if you go down for awhile there is some more high bank and I like it down there too. Who am I kidding ( I am sure none of you ) I love any where on the beach :)

RV Show ~ Friends ~ GeoCaching

Today was an awesome day. Friends came over this morning and we headed off to Seattle to the RV show. Our plan is to someday build a motor home using a Peterbilt truck so even though we would not be buying an RV from the shop it is nice to check out the new ideas and see what we might want to work into ours when we build it and what we do not want in ours. The one below is something like what we want.. I would like a few more windows is all :) In your review mirror it is going to be big and truck like... moose pusher and big loud horn. From the side it will be abit more Motor home like, not too much though.

This year we did not see much that was new. I did notice a different lay out for the beds in the trailers... a door on each side of the bed with a flip around tv from the living room to the bedroom... also noticed a bunch with doors right from the outside into the bathroom.. a second door besides the main one.. which would be great for when we are dirt biking or geocaching ... can come in dirty and get all washed up before going into the main part of the RV. Wont work in the one we are planning.. but it is a nice idea. Did see a fifth wheel that was pretty nice... had the living room up stairs where the bedroom is in most of them. With all the slides out it was huge. It was the KeyStone Montana and had everything.. if i was looking for a fifth wheel and was looking for something to park in and not to road trip in.. this might be what I would want.

That pretty much covered it for what we saw... there was not much there this year and only a small handful of motor homes.. most of them used.

On the way home we stopped at Five Guys burgers , Friends had not eaten there yet and we love it... now they do too :) I love being able to pick each thing I want and the fries are so good and you get way too many of them. Not a healthy place to eat but then that is why it is so good! I wish they did milk shakes there.. that would be the cherry on top.

We had been telling them about geocaching so decided to stop at a few on the way home... we are working on getting them hooked on it too... then we drag them around with us. They helped us look for one that we have been trying to get for almost a year now... have made 5 or 6 visits and still have not found it... wait until I tell them we now have a hint from the cache owner for it! After we got home tonight I happened to notice the time for the Cache Event tonight was 6 to 8 and since it was only 6 and we live 10 minutes from it.. we logged in and let them know we were on our way... off to The Station in Stanwood we went.. wow.. it was super packed full of cachers! We for there just in time to get our name into the bucket for the drawing.. and then we won.. we got a small cache box full of goodies and ready to be placed. We have not placed a cache yet but are hoping to get a travel bug and use this as a bribe with our friends to get them to help us find a place to hide it :) This event was great and we were able to put a lot faces with the names we keep seeing in the logs. Also got the hint for the cache we have not been able to find since it was the owner of it that was holding the event. I am hoping to be able to plan some day hikes soon for some caches we have yet to find.

GeoCaching ~ We Are Back!

Had a very lazy morning... got up late... made some waffles and was having a cup of coffee and Dave noticed that 17 caches just published... and the furthest from home was 8 miles.. the closest was just right up the road.. That was all it took.. we were back..grabbed up some loot and a couple of pens.. pulled on our hiking boots. Load up the Gps's and we were out the door on a mission.

First one we went after was the corner store we love to visit... a total easy find... grabbed the cache checked the log and no names were on it... well now ours is... First to Find.. Heck of a way to get back into caching.. and the caches are all done by RDR one of the best around. We love finding his caches...a lot of them we end up having to visit more than once before we find them.. there is one we have visited at least a half a dozen times and still have no clue. We are pretty sure we Know every place it is not hidden.. even though we know when we find it that chances will be high we have seen it and touched it many times and just did not "find" it.

Off to the second cache.. I am pretty sure I know where this one is before we get out of the car... yes that is a big mistake... when I assume where it is then I close my mind to all the other places it might be. Which is what happened... we are looking.. and looking and it is not where I think it should be so I am looking even harder.. and then a car pulls up.. and it is RDR... totally awesome to get to meet him... he asks if we have found it yet.. We say no.. he ask what the name of the cache is... we tell him.. and he gives us this look... Dave gets it.. turns around and he sees it right away.. I am still stubborn and thinking I know where it is so am still looking there.... then I see it.. not where I thought it would be.. and can not believe I did not see it earlier.. I had totally touched it and looked right at it. Second to find on this one.

Tried a couple more but had no luck on those.. did not really give them too much serious time.. they had already been logged so we just did a quick peek... on our way for more first to find... down to one of our favorite parks.. there are a couple of new ones here... a truck is pulling in so we are walking fast.... find it but it has sort of fallen apart.. the cache itself has fallen out of the camo... so we get it out and are looking at the log... cache was just published this morning.. but the log has been signed a few times.. over the last year.. nothing today.. so we are taking a first to find.. and another cacher shows up.. and he agrees... first to find for him too.. sharing this one :) We put it all back together how it should be and head off for the other first to find... it is in the park more.. means some hiking and with the winds blowing like they are.. we hiked fast... found the cache and signed the log and started back out... I stopped to take a couple of pictures and a video because the wind was so cool.. then the branches started falling down around us and we decided it was time to just get out of the trees.

Found four caches today.. ftf on three of them :) We did not go after all of them since we want to start going out on a regular basis again... this leaves some more to go after in the next few weeks :) Being out in the woods and hiking on the trails felt so good.. I have missed being out there a lot and it is time we are out there again! This island has so many awesome trails.. and within 50 miles of here there are millions of trails ( most of them with lots of caches ) that we need to explore!

Learn about Geocaching here I can not say enough good about it. You can do it pretty much for free... you just need a gps. It is great for kids and grandparents and everyone in between or all together. It gets you outside, doing stuff. I can not believe how much I have learned about where I live and the places I have visited because of caching. Any questions feel free to ask me :)

All pictures today were taken on Four Springs 50-acre nature preserve on Camano Island. Even though I had driven past the signs to this for many years.. it was because of caching that we headed back into this and found a beautiful park with lots of trails to explore. I was so excited to be out caching again I did not take many photos as I left the camera at home and I only grabbed the cell for the ones in the park :(

~Michelle

Spring in the Air

Yesterday was just an awesome day at the beach... when I woke up it was 25 degrees and I was not sure I was up to freezing my backside off... then it started to warm up... and the sun was shinning and the sky was blue.. the water was so calm... threw on a sweatshirt and some boots and headed out the door. The tide was way out so I headed down to my favorite spot... you either have to wait until the tide is out or climb over a bunch of trees that slide down the bank last year. I love this part of the beach because no one ever goes down there... it is right in the middle of the high bank with houses on each end. I always find good things here and often find agates in this area.

Bottle Tops

Greens

I was walking around at high tide line and then on the way back decide to hit low tide and see what was there.. on my way down to the water I almost tripped when I saw a red. They are rare and the pieces I have found have always been so very tiny.. like 5 of them on a dime.. but the one I saw today was about the size of a dime :) here it is with all the other awesome stuff.. some heart rocks and pottery and agates :) The big bright red and the yellow are the pottery pieces.

Walking back along the waters edge was a lot of fun... saw this thing hopping all over and I am not sure what he is but I did try getting him back into the water.. but every time I reached for him he would flip flop and creep me out :(

Then I saw some sea anemones and I just had to take some pictures and yes I played with them... they are just so cool.. I was very gentle though.

I could have spent ALL day playing on the beach today... it was warm and fun and the birds were chirping and splashing in the water. Today is sunny and warm too.. but I am going to spend it cleaning out the jeeps.... heard to expect rain starting tomorrow... I do love the rain... it is why everything here is so green and so beautiful.. and I am thankful we are not in freezing temps and buried in feet of snow.. but I am ready for spring. Starting to see flowers budding and I want to be outside working in the yard and having a bonfire and roasting some hot dogs :)