The gangs all back-bowlin'

My siblings got back from their missions in  the last 6 months or so, so we thought it was time to renew our tradition of going to the bowl game.  It is Bryan and I, my little sister Kimber, little brother Mark, and Bryan's grandma Kaye.  We have a lot of fun and a lot of spicy chili!

On the field after we won.

Took a little detour to Arches.

Can't remember what this Arch is called but it's one of my favorites

Dicken's Festival

Bryan's Family has great memories of going to the Dicken's Festival.  For his mom's b-day we went and got pictures with what they refer to as the Real Santa Claus.  I have to admit he was the most charming Santa Claus I have ever met. 

When Bryan was starting to doubt Santa they went to see him and gave him all sorts of inside info to convince Bryan that he was real.   So this year Bryan's Dad palled up with Santa again with out us seeing.  When we finally got through the line Santa says... "Bryan welcome back it's been so long.  O my Luke come up here sit on my lap."  It was so funny.

Tis the season

We went to temple square this weekend.  We had such a fun time doing a little family Christmas activity.  The lights were beautiful.  Luke LOVED temple square,  everywhere he looked there was a waterfall.   We could have gone in the middle of July and it would have been the same for him, he thought we were just on a scavenger hunt for waterfalls, rivers, and ponds and was in heaven.

 These two pictures make me feel super short and Bryan look super tall, they are taken at the same spot.  I look as tall as Luke and Bryan looks as tall as the temple.


We also got our tree up.  Luke is convinced it is not just a Christmas Tree, but an "O Christmas Tree"  He insists we sing about it daily.   We had a blast putting up the tree together, but the funniest part was when Luke was on Bryan's shoulders adding the top piece and said "ooo so comfy"  So random it had us really laughing.

Utah...It's not a blizzard unless you need a backhoe and a rescue party

We had a really fun family retreat this weekend, to celebrate my little brother Mark's return from the Philippines.  We stayed at a cabin in the Uintahs, we didn't however pay very close attention to the weather report, and before we knew it we were in the middle of a blizzard the highway was closed, and we had to get a back hoe and a rescue team of two trucks to get us out.   We were stranded there for an extra night...but frankly if you could see this place stranded hardly seems like the right word.  It was gorgeous.  Then we get home and hear about the storm of the centery they close schools etc.  and we only get two inches of snow.   :) 

Some fun pics of our trip.

Luke had a blast...I think this is one of the many new dance moves he broke out.

Livin' it up

Doing our best to dig ourselves out

My dad and brother learning the ropes.

Making trips back through the tundra to the car for necessities like food, medicine...

and of course the xbox...while they were there.

 

Owen always with the grand entrance.

I raided the dollar store and we have had a blast playing Go Fish nightly as a family.  Luke loves to say "I Got a Match"  Sometimes it is hard to coax him to say "Go Fish"  If he doesn't have the card I'll say "What do you say, he promptly responds, "please" 

Looks like he is going to be a pretty intense card player :)

Whenever we go shopping Luke loves to say "Hi" to strangers, then he turns to me super proud and says, "I'm makin friends"


We had to get some leaky tires fixed the other morning so Luke and I made a date out of it and walked over to Burger King.  We ordered cinnamon rolls and a sausage biscuit.  I have a soft spot for sausage biscuits and figured I would eat it.  He asked for a bite.  He bit into it and said, "I LIKE this burger"   and finished it right off.   And we just sat there for almost an hour drinking water out of coffee straws, playing with a happy meal toy Luke charmed out of them.  And over and over Luke said, "This fun, right now" 

Picture Dump

So I had to give a talk on Sunday and I have been so stressed about it that every time I came to the computer I felt like I had to be researching for that.  I hate public speaking.  Anyway in the meantime.  Here is what has been happening in the real world. 

My grandparents moved from the east coast to California.  Luke has never met them.  My parents were driving out, so Luke and I hitched a ride.  It was so great to see them again.

Luke chasing the pigeons on fisherman's warf.

My Aunt and Uncle have a putting green in their back yard. Luke loved golfing with G-ma.

Waiting for Uncle Mark to come home from the Phillipines.

Mark's back....Horrrible pictures...it was late.

Luke's monkey impression

If you asked Luke what he was going to be for Halloween he would say Monkey, CANDY!  He was pretty excited about the whole idea.  He loved trick of treating, but he really wanted to go inside the houses.   He also loved answering the door and saying Happy Halloween.

Fun, fun, fun

 This made me want to install a tunnel in my house Luke played here forever.  He loved peeking in and out. 

There was a big sand/water box were you could build mounds and rivers for the dinosaurs to play in.  Luke also thought it might be fun to make sand castles on little girls backs and turn the whole place into a wave pool.   Ah two years old boys can be creative. 

Puppy Love

Okay so maybe he's not a puppy.  But Luke has fallen head over heels for our dog Murphy.  He has always loved him but I got him a haircut and all of the sudden Luke is just petting him all day saying.  "cute...sooo cute."    Lifting up his ears and saying "bootiful ears"  

He  also says "bootiful worm" whenever he sees one.   With all of these "bootifuls" being thrown around I thought I'd snag one for myself.  So I asked "Is Mommy bootiful"   He quickly replied with a resounding "NOOOO"   I guess that'll teach me to go fishing for compliments. 

Fruit

Lately my life seems to revolve around fruit.   

We have fruit coming out our ears.  We are making peach salsa, peach candy ( or as Luke my apparently Italian child calls it Peach-a Candy.  It is actually dehydrated peach slices,  but you call it candy and well its so much more fun), Apple rings, peach smoothie packs, frozen tomato buckets for salsa, bottled pears. 

Luke is in heaven... he will walk outside with one apple and then see a "good one" on the tree so he grabs that one,  by the time we come inside he has made his mark on 8 apples and is trying to juggle all of them in is his arms so that he can bring his treasures in.    We find them hidden everywhere in our house.  I put my foot in a quillow (how do you spell that Mel?  -I still use it  love spot for my feet)  and felt a little ball and sure enough it was a tiny apple.  Bryan has found on in his closet.   Luke loves having fruit trees.   His body hasn't quite adjusted to the mass amounts of fruit and so well lets just say our diaper budget has gone up. 

It is fun fun fun,  but a bit exhausting having our own little orchard. 

Theme night menu planning

So we are trying to make some changes in our home.  Just little things here and there to lengthen our lives or lengthen our stride or... well that's all the lengthens I can think of.  Anyway one of our goals is to eat better and to stresss less about meals.  And I am hoping to accomplish that via the Food Nanny.  A really perky lady (she has a show on PBS or one of those channels) that would drive me crazy in real life.   But her cookbook/concept is making me happy in the kitchen.  She suggests having every night be a theme night.  Like mexican, italian, etc.  Then you plan your menu around that theme and do all your shopping for two weeks.  I have tried things like this before.. menu planning or occasional theme nights and I love it when I do it, but I don't follow through, but we've got a system and its happening.

It's nice to know what we are having for dinner and then we can't convince the other that we should just grab a bite to eat.  Plus I can do easy meals on the nights I have YW always.  So far we are loving it, and I think it will save us money as I plan out two weeks and think what ingredients can I use meal to meal.

•  Monday - Mexican
• Tuesday - Italian
• Wednesday - Meatless / Fish
• Thursday - Date Night :)
• Friday - Grill /Soup
• Saturday - Pizza
• Sunday - Family Traditions

Luke and I making dough on our favorite night...pizza night.   We have margherita pizza every week while we still have fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden...delish!

Shannon, my BFF from  college was in town and it was sooo fun to get together Luke and her daughter Jaime are only a month apart so we all had a blast.   It was just like the good old days.  My freshman year I split like 3 pairs of pants right down the behind.  It seems like for awhile everytime I went to the cafeteria I heard RRRIPP and there went another pair.  I guess I did suffer from the freshman 15 at least in my booty.  Anyway there I was hanging out with Shannon and it hits again and I got home and took off my pants to change into a swimsuit and notice a huge rip right in the behind.  Ah memories.  It was so funny to me.   Anyway we had a blast and can't wait till next year.  Shan, let me know if your pictures of us turned out...your eyes were closed :) (Next month that is when you are on the internet)

We were trying to get their "pre-engagement" photos but it just wasn't working out

Luke giving one of many hugs and kisses.

Park City

We have a family reunion on my mom's side of the family every year.  But it has never seemed like a family reunion in the classic sense...in fact we don't even call it a family reunion...we just call it Park City.   It is all about tradition My family has been going there for over 30 years but if you peeked in from year to year you wouldn't know the difference.  This is the recipe for Park City.

• Swimming
• Playing Games
• Feeding the Ducks
• Pinata- or yada as we now refer to it.
• Alpine slide

Now for the picture/video overload.

Luke with his nemisis and cousin Bulikin.    They are 3 month apart and have a love hate relationship.

Luke with Grandma Great headed to the Pinata.

Me and my sister Kimber on the lift up to the Alpine slide.

Me and Bry on the lift up to the Alpine slide.

Luke and I ready to zip down the Alpine slide.  He wanted to go fast, he loved it, it was fun, fun, fun.

These movies are only really fun to watch if you were there or are family.

Puts his pants on one leg at a time..just not quite like everyone else

Luke is becoming a full fledged independent toddler.  He is busy busy busy.  The other day he wanted to but his shorts on by himself...he got really really close to getting it right.  He walked around for a while just holding them up like that.  Then I showed him he had them on upside down.  Such a fun age!

Bryan and I went to Deer Valley Outdoor Symphony to round out his B-day celebration.  He loves rock music with a symphony.  So this was a fun one.    It was the music of Led Zepplin.. so I must admit my favorite part of the concert was watching all of the older ladies relive their youth and dance like they were in their living rooms...hilarious.  It was in the most beautiful setting and we had a little picnic.  The fun thing was that it felt like we were outside of Utah, everyone with their fun alcoholic drinks.  Then we were there with our fun drinks: simply grapefruit and sobe, it is fun to be different, we so rarely get that opportunity here. 

Too efficient.

Well we have been doing quite a bit of camping this summer.  This past week I spent more nights in a sleeping bag than in my own bed.  I got to go to girls camp and youth conference, both really fun, I really love my girls and enjoy being a YW leader.  But they were planned really close together and I have a hard time leaving my little family.  Anyway combine that with our couple of family camping trips in the past month and I've become quite the camper...I know the drill.  I can pack and even unpack in a moments notice.  That is actually what got me in trouble.  Our M.O. is to come home and strip all our stinky clothes off right into the washing machine, so efficient.  This last time we had gone camping with my brother & fam, & sister and they were hanging out at our house after, but I wasn't going to change my routine.   So we all threw our clothes in and started chatting away ( we showered and changed...this isn't a nudist colony mind you)  I went to change the load over and what do I find...my camera that I had left in my hoodie.  Lame.  Luckily I upload pictures pretty frequently, so I only lost that camping trips worth, but I have been without a camera since July 24th arg.  Hopefully it should arrive tomorrow.

But in the meantime I missed some great photo-ops trying to capture these pictures in my mind:

• Luke covered in chocolate laughing hysterically in the back seat, joy!
• Bryan's Beatles B-day
• Bryan didn't want a birthday "cake"  so I make a rice krispy bundt.  Fan-cy

Fro those who are wondering...

The most wonderful bread recipe ever:

EZ Wheat Bread recipe
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 Tblsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup sugar (I use honey)
2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I started by doing half and half, it took me almost a year to work us up to it, but now we do all wheat flour)
1/4 cup wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
2 Tblsp nonfat non instant dry milk
1 Tblsp butter/margarine/oil (I use oil)
1 Tblsp vinegar
1/4 cup potato flakes (NOT potato pearls)
Mix ingredients in order listed in mixing bowl of mixer with dough hook attachment (like kitchen-aid) for 12-15 minutes. Let rise until double, 1- 1 1/2 hours. Punch down, and shape into loaf or rolls. Let rise again until double and bake 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when lightly tapped.


It comes from this website: everydayfoodstorage.net

There is also a really good recipe for cookies made with beans.   Just don't use beans from the previous evening's dinner that you happened to flavor deliciously with garlic and mexican spices.    Great side dish, not so great in cookies.  (but they still all got eaten)  

Yellowstone

We have decided that while we only have one kiddo and he isn't super young and isn't potty training this is the perfect summer to just live it up and do all sorts of spur of the moment weekend getaways.  On Thursday we were having a picnic lunch at the ponds by Bryan's work feeding the ducks etc and talking about how it would be fun to go somewhere.  Bryan had Friday off so we needed to do something, right.  Couldn't leave Thursday night cause I had book group at my house.  So 4 a.m. we headed out.  CRAZY. 

• Saw the Tetons.  
• Had a ton of fun in Yellowstone.  
• Luke learned how to demonstrate a geyser.  
• We stopped and pet every dog we saw.  
• He made friends with the whole crowd while waiting for old faithful to go off, he is such a friendly little guy.  But they did think he was talking about bullets at one point... when he wanted to "blow it" out :) 
• Luke thinks that geysers are a "huge mess"
• We all had so much fun going down the waterslide at our hotel

Things we learned

• Don't leave at 4 a.m.
• Don't forget to pack a stroller
• Perhaps we should invest in a dvd player for the car.

At one point in yellowstone we were driving and saw our first Buffalo (buffo) Luke was drawing in the backseat and I couldn't quite tell if he had seen it.  I was sure he had seen it when he said eat him, kiss him, pet him.  That's our Luke.