A Wonderful Sunday Afternoon!

"When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness". ~~~Bob Hope

Summer time is such a wonderful time!
It's a time in our lives where the weather is just right and so many times we find ourselves, packing up our dinner and heading to the mountains, the desert, a park...you name it.

We have to eat, so why stay home and be boring...
why not load your car with dinner fixins' and head to enjoy some gorgeous scenery and family fun!

All this requires is a few dollars of gas in your car and a little preparation and you have priceless memories that your kids will cherish forever.

Sometimes we take our Dutch Oven and cook up dinner, or roast hot dogs and make Smore's...
Sometimes we fill a cooler with sandwich fixin's and fresh fruit, or a salad...
Other times we just fill our thermos with hot soup and take it with us.
(one time we put our taco filling in a thermos and filled the cooler with containers of lettuce, chopped tomatoes and grated cheese and went an enjoyed tacos sitting on the sand at the Rigby Lake)

Whatever we do, the kids just love these out of the ordinary moments AND I love them too.

Sunday after church
we packed the cooler with containers of diced potatoes, beaten eggs, grated cheese and sausage, threw in a jug of iced water, grabbed our picnic bag and Dutch Oven and headed to the hills.
Besides enjoying dinner in the mountains, we were on a fact finding mission to see how the Huckleberries were doing this year.

Tracy got the coals all ready and we made
"Breakfast in one" in the Dutch Oven.

Our folding picnic table with our plates, sporks and mugs all ready to be filled and enjoyed!

Talk about FAMILY FUN!!

The recipe:

1/2 pound sausage
3 baked potatoes peeled and diced
8 eggs well beaten with 1/4 cup milk
grated cheese
(salt and pepper to taste)

Brown sausage in Dutch Oven until browned.
Remove sausage and most of the grease
Add in potatoes and cook until browned
Then pile on cooked sausage
beaten eggs and top with grated cheese.
Cook for 15-20 minutes until eggs are cooked
with 12 coals on the bottom AND top of Dutch Oven.

Enjoy!

(would also be yummy if you sauteed onions and bell peppers when you cook the sausage...
also yummy served with Salsa on the top)

Good thing we didn't listen to people when we first got to our picnic spot. They said they had looked all around and only found 5 Huckleberries...
we hiked up the mountain a little bit
and low and behold came across MANY berries.
Lots of green berries which we'll make sure we can come back in a week and get and MANY ripe berries.
We set an hour limit for picking since it was getting late in the afternoon.

(Tracy is always laughing that I take self portraits, but since I'm the main photographer of our outings, I have to at least take a photo of me showing that I WAS HERE enjoying this fun as well)

After one hour of picking we ended up
with 3 cups of Huckleberries.
Very much looking forward to making homemade ice cream tonight and making Huckleberry Floats for our Family Home Enjoyment this evening.

I absolutely agree that it truly is the little out of the ordinary moments that make life so big and memorable.

When I reflect back on all of the happy, memorable moments in my life I can honestly say that is truly is the "simplest things" that give the greatest glow of happiness!

Feeling blessed to have a hubby that always takes time to make life so much FUN for our family and feeling blessed to have kids that appreciate all of these little moments as well!

"Open your arms
and welcome the joy of today"!