Smokin' on a Saturday Night

I know, just by the title you all think I've gone a little nuts and completely rebelled...NOPE. But it was fun trying to imagine me at a bar puffin' away, wasn't it?

So it more or less took me all week (and a change in prescription meds) to get my mood to improve this week...but IT FINALLY DID. And is every one in my household glad. Although, as a quick side note, they aren't cleaning up any better...but alas, it is what it is.

So after having such a difficult week with everyone trying to put up with me and my bad mood, Felix and I decided that we needed to do something fun. Yay us, we put a fire pit in the backyard.

Last year, when we did the addition on our house, we decided to have a trampoline hole dug so that the kids (especially the younger ones) could get on and off easier. The hole was dug in June, and we couldn't put the trampoline in the hole until October when everything was finished. And of course, when we put the trampoline in the hole the hole was over dug by 3 feet. Of course it was...what was I thinking...why should I have expected that it would have been dug to size. But wait...it gets better. The hole was dug at the wrong angle, and through the course of a VERY wet winter, the hole collapsed and completely covered all of the trampoline legs...GIVE ME A BREAK.

Well in early spring, we managed to get the trampoline out of the hole and beg our neighbor who was finishing up his addition to dump the dirt from his yard into our massively ugly hole. Okay, this story is getting way too long, to make a long story short (a little late, don't ya think?) as we were moving the dirt around, we decided that it would be cool to have a fire pit so we could make REAL LIVE S'MORES WHENEVER WE WANTED TO. And we did. It was a painstaking process and took way longer than it should have, but we have it, we love it and it's done. (Nice way to tell a story huh...by going around the block to get to the house next door).

Okay...so now you know how we have a fire pit...now it's time to tell about SMOKIN'. As I was saying, forever ago, we needed to lighten the mood so we decided it would be a good night for s'mores. We took the kids out to dinner (Because lest we all forget, I STILL DON'T HAVE A COOKTOP...dumb Sears), and we needed something other than the boring dinners I have been cooking in the oven.

So on the way home from dinner we tell the kids, who have naturally been bickering non-stop about the Earth's gravitational force or about the Pythagorean Theorum or something little, like breathing...AND I WAS SICK OF IT. So we decided to sweeten the pot, and tell them if they could make it all the way home (which was like three minutes), then we could do s'mores. And wouldn't you know it, World War 3 broke out in the backseat of my car. Okay fine...this was one of those, "If you can't get along, so help me I will turn this car around" moments. Except we were already going home, and that is what they wanted.

So how could I turn this little fiasco in my favor? No problema...when the house is clean, we can do s'mores. And, WOW, my house got clean fast.

Out the door for s'more we go. On the difficult side, we live in Utah, it is fall, and the ground is drenched. So with much kindling, LOTS of cardboard, and twigs galore, we managed to get the fire started.

Not exactly the raging inferno we made in the toilet (For all those who need to know, please refer to the first post on this blog). Nor was it the type of bonfire that would obliterate a marshmallow into nothingness just by thinking about it...but it was a small, cozy little fire, that would get put out if someone farted. Okey, dokey, now that none of you will ever eat s'mores again without thinking of passing gas...I'll move on.

Because it was so wet, and even though the fire was kind of small, man that puppy put out a lot of smoke. It was kind of like playing musical chairs with smoke signals. No one was ever in the same place more than 2 minutes and at one point or another, you would hear someone go, "AAAGGGGHHHH", and cover their eyes...It was kind of a Dr. Seuss moment. 'I do not like smoke in my eyes, anymore than I like flies. I do not like smoke from a train, I really think it is a pain'. Okay, I'll stop torturing you...I was having a moment, with a big red and white striped hat on my head.

So Savannah of course, had to dramatize the entire process of marshmallows, and put it off as long as possible, just because she couldn't get her 'pet stick' to catch fire. And I'm pretty sure that Caleb only managed to get one s'more before he started burning his marshmallows to a crisp and watching them explode in the fire (microwaves got nothin', nothin' I tell ya, on our fire pit). Noah, was content in his own little world melt, eat, burn...melt, eat, burn. He was working on a 1 to 1 ratio of eating versus destroying. And Baylee, well, Baylee was Baylee and was spending her time chasing people around the backyard...as usual.

We had a wonderful time, just not thinking about any of the stresses in our lives and enjoying each other and our friends that joined us. I can't wait until we do the first S'more party with snow on the ground.

Lessons Learned
1. When my kids tell me that I never let them do anything, I now have pictures that prove I let them play with fire.
2. I really enjoy my children...
3. Size (of fire) doesn't matter when it comes to making s'mores.
4. In the midst of all of the chaos in our world, it is so nice to have a place where you can spend time with those that matter most.
5. I really, really, really like toasted marshmallows...to an unhealthy point.