What Is going on?

Playing a little catch up after the 4th of July weekend.

 Steve and I have been biking a little every week. I stopped at this park we cut through on our bikes and stopped to take some flower photos.  I haven't been taking enough photos lately. I really need to stop more often and just snap a few pictures because its soo pretty outside. 

Trying to maintain my weight loss and I still need to get back and lose the rest of the weight. I'm working on just fasting from dinner to lunch. Lunch eating low calories like peppers and popcorn. Dinner have been all over the place and I need to stop drinking more then just one drink and only on the weekends! The calories are adding up! 

 Steve made a chicken dinner on the grill and covered the breast with a pea / Jalapeno pesto. Delicious with a side of fresh coleslaw. 

 I set up our big tent in the back yard. I wanted to try out my idea of attaching the large tents screen area with our other screen porch. It worked! We even had some rain to test out how that would work. I need to buy some clips to hold up the top edge from dripping between the tent and the screen porch. This worked great having the two tents together. This way we can get away from the bugs and rain while camping. 

It's a lot to bring for a weekend, but set up is quick with the two minute tents, no extra poles. Just pop them both up. I also bring two plastic/light weight rugs to put down so we don't have to walk on dirt/grass in the screen porch. We also will bring an air mattress and my cot with a side table and our new folding table. This way we can cook inside the tent. It's a lot of glamping necessities. The hole set up isn't cheap! We figure with the amount of camping we do, it pays for itself since we aren't staying in hotels the entire trip. We do usually spend at least one night in Duluth at a hotel on the way up to the North Shore. In all each tent is around $200. The screen porch was $100 and then you have to purchase the screen which is I am taking a guess $50? Light weight rugs each at $20, fold up light weight table for cooking etc $70, Air matress (purchase every year $50 to $60 each), Side table $20, chairs $10 each, gas stove and gas grill, Had for a few years at $80 stove, $50 grill (just a guess), pots and pants with cooking utensils (?), Kayacs 2  ($300), car rack for kayacs ($600), Bike rack ($300) Bikes a few hundred each. Food, camping lights $10 - $20 each, porta potty $60, porta potty tent $40, and large 5 gallon water containers. 3 small coolers for food/drinks at $25 each. I'm sure we bring more items, like marshmallow metal forks, small propane tanks. water bottles, duffel bags, bike bags, portable charger $100 )for charging phones and pumping up the air mattress, plus, the pump. As you can see, the list goes on and on. Most we can re-use from season to season but we always purchase more air mattresses. This is why I decided to try cot sleeping. I like it better, but it does take up more room in the car. We also tend to purchase a lot of tents every few years. The 2 minute pop ups are by far the best we have tried. We will stick with this type of tent for all future purchases! Plus, I do like the light weight rugs. They don't take up much space and provide lots of comfort not having to always touch the dirt /grass while camping.