Trial and Error...???

Saturday morning Bryan decided to begin working on his glaze receipes for donut holes. This weekend we did a trial with Amaretto flavoring and Choc. cappaccino flavoring. The title of this is trial and error for a reason... hehe

Trial - Amaretto glaze... Error - the glaze was made w/ alcoholic amaretto, it will be very good w/ a flavor syrup instead.

Trial - Silk Chocolate flavored coffee made with cappaccino machine... Error - don't pour hot coffee on the powdered sugar...

The amaretto is going to be good.. the coffee was good, but we need someone that really enjoys coffee flavor to give us a review. My coffee choice is a Mocha with a shot of carmel... so really it's so sweet and tasty and full of sugar and milk that I don't taste the coffee. LoL

If you have any ideas of flavors to use... let us know!!!

The summer we all "graduated"

It has been an absolute whirlwind since Dave and I retired and Hannah graduated. We took our first trip--to Quincy to celebrate the 4th of July, Dale's recovery from breaking his ankle, and the 118 degree heat index--and our second to visit our friends in Durango.

We stopped in Mesa Verde National Monument on the way to Durango and had a wonderful adventure. We had dinner in a fantastic restaurant that no one would expect to find out there in the middle of nowhere, and got up early to tour Spruce Tree House on our own and take off on an amazing hike to Petroglyph Point. It was a shady hike along the side of a canyon at that time of the morning. It would have been brutal later in the day. There was not a lot of elevation gain, but a lot of scrambling over and between boulders, up rough-hewn rock stairs. At one point there was an arrow pointing to what had to be a foothold. The obvious message--put your foot here, grab as much of this boulder as you can, and hoist yourself up. Dave never even batted an eye. Up he went. That new knee is priceless, just in case anyone is wondering.

We ended the day on a tour of Cliff House, the largest of the dwellings, with a Native American guide named Clyde who taught us about the symbolism of the Kivas. We are all much more closely related than we ever imagined. It was a beautiful experience.

On to Durango and then Bill and Diana's place at Vallecito Lake. Next post and photos to come.

Jr Olympics - New Orleans

Just wanted to say Congrats to Kenz on her fabulous first time at the AAU Junior Olympics over the past week. After surprising the kids with a limo ride from the hotel, I think Eric had as much fun playing with buttons as they did. It was on to a busy week of competition. Here are her results: 5th overall in floor out of 10, 14th overall in double mini and out of 20 and 11th overall in tramp (after placing 2nd in flight) out of 26. Her words after double-min "at least I didn't get last". She also received a plaque for Iowa finishing 2nd in Tramp. Not bad for having to compete agains at least 3 AAU National team members. Her coach Joyce surprised us all with the news that she wants to move Kenzie and Jenny up to Sub-Advance on tramp so they can do synchronized tramp. How cool is that! There are photos below:

Jenny, Kenz & Brady

Kenzie after astounding us all with her fabulous tramp routine.

Kenzie and Coach Joyce
Kenzie, Allison and Jenny during the Parade of Athletes

Kenzie representing Iowa with a 2nd place plaque in Tramp and Allison representing Iowa with a 3rd place plaque in Double Mini.

Congrats, Kenzie!!!

Graduation Saturday

Then it was on to graduation Saturday. We were so thrilled that Jon and Benj and their beautiful families could join us. We filled an entire pew in the church, and then had lunch at our favorite Mexican food restaurant in celebration. It was a great day!

photos, hopefully

Hannah's graduation

It was a whirlwind week and weekend here for Hannah's graduation. Thursday was Baccalaureate Service, and Hannah received an award for outstanding graduate in psychology. Better yet, she received a stuffed neuron, or brain cell, from the teacher. A new prized possession. She also received a certificate for scoring in the top 10 percent of all Utah high school students taking the ACT test in the following subjects: everything. The blog is not letting me attach photos, so I will post them separately.

Softball Awards Banquet

We went to the softball awards banquet last week. Woo-hoo. Hannah was named Offensive MVP and got big praise for her consistently strong hitting. She was also recognized as the queen of left field, which she took over about half way through the season and had everybody wondering why in the heck she hadn't been playing left field her whole life. She OWNED it!

She is on a backpacking trip this week, then has graduation Saturday, June 4th. Sorry if the announcements are late. We were trying to get a photo shot to include and the Utah weather has not been at all cooperative.

Well, here are some photos I know you will enjoy, and one in particular that will remind you who Hannah's hero is.