Just some summer leftovers :)

Stoned!!!

Yellowstoned.. that is. Okay, so I got this idea in my head that we should take a trip to Yellowstone as a family this summer. It just seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Americana at it's best. Packing the kids up in the family station wagon and heading to Yellowstone. It's what every family does right? Well I kind of guilted Chris into it and he was a good sport to take us. And Yellowstone did not disappoint! I really wanted the kids to see Old Faithful and some animals. We got to Old Faithful minutes before it went off. We got a buffalo right next to the car, and a coyote crossed the road as were were driving and we were able to stop and get a good look. We saw elk and even had an elk calling during the night! It was so relaxing and just fun to spend time together as a family.


Our first stop was at the candy shop in West Yellowstone for some huckleberry fudge. Delish.


Jake finishing off his $2 sucker



Jake trying to finish off Claire's $4 sucker while she poses for a picture in front of Firehole falls. That kid! Luckily Claire didn't notice :)



Paint Pots - love the colors! (I've been to yellowstone how many times now and I still don't know why it's called that. I guess the colors?...)



Claire's picture :) She was having a grand time taking pictures while we waited for Old Faithful to spout. That picture of Chris and I in front of the sign is a Claire original as well.


Old Faithful Lodge, the wood was beautiful even though it was a bit skiwampus in parts. The stairs were totally slanting to one side!


Old Faithful!!!


After Old Faithful we drove back to camp hoping to find us some animals. We came across a buffalo, and a cute little coyote!



Can you see the trees IN the lake? This is called Quake lake because an earthquake caused half the mountain to fall down creating this huge, beautiful lake. If you look in the back you can see where it fell. An entire campsite was covered and I think the picture now is quite haunting, but gorgeous.

VIRGINIA CITY


I wanted to investigate this cute little ghost town I had heard of from a few friends. Very quaint with tons of antiques and the cutest little caboos you've ever seen.


Right after we got there a huge hail storm came. The hail was marble sized and so loud that we had to take cover inside! Claire was pretty freaked out. By the time it was over it looked like it had snowed, there was so much hail.


German Chocolate Taffy-yummmmm

Rigby Lake

Last weekend we made it to Rigby Lake. The water was beautiful. There were rocks and sand and water so the kids had a blast. I got a tiny hint of a tan. So relaxing...

Bennett Reunion

So a few weeks back we were able to go up to the Bennett Reunion. Bennett's are Chris' cousins from his mom's side and they are pretty close. There are a bunch of cousins around our ages who have kids our kids ages so it's really fun to get together. We camped up near Driggs. It was fun to see Marshall and his family since they live in Utah and we don't see them all that often anymore. It rained the first night, which was kind of miserable, but it got better. We had some awesome dutch oven, good guitar playin and sing alongs (from Christopher) and great company. It was fun but pretty crazy with all of those kids! All in all it was great to see everyone and spend some time together. Plus I tried my first roasted starburst-surprisingly delicious!



Luckily Marshall and Tiffany had DVD players so we strapped the busy little guys in there when we had had enough chasing around.

Cowboy

Nana Knighton got Jake this adorable Cowboy outfit. I can't get over how cute his little legs look in chaps! We've got Halloween set. I've been wanting to do his room in a cowboy theme, so this might put me over the top. If you didn't notice, it comes with a tiny canteen, just perfect for a boy his size to carry around all day.

(Lunch) Box

There was an article in Parents magazine with some recipes for healthy alternatives to school lunches from famous chefs with kids. Even though I don't have any school aged kids, the recipes looked super yummy, so I thought I'd give them a try.

Tropical Spring Rolls
2 Napa cabbage leaves
2 oz. pomegranate juice
8 oz shredded Turkey
2 oz. chopped mango
4 oz. chopped avocado
2 oz. pea sprouts
Salt, pepper, and Cilantro to taste

Blanch cabbage. Reduce pomegranate juice in saucepan on low, about 5 minutes, until syrupy. Combine veggies. Drizzle syrup over top and roll leaves tightly.


This turned out really good. I had fresh cilantro from my garden that was so fragrant and yummy! I made a couple of rolls, but most of my family ended up eating it like salad. Instead of turkey, I used the Aloha Chicken with pineapple recipe.
I'm always looking for vegan recipes that are simple and easy to put together. So, I left the chicken out of my salad, and it was still dang good! Also, I didn't have pomegranate juice, so I used pineapple juice from the chicken recipe.

Aloha Chicken
1.2 8 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice
41/2 tsp. honey
2 chicken breasts cubed, salted and peppered.

Mix honey and pineapple. Combine mixture with chicken in plastic bag. Refrigerate an hour. Broil 6-8 minutes on each side.

Cat Cora Hummus Sandwich
1/2 cucumber
1 Tbl. chopped kalamata olives
1/4 c. grated carrots
5 Tbl. hummus
8 tomato slices
Fresh sprouts
1/2 c. greens

Mix cucumber, olives and carrots into hummus. Spread on bread. Add tomato, sprouts, and greens.

Again, another awesome vegan recipe. This was quite quick to make. I had made french bread the night before (I'm gonna post that recipe too), so I used that. The kalamata olives really make it, but I think it's more of an aquired taste which I think my kids have yet to gain. Wow, so good! I'll definitely be making this in the future, even if it's just for me.

VACA

I spent 10 days in Utah, playing with family. We ate, played, and did lots of shopping. But I hit all the summer clearance sales and got the kids stocked up for next summer. I was down there for my sister Kimberly's graduation. She graduated from BYU in Music. So proud of her. Her and my mom drove out from Nashville and Virginia. Hilary came from Wyoming. We also made it to the Knighton reunion in Logan Canyon. Chris and my dad were able to come for the weekend too. The kids had so much fun camping, and getting dirty and there were bunnies everywhere, so they were chasing bunnies much of the time. Hilary and I went and saw Eclipse and All of us girls went and got pedicures. We went to the drive-in, which is a must when we are all together over the summer! Fun times. It seems like we were on the go the entire time. We got a lot in this trip. But, I am glad to be back in my own bed.



I took some pictures of Kimberly after the graduation, Jake saw her posing and ran right up to the tree and started to pose too.




All us girls went and got pedicures. Heaven!! I forgot just how much I love them!


No, this is not Ethan in goth makeup, just enjoying a piece of Kimberly's graduation cake,


My mom got the girls hats from Krispy Kreme, so they decided to go outside and make donuts. The girls asked Nana how to make them and she told them you mix flour and some other ingredients. Unfortunately they thought Nana was talking about "Flower" so we came out and found they had picked all of granny's flowers to put in their donuts.


Us girls enjoying a birthday lunch at Cheesecake factory. YUM!!


Eating homemade bagels, delish.


At the drive-in, we saw Despicable Me and Charlie St. Cloud. Jake was being crazy so I stuck him in the dark car in his carseat, when the second movie started hoping he would fall asleep. Nope. Instead he kept complaining, "I can't see!" I guess he really wanted to watch the movie.


Hiking in Logan Canyon



Jake spent the majority of the reunion chasing bunnies with the bow and arrow Chris fashioned for him.