Family Fun 2010 -- Part 4

On our last day we went horseback riding. We went in two group-- the guys first. The girls stayed back and helped with the pony rides for the kids. It was pretty fun, Liz and I led the kids on ponies on a little trail around a meadow. A nice change from the ones where they go in circles over and over that we have done before.

Post pony rideThen is was the girls turn!
Bye-bye mommies!I had never done anything like this before, but it was really fun. The horses were super gentle and mellow.

The kids watched a video while we were gone to pass the time.

Of course, we had to stop for icecream on the way back home!

And then we played games, packed up, did a little shopping, and tried to eat the rest of our leftovers that night. We really made good use of the three deck areas at the house-- they were great for lots of outdoor fun, and the kids did a little swimming in the hot tub there too!

And just for laughs...

We drove back on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was a rather eventful trip. A couple of miles outside of Winnemucca we heard a loud noise and soon thereafter the low pressure tire light went on. We pulled over, and sure enough, the tire was flat. Luckily Kevin is a super fast tire changer, even with us having to pull practically everything out of the back of the van to access the spare. 50 miles on a 50 mile and hour tire and a $100 special after-hours service fee later we were fixed and ready to get home. We hit Wendover needing gas, restrooms, and dinner, but the power was out for the whole town, and none of those things were available! I was getting a little worried, since that's a pretty long stretch of nothing between Wendover and Tooele, but the power came on 15 minutes later and we did our stuff and got on our way. Right into a huge windstorm blowing dirt off of those long stretches of nothing by the salt flats and whipping it up for low visibility. Good thing Kevin was driving! We saw a big wreck on the way back-- an overturned trailer, so the wind gusts were pretty strong I think. Lucky for us too, the kids did pretty well, excepting a few leaky diapers, even with the extra 3 hours tacked onto the drive!

Many thanks to Keyton and Liz for planning a wonderful vacation! I really appreciate the fact that we all make time and effort to spend concentrated time together as a family... and it doesn't hurt that it was in a beautiful place doing lots of fun things! Who else but the 15 of us could get so many laughs out of the line "There's a snake in my boots!" over and over all week long???

Luke at 7 Months

Luke is now 7 months old!
This month, Luke has started eating solids three times a day. He doesn't like peas! But other than that, he's a pretty good eater. He still nurses every 4 hours or so during the day.
His toes are a favorite grab. Luke loves playing with his toys. He especially likes his rattles, cars, and soft books. Luke is getting more hair and his little thighs are chubbing up just a little bit. He gained a pound and a half in a week and a half after we started solids!
Luke spends a lot of his time observing the world. He is especially fascinated by watching cars go by, but he is also always on the lookout for his sisters. They usually get his biggest smiles! The girls' zhu zhu pets are also intriguing.
Luke sat in the front part of a shopping cart for the first time last week. He loved it! It was like a whole new world opened up to him, instead of looking at the ceiling from his car seat in the back of the cart.
Luke has started squealing for fun (ouch!).
He is sleeping through the night on a regular basis, usually 8pm-6:30am, sometimes with a 10:00 feeding. Last night he surprised us and slept 6pm-6:45am!
Luke still loves sucking on his fingers. They come in handy when he's waiting to be fed, to self-sooth if he gets an accidental bonk, or just for fun.
Luke is a solid sitter now, and doesn't often fall. He's also begun rocking on his hands and knees more, and sometimes gets stuck under a chair because he can scootch backward, but not forward.Luke is such a happy baby! He is a pretty easy baby too, he is flexible and mellow with his schedule, and just keeps giving us smile after smile.

Monique's Beans

These are super yummy!

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound bacon, chopped
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans (or other beans)
1 tsp. mustard
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 can pork and beans

Cook onion and beef, and bacon, discard the fat, add to other ingredients.

Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in the oven. Or, cook on low in the crockpot until warmed through. Or, cook a double recipe in a dutch oven with four bricks on top and 12 bricks on bottom for 1 hour.

I've also substituted 1 1/2 cup of corn for the ground beef, and that works well too.

It's a perfect summer side dish!

Grilled Chicken Cola Marinade

I've been trying out a bunch of new marinade recipes lately, and this one was definitely a hit!


2 C (16 oz) Coke or Pepsi
1/3 C soy sauce
1 T minced garlic
1/2 C brown sugar
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T lime juice
6 chicken breasts
1. Combine all ingredients but the chicken in a medium sized bowl. Stir to incorporate well.
2. Place chicken in a large gallon sized Ziploc bag. Pour marinade over the chicken. Seal tightly and store in the fridge for 4-24 hours (The longer the better in my book).
3. Discard marinade and grill until cooked through.

Pioneer Day

My mom ran the Deseret News marathon (her 58th!!) on Pioneer Day, so w got up early (although not nearly as early as her!) to watch. We saw her at mile 16 coming out of Emigration Canyon, and at the finish line at Liberty Park. We also got to see a bit of the Days of '47 parade inbetween and after.

Here we are at mile 16, by the zoo... it was a bit of a chilly morning!

Her she comes! You can see her running down the road, this is just around the corner from the finish line.

High-fives! That was a definite highlight for the girls, they talked it for quite a while afterward. After a tasty lunch, meeting up with Shad and Jen, and naps-- for some of us-- we hit the pool. Luke got to swim for the first time! It was pretty noisy in there, but he loved it! He especially liked kicking his feet and splashing his arms in the water.

Pre-swim
Cute cousins!
Luke and Bailee, Kissie and Pata

I'm not sure if it's because we haven't been swimming for a while or because she was tired, but our normally adventurous Violet was pretty clingy in the water. She did have fun though!

Bailee really enjoyed floating on her back!

We stayed after for dinner and a game, and then headed back just in time for sleepy kiddos to fall asleep in the car. It was a great weekend! Congratulations on your 58th marathon Kissie!

Pioneer Day Eve

We got an early start up to Albion Basin on Friday. The girls were so excited that Kevin didn't have to go to work and that we could all go and play! We hadn't been to Albion Basin before, but it certainly lived up to all we had heard about it. Beautiful meadows upon meadows of wildflowers. (Lots of people too, but maybe that was due to the holiday.) We took a little hike up to Cecret Lake and had a picnic afterward. The girls especially loved the stream crossings and spying newts in the lake.

Luke rode in the backpack for the first time and did pretty well. There are lots of straps to chew on!
Do you think they're tired of taking pictures yet????
We made it! With both girls walking the whole way there (and back!), with very little complaining, and even a decent amount of elevation gain (for little legs).
Out of the many yellow, white, red, pink, blue, and purple flowers, this one was my favorite! Prime flower-viewing time is still on for the next few weeks, go check it out!

After the lake and a few errands, we made a spur of the moment to go into Salt Lake to spend the night. We got to go to the Friday night Concert in the Park series that is right next to my parents' apartment. It's so fun to listen to the live music outdoors-- and it was a great concert. The girls had fun watching the amazing amount of dragonflies and trying to catch a gnat in their hands. I hope we can catch a concert this summer again! They are lots of fun.