Some Time at the Compound

We gathered at my parents' house (aka The Compound) on Saturday afternoon for a Labor Day Weekend BBQ.

Andrew was there in all his glory! He's doing great at the group home but loves coming home every other weekend because he gets to eat all his favorite foods and gets to soak in my parents' big, jetted bathtub.

It's official, Landon is taller than my mom!

He was thrilled about this!

We were missing Robyn's kids since they were at Lake Powell with Jared for the weekend...dividing time with divorce sucks!

We had absolutely perfect weather for our long lunch and conversation on the porch...I love that porch! Lori ended up being too stressed with school work (she's working on her Master's) and the Relief Society lesson she had to teach so she didn't come.

Yum!

Adam educated my mom on the wonders of the iPad.

He also had us rolling with a story about him binging unknowingly in the middle of the night while under the influence of a sleeping pill. Apparently Amy came home late that night and found a pile of chicken bones on the kitchen counter (my mom made us howl when she said quite seriously, "You cleaned up the bones right?") yet Adam woke in the morning with no recollection of having eaten the chicken.

Andrew started asking for his bath around 3:00pm.

For their sheep, the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.

My dad took Randy and Adam out to harvest some potatoes from the garden.

It still cracks me up that they have chickens.

My dad's Sedum Autumn Joy is blooming and was chock full of happy bees.

It turns out potatoes are a lot of work.

And oh so messy!

Their plums trees are finally producing a few plums after 10 years of growing time. My dad joked that each plum costs $250!

He's got tons of lavender growing back there too...I think the bees might be getting drunk.

Landon spent the afternoon watching the BYU game (yeah!) and the girls spent the day playing school, visiting the neighbor's kittens and jumping on Amie's trampoline (sorry Amie) even though my parents have one.

**Did you do something fun this weekend?

Do you have an iPad?

What's your favorite BBQ food?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I so loved having this 3-day weekend, it's exactly what I needed to regroup my life.

Festive, Family-Filled Fourth

What happens when 7 adults and 8 kids go to the pool? You bring a TON of stuff! Chairs, umbrellas, towels, lots of sunscreen, life jackets, treats, drinks, cameras, books, magazines, and on and on. It's a wonder anyone ever ends up getting wet.

Randy missed a couple spots as he lathered up in SPF 30.

The pool had been emptied before we got there because of an "incident" from a small child (ew). It was empty for an hour and I'm sure they filled it with oodles of chemicals, then we let all the kids go in. None of the adults were that keen on going in the "poo pool".

The boys ventured out.

Whitney got some serious height as she practiced her dive (at least her hands are diving).


I wore my swim get-up, but was very happy to sit in the shade and read. Whenever I do this it reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Elaine wears a huge hat at the beach and Jerry says, "And then there's Maude!"

Adam read too!

The crazy thing was that the kids got to play in the water for about 15 minutes, then the pool was cleared for the hourly chlorine check (even though the pool had just been closed for an hour), then they got to swim for another 20 minutes or so before the pool was cleared again for a 2nd "incident." What the? We ended up leaving because it was going to be closed for another hour and then reopen for 30 minutes until they closed for the night. Good Hell!

We caravaned to Adam and Amy's house for a BBQ.

I got out of my swim get-up and was putting on my dry clothes when I realize I'd forgotten to bring a bra! I ended up wearing my swimsuit under my clothes so as to be somewhat supported. It's a good thing I hadn't gone swimming or it would have been a very uncomfortable and embarrassing day for me!


This was seriously a burger to remember. It had ranch dip, lettuce, tomato, and avocado slices. I'm dreaming of it now...


We celebrated my birthday, and I'm happy to report that I wasn't mental at all! It probably helped that it wasn't my actual birthday (whereas in the past it used to bug me to celebrate it early) because I had no expectations and didn't feel like it was "my" day.

I got a Visa gift card from Adam & Amy (I'm going to buy postage online with it, woohoo), a Barnes & Noble gift card from Robyn and Jared, an iHome type thing from Randy and the kids (so I can listen to my iPod in the other side of the house), and my mom's old Kitchen Aid mixer (big surprise) and a gift card for the movie theater from my parents.

Lori made this festive and tasty cake. (The frosting was particularly great.)

They sang our traditional birthday song, "Happy, happy birthday, may all your dreams come true. Happy, happy birthday to you, to you, to you, ole!" I forgot to make a wish when I blew out the candles, oh dear.

Andrew loved the strawberry ice cream.

I love taking miscellaneous shots of the group like this because they're totally candid and capture the family-filled feeling we had going on.


The glow necklaces Amy gave the kids were a serious hit. They were so into them they weren't that interested in the fireworks.


Landon did some fire dancing with his sparklers, good times.


I'm bummed that this photo is blurry, but it still captures the backyard view we had of the fireworks going on in the valley below.

**Do you like to read at the pool?
Do you know which Seinfeld
episode I'm talking about?
What do you think of bra substitution?
What would be on your burger to remember?
Did you watch fireworks?**

The New Recipes

I don't love cooking and baking, but every now and again (usually at Christmas time or when I'm hosting something) I get the inclination. For book club this week I ended up making a bundt cake recipe from Kelly, a cookie recipe from Jenn and a hot chocolate recipe I got online. They all turned out great, even though my 15 year old mixer died while I was making these.

Kelly's Peppermint Truffle Cake

Filling
1 (6-oz.) package (or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips.
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk – you want the sweet, sticky stuff)
½ teaspoon peppermint extract

Cake
1 (18.25-oz.) pkg. devil’s food cake mix
1 (8-oz.) container nonfat sour cream (you can use the fat kind, too)
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs

Icing
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ oz. cream cheese, softened
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
6 hard peppermint candies, finely crushed

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan (or bundt pan). (Pam with Flour makes this sooo easy.) In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine all filling ingredients. Microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds; stir until melted and smooth. If necessary, microwave an additional 10 to 20 seconds. Set aside.

2. In large bowl, combine all cake ingredients; beat with electric mixer at low speed until combined. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Spoon into greased and floured pan. Drop spoonfuls of filling over batter, keeping filling away from sides of pan.

3. Bake at 350°F for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean and edges begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert cake onto wire rack. Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled. (Center of cake may sink slightly during cooling.)

4. In medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, cream cheese and 1 tablespoon of the milk; beat with wire whisk until smooth, adding additional milk until of desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle icing over cooled cake. Sprinkle with crushed candy. Store in refrigerator.

HIGH ALTITUDE (ABOVE 3500 FT): For cake, add 2 tablespoons flour to dry cake mix. Decrease oil to 2 tablespoons and increase eggs to 4. Bake at 375°F for 40 to 45 minutes.


Jenn's Honey Drop Cookies (These taste like ginger snaps)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2-3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sugar. Add honey and eggs, beat until smooth. Mix dry ingredients together and add slowly to wet mixture.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar.
Place 2" apart on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Let sit for 2 minutes on cookie sheet and the remove to wire rack.


Creamy Hot Cocoa
(serves 4)

• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Combine the cocoa, sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Blend in the boiling water. Bring this mixture to an easy boil while you stir. Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes. Watch that it doesn't scorch. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until very hot, but do not boil! Remove from heat and add vanilla. Divide between 4 mugs. Add the cream to the mugs of cocoa to cool it to drinking temperature.

**Have you made any of these recipes?
What are your holiday favorites?
What kind of mixer do you have?

It Felt More Like The Third

Except for seeing flags everywhere and watching the fireworks tonight it didn't feel like the Fourth of July at all, it could have been the third. It's probably because we haven't gone to the balloon festival yet or it could be because we were nowhere near a parade (but then again we never are), but it just wasn't very fourthish today.


I had Robyn's girls overnight last night because Robyn and Jared were running in the Provo 10k early this morning, and my mom ran the 5k with Austin and Landon. I entertained the idea of heading to Provo with the 3 girls early this morning to cheer the runners on and to take pictures of course, but it didn't happen.


Instead Whitney woke me up this morning at 9 to tell me that Ashley had tipped over a barstool and broken the glass of a big picture frame. Hello! It just meant going from REM sleep to cleaning in 30 seconds, but it wasn't the first time for me so whatever. No one was hurt, just an early morning hassle to be taken care of.


Our big plans for the day involved driving out to Freakin Eagle Mountain for a day of family. We had a good lunch and amusing conversation (Adam is always so entertaining).


The kids played outside on the slip-n-slide. It was very cloudy today, but still hot. Of course Eagle Mountain is always windy so the wet kids ended up being cold!


The adults played "Imaginiff" for awhile (Adam won and I was a close 2nd) and opted not to play again since we ended up feeling like it might lead to some family group therapy or an SEP discussion, ha. Does anyone else find that game revealing? I enjoy it, but I don't think everyone else does.


Adam and Amy had to cut their day short because Megan ended up puking. Amy had lightning-fast reflexes and swooped Megan up and raced her to the bathroom (it was impressive really) and my mom had the floor cleaned up before they returned. Megan took it like a champ, but she just wasn't herself so they left early. The rest of us ended up watching "The Italian Job" on the huge tv downstairs. (Leather couches really hold in body heat, it was toasty.)


We left around 9:15 to head towards Thanksgiving Point to see the fireworks. We've never gone there before because we usually celebrate The Fourth at Adam and Amy's house and watch fireworks in their backyard. Landon was particularly sad that we weren't doing that this year, so we decided to brave the crowds to see some fireworks closer to home.


It ended up being no problem at all crowd-wise and proved to be quite enjoyable. We had the cooler full of ice in the car because we'd brought several liters of root beer for floats today, so we passed around this huge bottle of cold root beer as we waited for the fireworks to start. The kids thought this was great (who knew?), so our unplanned refreshments made the waiting more festive.


We were able to see great and were close enough to hear, smell and feel the boom of the fireworks. Our kids have never really been that close before so it was pretty cool for them.


The show was 30 minutes long, so we were surprised to find Landon asleep in the back of the car where he'd been watching the fireworks. Apparently his early morning race made for a long, tiring day.


Our late night and fireworks outing made our day feel more like a holiday, but I think we may have to actually start participating in more traditional events (see Patsy's post) if our kids are going to grow up thinking this day is about more than having a bbq with the cousins.