Favorite Shirts

OK... well, I just had to. I saw these 2 shirts, and I couldn't help myself. They both fit the personalities of the wearers!

Why its cool to live in Utah

Well, as most of you know, we really like Christmas. We've been listening to Christmas music for the past few weeks (there are 3... count them 3 radio stations playing Holiday music 24/7, and have been since a week or so after Halloween). We drive around looking at Christmas lights pretty often.

Last year, we were driving around and stumbled upon this truly amazing house in a gated community. The light display was absolutely stunning, and everything was set to music on an FM station broadcast from the home. The very best part was that they had a donation box, and all proceeds went to the Make a Wish foundation. They made over $10,000. I know I tried to tell some of you about it, but really, words can't do it justice.

Well, we were pretty darn bummed that when we drove by the other afternoon, no display was set up, and the gated community was locked.

I did a web search for Christmas lights in Utah, and lo and behold, there was the house! Apparently a little over 1/2 of the neighbors didn't want the traffic, so aren't able to continue the display... so they moved it to the owner's parents house.... and upped the amount of lights from 45,000 to 150,000. Wow. It'll start going tomorrow night, and you can bet we'll be there.

If you don't live around here (or don't want to drive 900+ miles to visit), I am putting in a link to the video page of the Holdman Christmas website. Carol of the Bells is our favorite. If you're interested you can read more about what they do and the surprisingly low cost of their electric bills.

www.holdman.com/christmas/video.asp

These videos are from last year's display, and I can't wait to see what they've got on tap for 2008!

What a great way to get into the Holiday Spirit... Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Once upon a year
There comes Thanksgiving day
A time to eat, a time to laugh,
a time for kids to play.

Its a time to give our thanks
for all that we hold dear
And for all the joys found in our lives
and friends both far and near.

A time to cook the bird,
the stuffing and the yams
the pumpkin pie, the yummy bread
Some even prepare hams

We sit down to the table
with class and with some grace
but pretty soon, all that goes...
'tis time to stuff one's face

By the time that its all done
our clothes are fit to burst
but we all wait and watch to see
who goes for seconds first

So wherever this note finds you
if you're close or far away
Know that we do love you...
Happy Turkey Day!

Some play pictures for you

Well, I haven't posted any pictures of the kids lately, 'cause I've been lazy and just haven't taken any. Today the weather was really nice and they played outside for a bit, so I snapped some shots of them... Enjoy!

Martha Stewart has nothin' on me...

So, the other evening we were having some good friends over for dinner. I made a Pot Roast and all the trimmings: Potatoes, Carrots, Gravy, Fresh Rolls (from scratch even)... It was looking like we were going to have a really tasty down-home meal.

So then I started thinking about what I was going to do for a dessert. I started looking through recipe books (thank you Paula Deen... the queen of butter), and found what looked like a really tasty Banana Cream Pie recipe, so I thought "sure.. no problem". Well, I don't make pies that involve a real crust as a rule, but figured that I was up for the challenge.

I found a recipe for a pie crust and had at it. OK.. for those of you who don't bake, making pie crusts are a pain in the rear... especially if you've got to pre-bake it. The recipe I went with called for me to refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours after making it prior to rolling it out to ensure that it would hold it's shape. OK... Did that... No problems. To pre-bake a crust, you shape it into a pie-plate, then line it with parchment or wax paper, then fill it with pie weights (or for those of us who live in the real world, pinto beans, or the like) to make sure that the bottom doesn't rise up and get all goofy.

Well, I rolled out the crust, shaped it into the pie plate, added some black-eyed peas for pie weights, then popped it in the oven. The recipe called to take it out after 20 minutes, remove the "weights" then bake it another 10. OK.. again, no problem.

After the allotted 20 minutes, I took the pie out and basked in the glory of the crust. Honestly, it was pie-crust perfection. The edges were beautifully fluted, it was turning a fantastic buttery gold... I was smirking and patting myself on the back for my pastry prowess.

That would have been right around the time I realized that I'd skipped over the whole "line the dough w/ wax paper" step. What I ended up with was a fantastic black-eye pea embedded pie crust. I thought about picking them out, but the crust (where the peas were) was giving out a definite "black-eyed pea" smell... not the buttery goodness I was shooting for. Sigh.

We ended up with a Banana Parfait for dessert. At least the rolls were good.

Trick-or-treat!

Well, as some of you may have heard, yesterday was Halloween. The kids had a really terrific day (big surprise).
Serayah had school, and went as Princess Belle. I got their costumes assuming that the weather would be really cold, and they'd be able to be warm without too much bundling. Serayah's "Mantis" costume must weigh 4 pounds... that sucker came from Canada, and I think it you could wear it through a blizzard. Yesterday's high was 72º, and the low was a balmy 50º, so I knew that she'd by roasting if she wore it to school. I'm a bad mommy and didn't get any pictures, but we went to a carnival the evening before and Serayah wore her Belle dress, and Cam his Engineer outfit, and I'm getting a picture from that adventure that I'll post after I get it scanned in.

Anyway, school was a big hit, and I stayed for the entire class. Dad was at home w/ Cam, so it was a treat to see Serayah in class with all her friends. The kids all went on a Halloween "parade" where they marched around the block in all their costumed glory yelling "Happy Halloween!!!" to any person (or cat, or dog) that they could see. It was a lot of fun.



At 5:30, I took the kids and went Trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with some of Serayah's friends. Last year, Serayah avoided any house that looked too spooky, and this year was looking like more of the same, but Cam had this whole "Go up and get candy" thing down, so nothing (including the grim reaper himself) was stopping him. He'd truck up the steps and say "Need Teet! (treat)". I tried and tried to get him to say "trick-or-treat", and succeeded a couple of times, then we'd revert back to "I Need teet!". Also, getting him to let go of his precious bucket was quite the feat. I'd try and take it while we maneuvered down steps, and he'd be saying "Need My Bucket!!!" the whole time. Also, he felt the need to carefully inspect every piece of candy that he received in the walk between houses. It was funny.



We got back, gave the kids a potty break, then Daddy and Grandpa took over the treat-gettin' while I manned the treat-givin'. By the time the kids got back, they were both very tired, hot (Serayah's head was soaking wet under the hood), and SO happy! It was a great time.

Well, as most of you probably know, we took a trip to Disneyland last week. Everyone had a great time! It will be more fun when Cam gets a bit bigger and can go on more rides, but good times were had by all.

As soon as we got there, we trucked Serayah onto the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad... thinking, hey, this is the girl that LOVES speed, tunnels, and trains. Can't miss... right? Wrong. So very wrong. Apparently, tunnels are meant for cars, not trains. The tunnels did not go over well at all. So, from that point on, any ride that looked like it might possibly have a tunnel, or might be dark (coming from the girl who doesn't want a nightlight in her room, mind you) was shunned. This put a big 'ol damper on a lot of rides. Oh well.. Cam couldn't go on many of the bigger rides anyway.

The teacups were a big hit. A really big hit. Serayah and Cam LOVED them... Serayah (and mommy) went 4 or 5 times. Side note: Serayah enjoyed the teacups quite a bit more than mommy... Since when did I start getting dizzy? Huh.

We also went to Mickey's Halloween Party in California Adventure Park one of the nights we were there. It would have been a blast if the kids were a bit older, but they weren't really into dancing with any of the characters, and most of the rides were closed. Also, our Serayah has a very vivid (and real) imagination. She knows that Cartoons and Pixar movies are just movies and not real... how could they be? Then, at the party, she saw Mr. Incredible boogyin' down. I was thinking she'd love to go meet him, right? Wrong again. She took one look and started freaking out. "Where's the Robot?!!?" (for those of you not familiar w/ the movie, the end involves a really bad, big robot-o-destruction. Apparently if Mr. Incredible could be walking around looking just like he does in the movie, that means the Robot must be around somewhere. Not good. To make matters worse, on the last day we were there, we went to the Pixar parade. Lo and behold the robot was there. The only "bad guy" from any of the movies, and it had to be the robot. Jeesh. Major freakout once again. She's now over it, and knows all is well and that Disneyland wasn't destroyed, but wow. Did I mention she has a really vivid imagination?

Probably the highlight for Serayah was eating at Ariel's grotto. She and Cam (who was diggin' the cutie princesses.. seriously!) met Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, Mulan and Belle. Life was pretty terrific.

Anyhoo, here are a few of the many, many pictures taken from the trip. Some of them aren't terrific, but we were too busy having fun! Enjoy.

Here's a family shot (complete w/ Grandpa!)

Serayah and Woody (She LOVED the show.. Cam not so much)

One of many teacup shots (daddy got out of all rides this way)

Serayah, Cam, and the mouse Himself

The kids with Jojo and Goliath

Random Cam shot (I LOVE the hat!)

Serayah walking w/ Pluto (Serayah not sitting still... who would have thought?)

Another walk, this time w/ Goofy

Mommy and Serayah on the Dumbo ride (Cam was with Grandpa)

An idea of the AWESOME Halloween decorations throughout the parks

Cam again

The princess lunch, and Aurora

Meeting Ariel (You know, Cam's gotta be thinking "What a babe!")

Halloween Party

Well, I decided it would be a terrific idea to throw a Halloween party for a bunch of 2-5 year-olds. Actually, everything went really well, and all of the kids had a great time. We ran a relay race, played throw the hoop over the pumpkin, and a couple of other games. I made some spiderweb cookies (complete with spider rings on top)... they were really terrible... but looked fantastic, if I do say so myself! (Note to self... don't use an untested recipe for party food), Skeleton cupcakes, Rotten Apple punch (with gummy worms inside the frozen "apples"), witches brooms, Orange-o-lanterns, & spider peanut butter, ritz, and pretzel sandwiches. Other than the cookies, everything was very yummy. Everyone had so much fun that this might turn into a yearly event!

Moab (once again...can't get enough!)

Well, we're Moab crazy.... Dad came down to visit, and he hadn't seen beautiful things that Southeast Utah has to offer, so we went camping yet again! Ok...maybe "camping" is stretching the truth a wee bit. We stayed in a little cabin thing at the campground so we had heat (a very good thing... it dropped into the 30's at night). Here's a rundown, complete with a ton of pictures (you know me!), of our trip.

First we headed to Goblin Valley to let the kids run around. They had a TON of fun, and ran, and ran, and ran..... Cam was thrilled to have so much dirt, and started trying to climb up things like his big sister. He started jumping (OK..stepping grandly) off of rocks, and was very proud of himself. Here are some pictures from there.

One of the many goblin faces
A random picture of Miss S.
Serayah and Cam playing on the "choo choo" (Cam's words)
Cam proudly sitting on a big rock...just like Serayah
One of Serayah's many poses of the trip
A family shot (Thanks Dad!)
Cam saying "Not Yet!"
Peek-a-boo Goblins!
















Well, that night we made it to our "Village" (Serayah's words), and slept. The heater was VERY necessary. The next morning we drove into Arches and took an unpaved road out to the Klondike Bluffs. Let me tell you... I thought that logging roads in Oregon were washboardy... they don't have nothin' on that road in Arches. Art and Dad thought that we were going to vibrate the poor Trooper apart! (Unfortunately more on that later). We made it out there, and discovered that the hiking trail wasn't really 2 and 4 year-old compatible, so started to head back. I was taking some random pictures, and snapped this one of a really freaky fork-tailed lizard.

















Well, we made another very interesting discovery about Moab. If you don't know, Moab is an off-road paradise. When you go down there there are Jeeps and Land-rovers by the hundreds (not much of an exaggeration). Art had picked up some off-road maps on our last trip that we forgot at home. He was bummed, because we had the trooper this time and it has pretty decent ground clearance, so he'd been looking forward to getting off the beaten path on some of the 4x4 roads. Pretty much any off-road road that we'd seen labeled in Oregon (unless it had rained buckets, or was straight up) we could take no problem.... But this is Moab, not Oregon. The map showed a 4x4 road that you could take around Klondike bluffs so we could go see Tower Arch without as much of a hike. We were thinking "Great... no problem.. the road's on the map, so it'll be fine." Uh huh. Here are pictures of the "road". Obviously, we didn't really feel like attempting it. (Now Art is desperate for a Jeep w/ a lift... sigh).


















Well, Cam ended up crashing in the car, so we drove back into town and let him take a nap, grabbed some food, then after he woke up drove out to Canyonlands. There's a road (Shiela knows it well!) that you can take down into the floor of the park. It pretty much clings to a sheer cliff and switchbacks down to the bottom. Those afraid of heights, drop offs, or overhanging boulders probably don't really need to see the sights badly enough to make the descent. Once we got down there, we were able to see everything from different perspective and it was terrific. You can even see where Thelma and Louise made their fateful last drive off the cliff at the end of the movie. There are some Arches that you can only get to on the back roads (we only made it to one.. you need a lot longer than a late afternoon to see everything.. you'd need several days. Here are a few pictures of what we saw. (Also, on a side note, I would like to thank our wonderful Trooper for chugging happily along for the duration of the day...especially on the cliff road... are you seeing something coming?)

Some random rocks
A gorgeous river view
Here's another
A mesa
Art standing out on Mussleman Arch (Good balance, and lack of vertigo are important)

Here's a shot I took as we were leaving. The full moon was gorgeous the whole trip.





Well, the next day, we woke up and packed and headed back to Arches. We went straight to Sand Dune Arch (a favorite of kids everywhere), and everyone had a great time. Serayah wrote her name in the sand, Cam dug, Serayah climbed a lot with daddy, Cam dug, Serayah ran, Cam dug... Here are some pictures from there.
Art and Serayah relaxing after their climb.
Serayah under Sand Dune Arch
Serayah and Cam digging
Art and Cam
Cam's big climb.










So then the fun really began... We got back to the trooper and turned the key... nothing doing. Huh... that's odd. The dome light had been bumped on, so it had drained the battery... bummer. Oh well... we'll just get a jump. To make a really long story shorter, our battery was toast. The only way we could start the Trooper was to have some guy w/ a big Diesel (and a huge battery) jump us... that was the only thing that had enough amps to get us going. At one point, we thought we were going to have to be towed (keep in mind we were 90+ miles from home). The battery problem ended up manifesting itself in many frightening ways... not a good afternoon. We were all THRILLED to make it home. Oh, and the Trooper is now fine after some TLC and a new battery (we were thinking the Trooper was on it's last legs, but she seems to be good as new now). All in all, it was a great 3 (OK..2 1/2) days!