Who Us? Be Spontaneous?

You must have the wrong family!  We have two little kids and a dog to worry about!  Yes, believe it or not, that was us this weekend!  We were visiting my cousin in northern Wyoming when Andy got the idea that we should go home by way of Yellowstone National Park!  We had the dog covered at the "spa" through Sunday afternoon and we had clothes, diapers, and plenty of dvds for the kids, so why not?  So after a few teary goodbyes, we loaded up our munchkins and headed west for Cody, Wyoming in search of some cowboys!  Our plan was to stay there overnight and then get a full day in the park since all of the lodging in the park was booked (like a year ago!)

Riley had already gotten a "Woody" looking cowboy hat while we were in Sheridan, but poor Sissy was feeling a little left out.  She wanted a "Jessie" cowboy hat.  After checking into our hotel, we headed back into town.  We stopped to refuel ourselves at the Irma Hotel which was owned by the one and only, Buffalo Bill Cody, for whom the town was named.

After lunch we strolled along the main street in search of cowboy gear.  Low and behold we found her a red cowboy hat in her size!  She was so excited she screamed when I took it off her head to pay for it.  Momma even found herself a new "yee haw" hat so I wouldn't be left out!  Kendall kept saying "Momma a cowboy too!"

We stopped back at the Irma Hotel to watch some gunslinging by the Cody Gunfighters.  They recreate a scene from the days of the wild west.  Who knew we'd get to see Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Doc Holladay!  They performed a shoot out and poor Kendall had her hands over her ears the ENTIRE time!  She kept saying "guns too loud Momma!"  Riley was loving it.  He was sportin' his hat and his cap gun for the show!  I think Kendall liked getting to pet the cowboy's horse after the show the best!

Watch out!  He's armed and she's dangerous!

Momma's little cowpokes!  Who knew cowboys were so cute?

Only in Wyoming, right?  A big shot gun on top of a building!

Here come the bad guys...

Cue the music...Wyatt, Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill to the rescue!

Stay tuned for my next entry...YELLOWSTONE here we come!

Our Visit To The Cowboy State

This past week, we packed up the truck and headed to Wyoming to visit my cousin and her family.  Lori moved out to Wyoming with Jason and his family about 4 years ago.  I decided that I needed to go visit them while we lived this close because who knows what next summer will bring.  I've decided that I want to see as much of this part of the country as I can before we get the call to move once again.  We never know when that will happen and I'm determined that I'm not going to assume that I can always do it later!

We had a wonderful time staying up to the wee hours of the morning catching up...I realized how much older I really am than Lori because each morning, I was in dire need of some Turkey Hill ice tea to get my kick in the pants and quit yawning!  Andy spent the week in Gillette for work which allowed us to have a free schedule.  She showed me around town, out for lunch, to playgrounds and even took us up into Big Horn National Park for a picnic.  The kids had so much fun playing with Lori and Jason's precious little girl Madison.  She and Kendall are a little over a year apart in age so it was fun to imagine them playing together as they get older.

Andy came to pick us up on Friday morning and we planned a last minute, spontaneous trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks on our way home.  Thank goodness Lori has been there before and gave us lots of helpful advice.  It was so much fun to be so adventurous with the kids.  Normally our trips have to be more planned out, but we decided to wing it and see where it took us.

I was so thankful to be able to have the chance to go visit my cousin at her house and see first hand what life is like for her in Wyoming.  I don't know if I could do it nearly as well as she does!  She lives outside of a rather small town in northern Wyoming.  I didn't use to think I was a city slicker, but compared to the life she leads, that's exactly what you'd call me.  I'm so proud of her and the way she lives her life.  It would be so hard to leave everyone behind and not have nearly as many opportunities available for networking as I have had in every new place I've lived.  She's definitely the Country Mouse and I'm the City Mouse (although I'd still say I'm a country mouse when it really comes down to it)!  I am hoping that sometime she and her family will be able to come visit us down here in the Beehive State.

Sissy convincing Aunt Lori to swing her

Isn't she just the cutest?  I could eat her up!

Riley enjoyed seeing all the statues like the cowboy and Native American, through out nearby Sheridan

This is the Occidental Hotel which is in Buffalo where Lori lives

A number of famous people have stayed at this hotel over the past 130 years

Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill Cody as well as Teddy Roosevelt have all spent the night here at the Occidental.

Thanks Cuz!  We had a great time and you were a fantastic host!  Love and miss you all!

Dancing Queen

To celebrate the 4th of July, our church, held one service, instead of the normal 4 that are held on a Sunday morning.  We met, along with the Daybreak campus, at the new Draper Ampitheater for worship.  It was a family worship service so we took a few blankets some snacks, and headed out.  What a nice day...overcast and perfect temps!  After the service, we were encouraged to stay for a picnic and listen to some of the music by members of the worship team.

Kendall was dancing through most of the worship music during the service, but once it was over and we were sitting down for lunch, she really started to cut a rug!  I couldn't help but catch some of her dance moves on my phone!  I hope you enjoy watching her as much as we did!  She's great entertainment for us!

I Did It!

I finally broke down and tried my hand at canning today.  Usually I just freeze everything that I want to preserve, but I'm starting to realize that without a deep freeze, that's just not going to be possible this year, you know, with having a garden and all.

I bought all my necessary items at Wally World and a ton of berries at Costco and got started today during naptime!  I was able to make 2 batches, which resulted in just under 2 dozen jars of homemade strawberry jelly!  I would have made a third and possibly fourth batch, but ran out of jars!

I grew up with a mom who canned everything out of our garden.  When I was old enough to really learn how to make jelly, mom had packed away the canning equipment and settled into freezing everything.  Andy was worried about the investment cost to start canning instead of freezing.  Well, it's a no brainer when you have a garden such as ours this year.  I'm growing 3 different kinds of tomatoes, lots of peppers - bell, habanero and jalapeno, strawberries, carrots, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, cantaloupe, some herbs and even 2 pumpkins!  I'd like to be able to make some yummy salsa and can that so I always have it on hand.  I am also investigating some good spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce recipes to prepare fresh from our garden.  If anyone has some tried and true pasta sauces to share, I'd love to try them!

If any of you are nervous about trying canning, the Pioneer Woman has some tips and advice as well as step-by-step instructions on how to can strawberry jelly.  You can also find the instructions inside the pectin box, but I always get confused when I read them...it's how I make my freezer jelly, but I use the cooked recipe and then put it in freezer containers.

Best of luck!

A Refreshing Summer Treat

So there is a dessert that I had at a party at our neighbor's house that I fell in love with and couldn't wait to try it myself!  It's called Lemonade Pie and it's so delicious and refreshing.  I made it two nights ago when I couldn't sleep...I know, me with insomnia, shocking, right?

Take a look at this yummy dish...You'll want to make it too after you see how yummy it looks in the photos!

If you are interested in trying it yourself, here's the recipe:

Graham Cracker Crust:

2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

7 Tbs. butter, melted

In medium bowl, combine cracker crumbs, sugar & melted butter.  Press firmly into pie pan and bake for 7 minutes at 350.

Lemonade Filling:

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk, chilled

1 (12 oz) container cool whip, thawed

1 (6 oz) can frozen lemonade concentrate, keep frozen

1 tsp. candied lemon peel

In a medium bowl, add chilled milk and cool whip.  Fold gently.  Add frozen lemonade and continue to fold.  Do not allow mixture to become soupy.  Pour mixture into pie crust and freeze overnight.  Garnish with candied lemon peel.  (As you can see from my pics, I left off the peel.  I've also had this with a strawberry fruit topping and it was a perfect combination!)

ENJOY!

A Great Day For A Sunday Drive

After church today, Kevin asked if we wanted to go on a drive through American Fork Canyon - the Alpine Loop and stop at Cascade Springs for a short hike.  It was such a beautiful day we couldn't turn it down!

Here are some of the pics I snapped along the way...Isn't it just beautiful?

R and Sis at Cascade Springs

Little Man checking out the falls

R and Aunt Cara taking a break in the shade

There were these little water falls all over!  It was so beautiful.

Here are some of the falls where they all came together.

Little Man's first time taking a photo with my DSLR...not too bad for his first attempt, huh?  Maybe if Dad wasn't so tall he wouldn't have cut off his head?

Checking out the "duckie" water before we left.

An Early Birthday Present

We were over at our neighbors Matt and Jamie's for a cook out a few weeks back and their kids have EVERY toy imaginable! Okay, maybe not every toy, but a lot of cool ones. Riley wants to go live in their basement because it's a kid haven! Any way, they have a little trampoline that Kendall just fell in love with. The only time I didn't see her on it was when she stopped for 5 minutes to eat a few bites of a hot dog! We decided to look for one for her to give to her for her birthday. I found one at Walmart.com on sale for $40 off! We decided to splurge and get it for her. It was much more than we'd ever spend on a birthday present, but she often gets short changed with hand me down toys from her brother. Andy and I put it together during naptime the day we flew back from North Carolina. The kids have been on it NON-STOP ever since. They absolutely love it. We do too because it burns up their energy and it's not so big that it takes up our entire yard - not that we have that much to begin with!

Here's a peek at them enjoying their new toy:

 

Can't Wait To Try This One!

I follow a blog called How Does She? and one of their posts included a great idea that I know my kids will love.

How to make cantaloupe sweeter?  She slices it in half, takes out the seeds and then pours jello into the center.  After some time in the fridge (in a bowl so it doesn't spill) you slice it and have yummy looking cantaloupe for your munchkins!

Here's one of their kids eating a slice...doesn't it look refreshing?

A Week At The Mountain House

So after a week at Kiawah with my parents, we loaded up our stuff and headed to my parents home in western North Carolina.  They live between Charlotte and Asheville and 20 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Riley calls their two places the Beach house and Mountain house.  The kids love the Mountain house because all of Uncle Matt's toys are there for Riley and all of my old toys are there for Sissy.  Riley loves my brother's Star Wars toys!  Sissy played with my doll house, doll bed and doll high chair.  She had tea parties with my old play picnic basket set as well.

Playing tea party

This doll bed was made for my mom who then handed it down to me and is going to hand it down to Kendall for her 2nd birthday next month!

Dolly fits in the bed WITH Kendall!

This is my old Little People doll house that my mom has shipped to Kendall to play with at our house.  She LOVED it and even convinced my dad to play doll house with her!

While we were there, we took the kids to Tweetsie Railroad, which is a cute little place in Blowing Rock, NC near Boone, NC.  They have a steam engine that pulls open air cars and they put on a rather cheesy show along the way with cowboys and Indians (the acting was AWFUL, but the kids didn't care!).  They also have a number of kiddie rides there as well as magic, dancing and music shows.  They also have Deer Park which is where they house deer, sheep and goats that you can feed.  The kids both enjoyed petting and feeding them.

Tweetsie Railroad Engine

The loud whistle scared Sissy

Riley and his "date"

You can see the village along the side where they performed their cheesy show of a hold up

Checking out the tee pee

Preparing myself for when he really does start driving

Sissy's favorite ride - convinced my dad to go on it 5x in a row!  She'd have gone more, but dad probably would have tossed his cookies if they went one more time.

Ringing the bell on the boat

Riley enjoying a kiddie ride

Check her out riding all by herself...she's growing up too quickly

Future cow pokes?

Clogging show that Kendall really enjoyed

They invited the kids up on stage to dance the YMCA and she marched right up, but didn't dance, just watched everyone else!

Both kids enjoyed petting this baby goat

Sissy had no fear when it came to feeding the animals.  She didn't even flinch if they nibbled on her fingers by mistake!

She loves Pappy's "hockey hat!"  It cracks me up that she recognized the Flyers symbol as hockey!  She's going to be my little athlete.  She sleeps with a football and at times, a bike helmet, recognizes soccer fields and tennis courts as well as when hockey, football or soccer is on the t.v.!  She also likes to drag a lacrosse stick around outside.

We spent another day in Blowing Rock, doing some window shopping, lunch, ice cream at Kilwins and playing at the park.

Hanging out in Blowing Rock, NC

What a ham!

Found some flowers to match her dress

Chasing bubbles in Blowing Rock, NC

The kids loved going to the pool at my parents country club.  They have a diving board there and Riley absolutely fell in love with it!  Kendall had a blast jumping in to my dad and then dunking him under!  She called the two pools the "big water" and the "baby water."  The ocean was called "duckie water."

Riley's new love...a diving board!

My crazy daughter has NO fear!

Riley also spent a good bit of time riding bike at my parents house.  A friend of my dad's handed down his grandson's old bike so Riley could use it while he visits.  The nice thing is that his friend has volunteered to hand down future bikes as well so my kids will always be able to ride bike there!  We also spent time at multiple playgrounds and "fwinging."

One night, my dad and I took the kids to a neighboring town to a drive in for dinner and a car show.  It was so cool.  The place is called Myra's and every Friday night they have a car show!  My dad and the kids loved walking around after dinner and discussing the different cars.  Sissy decided she liked the Camero because it's her Pappy's favorite.  Riley still likes Corvettes and there were a few Shelby's to satisfy Momma!

The kids are really missing my parents.  They have Skyped with them at least 4 times since we got home Tuesday!  Sissy stands on the computer chair and begs for her Nanny and Pappy.  Riley said our house is boring compared to Nanny and Pappy's house!  Sorry kids, vacation is over...back to reality and bedtimes, no popcicles and ice cream every day, no Pappy carrying Sissy EVERYWHERE she wants to go, etc.  I'm so glad they had such a good time.  It was a much needed vacation for all of us!