It's getting closer!

1 month, 2 weeks and 2 days!
6 weeks 2 days
47 days
1128 hours
67,680 hours
4,060,800 seconds

Until what??  Until vacation!!  I'm so excited I could scream.  And as the days go on I find myself getting more and more excited.

The plans have been finalized, reservations have been made, now all we have to do is shop for the few things we need.

I read an article that said that families spend about $1100 per person on vacations.  REALLY???  I don't think I have ever spent that much on a vacation.  My budget for this whole vacation is a few hundred dollars LESS than what they claim is spent on 1 person.  

We are camping for 3 nite in Tallulah Gorge State Park.  Hiking, swimming, fishing, pure family fun.

On the fourth morning we are going to pack up and head an hour south to Atlanta and spend the nite in a hotel overlooking the runway of the airport.  {classy, right?}  We plan on sightseeing a bit, going to Build-A-Bear {an old vacation tradition of ours}, and trying out a local restaurant.  
We honestly have only 2 reasons for staying in Atlanta; 1)To get one actual vacation relaxing day {camping is fun but NOT relaxing....it's WORK} 2)To stock up at the local big name Korean store.

The next morning that's where we are headed before going home.  I plan on taking a ton of pictures for y'all and reviewing the restaurants we goto.

I know that some of y'all probably don't like camping but, who doesn't like roasted marshmallows?? Even though I can't do the complete s'more I still love roasted marshmallows.  But, I don't want to have to wait until Ken grills in order to get myself one.    Well, you don't have to wait any longer.  As long as you have marshmallows and an oven you can make one whenever you want!  

Courtesy of: Tumblr

Ingredients
Marshmallows

Directions

1. Turn broiler on high
2. Line a sheet pan with tin foil
3. Place marshmallows on pan and place on top rack of oven.  
4. Broil for 2-3 minutes watching them carefully (they burn quickly)
5. Flip over and broil another minute or so.

Eat and enjoy!  I have made myself a roasted marshmallow every nite since Kaylee's party.  I'm addicted to marshmallows!  How much do you love marshmallows?  Do you like them roasted?  Are you a burnt marshmallow person or a golden brown person {I personally am a golden brown person}  Lemmie know!

Grillin' and Chillin'

Not many of the NaBloPoMo prompts have really "prompted" me this month but, today's came at the perfect time.  The prompt is "How long can you last in a power outage?"  I've just begun to start planning our summer vacation.  I know you're thinking "what does power outages have to do with vacations?"  Well, we are unplugging, boarding the dogs and going on a 4-5 nite camping trip this summer.  We actually love to camp.  We've been a few times but, something has always caused us to cut our trip short.  This time we're boarding the dogs and making sure we have all of the necessary stuff.  

I love to camp because it's a healthy activity.  I always come back a few pounds lighter (and with slightly more toned glutes.  Hiking boots are HEAVY!)  There's a whole slew of reasons why camping is healthy [a quick Google search will bring up a bunch of sites]  

1)  It's exercise that doesn't seem like exercise.
Think about it.  What do you do when you go camping?  You hike. EXERCISE. You swim. EXERCISE.  You fish.  EXERCISE.  You bike.  Yet again, EXERCISE.  You might even go horseback riding.  Hmmmm.....I think that's EXERCISE.  There are a number of other things you can do while you're camping.  None of it seems like exercise but it is.  

2)  You reduce stress.  
Believe it or not stress takes a toll on your health.  When you're camping there's rarely a cell phone signal, there's no place to plug up a laptop, and people rarely bring a TV.  [Anyway, if you're going to bring all that stuff why not stay home??]  There's no one to bother you, it's just you and nature.  Plus seeing a billion stars at nite will relax anybody.  

3)  You sleep better
All the extra exercise makes you sleep better.  

4)  Kids are kids.
"According to the Be Out There campaign from the National Wildlife Federation, the average time a child spends in unstructured outdoor play has plummeted to 4-7 minutes a day, while childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed."  (KOA site cited below)  When you're camping kids get to run around and play for hours on end.  They get to do what kids do best...play!  I know we always bring a few balls and various outdoor toys for the girls to play with at the campsite.  

You also get to reconnect with nature and the people you're with.  I learn more about  the girls in the 3 days we're camping then I do in a month at home.  But you wanna know Ken's favorite  thing to do while we're camping?  GRILL!  

He actually could survive without a stove at all.  But grilling is actually a really healthy cooking method.  Why?  Well, let's find out:

1)  Less fat
When you grill animal products (beef, chicken, lamb, etc) the excess fat actually drips off.  You get rid of alot more of it then you do when you cook any other way.

2)  More vitamins and minerals
Grilling helps food hold onto it's vitamins and minerals.  Other methods of cooking cause foods to leach out the vitamins and minerals due to the water and temperature.

3)  Less bacteria.
E coli, Salmonella and other icky bacteria are killed by the high heat.

4)  Moisture locking 
When you grill the high heat cooks meat faster so it doesn't dry out.  This means that you don't need to add sauces, butter or anything that ups the calories and fat.

Super health food on a super healthy vacation.  What could be better?  Do you like healthy vacations or do you relax on your diet and exercise regimen on vacation?

Links:
Akron Ohio Moms: Benefits to Grilling
Botsford Hospital: 4 Health Benefits of Grilling
BenefitsOf.Net: Benefits of Grilling
Grilling With Rich: Health Benefits of Grilling For the General Population and Those with Chronic Intestinal Disease
Rhode Island Roads Magazine: Many Health Benefits to Camping
Yahoo Voices: Benefits to Camping
Readers Digest: Health Benefits to Camping
Buzzle: Benefits of Camping
Koa: 5 Reasons Camping is Good for You

Spring Break Camping

We got back from camping yesterday.  I love going camping with the family though.  It gives us time to enjoy each other.  No TV, no internet and no phones.  Mr. Amazing works evenings and weekends so we don’t spend very much family time together with the girls getting home from school so late then having to do dinner and homework and since Kay is in the Gifted Program at school she has A LOT of homework.  

This is our second time camping.  The first time got screwed up by me and my gallbladder and by Mo having some breathing issues (we think it was because of the cool October night air.)  But the family enjoyed the 1 night we spent camping and were excited to try it again.  Kay was the most excited.  I swear she’s the perfect girl for me.  She wants to roll in the mud, play every sport imaginable, but she wants to do it all in a skirt.  Last time I tried to be really healthy.  I packed salad to go with dinner, healthy cereals and milk, and a bunch of healthy snack options.  This trip though I decided to excite my kids even more by telling them that they were going to be able to eat crap for 3 days.  But, I am the Fat Free Queen so I can’t COMPLETELY throw health and nutrition to the wind.  Breakfast was muffins and dry cereal.  For me it was Krusteaz fat free blueberry. 

My yummy muffin and the girls cereal 

Lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit and pretzels and chips.  Dinner was the typical burgers and hot dogs for the kids and Mr. Amazing.  For me it was Portobello mushrooms with some fat free cheese. 

I also brought a ton of snacks.  I made trail mix, granola bars, and apple chips.  For dessert we, of course, had s’mores. 

My trail mix.  Dried blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, raisins, cherries and some sunflower seeds

The granola bars

The granola bars I made were REALLY awesome!  Next time I’m going to try using Nutella instead of regular peanut butter.  Or, I’ll use my chocolate PB2 so they’ll be low enough in fat for me to eat.  They were a bit thick so I think that I’d bake them in a 9x13 pan instead of the 8x8.  Here’s the recipe:

Approximate nutrition facts

2 ½ c oatmeal

¼ c sunflower seeds

¾ c mixed nuts; coarsely chopped (I used leftover almonds and hazelnuts that I had lying around)

1/3 c maple syrup (I used sugar free)

¼ c agave

1 c mixed dried fruit (I used strawberries, cherries, blueberries and cranberries)

1 c peanut butter (softened in the microwave)

1. Mix thoroughly 
2. Bake in and 8x8 lined with greased parchment paper
3. 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes
4. Cool, cut then refrigerate 

See all the chunks of stuff in them?  Packed with flavor!

We ended up leaving the house 2 hours after I had planned for us to leave.  We got to the campgrounds at 4:30.  We had to run to Wal-Mart for some last minute stuff.  We finally started setting up at about 6.  I took the girls for a short hike while Mr. Amazing made dinner.  We ate, made s’mores at let the kids run around the campsite until about 9.  They played in the tent for a while.  After realizing that there was no chance of them going to sleep on their own I decided to go to bed.  Oh, did I mention Mr. Amazing forgot to pack the sleeping bag?  Yeah, he totally did.  So we spent the night lying on the hard ground with just a semi-thick blanket between us and a crushed shell ground.  I ended up waking up every couple hours due to lack of blanket.  Did I also mention that we had 1 sheet between the 5 of us and Kay is a complete sheet hog?  The next morning I ended up waking up at 6 and Mr. Amazing woke up around 6:30.  While he was at the store getting coffee I did my morning exercise.  I found this workout at Girl Heroes  I also laid on the picnic table and did 50 sit-ups and 25 bicycles (with hiking boots on.)  Mr. Amazing still wasn’t back when I was done so I ran about 5 minutes worth of suicide drills between the fences of our site.  We went hiking after breakfast and then searched the park has a ton of options trail rides, canoe rentals and a spring that you can swim in.  But, because we had the dogs and we found we couldn’t do anything so we decided to pack up and drive home.  Next time, I’m putting my dogs in a kennel. 

                But all in all our camping trip was a success.  The girls had fun and we are still having family time at home so, it’s not a complete waste of time and money.     

Have you taken your kids camping?  How'd it go?