Camping? Or Monopoly Tournament?!

What happens when a family of very competitive people go camping... and happen to have a Monopoly game board?

Let the tournament begin!!

(I'll be back soon... just as soon as I win the next game. And return to civilization. Just a moment...)

Snapshot - Football (& Camping)

Alyce @ At Home with Books hosts Saturday Snapshot. I promised some football practice photos about three weeks ago. I thought it'd be easy hangin' out at practice for almost three hours Every. Single. Night. Turns out, however, that I'm either "into" the play (who knew I was that "into" football?!) or "into" my book. *cough* These first three pictures are taken by Miss Trin, the first being a self-portrait.

Trin & Snuggles

Me with my Nook

The Practice Field

I love this shot. Seriously. There's so much grass on the field, so much open sky, so many trees in the distance... and the football players are lost in it all. This captures some of my finest reading moments of the last three weeks. *sigh*

#74 Lineman

#74 takin' the knee, watching the game

I don't want to embarrass my son, Bear, but he's totally awesome. It's his first year playing, so sometimes it's too demanding, but he's not only hangin' in there, he's telling me "fun" when I ask "How was practice?" And there are lots of moments that are not fun. I'm proud of him.

Ok... this is a bonus picture!!  Most of my camping shots were personal family photos with wild hair and goofy expressions. :-)  You know, fun camping shots. But this is a fun one to share. My dad took the kids for a ride in his Redneck-mobile (It says "Redneck" on the windshield.) My husband (waving) went along for the ride. Isn't the setting amazing? I love camping in the Oregon woods!!!

The funny thing is, my dad had tied his tent to the truck since he likes the aesthetics of ancient tenting and it won't stand up without extra-fancy support. He had forgotten to untie it when he drove off. So this picture followed some exciting moments where he pulled his tent over. It was hilarious!! Not to my mom, mind you. Or not at the time, at least. I had to step away 'cause I couldn't stop laughing.  Fun times!!

I'm back! It's Monday!

Hello, Monday!!

I'm workin' my way through mountains of laundry, having returned from camping in the beautiful woods of the Northwest. Everything smells like pine from the evergreens and smoke from the campfire. *scratch & sniff* It's wonderful!  The smell of relaxation and no To-Do lists or schedules!

I'm not even sad that it's Monday again. Nope! I still smell like pine & woodsmoke. I'm good.

I was excited to read during the lazy afternoons with the sunlight dancing  through the tree cover. Once I got there, though, I realized I wanted to enjoy my family even more. Being an addict, I needed a book in hand to carry on a conversation, so I chose to reread one of the books I had brought to entice my relatives to read.

Rereading while on vacation works out exceptionally well, so you know. When Dashti was about to lose her head via "silver on blue", I was able to smile when interrupted rather than snarl at some innocent relative. *snort*

That is how I have just finished Book of a Thousand Days for the third time. *ahem* And I figured out where the title comes from only, I can't find the passage. It goes something like, "it takes a thousand days to get to know someone" and I think Dashti is recalling her mother's wisdom, and regardless, it's absolutely beautiful.

The next book I'm reading is Immigration and Adaptation for a tour review on Wednesday. I'm fascinated, but I'll wait to share 'til I review.

Thanks to Sheila at Book Journey for hosting this hop!!