Christmas Eats, Treats and Feats

You know the line in It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas where it says, "...and Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again..."? Stauney asked me if that was true and I told her we'd have to wait and see. It's true. All these new toys and new snow on the ground and a new sled and yet everyone keeps complaining to me that they are bored! I'm at a point in my life where I'm thrilled when I'm bored because it means I don't really have anything I have to do right then (although I always have something I should be doing). So to my children I say - be happy to be bored occasionally because it doesn't happen much as you get older.

I remember complaining to my Dad as a child about how time dragged by and he told me, "The older you get, the faster it goes." He was so right. Time passes by so quickly. This whole season I could hardly believe it was Christmas time already, and now it's over. So here are just a few things from our Christmas season which passed by so quickly I didn't get photos of some of it.

Evan drew this cute picture of me and him and we had to get a photo of it before it got erased. It's so cute it warms my heart to look at it!

Hooray for new snow to get the boys out of the house! They attempted to build an igloo, but kept getting distracted with snowball fights. They're sitting in what they got built and our dog Chloe is jumping on Noah's friend Kelson. Chloe loved having them out there too so she could kiss anyone who fell on the ground. I think they like going outside more as an excuse to come in and drink more cocoa.

New recipe: CAKE BALLS

While the boys were outside playing Stauney and I were busy inside making food and treats for some neighbors and the family party the next day. This was a recipe I found on allrecipes.com that looked really good and sounded really easy. You bake a cake mix, crumble it into a bowl while warm, and mix in a can of frosting. You can mix any flavors you want to, we wanted to do red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, but couldn't find a red velvet mix, so this is a photo of the mix of cherry chip and cream cheese frosting.

Pack the mix tightly into a scoop then roll it lightly between your hands an place the balls on a tray. We used a 1" scoop. We also did a devils food cake with milk chocolate frosting. Each cake mix made about 70 cake balls. Then refrigerate (or freeze) them to harden the balls.

Then you melt almond bark or candy coating and dip the balls in them. We did some of each kind of cake in each coating. I got a little lazy on the drizzling, so they look messy, but we were ready to be done. This was an easy recipe, but it took hours to dip them all. They turned out pretty though, and were a big hit at the family party.

Here's a photo of all the Moon grandchildren. And thanks to the magic of Photoshop they are all in it and (mostly) smiling. Aimee had just gotten home from New Jersey that morning, yeah! We had a fun party, playing games, eating and visiting and more eating, and some really silly games, and even more eating.

Christmas eve cookies for Santa. The kids all in their new jammies and Christmas socks. This is by the kids' tree where they decorated underneath it with the Lego train and a Lego village they built on the train table. They decorated the tree without help this year and it's very unique!

And one final recipe.
Whenever I do something the kids really like it has to become a new tradition whether I want to keep doing it or not. I made the french toast Christmas trees about 6 years ago for the first time an have been doing it ever since. Last year I told the kids it took too much time and I didn't want to spend that much time in the kitchen on Christmas morning so I made a breakfast casserole instead. It did not go over well. They didn't like, didn't eat it and kept reminding me how much they love the french toast Christmas trees. I got the hint. They were back this year, and will stay from now on, with their sausage trunks and orange slice suns too.

So here's the recipe: not for the french toast, but for the Lil' Smokies we used this year for trunks. We usually heat them in grape jelly, which is really good. But, Christmas morning we discovered we had no grape jelly - and we are so glad!!! We started searching for a substitute and decided to try cranberry jelly instead with a little orange juice. It was so good! We will now make that a tradition and look forward to trying them for other occasions as well.

We also enjoyed the kids in their Christmas concerts. Logan played his trumpet in the band concert, Evan sang with the kindergarten in the school assembly and Stauney and Noah performed in the school choirs three times. We are proud of them all and the hard work they put into their practices. They all did a wonderful job.

We had a fun Christmas morning and Santa must have decided the kids were good. They got books, clothes (Evan was not happy about getting underwear for Christmas), new Wii games, new Webkinz, and plenty of toys. Evan said, "I think I got everything I had on my list!" Noah was so excited that Santa came through with the hard-to-find Bakugan game that he asked for. Logan and Stauney were immediatley immersed in their new books that they were dying to read, Makeover (Stauney), and books 4 and 5 of The Ranger's Apprentice (Logan).
Their new Wii games are My Sims Kingdom, De Blob and Wii Music. If you have a Wii, you have to get Wii Music! It is so much fun and we laughed so hard at the music videos we made. They were all really fun games and we spent 2 days in our jammies just playing and watching new videos. On Christmas day we cooked a turkey with all the trimmings but felt so weird sitting down to eat such a nice meal in our pajamas.

We are now looking forward to the new year and our party with the Hansens. We'll keep you posted on that soon.

Fun with Snow and Photoshop

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas like we did. It's been a tradition to take a photo of our Christmas lights outside every year. But when my husband reminded me of it tonight I was thinking of skipping it due to the new foot of snow we got that hasn't been cleared. I'm so glad I didn't because I got some really neat snowy photos and hopefully my camera (and fingers) will recover from the cold. I had to come in and download my camera to see what I got, and of course I had to mess with a few in Photoshop Elements. So here are the results!

I liked this one with the colored lights making a rainbow of colors underneath the snow on our spruce tree. I did a dry brush filter on it.


I didn't do anything to this photo. It's of a snowflake light decoration hanging on our house.

The railing up to our front porch has a garland and white lights on it. And now a foot of snow too! I did a soft white blending mode on a duplicate layer and I think a slight paint daubs filter.

Soft white and poster edges for our house light.

Didn't do anything to this one either. So glad it focused on the icicle for me.

Frosty fake poinsettias in the planter on the porch. Soft white and water paper filter.

This one I took Monday. They're not partridges, but they are blackbirds in our pear tree.
Soft white and poster edges (I think).

Merry Christmas!

We hope you are all having a great holiday season. Ours is very busy which is why I haven't been blogging. Just wanted to take a moment though to post this and wish you all a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from David, Kristyn and kids!

Some 5* Perfected Recipes

Wow, this month really went by fast and the holidays are upon us. But these photos don't go with December, so here's my final fall post.

I like chili, but I didn't love it until I tried this recipe. I have tried making a few chili recipes over the years, but this is now a favorite that we make often. I'll officially call it Aunt Donna's chili since David's mom got it from her sister, but we call it Grandma Hansen's chili. Funny how recipes get re-named after the person who gives it to you. I add 2 more cans of chili beans when I make it so that it goes further for my family, and I like having leftovers. I have never remembered to buy bay leaves, so I haven't ever put those in, I usually use dried diced onions if I don't have fresh, and I add more chili powder.

Aunt Donna's Chili

1 1/2 to 2 lbs. ground beef
1 onion, chopped

Brown, then add:
1 can chili beans
1 can diced tomaotes
2 small cans tomato sauce plus 2 cans water
1 pkg. spaghetti sauce mix
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. chili powder
2 bay leaves
Cook slowly until thickened, usually about 1/2 hour, uncovered. Stir often. Remove bay leaves.

Somewhere in our move 4 1/2 years ago, I lost my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I had tried others with limited success (especially the batch David helped Stauney make where they added powdered sugar in place of the flour and wondered why it wouldn't thicken.) So in a search last Christmas for a great sugar cookie recipe I found this one on Allrecipes. I love that site because I love to read the ratings and see how people liked it and what they would change. I recently made these to take visiting teaching in November. I will post my favorite icing recipes also. These are iced with royal icing that I outlined and flood-filled, but I have a favorite soft frosting recipe also from Allrecipes. These cookies are crispy on the outside, but soft and melt-in-your mouth on the inside. And they are really easy! The royal icing hardens up just enough to place them on a plate without the cookies sticking together, but stays soft inside. The green ones in the photo are still wet and that's why they are shiny.
My Grandma Lindsay's sugar cookies will always have a place in my heart, my recipe binder, and my stomach, but these are my favorite sugar cookies for decorating. Try them and enjoy!

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar (can add up to 1 more cup for a sweeter cookie if you don't plan to frost them)
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour in the fridge or overnight. (I throw it in the freezer for 1/2 hour).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart.
Bake 6-8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. (I bake mine up to 10 min. depending on the thickness. Bake until the edges start to turn brown.)
Makes about 4-5 dozen depending on size.

Royal Icing

8 tsp. merengue powder + 8 Tbsp. water = 4 egg whites (I've always used the powder for food safety)
5 cups powdered sugar (plus more for thickening)
1/2 to 1 tsp. lemon extract
food coloring to tint
Whisk the merengue powder and water until smooth and bubbly. Add powdered sugar and extract. Separate some into another bowl to thicken for outlining. Add more powdered sugar until it will hold a peak on your spoon. The flooding frosting may need to be thickened some more also so it will run together, but not be too runny. Place in decorating bags with a small round tips. (The lemon extract makes this fabulous, so don't go without! The only real trick to this is to get the icing the right consistency for outlining and filling. Outline and let dry before filling.)


Sugar Cookie Frosting
allrecipes.com

4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup shortening
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
food coloring
Cream together sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually add milk and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes.

Sorry, but I forgot to take a photo of the next recipe, but I'm sure you know what a pumpkin roll looks like.

For the Stake Presidency/visiting speakers dinner after Stake conference last Sunday I was assigned a dessert to make. My last food assignment had problems and was a flop (only to me I'm sure), so I was determined to show the other wives that I could cook. I searched allrecipes.com again for a 5* pumpkin roll recipe and found one that looked promising. Actually I found 2, but used the ingredients from one (Granny Kat's) and the directions from the other(Pumpkin Roll II). I made this recipe 4 TIMES last Saturday before I finally felt like I had it perfected and good enough to present. So I took the best 2 to the dinner and took the other 2 to Thanksgiving to share with my family, who could care less what they looked like. Turns out, once you slice them, they look pretty, and they taste so good, who cares what they look like! But I feel like I redeemed myself. I dusted powdered sugar on the plates, put a slice of pumpkin roll, some chocolate shavings, and a scoop of Dryers Vanilla Bean ice cream. Oh boy it's good!
So here's the combination of recipes, and my instructions so we'll call it:

The Perfected Pumpkin Roll

1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
(1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice = 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ginger, 1/8 tsp. nutmeg, 1/8 tsp. cloves)
powdered sugar for dusting

Filling:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 10"x15" jelly-roll pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour the paper completely.
Cream eggs and sugar about 2 minutes until fluffy. Blend in lemon juice, pumpkin, spices and baking soda. Slowly add flour and blend just until mixed. Pour the mixture into prepared pan and spread evenly.
Bake for 15 minutes. (Here's where I had problems with my first 2. Bake until the top starts to brown slightly and springs back to the touch. I didn't bake the first ones long enough and they stuck to the towel. I baked my perfect one about 21 minutes, but it depends on your oven.)
Lay a linen towel on the counter and sprinkle it generously with powdered sugar (not lightly like they tell you). Turn the cake onto the towel. Carefully roll the towel up with the cake in it. (Lengthwise if you want a small roll, widthwise if you want a big one). Place the cake-in-towel on a cooling rack and let cool completely (no peeking, that's where I messed up #3, it cracked. Mine took about 40 minutes).
Make the icing in a bowl with a mixer.
When the cake has cooled, carefully unroll it, spread the icing on it, and re-roll it without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate before serving (or it squashes) or you can freeze it for up to 2 weeks in foil. (I froze mine and let them thaw on the plates while we ate.) Cut the cake in slices, thick or thin. Serves about 10-15.


I hope you try and enjoy my recipes! I also made Apple Carmel Sundae Tart from kraftfoods.com for our friends' Pie Preview the night before Thanksgiving. Everyone brings pie and we sit around and chat and eat WAY too much pie, but oh, how we look forward to it every year! Anyway, this pie is very simple and quick to make, very tasty and will be added to my favorites. The Cherry Danish Dessert is also a 5* favorite of our family.

I'm thankful for good food, but mostly for my wonderful family and friends I have to share it with. You're the reason I enjoy baking.

Fall Projects

I'm finally getting around to posting the photos of my fall projects. I have more projects in the works, but here's what I have done so far:
When we first moved in this area leading up to the front door was overgrown with huge rosebushes that you could barely walk past without getting scratched. We took those out and I cut the grass out and added a few flowers, but this spring I sprayed the grass the rest of the way to the sidewalk to add this path. David and the kids helped me dig and till for many evenings. We tried to get the rocks laid before we left for Hawaii, but ran out of time, then fair, school, etc., so I finally got back to this project and spent days pulling the weeds that had filled it in and getting the rocks in. I'm really happy with it. I pulled some perennials out of my summer pots and put those in the ground and a neighbor gave me some starts of peonies, and coreopsis. Next spring I'm starting phase 2 of the front yard landscaping which will be to make a courtyard near the front door and I will move more flowers to this bed from that area.

Then I took a fun break for UEA weekend and went to the Ogden dinosaur park with the kids. We love going around Halloween to see the fun decorations and it's such a pretty fall setting. In the museum a man spent around 30 minutes teaching us about rocks and gemstones. Logan, Stauney and I were fascinated by all he taught us. Noah and Evan were a little impatient. Evan was looking out the window at the dinosaurs and said, "If we don't get out of here soon, I'm going to break this window and jump out to get to those dinosaurs."

Posing by the pumpkins. After the dino park, we went to Smith and Edward's in Willard to look for Halloween costume items. The kids had so much fun trying on the old military surplus stuff. They thought it was the greatest store ever. For those of you not familiar with the store, their motto is "We have it if you can find it."

I'm so glad my Mom was up and helped Evan and I pick the grapes from our neighbor's grape vines. There were a lot. It was a cold morning and we were freezing, but Evan was so excited about helping to pick them.
I got about 30 quarts of grape juice from them. This was the first time I have done white grape juice and the colors are so weird. These bottles are from the same batch. They started out light and got darker toward the end. The grapes were really sweet though and the juice is great.

The kids and I also picked 2 bushel of pears from our tree, but I can't seem to find those photos so I think they are on a different memory card. They will have to wait until I get well enough to make them into jam.

Mario Party 6

I stayed up until midnight finishing grape juice because the next day was our Ward Halloween party and I had to get costumes made. Noah came up with this idea when he said he wanted to be Mario for Halloween. It just ballooned from there and we ended up with the whole family as Mario characters: Mario, Luigi, Waluigi, Wario, Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. We won best costumes at the party, and while I was sewing Logan made David's Aunt Donna's chili recipe to take and won 2nd place in the chili cook-off. I'll post the recipe later, it's really good and easy!

The rusty railing before.

I've been wanting to re-paint this railing since we moved in and a recent spell of warm weather convinced me it was time to get it done. Since I hadn't used the textured paint before I under-estimated how much I needed and ended up running to the store 3 times to get more.

The finished railing!

I used Rust-oleum multi-colored textured paint and I'm really happy with how it turned out. But I could have used 2 instead of the 6 cans I ended up using if I would have painted it brown first with the textured paint over that.

The dresser before.

My SIL Karen has started refinishing furniture and had bought this dresser but decided not to use it. She sold it to me and told me what I needed to buy to refinish it. It was a pale green color and was in good shape other than the old paint finish. It was a little scary at first to start sanding it, but after I got the hang of the sander I really enjoyed doing it. The paint went on well, and with Karen's great tips it all went good.

And here's the finished dresser.

It was my husband's idea to do it pink. Stauney loves it! It is a really sturdy dresser and will be great for her room. It was missing 3 handles, so we found these cute small ones to put on the top drawers and I painted all the handles with a brown hammered steel paint.We are going to do her room in pink and brown soon. I sold her full-sized bed to my parents for their guest room and we are going to get a twin bed for her room so she'll have more space.

We are thinking of starting a little business re-finishing furniture, so tell me what you think of it. She did a similar dresser and mirror in a lime green paint with brown stain that is just beautiful. Thank you Karen for sharing your knowledge and experience with me.

More than a cold

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm sick. Turns out it wasn't a cold though. I have a really bad case of strep throat. It came on suddenly Friday afternoon and I have been out of it ever since. After waking up Sunday morning to a horrific looking throat and bad fever, I went to the doctor and got a pennicillin shot. I should start feeling better soon.
I'm writing this to thank my husband for all he has done for me lately. He has been coming home from work early to take the kids places, going in to work late and taking short lunches to get kids to school, cooking the meals, running kids to the store and parties, and canceling meetings all weekend long to stay home and take care of me and the kids.
Yesterday he got up early to arrange for the Stake President to teach for him in a Ward conference so he could take our kids to church. It was our Primary Program, and I'm a Primary teacher, and I was so upset to miss not only my own kids in it, but my class also. Then he made blueberry pancakes, got the kids bathed and ready for church, took me to the doctor, fed everyone lunch, started dinner and headed for church. He has been so amazing and wonderful.
My kids have been helping out so much also and I am so grateful to them too. They've been bringing me chicken noodle soup in bed, refilling my water bottle, helping David with meals and supplying me with movies to keep my mind off my illness. I have such a great family and I am so thankful for them. I love them so much. I am hoping and praying now that none of them get sick.

Too Old for Parties

It's sad. I now have a 14-year old, and he's too old for parties.

Being the party-planning mom that I am, I began asking Logan months ago what he wanted to do for his birthday party this year. None of my suggestions were enticing him, and he wasn't coming up with anything on his own. (His sister picks her next party theme the day after her birthday.) So in frustration during another brainstorming session I suggested that we just forget a party and David and I would take him to dinner and a movie. Finally I got some excitement from an idea! So that's what we did.

On the Saturday night before Logan's birthday we had Stauney babysit and we took him out. He picked Marie Callendar's for dinner (so he could get pie with dinner). With an entire menu to choose from, anything he wanted, no price limit for a change, what does Logan get to eat? A hamburger. Teenagers. Then we went to see The Fly Boys. This was an independent movie filmed in St. George that I had heard about on the KSL Movie Show. (Two pre-teen boys stow away in an airplane owned by a mob boss.) It was only in select theaters for a certain amount of time. There were only David, Logan and myself and one other couple with 2 kids in the entire theater for the movie. WE LOVED IT! Everyone else was missing out. It was funny, adventureous, exciting, and heartwarming, and I highly recommend it to those over 13. It was PG-13 for some language and intense excitement that had me screaming in the theater.

The next day was Sunday, and Logan's birthday. He was ordained to the office of a Teacher at church that day. Logan picked lasagna for dinner, and a cheesecake for his birthday cake which I bought at Sam's Club. We ate, he opened presents, we ate cake, and that was it! No balloons, no cute party plates, no invitations, no custom cake masterpiece. I really didn't have much to do for his birthday except make dinner. I think I liked it! Logan was perfectly content, we had a great time spending some time with just Logan, and the other kids are thinking that dinner and a movie with mom and dad might be funner than a party. But, being the party-planning mom that I am, I won't encourage it, until they get too old for parties too.

Top Nine List

I seem to always be about a month behind on my posts. We went to the Utah State Fair in September, but I just have to post this.

First, I have to give you a little goat lesson. As we sit in the barn for the goat shows at the State Fair, multitudes of students, groups and families come through to see the animals. We soon found out, the first time there, that many don't know anything about farm animals. We always get asked questions about the goats, but one question we get 98% of the time, "What happened to their ears." The LaMancha breed of goats have little stubby ears. It actually looks like they have none. And most questions and comments revolve around their ears - or lack of.

Here's a picture of a LaMancha.

Most people think of Nubians, with Roman noses and long floppy ears, when they think of goats, and probably don't even realize that there are other breeds.

Anyway, enough goat lesson, here's what I wanted to post:

The Top Nine List of Funny Comments We Heard About Goats While Sitting at the Utah State Fair.
(Sorry, I only had nine, not ten.)

#9 - Abt. 15 year-old girl: "I have to take pictures of all their butts! They're so weird."

#8 - Abt. 9 year-old boy spots brown LaMancha across the barn: "Hey look! They have a llama."

#7 - Abt. 6 year-old girl: "Mommy, do these lay eggs?"

#6 - Abt. 15 year-old boy: "Hey, a Billy Goat!"
Owner: "That ain't no Billy Goat. Look underneath her, see the udder?"
15 y.o.b.: Looks confused at word 'udder'. "But it has little horns."
Owner: "They all have horns."

#5 - Grown man: "So, are these the goats?"

#4 - Mentally challenged man points to a blank white banner hanging from the ceiling and says confidently, "See that? It says 'goats'." Other mentally challenged adults in group look at banner, nod approvingly, and walk away. Only one man stays behind and looks at blank banner confused. Steps around to look at other side of blank banner. Finally shrugs his shoulders and walks off to join the others.

#3 - Abt. 10 year-old boy to his classmates looking at a LaMancha: "Yep, they cut the ears off. They use animal parts to make things."

#2 - Abt. 8 year-old girl referring to the teats: "See those? You have to touch those and push them up in to get milk out of them. They do it to cows too."
Her classmate's response: "Eww!"

#1 - Grown man with wife and four young children: Confidently, "The boys have ears, the girls don't."


Logan and Stauney raise Oberhasli's. Here's a picture of them at the State Fair. They did really well in the 4-H show with Logan getting 4th and Stauney getting 1st in their age groups in Showmanship. Then Stauney's goat Penelope got 2nd place Jr. Kid, and Logan's goat got 2nd place Dry Yearling, and Jr. Reserve Champion.
In the open show Penelope got 1st place Jr. Kid, and Ruby got 3rd place Dry Yearling. I won't go into detail of what that all means, but it's really good!
(Stauney is actually showing Clover in this picture, and if you read my previous goat posts of why she no longer owns Clover, I'll just add that despite her recent cosmetic surgery for which we dubbed her 'FrankenClover', she hilariously won 1st place in the same show she got disqualified in last year!)

And finally, I had to show a picture of these awesome tigers that were in a show at the fair. They are from the Marcan Tiger Preserve Tigers of India show. They were so beautiful!

The State Fair is a lot of work and effort, but very entertaining and rewarding in the end.

It Rained on our Parade...literally.

Payson, Utah celebrates Onion Days on Labor Day weekend every year and it's a huge Hansen family tradition in conjunction with a family reunion. We love this weekend and plan for it every year. The cousins of similar ages combine, find their spots and have a big sleep-over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma Hansen bakes huge amounts of delicious food for us to gorge ourselves on, the women have their 'Girls Night Out' movie night, we all play volleyball, usually watch the band concert in the park, some run the 5K (and even 10K this year), and we go see the parade.Do you kind of expect Shrek and Fiona to be waving from inside the big onion like me?

In the 17 years that David and I have been married, I only remember missing one Onion Days Parade because I was sick with the flu. Almost every year it's so hot by the time the parade starts you can hardly stand it. Well, this year we had a rainy weekend, but it seemed to be clearing up, and was even sunny for a while. So we headed to the 'Hansen spot' on the parade route. We've never sat anywhere but there because Grandpa stakes it out with about 20 chairs and rope every year. But not far into the parade - it poured. Raining cats and dogs definitely applies here. We were wet, cold, and trying to stay dry with blankets over our heads. But, we ran. Lots of people ran. We tried to be brave, but with two screaming boys on your lap it's just not worth it. So we sprinted to Grandma's only to be faced with wet boys crying because they hardly got any candy. We had a niece and nephew in the parade somewhere that we never got to wave to.

Logan stayed, and hid with some other family members under a nearby carport. He heard one man who was handing out candy ask another how long they had to keep going. The reply was, "We're done when the candy is gone." To which he promptly walked over to a brave family still on the side of the road, dumped his entire bag of candy in their laps, said, "Done!" and headed for shelter. And to the credit of most people in the parade, they kept going, marching forward to a dwindling crowd. Brave souls.

Despite the rainout, we had a great weekend. Logan ran in the annual 5K for the first time and did a great job. He and a cousin got big bags as prizes. Since all the runners wanted hot cocoa instead of icy sports drinks from sponsors on that cold morning, they loaded the drinks into their bags and lugged them back to Grandma's. Happy teenagers.

I think we all had happy husbands in the end too. Instead of heading to the shopping booths after the parade, the wives all stayed and chatted where it was warm and dry.

Love-a-Fair

Whew! Another major event in our lives completed. We had two weeks after getting back from vacations to switch gears and get ready for the county fair. Just before vacation I got asked to be the new 4-H Goat Club secretary due to last minute - lets just say, conflicts. I really don't know much about goats, and I've tried to keep it that way to avoid positions like this, but they were desperate, and I'm too nice. I won't go into boring details, but my spreadsheets got completed, the show got organized, and I actually really enjoyed it.
The kids had been working at leading their goats during the summer, but sporadically, so it was time to get down to business and show those goats who was boss (or at least try). They also worked hard getting them trimmed, and shaved and their hooves clipped, last minute tattooing (oops, forgot about that), baths (the goats and the kids), and finally shopping to replace all the kids outgrown showing clothes. Logan only grew 6 inches since the last fair so his pants should have fit, right? Anyway, we got it all done and got everyone and animal there.
There was a Utah Dairy Goat Assoc. double-ring open goat show one day and the Davis County Fair in conjunction with a UDGA youth show the next day. Hence, long hours in barns.

This is at the county fair. Stauney is showing Clover and Logan is showing Ruby. These are the goats they got last year. They ended up taking 1st (Ruby) and 2nd (Clover) in this age group and got to compete in the Star Class where Logan won Reserve Champion for Ruby. Stauney also competed in the Star Class with her other goat Penelope who got 1st place in her age group. Logan also showed a market goat, Copper. He sold him at the auction for $150.00. Stauney got Reserve Champion in showmanship. I won't explain too much since most of you wouldn't understand what all the terms mean, but they did really well and brought home tons of ribbons and they both got a big belt buckle again. They basically competed in 4 shows in 2 days. They also entered numerous exhibits and did really good in those also. Stauney made a set of cards that got selected to go to the State Fair.
Evan and Noah got to compete in the Pee-Wee goat show a few days later. Evan was in the youngest age group and showed Stauney's goat Penelope (Penny). He had no idea who the judge was, so he didn't know who to watch, and spent most of the time waving at us in the audience. He was a little distracted, but so cute and got 3rd of 3. He came out and yelled, "Yes! I got third place!" He received a medal and a lead rope. He was thrilled.

Noah was in the intermediate age group and showed our neighbor's goat Mississippi Mud. He placed first and got to come back in to compete again, and won Grand Champion! He did so awesome. He can show a goat better than a lot of kids in the 4-H/FFA show. He deserved it and received a medal, a bag of candy, and a belt buckle (if you look at the sack in his hand you can see the cute little belt buckle in it). He was beaming and proud when he exited the arena and pointed to Logan and said, "Two years. You and me." Logan accepted the challenge.

This photo of David and Stauney reflects how we all felt by the end of the fair. It was worth it.
But we better rest quickly, we are headed to the Utah State Fair in 2 weeks. Come see us!

Vacation #2

A dream come true. That's the best way to describe my second vacation in July 2008. My whole life I have wanted to go to Hawaii, all it took was a deadline on our Skymiles to get us there! That's what we had been saving them for after all. After about 5 months of planning, we were so excited to finally be on our way. I won't do much writing because the photos are the best part. If you want to see more you'll have to come over to see the other nearly 1000 photos I took.
Our house, Honu C, one of three Tropical Waters rental houses in a gated area in Pupukea. It's on the edge of Papa'Iloa beach of Oahu's north shore. (Our van is the white one. Apparently every rental agency in Hawaii rents the same model of van. I'm sure it makes it easier for the locals to spot the tourists.)
This is the beach from behind the rental houses. Just up from this is Sunset beach and the Bonzai Pipeline, one of the top surfing spots in the world in the winter months. There were steps leading from here down to the beach where we had a short walk through some lava rock before the sand.
Mine and David's footprints in the sand. This is near the tidepool on our beach where we could see little fish swimming around in the lava rock. Our beach had the most beautiful sand I have ever seen. It must be due to the huge waves that crash here all winter making the perfectly tumbled sand. We walked down to the beach the first night we got to Hawaii. It was already after dark by the time we got back from dinner. There were little specks in the sand that glowed in the dark. We don't know what they were, but they were cool.Our beach at sunrise. David got up early one morning while I slept in and walked down to the beach to see the sunrise. This is the tidepool in the foreground.
Our beach at sunset. After being out and about all day, we almost always headed for the beach in the evenings to watch the sun set.
Sharks cove was just down the path a couple minutes from our house. It is #12 of the top snorkeling spots in the world. This is the sunset from there after we finished snorkeling one day.
We were so lucky to have Shark's Cove so close. The 3 D's (David, Dannie and Dad) tried out snorkeling at Turtle Bay one morning, but said it was nothing compared to Shark's Cove. This is a photo David took of some fish in Shark's Cove with a little disposable underwater camera. It's not the clearest, but you can see how many fish there were. We had so much fun snorkeling and wish we could have done it more. We only had to be knee-deep in the water to see this many fish. We didn't even wear our fins because we didn't have to go far out to be surrounded. David did once, but said there were just as many fish near the shore. We saw all colors, and sizes. One cute little fish even fell in love with David's water shoe and followed his foot around.It was really amazing.
The Laie Hawaii temple. On this day we just toured the temple grounds and took photos. It is so beautiful there and I love the view from the front of the temple looking straight out to the ocean. On Saturday we went and did a session. The temple was a lot smaller inside than we thought it would be, but very pretty.
Waves crashing near Hanauma Bay. On our second day in Hawaii we toured the island, stopping here and there to shop, wade at a beach and take photos of amazing vistas like this. The colors in the water were breathtaking.One of the beautiful sea turtles on Laniakea beach on the north shore. Every afternoon around 3:00 p.m. the come onto the shore to bask in the sun. That day we saw about ten sea turtles in the area. Some on the beach, some in the water. The oldest female, Honey Girl, was slaughtered just a few days before we got there. Please read her story and more about these amazing creatures on this link malamanahonu.org. Earlier that morning a news crew was there because one of the other turtles had crawled up to the grave of Honey Girl and rested her head on it in front of Honey Girl's photo. So sad.
David and myself at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was such a fun day. I could talk a lot about it, but I won't. I'll just say, go to Hawaii, and be sure to visit it.

This was taken right before we went in for our Luau. Me, David, Dannie, Sherilyn, Mom and Dad, and of course our new 'cousins' in purple on the ends. Don't you just love our hats that scream "TOURIST"! Well, I didn't care, I have naturally curly hair, and it does not mix well with humidity. I have photos with my hat off that prove it. (Sorry, I won't post those.)
We really enjoyed the food and the entertainment. They sang Dad and I 'Happy Birthday' (and everyone else with a July birthday), and Dad and Mom got to go on stage and dance to 'The Hawaiian Wedding Song" because it was their anniversary month.

We had several hikes and walks that we took to see some of the amazing plant life on Oahu. We hiked to the waterfall at Lyon Arboretum. It was barely a trickle, but we saw amazing flowers and trees along the way. This photo of the double hibiscus was taken at Waimea Valley Audobon Center, another must-see place on the island. SO many amazing plants to see. My favorite was the unique and unusual Cannonball Tree.

The view from the top of Diamond Head. Quite the hike, but worth it for the view. Hey, I just remembered we paid a guy for T-shirts that say "I hiked Diamond Head" to be mailed to our house. They better show up soon. I'll have to get back to you on how that worked out.

I'll end with this photo because it's one of my favorites that I took at Lyon Arboretum. Hawaii is wonderful, but no matter how many photos you take and see, it just doesn't compare to being there. It feels great to have a dream come true. I can't wait to go back.