Good times and good food...

Time flies and before you know it is time to spend a week at Aunt Bonnie's.  We always manage to keep quite busy.  There is always giant jenga, bean bag toss, football, and the girls love to dance.  We went on lots of hikes around the cabin, in Spearfish Canyon, Mount Roosevelt, and Devil's tower.  We fed the fish at the Spearfish fish hatchery.  There is always a craft and baking day.  This year we made dream catchers and as always pies.  The oldest two proved to be hard to catch with all of their summer activities, so my sister brought out the youngest three.  This was my nephew's first time at Aunt Bonnie Camp.  I would say he enjoyed the week.

One of highlights of the trip was when I took the middle niece for a ride in our little jeep, because she didn't get one earlier in the week.  We went to get the mail.  Lo and Behold, my brother knew she would be at our cabin this week and sent her a painting.  The look on her face when she realized she had a letter was worth a million dollars.  It couldn't have worked out better if we had planned it.  Which we hadn't.  

We tried the Devil's Tower hike again, despite warning texts from the older nieces.  I told the kids we were going to climb the tower.  The younger two were all over it and the middle one just sat quietly.  She knew their excitement would fade. The closer we got to to the tower the less adamant they were about climbing to the top.  When they saw two mountain climbers halfway up the mountain, they wanted nothing to do with seeing the top.  In fact, the youngest proclaimed he was going to buy the mountain and make a rule that nobody could climb it because it was too dangerous.  This time, instead of taking the long route with no trees in 100 degree temps, we chose the shorter more shady trail.  You could say we took the road more traveled and the trip was much more enjoyable.

 We did a little mid-baking stretching.  My nephew made a phenomenal smoked apple pie under the careful tutelage of his uncle.  He was on a cooking roll and even helped make a macaroni salad.  The middle niece made a delicious rhubarb crumble pie. The youngest niece followed her Aunt's love of S'mores and made a S'mores pie.  My husband smoked some venison and we had a fabulous Sunday dinner, on Wednesday.  As you can see below, it was hard to say patient with so much good food around.

 Pie smoking lessons.

 Water was the theme on Monday, as we went to the fish hatchery for fish feeding.  Then we had a picnic by Spearfish Creek.  We drove up Spearfish Canyon and took two hiking trails to various waterfalls.

 After four days packed with picnics, hiking, baking, and crafting, they headed home.  The cabin is suddenly very quiet.  I think poor Ella slept for two days.  I admit we also took a couple of naps.  It sure was a nice time.  It has been forever since my sister stayed and she has never stayed during Aunt Bonnie Camp.  It was wonderful having her here.  

Do you have memories of a week with family during the summer?  What was the most fun?  It is a tradition that I look forward to every year.