Donuts in the barbecue and burning bushes, oh my!

Well, it's Tuesday morning, and my vacation is over; I went back to work last night. We went camping at Silver Springs Thursday through Sunday. It took about an hour to get to this old growth forest of red cedars, hemlocks, and such. It was a quiet place and the weather was like 55 degrees a lot of the time. I didn't bring a stinking coat so I wore the same 2 sweatshirts for the whole time. It was actually a beautiful, warm sunny morning on our last day! There was a beautiful little creek behind our site, and a short walk away was the White River. Jessie fell in the creek and came back soaked and bedraggled. She wasn't hurt, but we were all sorry to have not seen it. We lucked out with our camping neighbors. First, there was a little girl for the girls to play with. When she left, another family came with 2 boys about Zach's age. Zach found 2 frogs--he has amazing creature finding prowess. Something to try: after frying bacon, use the grease to fry up some of those canned biscuits. I actually ended up having to split them cuz they were so thick, but it is really good!
Chris bought a dutch oven a few years ago, and neither of us realized the proper way to season and keep the thing up. So a few days before we left, I actually spent hours on the internet researching how to restore this rusty, caked and baked little pot. First I tried boiling water in it on the stovetop and scrubbing it out whilst hot. That helped a little. But then, after hemming and hawing, I finally got the courage to try the next step: getting medieval. I started some briquettes in the barbecue and put the oven in the refiner's fire upside down for about an hour. I used a copper(?) wire brush I found and scrubbed the dickens out of it--messy, but it worked! So then I greased it with shortening, put it back in the fire for it's all-important seasoning. And it worked! I was SO proud of myself and my proper, greasy, black pot! Then I actually made a batch of donuts in the barbecue! It was like an episode of Colonial House. Anybody see that and love it and tape it, too? I heated up a a bunch of oil to a hot temp and made donuts in my own back yard. It was cool. So this prep work was done so Chris could do his camping spesheeality--chili . Even though I failed to bring chili powder or anything at all with spice (der!), even bland food tastes fabulous when you're oot and aboot in God's creation, eh?
The fourth of July was perfect warm weather. The Tall Ships at the Tacoma waterfront was on its last day, so we drove over there to catch a glimpse of some of the beatiful schooners. For a price, we could have seen more, but camping cleaned us out. We didn't buy any fireworks this year, but our neighbors all seemed to have filled up their flatbeds with them. There was racket into the wee hours. One of my fancy grasses in the corner of the front yard actually caught fire! It was spectacularly frightening and flabbergasting. When I went out there, the neighbor was already dowsing it with his hose, thank God...same neighbor whose fault it was, I was told...but anyway...yes, fireworks in Tacoma are illegal, and yes, lots of people still light them. There are lots of booths of them all over--the Indians sell a lot of them. And yes, you hear sirens throughout the evening!
I made mint chocolate chip ice cream in the ice cream maker, and it was scrumptious. Dinner came from Fine Cooking magazine, my favorite. Chris slowly grilled some boneless, skinless chicken breasts with barbecue sauce on the barbee. Then I lightly toasted some focaccia bread and caramelized a ton of onions. You slice the chicken in strips and make a sandwich with the chicken, onions, sundried tomatoes, mayo, and fresh spinach or arugula. Try it--you'll love it!
The girls are really enjoying summer school. I caught the last few minutes of Jessie's class. They had talked about some principles of portrait painting and been taught about Frida Kahlo. Jessie's homework was to do a self-portrait.