Murder at Camp Harvey

I made another murder mystery party and begged Elle to invite some friends over to enjoy it.
This time it was camp-themed and took place at Camp Harvey.  The host/wilderness tour guide  (Elle) invited everyone for the reading of the will of a man they all had connections with.  After a picnic dinner Elle revealed that there was another reason she invited them all: one of them murdered the guy and they would all have to find out who!

Elle helped me decorate.  We had wildlife

And signs:

And trees

I totally forgot to get pictures of everyone!  I didn't even get a group shot! :'(

The characters were

1-Elle--the host and camp tour guide

2-The older son of the deceased who was vice president of his dad's media company

3- The younger son of the deceased who was a lowly mailman

4-A woman running for congress that the deceased was supporting

5-A girl's basketball coach who was a long time friend of the deceased

6-A pretty Jr. News reporter that worked for the deceased

7-A top investigative reporter who also worked for the deceased

8-The housekeeper/cook who worked for the deceased

Everyone talked to each other individually and found out what they knew about someone else that might incriminate that person as the murderer.


Then they all got together to use the evidence they collected to accuse each other and deny everything about themselves.


Finally, they read their confessions one by one until the murderer confessed!

It turns out that Elle was the murderer all along! (She didn't even know until confession time)

The will was written in such a way that any living relative of the deceased's wife would get 50% of everything.  No one knew, but Elle was the sister of the deceased's wife and killed the guy to get the 50%.

This incriminating photo of Elle and her sister was pretty damning evidence though.  (Chris does photoshop every time to make the party more interesting and funny)

We ended with s'mores on the BBQ which was a complete fail, but they ate them anyway.

I think everyone had a great time!

Ol' Pegleg

Since it's hot we decide that Jake should have a haircut.  It costs $50 at the groomers where they lock him up for 3 hours then bathe and trim him the last half hour. 😢

Well, we didn't want any of that so we sent away for a do-it-yourself-dog-clipping-cutting-hair kit.

Since Chris is the artistic one I decided to let him have a go at it first.It was tricky and he kept saying,"Do you want to try?!" 

I didn't.

He trimmed Jake's back with scissors and it looked pretty choppy.  It's been a couple weeks and it looks fine now.

Then last week we decided that Jake should have his little legs and feet trimmed.

Again, Chris had the first go.

For some reason Chris channeled his inner "little girl with some scissors."

He kept cutting a little bit of hair on Jake's leg, then cut a bit more to even it out, and just like a little girl cutting her bangs, he chopped and chopped "trying to even it out" until all the hair was gone and all that was left was sprigs.  In this case it was a shaved leg.

So now poor Jake looks like Ol' Pegleg:

(his back right leg, if you can't tell, is considerably less fluffy than the front legs)

Chris started in on Jake's other back leg but I made him STOP!

Santa Barbara

Now that we have a puppy we have to rethink our vacations.  I looked online and found that Santa Barbara is a great dog-friendly area.  We found a dog-friendly hotel and everything!

Jake could walk along the pier with us:

And he could visit Chumash Painted Cave

And Knapp's castle

 And we even found a dog-friendly beach!

Jake was chasing Elle around (while on the leash) and she led him right into the ocean!  

He wasn't quite sure about that.  

His favorite part was digging holes :)

Isn't he cute?!

He could walk around the beautiful botanical gardens too!

The garden was cool because it was divided into sections that represented the different climates of California.  For example, they had poppies, and a section of redwoods, and a desert area.

Jake was able to walk around Old Mission Santa Barbara, but not inside.

 He couldn't share our delicious Cuban sandwich from Pickles either.  But that's OK!

I think it was a fun and successful vacation!