Captain Jake Sparrow

Jake: "Mom! Guess who I am?"

Mom: "I don't know? Maybe Captain Jake Sparrow?"

Jake: "Oh man! How did you guess!?!"

Lander's Favorite Thing

Every morning you can find Lander here, hiding in the bathroom, playing with his toys while the heater cranks away. The tiny bathroom usually feels like a sauna!

Jake's Brownies

Jake decided to make brownies, something he learned to do in school last month.

melting chocolate & butter next some eggsand some sugar

blend it well

add the chocolate

and some flour

then baking powder & vanilla

bakeThey were really yummy! Good job, Buddie!

Jake's Brownies

2 Squares Unsweetened Chocolate

1/2 C. Butter

2 Eggs

1 C. Sugar

3/4 C. Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Vanilla

1/3 C. Chopped Nuts

Do not preheat oven. Melt chocolate & butter. Beat the eggs and add sugar. Add the chocolate and butter, beat. Add flour and baking powder and beat. Add vanilla and nuts. Bake in greased 8" pan at 300 for 55 minutes.

since we are talking about food...

It actually felt like Christmas today when I picked up my first order from the local fruit co-op. For $15 you get whatever assortment the co-op is able to purchase. It varies every time.

This was my $6.00 "Italian" basket. (2 zucchinis, 2 red onions, 2 yellow onions, garlic, mushrooms, oregano, basil, Italian parsley, eggplant)

And here was my $15 fruit/vegi basket. (10 Braeburn applies, 3 lb pears, 6 tangelos, 8 bananas, 2 mangos, Romaine lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, russet potatoes, spaghetti squash, orange bell pepper, 6 red onions, 3 roma tomatoes)

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

We decided to do something different this for Christmas--cut down our own tree. Here we are, looking for the "perfect" tree on Packsaddle Loop, just a few minutes drive from Gram's house. It turned out to be a lot harder than we expected. Finally. 2 hours later we found one thanks to Todd.
"You're doing a great job, guys!"

(Lander, Dixie, Uncle Jarrod, Jake, Drew, Jayden)
Todd securing the tree.
Was it worth it? Depends on who you talk to. But we would say definitely!

Thanksgiving in Driggs

just a few highlights...

Grams enjoying the sun while it lasts Drew & Lander's snowman

Another self portrait. It almost looks like Jayden is picking his nose in the background. What are you teaching him Shelly?! :)

let it snow

For some strange reason, I have little boys that will NOT build snowmen, have no interest in snow forts, and generally try to stay indoors until Spring arrives. Fortunately, Jake forgot this when the first real snowstorm hit in November. He tired himself out rolling the HUGE base of a snowman so Josh & I offered to help. The tiny top of the snowman was the result. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get the snow to pack. I have no idea how Jake was able to make that gInORmOuS ball of snow.

Mesa Verde

On our way home from New Mexico (after Josh's hunt), we decided to keep the boys out of school for an extra day so that we could visit Mesa Verde. The timing turned out perfectly. The weather was warm, there were only a handful of visitors, and then to top it off, Jake's class studied Mesa Verde and other ancient American civilizations a week later. Jake was able to bring pictures and maps for his class to look it.

I'm glad that we didn't have to scale the rocks using toe holds like the Natives. Here Lander is climbing one of the many ladders it took to reach the old ruins.

Self portrait in front of Spruce Tree House

These are some of the stairs that have to be climbed to get out of Cliff Palace. I am standing just two steps below Josh.

Cliff Palace

The Mighty Hunter

Okay, okay. I've heard the remarks (when should I expect you Alan & Heather?) and finally got through my to-do list enough to finally start posting pictures. I thought I would start with Josh's elk hunt in Humphreys, a wildlife preserve near Chama, New Mexico (See Dad? Told you I would get to it....eventually). I wanted to post a picture with my dad, Dustin, & Angie in it, but the only picture I had was a little graphic for this audience--unless you have the stomach of a surgeon--so you will just have to take my word for it that they were there too.

Like usual, it took Josh (the Mighty Hunter) only a few hours before he found his elk.

Oct. 31, 2009