I can kind of play the guitar now:
Lauren is forever obsessed with ducks:
Landon currently busy planning a bike rodeo, touching his Ipod, and cooking with tomatillos.
Monday, April 26, 2010
What We've Been Doing Lately...
Emma is really into her flower pots:I can kind of play the guitar now:Lauren is forever obsessed with ducks:
Landon currently busy planning a bike rodeo, touching his Ipod, and cooking with tomatillos.
I can kind of play the guitar now:Lauren is forever obsessed with ducks:Landon currently busy planning a bike rodeo, touching his Ipod, and cooking with tomatillos.
Belated Post
When Landon and I were in Sun Valley, Grammy and the girls took pictures of every single thing they did. I didn't feel like making a slideshow, so I selected a few highlights of their fun times together. These may be out of order, but I don't think it really matters...
A "Taco Time" picnic on the living floor:
Attending Emma's stage practice for her final Ballroom performance:
Grammy bought them some stuffed animals, playdoh, sidewalk chalk, a ukelele from DI, and a basketball:
They were the first in the family to try out one of the newest restaurants in town, The Flapjack Shack (they all liked it a lot, but it was kind of expensive):
Friday morning, the girls stayed home from school to have more play time with Grammy, so the three of them spent some quality lounging in my bed with Grammy's ukelele (and me on the phone):
They also went to the Nature Park to see and feed the ducks and stuff:
Attending Emma's stage practice for her final Ballroom performance:Grammy bought them some stuffed animals, playdoh, sidewalk chalk, a ukelele from DI, and a basketball:They were the first in the family to try out one of the newest restaurants in town, The Flapjack Shack (they all liked it a lot, but it was kind of expensive):Friday morning, the girls stayed home from school to have more play time with Grammy, so the three of them spent some quality lounging in my bed with Grammy's ukelele (and me on the phone):They also went to the Nature Park to see and feed the ducks and stuff:Sunday, April 18, 2010
Another Fun Sunday
Guess what my mom did? Thursday, when the girls were at school and we were in Sun Valley, she went over to Mike's Music on Main Street and BOUGHT A UKULELE!! She had one about 50 years ago and figured she was ready to give it another try. The funniest part is that she asked how much of a discount she could get for being an employee of the school district. She got 20% off for pretending to be a school district employee. Go Mom! 
Lauren decided to try on her helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads today. I told her to pose like a kid who "really needs a helmet." Emma's in the background coaching her. 
For Sunday dinner, we had steak, mango-tomato-mozzarella-basil salad, and toasted french bread, then went over to Burton Elementary and let the girls play on the toys and ride bikes. Lauren opted to ride her bike all the way home. She mentioned that her butt hurt real bad by the time we got home. She needs to get it back in shape for bike-riding.
Notice the lack of a helmet, knee and elbow pads for the actual bike ride. She prefers safety equipment when she's in the house.
Lauren decided to try on her helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads today. I told her to pose like a kid who "really needs a helmet." Emma's in the background coaching her. For Sunday dinner, we had steak, mango-tomato-mozzarella-basil salad, and toasted french bread, then went over to Burton Elementary and let the girls play on the toys and ride bikes. Lauren opted to ride her bike all the way home. She mentioned that her butt hurt real bad by the time we got home. She needs to get it back in shape for bike-riding.Notice the lack of a helmet, knee and elbow pads for the actual bike ride. She prefers safety equipment when she's in the house.
First Cookout of the Season
Last night we drove out to BYU-Idaho's Henry's Fork property to have a cookout. The weather has been really warm and beautiful, so we took advantage of it. We brought Lauren's friend and our neighbor, Brooklyn with us. 
We just brought what food we had on hand, so it was pretty simple. We roasted bratwurst over the fire and ate some potato chips with them. We also ate some Greek olives that we had bought in Sun Valley for our appetizer. We roasted marshmallows and put them between chocolate chip cookies for our first dessert. For our second dessert, Landon had prepared foil-wrapped artichokes seasoned with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. We had them sitting in the hot coals for about 2 hours or so. They were barely done by the time we were ready to leave. Every one of us enjoyed eating them, piece by piece. It was a weird kind of treat, but it was a treat.
We let the girls ride in the bed of the truck on our way out of the property. We saw geese, horses, several baby cows (and a dead cat). That was pretty much the extent of our wildlife viewing.
We just brought what food we had on hand, so it was pretty simple. We roasted bratwurst over the fire and ate some potato chips with them. We also ate some Greek olives that we had bought in Sun Valley for our appetizer. We roasted marshmallows and put them between chocolate chip cookies for our first dessert. For our second dessert, Landon had prepared foil-wrapped artichokes seasoned with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. We had them sitting in the hot coals for about 2 hours or so. They were barely done by the time we were ready to leave. Every one of us enjoyed eating them, piece by piece. It was a weird kind of treat, but it was a treat.We let the girls ride in the bed of the truck on our way out of the property. We saw geese, horses, several baby cows (and a dead cat). That was pretty much the extent of our wildlife viewing.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Sun Valley
Landon and I spent 2 nights in Sun Valley, Idaho this week! Landon had the opportunity to attend an education conference paid for by the school district, and he was allowed to bring his spouse, so I jumped on the chance to get away. Emma has had a tough time with overnight separation from us, so we prepared her the best we could. My mom came from Washington to be with the girls, they planned a packed schedule of fun things to do, Emma slept in our bed, took a Benedryl an hour before bedtime and we talked on the phone several times a day. It was really stressful leading up to the actual time we left (a full-blown panic attack--vomiting, trembling, the works), but about 10 minutes after we were gone, Emma was fine, and stayed fine the rest of the time we were gone. It was a huge victory for her and I think we're taking baby steps to being able to endure girls camp next summer. I really appreciate my mom being able to stay with the girls and being so compassionate with Emma. Both girls had such a fun time with Grammy.
Here's driving through Arco, where Craters of the Moon National Monument is located:
We stayed at the Sun Valley Lodge, which is the nicest place to stay in Sun Valley. The room we had was so nice! Earnest Hemingway once stayed in room 206, and we stayed in room 209. Kind of cool. There was actually chocolate on the beds each night.
So the toilet was really weird. It tilts up so you feel like you're sitting on a recliner when you're doing your business. It forces a man to sit down to pee, because the seat won't stay up when you try to put it up. I tried to coach Landon to hold the seat up with one hand, hunch down and aim, with the other hand "helping" if needed. He declined my helpful suggestions. By the time we left, he had figured out how to keep the seat up by moving the back of the toilet off the tank. Evidently sitting to pee is like being a woman in Landon's mind.
This was the lobby on our floor. I needed more days so I could spend some time in there reading my book. I just couldn't read my book everywhere I wanted to read it. There were too many options.
Landon had complimentary meals at his conference, but I had to buy food to eat in the room. This is Landon eating the gourmet muffin I had bought for my breakfast.
When Landon and I walked around some of the richy-rich shops at the resort, we came across a red horse for sale that only cost $14,000. I asked Landon to take a picture of me pointing to its expensive red horse butt.
Landon wanted me to take a picture of a rain jacket that had a price tag of $1,500.
The weather was sunny and warm (60s!), and we ate lunch outside both days. We ate at a fantastic steakhouse in Ketchum one night, and found a really great thrift shop in town. I attended one of the classes on Friday and heard a speaker who was AMAZING! I'm going to buy this guy's book about the importance of attachment between kids and parents. The guy's name is Gabor Mate. He's a doctor and has written a great book about ADD, one about addiction, one about stress-disease connection and one about the importance of attachment. It was such a fun couple of days and I am so grateful that the girls had a good experience, that my mom so willingly came to stay with us, and that Landon and I can have just as much fun hanging out after the kids go to bed every night as we did in Sun Valley.
Landon and I had so much fun! Before kids, we had many opportunities to go to fun places together, but since we've had kids and especially since we've re-started our lives in Idaho, time away has been a luxury. I attended some classes with Landon, stayed in bed and read a lot, took some relaxing baths, and ate some great food in Ketchum. The time couldn't have been better spent!
We gassed up, got our 44-ounce Diet Pepsi, and hit the ugly road between here and Sun Valley.
Here's driving through Arco, where Craters of the Moon National Monument is located:We stayed at the Sun Valley Lodge, which is the nicest place to stay in Sun Valley. The room we had was so nice! Earnest Hemingway once stayed in room 206, and we stayed in room 209. Kind of cool. There was actually chocolate on the beds each night. So the toilet was really weird. It tilts up so you feel like you're sitting on a recliner when you're doing your business. It forces a man to sit down to pee, because the seat won't stay up when you try to put it up. I tried to coach Landon to hold the seat up with one hand, hunch down and aim, with the other hand "helping" if needed. He declined my helpful suggestions. By the time we left, he had figured out how to keep the seat up by moving the back of the toilet off the tank. Evidently sitting to pee is like being a woman in Landon's mind.Landon had complimentary meals at his conference, but I had to buy food to eat in the room. This is Landon eating the gourmet muffin I had bought for my breakfast.The room had robes and slippers for us to use. I actually called the front desk and asked if I had to pay extra if I used the slippers. They said no, so I used them and brought them home. I also brought the other pair home as a gift for my mom. That's exactly how white trash I am.
When Landon and I walked around some of the richy-rich shops at the resort, we came across a red horse for sale that only cost $14,000. I asked Landon to take a picture of me pointing to its expensive red horse butt.Landon wanted me to take a picture of a rain jacket that had a price tag of $1,500.The weather was sunny and warm (60s!), and we ate lunch outside both days. We ate at a fantastic steakhouse in Ketchum one night, and found a really great thrift shop in town. I attended one of the classes on Friday and heard a speaker who was AMAZING! I'm going to buy this guy's book about the importance of attachment between kids and parents. The guy's name is Gabor Mate. He's a doctor and has written a great book about ADD, one about addiction, one about stress-disease connection and one about the importance of attachment. It was such a fun couple of days and I am so grateful that the girls had a good experience, that my mom so willingly came to stay with us, and that Landon and I can have just as much fun hanging out after the kids go to bed every night as we did in Sun Valley.*More posts to come highlighting the girls' fun times with Grammy, and other stuff we did this week.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Good Dinners, Bountiful Baskets
This is the last time we ate turkey...Landon forbid it in our house after this meal. It was tasty, but he was so sick of it that I had to give the rest away to Brook. (We would have frozen some of the leftover turkey, but we've found that defrosted cooked turkey doesn't taste very good.) This was turkey haystacks:
This was Kung Pao pork (we didn't have any chicken). It was SO GOOD! Landon got the recipe from a PBS Chinese cooking show. It was really simple to make and had such a good flavor. We made this same thing, but with sweet and sour sauce for the girls. They weren't crazy about the celery, but otherwise ate it.
So we signed up for Bountiful Baskets again this week, paid $23 and got this:
The price for a conventional basket of fruits/vegetables is $15, but we added a 12 pound box of strawberries for $8. Isn't that amazing? We were so excited. By the way, they have Bountiful Baskets in Las Vegas now (really close to your house, Nana), so I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fresh produce and likes a good deal.
We ended up with like 8 of these things...it took us a while to figure out what they were:
Then we realized that they were a new version of a mango that we had never tried. Landon and I ate one in about 30 seconds, and the girls just sampled them. They weren't crazy about them, but I think if we figure out a creative way to make a dish with them they'd eat them.
This was Kung Pao pork (we didn't have any chicken). It was SO GOOD! Landon got the recipe from a PBS Chinese cooking show. It was really simple to make and had such a good flavor. We made this same thing, but with sweet and sour sauce for the girls. They weren't crazy about the celery, but otherwise ate it.So we signed up for Bountiful Baskets again this week, paid $23 and got this:The price for a conventional basket of fruits/vegetables is $15, but we added a 12 pound box of strawberries for $8. Isn't that amazing? We were so excited. By the way, they have Bountiful Baskets in Las Vegas now (really close to your house, Nana), so I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fresh produce and likes a good deal.We ended up with like 8 of these things...it took us a while to figure out what they were:
Then we realized that they were a new version of a mango that we had never tried. Landon and I ate one in about 30 seconds, and the girls just sampled them. They weren't crazy about them, but I think if we figure out a creative way to make a dish with them they'd eat them.This is some kind of squash, but we don't know what they're called. They came wrapped in tissue paper for some reason. They're pretty tiny, but when you cut them open they look like a zucchini. Anyone know what they are?
And then we got 4 artichokes! I've never eaten a real artichoke before, just artichoke hearts from a can/jar or in a hot, cheesy dip at a restaurant. We're looking forward to experimenting with them.
And then we got 4 artichokes! I've never eaten a real artichoke before, just artichoke hearts from a can/jar or in a hot, cheesy dip at a restaurant. We're looking forward to experimenting with them.DARE Graduation
Emma has been learning about saying no to drugs. She completed the DARE program at school and attended a graduation ceremony with all the other 5th graders in the district. Yay Emma. Dad represented the parents at this event, since I had a RS dinner to sit through.
Leave me alone Dad!
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