Okay - it's officially hot - and I'm officially DONE!  When I got in the car after work Wednesday - this was the temp showing......121 degrees!!!!

I told myself that it wasn't that hot, really, it was just because the car was in the sun, and it would cool down as soon as I started driving (though it felt that hot inside the car!).  It did cool down - but not much.  Here's the official temp from weather.com.

And it got hotter on Thursday and Friday....the high today is supposed to be 109.  I'm done!!!!!

Book club was this week, and we read the book "Lost" by Gregory Maguire.  My recommendation - don't both reading it.  None of us at book club enjoyed the book.  They did like the bookmarks though!  When I showed the picture of bookmarks to a couple of members, they both liked the ones in the middle, so I whipped up a coupe more of those.  I found the patterns here.  

Next month - no book for book club - just a family BBQ at our place.

AJ and I went on the annual family camp out this weekend at Plaskett Meadows.  We've been gong there for years - a couple of small lakes (AJ calls them ponds) is all that's there, but it's a fun time!  We ended up cutting out trip short this year - a large group of semi-obnoxious people came in Friday night.  They were'nt bad, just not good neighbors (music playing all day/night, dogs running loose, loud all the time - late into the night, etc.)  They were nice individually, but when they were together in the group camp, they made camping there not much fun for us.....

AJ at camp...

The view from our campsite.

Upper lake

Lower lake

Lots of bumble bees around - but no meat bees or yellow jackets!

Lots of dragonflies too!

Kolby went for a swim - he was playing catch with himself and missed, so went in after the ball.  Evidently, he bet he could through the ball across the lake, but never actually made it.  He didn't even get the ball out of the lake - it ended up in the reeds and was too difficult to get out.

The trial to the lower lake

Sunset

Morning at the lake - it was so still the reflections were perfect!

A bit of a mist rising off the lake

The crew - Kolby (just getting out of the water), Dave, AJ, Kody. Jake and Jeff.

Ralph sent me this picture yesterday of his mighty huntress.....

He said she was hanging out around the shed area of the yard for a couple of hours yesterday - pacing, etc.  Finally, he heard a yip and a squeak......got him!

Our neighbors behind us feed the wild animals (raccoons, possums, squirrels, etc.), which encourages them to hang around - yuck!  I don't mind the squirrels, but I really don't like the others.

Another camping trip!!!  I met Cindy at Butt Lake Thursday afternoon, and stayed a couple of nights up there.  Beautiful!  I like it better than Butte Lake (and it's easier to get to!)  We got, by chance, the perfect camping site.  When I went to reserve a site, there was only one left - #49. It was perfect!  It was almost the last site on the loop by the lake, and was directly on the water.  This was pretty much my view from the campsite.

A couple of steps from the site, and you had this view.  Cindy and I just dropped our kayaks here when we finished kayaking - perfect!  (The site next to us were also kayakers, so we shared....)

  

We had a visitor sneaking in one evening.....can you see her?

Can you see her now?

I logged over 18,000 steps Friday on my pedometer - Cindy and I went on several walks around the area.  This is on the way to the boat ramp from camp.

Nighttime on the lake....

I'm getting better at backing a trailer, but still needed help to get the trailer and RV in the site (I can't see the Trailer in the RV mirrors - next upgrade is different mirrors).  Bummer, but the couple across the road from me were terrific.  I got out to assess the situation, and she volunteered her husband (a tow truck driver for 35 years!) to park it for me.  He took a good look at it, had his teenage daughter direct him (I don't think he needed the help, though) and put it in perfectly.  Whew!!!  Campers really are the nicest people - at least the ones that are at the more remote sites.  Everyone there was great - lots of kids riding around on bikes and scooters, playing in the water, etc.

Some of the local wildlife......

Cindy and I got in a couple of good kayaks.  The first day, we put in in the afternoon, and it was a bit choppy.  The next morning, it was like glass.....

We spent the morning on the lake, and the afternoon shopping in Chester.  

This is the remains of a telephone pole....

  

Camping Trip!!!  Meredith and I took off Saturday to join her sister Veronica and family at Butte Lake for an overnight stay.  Each time I go out, I try to do a few more things on my own.  This time, I tried hooking up the trailer to the RV by myself (which involves backing up the RV - a difficult task for me, since I'm not the best at backing up my RAV, and I can see better in it.)  I did manage to get REALLY close to the hitch on the first try!  (Then, I didn't get the hitch on the ball quite right, but...one thing at a time!)  

The trip went well - until we headed home.  Meredith had to be at work Sunday at 12:45, and I finally got her home at 12:30, and she had to walk the last few feet....

First, the kayaks kept coming loose on the trailer coming out of the lake (6 miles of dirt road - most of it washboard).  We stopped twice to reload, restrap, etc.  Then once more stop once we hit Highway 44.  Everything was smooth until we got to Meredith's house.  She is in a cul de sac, and someone was parked wrong, so I couldn't get the RV turned, and when I tried to back up, the trailer was starting to jack-knife (and the jerk with the truck parked in the middle of the street was standing there watching.....).  Luckily for me, Chris was out working in the yard, so he came and unstuck the RV, showed me a new way to strap the trailer, and sent me on my way.....Whew!  Next time, I'll get it!!

Our view from the campsite - a beautiful campground, but not a lot of flat land for parking the RV or pitching a tent. They do have drive-thru's on every campsite though - a big plus for our two cars and a trailer group.

 

Launching the kayaks at Butte Lake

Looking back toward the "boat ramp" - a true misnomer as they have everything blocked off so much we can only launch the kayaks one at a time.  There are no motorized boats allowed on the lake, and I guess they really mean it.

The guys:

We had nice fluffy clouds overhead, and the color of the water was so different, depending on where they were.  We also had a nice (not!) wind that picked up while we were out.  Coming back, if you stopped paddling, you went backwards.....