Friday, July 16, 2010

Fire, Fire!!!

Today we came home from shopping to see a huge smoke cloude.  I immediately thought it was the Camp Williams area, but in driving closer I realized it was closer to our house than I thought.  These pictures are taken from our backyard.  These are the mountains just north of us on the other side of the highway.  Me and the girls drove up to North Ranch and the fire had burned up to the back of several homes property's.  Luckily that area is all safe now, but they're still working on it from burning some houses to the east.  Just as long as it doesn't cross the highway... 

Another craft

I'm really behind on all my posts so sorry all of them are at the same time.  This week we did a craft with tissue paper.  I just cut up different colored tissue paper into little squares

and then had the girls glue them onto foil-lined cardboard into a picture. 

When they were done with their picture we modge-podged over it to give it a nice finish.  This is Lauren's craft.  So cute!!
Kate's is just as cute.  (She went a little wild with the glitter glue)

POWELL

We can't get enough of Powell.  Jaron and Kim were nice enough to join us this time without kids for a couples only weekend.  We stayed at a hotel at Wahweap Marina for the 4th of July weekend.  Needless to say we had ALOT of fun.  Friday night we got there too late to get on the water but Saturday morning we were ready to go.
Here's Todd gassing up before we head off.
Jaron with his camera taking those EXCELLENT shots.
Todd the Captain.
Beautiful scenery.
  We rode to rainbow bridge (took 2 hours on the boat on the water to get there...uggg) but it was worth it.
Todd
The group
Me and Todd.  This gives you a good perspective as to how big this really is.  Pretty cool.
We ended the weekend watching fireworks over the Hoover Dam.  It really was a great trip.

Repreve from the heat

While the husband are away, the family will play. 
My friend Leslie and I had absent husbands one weekend (both had to work) so we decided to head up to the canyon for a picnic dinner. 
We went up American Fork canyon and we couln't have asked for more perfect weather!!!
Kate and the girls loved to walk in the stream.
This is the whole bunch of us.

Eating in the beautiful mountains.
I LOVE the mountains and we are so BLESSED to live around such beauty.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Weekly craft

At the beginning of the summer I promised the girls we would do a craft once a week.  We started the week after school and did a fun project that includes crayons, black paint and paper.  I wish I had pictures, but forgot.  (Mom and Dad we actually sent you some of our creations in the mail awhile back.)  So after a few weeks of being gone on trips we were able to get back to a craft this past week and this is what we made. 

Hot Rocks

We just put the rocks in the oven at 375 for 10 minutes till they were nice and hot.  Then we took them outside and colored them with crayons while they were still hot.  It made the crayon melt immediately and colored the rock. The girls loved it!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Bowling

The girls had a free pass to Fat Cats bowling, so we went.. just the three of us.
Here's Lar getting the shoes on.
And now Kate.
Time to bowl!!!
They both did really well.
In the end mom barely won by 5 points.  My score was 80 (I know impressed, right?), Lauren's was 75 and Kate got a 73.  (Remember the girls had bumpers on the sides. ;) )
That was one of the fun days we had this weekend. 
Saturday we went to the Lehi Days Parade and Rodeo.  Sorry no pictures.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Our Garden

Hey Mom and Dad,
Here's some pictures of our garden:
Kate and the grow box
The sugar snap peas and the carrots are to the left.
This is lettuce (the bright green), the spinach (in the middle), and the little things growing are beets.  There's another row of lettuce at the end.
Broccoli.  I have about 5 or 6 of these.
And these are the potatoes in the lower garden.  Todd just got done covering them with some dirt, that's why they look kind of sad.
And here's the dead trees.  SAD.
We've had a really cold May and June so everything is slow growing right now.  We'll probably pick our first pea tomorrow.  I have tomatoes, squash and cucumbers growing but they're not big enough to bother taking pictures yet.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Yummy Granola

Sorry these are scary pictures, and my pan is even scarier. 

It seems like I've told everyone about my favorite breakfast; granola and yougart.
Granola is so simple because you can add or subtract things easily. The recipe calls for sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds which I don't have on hand so I substitute chopped walnuts and ground flaxseed. There's lots of things you can use, just experiment!!

It seems like I've told several people I'd get them the recipe, so here it is. 
ENJOY


Granola

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl combine:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
3/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 Tablespoon wheat germ (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Pour over dry mixture the following:
2 Tablespoons canola oil or 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup pure maple sugar (or I use honey)

Mix everything together real well and spread onto baking sheet and bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally. (The browner the granola gets (without burning) the crunchier the granola will be.)  Place on wire rack to cool.  When you take it out of the oven it will seem sticky, but as it cools it will become more crisp. 

Once it completely cooled you can add the following variety of dried fruits:

Cherries
Cranberries
Raisins
Apricots

Let me know if anybody tries it and what you think. :)

Monday, June 14, 2010

Lava Hot Springs

Okay, so here's what we did this weekend:
We went to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho with Todd's parents and sister, Tiffany.  (She brought along her cute puppy Daks, who the girls just LOVED!!!)  We also brought Boadi and Dani (Todd's cousins kids) who are the same ages as our girls.
Todd's parents just bought a new trailer about the same size as ours and they wanted to try it out.   Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of their trailer, but here's the girls watching a movie in our trailer before bedtime.
It rained pretty much the whole time except Friday.  And it was COLD.  Luckily they have hot pots there and that's where we spent most of the time.  It's not like the hot springs you think just coming out of the ground, it's a really nice facility with dressing rooms, benches, lawn chairs and really pretty gardens all around.  The facility includes 5 different pools and each of the pools have a different temperature.  They range from 115 to 102 degrees. 
We camped along the river and on the other side of the river there way this hot spring coming out of the side of the river spilling into the river.  When the girls got cold feet (because they wore flip flops the whole time) they walked to the spring and put their feet in.  It wasn't too hot, just like a hot tub.  Very fun.


Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the swimming complex they also have.  They have an outdoor pool with 4 slides and several diving boards. Although it was cold outside they have the pool heated (I'm sure with hot springs) just like bath water.  We had an awesome time and hopefully next time we go it'll be warm enough to do our favorite thing, raft down the river!!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Todd's Birthday

Todd's birthday was way back in April, but I just developed these pictures to scrapbook and thought I'd blog them.
Marci showed me a cake idea in the Family Fun magazine and with the girls encouragement I had to make it.
It's not as cool as the one in the magazine, but was fun anyway.  Kate helped me by making the flags (fruit by the foot) and attaching them to the poles (pretzel rods).  Another homemade cake to add to the many others.  The girls are so sick of my homemade cakes they are now begging for one from the store for their next birthday.  :(

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Our New Toy

We finally have the opportunity to use our new toy.
We bought the pool a month ago, but with the wonderful weather (this was taken the last week of May)
we haven't had the chance to put it up. 

Last week we set it up and filled it, and finally after a week of sitting in the sun it's warm enough to get in.

If you can't tell the girls love it.