Food and Other Adventures

Before and...

 

 ...after we moved all the irises and planted some new flowering bushes in the front of the house.

 

 Randall and Gina and their family came to see us on their way to a cruise. We loved visiting with them!

 One evening for FHE, we each chose something (mostly) new to try from the Asian grocery store and then ate it (mostly) all for dinner.

For our semi-annual exercise reward dinner, we went to a place where they boil seafood, then toss it in seasoning and just bring you a plastic bag with your food in it. You eat it with your hands and it is even messier than it sounds. We had crawfish, catfish (this was fried, not boiled), clams, shrimp and crab legs. It was all delicious!

 At the end of the meal they brought soapy water with dry ice in it - to wash your hands.

 

 The kids found other uses for it, too.

Summer is here while Jake is in South Korea, so we took a quick trip to the beach yesterday - everyone's favorite place.

Summer Road Trip - July 2015

Last summer, we went on a road trip. As we drove into Twin Falls, Idaho, there was a place to stop with a scenic view of the Snake River. We were entertained for a while watching skydivers jumping off the bridge.

We headed up to spend a couple nights with Randall and Gina and their kids. We were there for the fourth of July and they set off fireworks in the backyard. Pretty thrilling for the California cousins who live in a city where they are illegal.

Heather took Kelly for a ride while...

...Keaton explained things to the city cousins.

We had a wonderful time visiting with loved ones and were sad to say goodbye.

After we left, we took a half hour detour just so the kids could say they had been in Oregon. And, we bought gas where someone else pumped it and washed the very dirty windshield of the van.

Next, we headed to Nevada to see the bristlecone pines, because that is what botanists and their families do for vacation - see famous trees. We've already gone on trips to see the redwoods and sequoias. Any suggestions for our next vacation?

There was awe...

...kissing...

...life lessons...

...and five adorable siblings.

Beyond the bristlecone pine grove, there was a trail heading up to Nevada's only glacier.

There it is! See it before it's gone!

Naomi practicing her photography skills.

We started to hear thunder and decided it was time to go back. On the trail down, we first got hit with hail, which was a novelty, then rain, which was wet.

We went back to the cabin we were renting and asked the very nice owners if we could throw our wet clothing in their dryer. We had an afternoon appointment for a tour of Lehman Caves and knew we'd be too cold, underground, in damp clothes.

The caves were very cool. They used to have parties down there and all the dancers, musicians and food had to go down a rope ladder one by one.

In the little town near the caves, we saw a swallow feeding its babies.

After Great Basin National Park, we drove on to see Jeff and Teresa. I'm sad I don't have any pictures of our time with them, but I think I was afraid to take my camera on the boat. Sheena came over with her kids and Jeff took us out on Lake Mead. We had a wonderful time!

On the way to Teresa and Jeff's place, we saw a nondescript sign on the side of the road, passed it because we were too slow reacting, flipped a u-ey and stopped at the Oak Springs Trilobite Site.

We got sweaty, dusty and, yes, bloody, but we found trilobites! Smashing rocks and finding fossils were definitely favorite activities on the trip.

Cousins and Friends - July 2015

Now that I have a little more time, I thought I'd catch up on some blogging. Last July, my niece was baptized in New Mexico, so the kids and I took a road trip. It was great seeing my brother, sister-in-law, their three darling daughters and my parents. We went to Window Rock and visited the Navajo Nation Museum and Navajo Nation Zoo. I tried steamed corn for the first time. It was delicious :)

Michael and two of his cousins.

"Bob"

 

"Mo"

All the cousins. I love those smiles...

...and the bear faces. Notice the signs in the two pictures above? Yeah, well, somebody chose to ignore them and here...

...is the bear she PETTED. I am glad no one needed to have their fingers stitched back on.

On the way home, we saw a sign for a souvenir place where you could also feed the ostriches. The kids had SO MUCH FUN feeding the ostriches :)

 

I love this pictue of Gwen.

One of the other great things about this trip was getting to stay with and spend time with my BFF. 

And...

...we have a winner! Marcia, Alex and Cameron, on their second try, guessed all eight gingerbread house exterior decorators. Watch for your candy in the mail :)

Honorable mention definitely goes to Opal, Coral, Ruby, Stephanie & Matt who impressively got six of eight right on their first try! Woohoo!!!

Natalie and David come to visit.

While Rachel and Heather were in St. George going to EFY in July, my niece and nephew, Natalie and David came to stay with us. We took them into LA one day. Our first stop was the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater. I'm not that impressed with the stars in the sidewalk, but I do get a kick out of the hand and footprints.

Can you tell which star's shoe prints my kids wanted their picture with? 

 

After Hollywood, we headed to Chinatown where we got a rockin' hot deal ($1 each) on some boba mango smoothies. Yum. They hit the spot on a summer day.

Gwen and Natalie couldn't resist the piano sitting and waiting to be played. They each took a turn and finished with a duet. 

Weekend in PA

Michael and I flew to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago to see my parents. I was talking to my mom about it and she said, "Why don't you come the weekend of the farm show"?

Wow, I'm glad we did!

First, I want to say, the whole weekend was wonderful. It is always great to spend time with my parents. I enjoy both of them so much. I wish I lived closer. It was also fun to see my sister, Sara, brothers Toby and Matt, sister-in-law Steph, Matt and Steph's three girls, Ruby, Coral and Opal, Sara's boyfriend Greg and my good friend Cathy, with her son Daniel. I was having so much fun eating good food (including Sara's chocolate birthday tower of delights that had a layer of brownie, layer of chocolate cheesecake, two layers of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, all made by my dad), playing board games, touring the Herr's Potato chip factory, shopping and chatting that I didn't take any pictures, except at the farm show, so if it seems that is all I have to tell you about the weekend is farm stuff, it is because that is all the visuals I have to offer.

So, on to the 96th annual Pennsylvania Farm Show! Here's the blurb from their website - Pennsylvania is proud to host the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the country, with nearly 6,000 animals, 10,000 competitive exhibits and 300 commercial exhibits.

I got ready before we left home by painting my toes in John Deere colors :)

Coincidentally, here is the first exhibit we stopped at. Michael and my dad were both excited for the day.


Next we, went to the cow barn. The noise was deafening! There were some moos, lots of talking, footsteps, public announcement system fuzziness, but that didn't explain it.

I couldn't figure it out for a minute. There was along line for the cow showers (cow wash?), but that wasn't all of it.

Oh, that was it! Hundreds of cows getting BLOWN DRY all at once! They had to look pretty for the judging in a couple of hours :)

Or maybe they were looking pretty to attract potential customers...

I am always impressed with the longhorns.

Then, it was on to the pigs, sheep and goats. If I told you it was much quieter in this barn, you can get an idea of how noisy cow beauty parlors can be.

This pig was really enjoying the scratching.

Here is the grand prize winner.

My dad wanted to get there early so that we could park close and not have to take the shuttle from the far parking lot. We were there by about 7:30 and, even though we were inside, it was chilly when we got there. The goats and sheared sheep were all wearing jackets. I thought this one had a sweet face. He (she?) was probably thinking my camera strap looked liked breakfast.

There were fun chickens and...

...fat rabbits.

We watched chicks hatching...

...and ducklings being oppressed.



There was a high school and middle school rodeo. I couldn't believe the twelve year old 7th graders riding full sized bulls! I was too tense wondering if they would die a gory death to take pictures. All I got were the rodeo princesses at the start. I miss riding a horse that I know well and can appreciate. If I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back as a rodeo princess.

It is a fuzzy picure, but look at all that glitter!

There were all kinds of competitions on display, including floral arrangements, mushroom dioramas...

...cookies, pies, cakes, honey...

...apples, vegetables, wine (we met the grape princess) maple syrup...

...and the famous butter sculpture!


Michael's favorite part of the whole shebang was the butterfly house. We each got a q tip dipped in gatorade to feed the butterflies.

There were lots of them, mostly monarchs, but also swallowtails, painted ladies and buckeyes.

Guess which chrysalis is about to hatch.



Sara, with some hitchhikers.

Michael went through the butterfly house with me, my dad and Sara and then again with his aunt, uncle and cousins. Matt and Steph and the girls came from the D.C. area and met us after we had been there a couple of hours. Michael was so happy to have cousins to hang out with. At one point, we were separated from them in the crowd and it was all I could do to keep him from running off helter skelter to find them. Maybe that is why I don't have any pictures of Michael with his cousins. I was too busy hanging on to his collar to hold my camera. So I stole some pictures from their blog...

Coral, Ruby and Michael

Opal

Coral

Michael and Ruby, who is being idolized.

Can you see how happy he was to be with his cousins?