4th of July

We spent our 4th of July weekend on the west coast, stopping for work in Portland, and then making our way up the coast to see Tom's brother Tim and family in Blaine, WA.
(Warning: I've posted a lot of pictures, so don't curse at me if this post loads slowly. I could have posted even more, but I thought I'd be nice and post them here instead.)

^ We took the scenic route up to Washington . . .

^ . . . and managed to see the bumpers of lots of cars.

^ Oregon wild flowers

^ A quick stop at the beach

^ An old shipwreck

^ Crossing the bridge over Astoria

^ We pulled into Blaine later than planned, but were greeted with a beautiful sunset.

^ Tim and Petra's beautiful home

^ Enjoying the local parade and car show (The Ford pictures are for you, Dad.)

^ Sweet Sofia Marie

^ Playing in Elijas' room

^ Walking down the hill to the beach for dinner

^ Images of Blaine

^ Down by the bay . . .

^ More beautiful sunset pictures

^ Fireworks over the bay

Thanks, Tim and Petra, for the great hospitality! We had so much fun.

On our way home we enjoyed a visit with cousin Lori in Seattle. Unfortunately, I forgot to get my camera out. Good to see you Lori and Greg!

We covered a lot of miles for one weekend, and we are glad to be home again.

island park

A great way to spend a summer weekend: camping and 4-wheeling in Island Park. See more pictures here.

^ Cousins in the creek: Tristin and Hannah

^Like father, like son: Lee and Tristin

^ Dashing Dawson

^ Sarah peeking out of the trailer

^ Order up a marshmallow and I'll cook one for you that's perfectly golden brown. Yum.

^ A moose sighting

^ Tawnya daring to get dirty.

^ Lee and Dawson: not so daring!

^ Cousins in the camper. (Don't ask me what Tristin is doing.)

^ Sneaking off with the treats (Sarah and Maddy)

^ Yummy spaghetti! (Maddy)

^ Irresistable Ilona

^ Covered in mud

^ Covered in mosquito bites

sweet pork

I have another recipe to share. I found this one on the blog Favorite Family Recipes, while looking for a way to duplicate the sweet pork at Cafe Rio. (For you non-Utahns, Cafe Rio is a local favorite fresh Mex restaurant that can't be beat.)


{ sweet pork }

2 pounds pork
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can RED enchilada sauce (I used Old El Paso brand, medium spiciness)
1 c. brown sugar

Put the pork in a heavy duty Ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinade for a few hours or overnight.

Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get TOO dry). Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours. That's it!

If you click on the blog link above, you can get the rest of the recipes needed to make Cafe Rio's sweet pork salad. However, we used the pork in tacos as a variation on our other favorite pork taco recipe. This one is more sweet, the other more savory.

Enjoy!

catching up

I've noticed several blog posts lately with the title of "catching up", a sign that we aren't the only ones filling our summer up (with things other than sitting in front of a computer). We've filled our summer with so much fun that in the midst of it I sometimes forget it is supposed to be fun. Does anyone else have that problem? This weekend is our first weekend home in over a month. That leaves my to-do list a mile long: yard work, laundry, washing car, errands (leaving updating the blog at the bottom of the list.)

So with that, I will work at filling in the blanks this week. These first sweet pictures are of Dane and Sarah at convention. Such great playmates! (Thanks, Amanda, for the photos!)


Notice the rain boots? They are courtesy of the odd amounts of rain we got in the month of June. We've enjoyed how green it has made everything. July looks to be much more hot and dry, however . . .

pico de gallo recipe

A perfect compliment to pulled-pork tacos or great on its own: this pico recipe is most delicious freshly made and eaten promptly.

{ pico de gallo }

Ingredients

Makes 1 3/4 cups

  • 1 medium tomato, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
  • 1/4 medium white onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1/2 cup)
  • 2 small serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed if desired, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions

  1. Combine ingredients in a bowl. Serve immediately, or refrigerate for up to 1 hour.
Note from me: I like to use on-the-vine tomatoes. They are a bit smaller so I used 2 instead of 1. The serrano peppers are excellent if you can tolerate the heat. (I removed all the seeds.) Although I haven't tried this, you should be able to tone it down by using jalepenos in place of serrano peppers. Use a plastic glove or bag over your hand when chopping the peppers as the heat and "burn" your fingers.

slow cooker pulled-pork tacos

I want to share with you a new recipe. It's tried and true—twice, and Yummy with a capital "Y".

{ Slow Cooker Pulled-Pork Tacos }


Ingredients
  • 2 cups store-bought salsa, plus more for serving
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 tablespoons dried oregano
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • kosher salt
  • 1 2 1/2-pound boneless pork butt or shoulder, trimmed of excess fat
  • 18 corn tortillas
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro sprigs
  • 3/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 lime, cut into wedges
Directions
  • In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the salsa, chili powder, oregano, cocoa, and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the pork and turn to coat.
  • Cook, covered, until the meat is tender and pulls apart easily, on high for 4 to 5 hours or on low for 7 to 8 hours.
  • Twenty minutes before serving, heat oven to 350° F.
  • Stack the tortillas, wrap them in foil, and bake until warm, about 15 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, using 2 forks, shred the pork and stir into the cooking liquid. Serve with the tortillas, cilantro, sour cream, lime, and extra salsa.

We like to buy the uncooked tortillas from the grocery store and cook them up on the griddle. It is imperative that you use fresh cilantro. A fresh pico de gallo makes this even better. I will post my favorite pico recipe tomorrow!

Bryce beauty

Last weekend it was time to bring our trailer home after its long stay in Arizona. After all, we have plans for keeping it busy this summer!

So, the girls and I drove down to meet Tom part way in Bryce Canyon for the weekend. Last time on our way through we thought we saw Bryce Canyon, but really it was just the much smaller Red Canyon en route to the real thing.

The real thing was more impressive than the Grand Canyon (in my humble opinion.) I feel very fortunate to see so many great things, and very much in awe of the amazing wonders of our world. Aren't we lucky to have such variety in our very own nation? I take that back. Aren't we lucky to have such amazing variety in our very own state? I've always thought Montana is the most beautiful state there could ever be, but I'm quickly finding out Utah has plenty of character of its own.

I thought this lady had it right. Sitting alone and still, soaking it all in. We, on the other hand, buzzed in and out in a hurry, holding tight to little hands lest they should wander too close to the cliff edge.

Walking up to the canyon you hardly knew it was there, except that as you approached you could hear the echo of the wind roaring through the canyon. It reminded me of walking up to the ocean and hearing the roar of the surf. The trails along the canyon edge were like the boardwalks along the beach.


Ummm... it was a little windy. It was hard to get a good picture!


Abby's friend Bethany came with us, and Tracee (her mom) and Kayli (her older sister) joined us the next day for some four-wheeling exploring.

Sarah with Kayli.

This photo doesn't really do this justice, but my man is covered in filth from head to toe. That's what happens when you eat my dust on a 4-wheeler.

The girls enjoyed a few games of frisbee at the campsite. Best $2 we spent the entire trip.


Best buddies.

a quick happy photo


This is Sarah with her little friend Emma from across the street. Sarah has really come into the age of playdates lately, and it is fun to see her interacting with other kids so well. (Notice the row of Barbies sitting on my chairs meant for "decoration". They helped themselves.)

last day of school

Today was Abby's last day of Kindergarten! She is sooo ready to move on to all day school, school lunches, and harder lessons, but it has been a great year for her.

Yesterday her class put on a little program. They started with a "fashion" show. Abby wore her veterinarian costume because that is what she says she would like to be when she grows up. The teacher read, "That is why I must do well in school because I'll have to go to LOTS of school to be a veterinarian."

Then they sang us a few cute songs.


Socializing with her friends:

In an area as big as this, there is a good chance she won't even see these girls next year. It's sad, but I guess she will always be making new friends.

Joanne, Eliza, Abby, and Sarah, who was lucky enough to get to come watch her big sister.

Abby had an excellent teacher this year: Mrs. Tipton. She will miss her!

my photo book arrived!

I was very impressed with how quickly Shutterfly filled my photo book order. (Read about the original idea here.) Overall the experience was very good. Here are some photos of the finished product:




The finished book is 12 x 12, and 32 pages long. It cost me about $75 to print including shipping, and that was with a 20% discount that they were running. (The 12 x 12 size is quite a bit more than some of their other formats). Overall, it seems worth it considering the quality of the book.

I am totally doing this again. My plan is to do a book for every year of our married lives. But with that investment, I'll be staging it out slowly :) I think I'll start with 2008 and work backwards.

If you are considering doing a photo book yourself, read on. (If not, I won't be offended if you skip on outta here!) Here are a few things I learned.

1. I did quite a bit of research before choosing my printer. Shutterfly had great reviews all around. I was looking for full custom options, but if you want templates to help you, they have a lot of options.

A few other options I considered:

a) Blurb: I've heard they produce good quality books, but you have to pay extra to remove their logo (does it appear on every page? I wasn't sure on that. My Shutterfly book has their logo on the last page). Also, they don't have phone customer support so you have to depend on e-mail to communicate with them.

b) iPhoto: As a Mac user this would be an obvious option, but their formats and templates were to restricting for what I wanted to do with this particular book. I hear their quality is great.

c) Shared Ink: They have excellent options if you want higher quality, but it comes with a price.

d) My Publisher, Smilebooks, and a few others were ruled out because their software works only on a PC and I'm a Mac girl, all the way. I'm like allergic to Windows or something.

2. The method I used on this book (scanning real scrapbook pages) took quite a bit of time to prep because I had to add bleed on all the edges so it wouldn't cut off the content on the pages. I also typed all the journaling so it would be easier to read. Uploading it to Shutterfly, however, was a snap. If I build layouts from scratch in Photoshop, I can build them to exactly the size I need. Shutterfly has Photoshop templates you can download.

3. The color isn't perfect. As someone who is familiar with printing, I'm probably extra sensitive to this. Overall things seemed to print heavier than they looked on my screen. But, if there is one thing I've learned in my line of work, its that printing is not an exact science. For what it is, this is pretty darn impressive.

Have fun!

last soccer game

Abby had her last soccer game on Saturday. I'm really proud of the way she held her own this season as the youngest player on the team. This was her first season to play positions. Her team was fun to watch this year and gave the other teams a run for their money.

Here is a photo of her team:


Want to see something funny? Here is the original photo.

The photo that was the best of all the girls included Assistant Coach Richard but not Coach John. And Paige was looking the other way, and... well, for my work friends who read my blog, I know this isn't perfect Photoshop work. But for this crowd, well, good enough I hope.

The coach handed out trophies with something nice to say about each player. (Even if it was "most attitude")

And then the girls thanked him with a water balloon attack.

Which he promptly returned.



Best soccer buddies. Unfortunately, many of her teammates are moving up to other levels. They will miss playing together. But in any case, we are looking forward to the fall season!

a new project

Over 5 years ago, after Tom's sweet Grandma Elva had passed away, I typed up the amazing story she had written about her life, and then I sorted through the many albums she had (well-labeled, I might add) and matched appropriate photos to the story.

Here are a few pages from the album that resulted. I gave it to Tom's dad for his 50th birthday.




Since then, I've wished we could have a copy of the album for ourselves, so I borrowed it back and made scans of the pages. I plan to have a 12 x 12 digital book printed. The best part about that is others can get a copy if they want it. I've done a little research, and I'm leaning towards getting it printed with Shutterfly. But does anyone out there have experience with this or have any recommendations?

If this goes well, I plan to do a book for each year of our marriage. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

wish list-bentwood chairs

Here are a few photos that have inspired my desire for bentwood chairs.





Since the Pottery Barn chairs (above) are no longer available (I called and had them check their other stores and they only had one left somewhere in Colorado), I've started to do the following:

1. I'm trying to check Down East Home once a week, since they carry Pottery Barn furniture at about 1/2 the price, and sometimes they have discontinued merch. (This is probably a hopeless case since they rarely have a full set).
2. I set up e-bay searches to e-mail me every time something new is posted with my keywords.
3. I check KSL classifieds and Craigs list daily.
4. I'm saving my pennies so I can afford them when the right chairs come along!

Is that serious or what? I think it could be fun to hit a few antique stores around here to see if I could collect a mismatched set that would look okay together. I kind of like that look. It would take me a good solid day to get that done though... and a good shopping partner. Anyone interested?

Road Trip to Southern Utah-Part V

{ Lake Powell }

Not being a native of Utah, I've noticed how many Utahns take this amazing lake for granted. But having a dad who loves to boat and water ski, I've learned having a lake as large and warm as this within driving distance is a benefit to appreciate.

The enormity of this lake is overwhelming. Of course, we only saw one small fraction of it on our visit (outlined in pink.) I'm told Powell has more shoreline than the entire United States coast line because of all the arms and crags.


The pink star (by Big Water) is where Tom's trailer has spent the winter while he frequents the job he has been working on there.

This map is a closeup of where we spent our time. (This is for my parent's benefit since we are working on them to come down here). Lone Rock Road leads to a public beach, shown below.

This is a vast sandy beach. I was impressed by the fact that people could pull in and park wherever they want, put their boats in the water wherever they want, and set up camp. There were a lot of people there, but it didn't seem crowded. A little further down was Wahweap Marina which had campgrounds with full facilities and boat ramps.

This picture shows Lone Rock in the background. It sticks up right out of the middle of the water. We tubed with the girls a little bit here, and the water was already warmer than most Montana lakes get all year. The weather turned a bit stormy after that, so we headed out to explore the lake (or a tiny portion of it, as you can see from the map).

You know you have $$dough$$ when your helicopters drop you and your family off on top of your double-decker houseboat that is parked on a remote beach and ready for you to enjoy for the week.

But, on our more limited budget, we still enjoyed the speedboat we rented for the day.

See the big smiles across their faces? Grandpa? Wouldn't you love to see those smiles brighten up your boat for a weekend?

Road Trip to Southern Utah-Part IV

And as promised, here is the view at the top of the hill.

Drum roll please......

There is so much beauty to behold in the desert. It was in bloom.





Tomorrow, I bring you the finale of our trip.

Road Trip to Southern Utah-Part III

The hills behind the place the trailer is parked has a web of trails weaving through them. After breakfast on Friday we packed up and headed out to explore on the four-wheelers.


An outcropping of rocks not far from the trailer. Nope, we didn't see any rattlesnakes.



Some of the trails were smooth and sandy. In the hills, the trails looked like this; rocky and rough. Can you believe Sarah actually fell asleep during our long morning ride, going over these rocky trails?

Cactus Cuties


Tomorrow I will show you the magnificent views that greeted us at the end of our ride!

Road Trip to Southern Utah-Part II

{ Coral Pink Sand Dunes }

We made a little detour on our way to Page to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. As you can see from the picture above, it was quite windy while we were there. We didn't stay too long to endure the sand blasting.

We stayed just long enough to get a few fun photos.




This could be a fun place to play in nicer weather. Even in the wind it was a worthwhile detour to see one of many geological fascinations Southern Utah has to offer. They say the sand all blew in to that area and got stuck there.

Road Trip to Southern Utah-Part I


(an excerpt from Abby's journal)

On our way we stopped to witness the beautiful scenery of Bryce Canyon.

While we were there we visited a great little museum.

They had an amazing exhibit of butterflies from all over the world.

And lots of wildlife like this...

and this...

and this! (Even better than Cabellas.)

Candy necklaces help the miles go by faster.

And finally, we arrived in Page, where we got to camp in our trailer for the very first time.

More to come.