Happy 4th of July!

We spent a fabulous Friday night to Monday at the cabin for the 4th. Hope you all had fun at whatever you did. It was a great weekend for wildlife. Buck and doe in the driveway and then a momma moose with twin babies by the stream. They were still fuzzy, very cute. They ate and frolicked in the stream and thickets. Dave was wondering why the hornets were bothering him and no one else when Hannah casually mentioned that she thought there might be a nest under his deck chair. Yup. He had been sitting on top of the nest for two days. And the whole time we just thought they liked his aftershave!

Pretzel Jell-O

2 C pretzels
1 C + 2 tbs sugar
3/4 C melted butter
1 med size cool whip
1 8 oz cream cheese
1 6 ox. strawberry jello
1 sm. can (8 oz) crushed pinapple
2 (10 oz) cut up strawberries (frozen bags work best)

1st layer: 2 C finely crushed pretzels, 2 tbs sugar, 3/4 cup melted butter. Mix together and spread onto 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 in preheated oven for 7 minutes.

2nd layer: 1 cup sugar, 1 med size cool whip, 1 8 ox cream cheese. Soften cheese, mix sugar and cream cheese together... fold in cool whip, spread on cooled first layer.

3rd layer: 6 oz package strawberry jell-p, 1 small can 8 oz. crushed pineapple (drained) 2 cups boiling water 10 oz packages of frozen cut up strawberries...

Dissolve jello-o in boiling water. Add drained pineapple and frozen strawberries. Stir and cool until set. (not hard, but thick...) pour gently over second layer -- refrigerate overnight.

I personally used 1 14 oz bag of frozen strawberries when I made it... also I recommend making layer 1 first... making layer 3 second.. and while 3 is almost a gelled consistency I begin layer 2, spread that on.. and layer 3 is ready to be poured on.

And there you have it... the NOT so low cal/low fat Pretzel Jell-O!!! =o) Hope you enjoy!

Love,

Nikki

Congrats to the Royals and Lighting!!!

Congrats to Brady on the great season with both the Royals in Minor League and the Lighting in the AAU league. The Royals finished 3rd during the regular season and won the Tournament. Brady pitched an excellent game Saturday night and made the 9 yr old All-Star team. The lighting placed 3rd in the Tournament on Sunday during an excellent game. I've posted a couple of the pictures from both games, the one where he is in Purple is the AAU team and the Blue is the Indianola league. Notice the big smile when he found out he made All-Stars (Leslie, Eric & I knew, but it was a total shock to him).

Happy Anniversy Grandma and Grandpa a little late

Sorry I'm posting a little late I came down with strep last week and spent the entire weekend in bed while Chris took care of Skyler. I'm getting anxious about graduation, it's getting so close, August 6th will be here before I know it. Skyler is really starting to walk on his own now and always on the move. I will try and get some pictures tonight so I can post them tomorrow. I have to get started on school work now. I hope you guys had a great anniversary and thank you for everything ! Wish we weren't so far apart. We miss all of you.

More Pics!

Jon asked me to try to post a few more photos from their great dinosaur adventure. Hannah really enjoyed spending the day with the gang. She was exhausted last night, probably from learning all about dinosaurs from Sam!

P.S. It was totally an accident that I uploaded a photo of The Sibs here, but really pretty hilarious given the subject is dinosaurs, don't you think? Ha ha ha, I couldn't bring myself to delete it. OK, you can forgive me now.

T-Rexes, Sharks, and Turtles ... oh my!!!!

I would generally start out a post like this saying "Well, we decided to take Hannah and the kids on a little excursion to the Dinosaur Museum." Sadly, I can't say that. Oh, the tragedy of working for a year-round school.

So here's the accurate start:

"Emilee and the kids took Hannah for a fun day at the Dinosaur Museum while Jon got to go to school and try to keep some semblance of order in his classroom full of rowdy, ready-for-summer kids."

It looks like they all had a good time. According to Kimber, they got to see dinosaur bones, but not dinosaurs because "those dinosaurs aren't real." Patrick also had fun, and was really excited to show off a green rubber seaweed thingey he bought for $2.50. He says it's really a centipede, but my first guess was seaweed.

There was also apparently a big group of kids who were there together. It was obvious that they were a big group because they were all about the same age (7-9) and all wore matching bright green shirts that happened to look exactly like the shirt Patrick wore. So the leaders of the group kept calling Patrick, chastising him for wandering off, and admonishing him to "please, stay with the group."

Sam kept telling me, in excited tones and with some vocal nuances that implied I should be stunned by the news ... even after being told several times repeatedly — that Hannah came along too. Sam enjoyed telling me, over and over, all the cool things he showed Hannah—and that he helped her learn what a dinosaur was.

I guess she didn't know beforehand. What do they teach in schools these days?

So it all looked like a blast. But it's okay that I missed it, because I got to laugh at a student who thought Tremonton, Utah was the ideal vacation spot (5th graders are putting together a PowerPoint on their dream vacation, and that's what he chose—seriously come on ... everyone in the universe knows that Kaysville, Utah's the greatest place in the world to visit). So it all evens out in the end.

Happy Anniversary

Happy 61st anniversary grandma and grandpa. And may there be many more happy years together. :)