Missouri Trip

My brother got married in Missouri.  So we made a family trip out of it and went down to the Ozarks.



In a nutshell, these are the bad things that happened:  Ava got swimmer's ear, Owen jumped too close to the pool steps and put a four inch gash in his leg, Moyz got a tick head stuck in his back, and Truitt was giggling with joy only for me to discover that he was playing with poison ivy.

We had a lot of fun too.

The following pics are from an obscure, out in the middle of nowhere rope bridge that was built by a guy who didn't go to school past 5th grade.  For real.

A shot of the rope bridge before we went across it, with the windows down and everyone unbuckled.

Lunch on the side of the road right before the bridge.  

What a crew.

See that dark spot by our feet?  That's a hole right before the bridge starts.  I am thinking they may want to fix that.

Not the most kid-friendly safe bridge ever made....

I'll share more later this week.  All in all, a good time was had!

Do Sunscreens Cause Cancer?

I've been on a bit of a natural kick lately.  And this sunscreen article by the Food Babe just makes me feel like I am headed in the right direction.  Basically the chemicals in sunscreen are big and bad and cause a lot of problems.

Here is a picture from her article on the the worst sunscreen culprits.



See that pretty pink one on the left?  That is the only one we have ever used on our kids.  Oops.

Here's a picture of the good ones.



It's worth looking into at the very least if you are one who slathers your kids in sunscreen as we do to 3 of our 5.

The above good sunscreens aren't cheap, so I recommend you make your own using this recipe. And when you go to buy your zinc oxide from Amazon, make sure you type in non-nano because you don't want it to be absorbed through the skin into the blood stream.

We made this recipe and "flavored" it was some peppermint essential oil which the kids love.  They smell fantastic and it seems to work pretty good.  And I definitely feel much better about the fact that I am not slathering my kids in all sorts of horrible chemicals.

P & P Again

I'm reading it again.  Pride and Prejudice.

It boggles Chris' mind to no end that I re-read books. He just cannot wrap his mind around it.  I can't wrap my mind around the fact that he doesn't like to read.  How can we be so far apart on this?!

We're getting ready to take a trip in a little bit and I am pretty sure I won't finish the book before I go.  It's super hard to find your spot in the kindle and I much prefer an actual book anyway.

I currently have these two:

      

The annotated version, which I cannot highly recommend enough.  You will love all the information in it.  And the clothbound version, which is beautiful, but not practical for travel since the pattern can chip off if handled roughly.

So I am quick in the market for a portable version of Pride and Prejudice.  And I found this one on Amazon.



It's a word cloud classic, of which I have never heard.  But hello hot pink!  I'd cart this around!

They also have a ton of other classics in fun colors.

      
    

Apparently the covers are kind of a plastic which means they will be more durable than your average paperback.  I may just have to start collecting these because while I have many of the classics, they are usually the decorative kind that I am not crazy about my kids taking out and abusing.

Now the only question is, which books to pick first?