Updates

Well as you can see, I am doing a great job on my resolution. So here is a little update on what Anthony and I have been doing for the last few months.
April- For Spring Break, we went to Florida and the Bahamas on a promotional cruise I was kind of suckered into. Florida was really nice. We spent a lot of time driving to the beach because our hotel was so far away, but the water was really nice. The only problem was that the waves were really calm and Anthony wanted to do some boogie boarding. The Bahamas were very pretty. We swam everyday, walked the shops around our hotel, and tried their local dish, conch (pronounced konk) several different ways. We had, battered and fried, plain fried, and raw in a salad. The salad was pretty good, but very heavy on the citrus juices. Anthony also tried the spine of one. I wasn't brave enough to do that. He said it didn't have much taste but had a texture like a gummy bear. We were going to do some snorkeling, but the weather started acting all funny and the tours were canceled. We were not very happy about that, but we did get to do some snorkeling in Florida over a small rock reef. The fish were really pretty and fun to chase. After the Bahamas, we drove through alligator alley and saw 21 alligators in a canal by the side of the road. They were spread out over about 10 miles. We also drove down to the Keys. That was very long and tiring but fun.
May- school was finishing up and I was busy getting ready for Girl's Camp. The last week, Anthony was asked to go up and be a camp host at Angel Lake for three weeks. He took our trailer up and did that job. I would go and visit him on the weekends. Over memorial day weekend, we got 12 inches of snow there and we had to get plowed out. I was just glad that they sent a snow plow up and he was able to go past our trailer.
June-We got a kitten from a lady in our ward. He is a Siamese mix and super cute. Anthony named him Hondo, after a John Wayne character. We immediately got him used to traveling by going up to Angel Lake. I was called as the Girl's Camp director this year and had a great time doing that. It was with the stake so I didn't have to plan nearly as much, but I still got to do all the certifications and plan the food items. The 13-16th we went to a Church owned camp. All of the girls were great. We only had two major problems. One girl is super shy and is home schooled. Within the first four hours she was in tears wanting to go home. I was able to walk and talk with her and get her comfortable with the idea of staying. Then about two hours later, it happened again. After once again talking her into staying, she had a great time. The girls were all really good about including her in everything. The other problem was that two girls were having a very difficult time communicating decently. Well we eventually got things sorted out and were able to have fun. We then traveled up to Utah to spend time with Anthony's family. After spending a few days with them, we went to visit Trent and Janice.
July- The first week of July, Anthony and I were able to be a Ma and Pa for our stake trek. We met with our group in Tooele, Utah and traveled out to Martin's Cove. The first day we walked 7.2 miles to the visitor's center. On the way we stopped and did a service project. We had lunch and picked up our carts and then headed back to camp (7.2 miles). Wed. the fourth, we broke camp and took our carts back to the visitor's center (7.2 miles) and continued on the journey to Independence Rock. There we celebrated the day with some songs and dancing. We then went to Sixth Crossing to get orientation on doing Rocky Ridge. Because most of the trail is on BLM property, they had to explain the procedures. After that hour long program, we got to eat dinner and head to our camp. We got there around nine and set up camp in the dark. The next morning we cleaned up and started up the trail with our carts. We did the women's pull and also had a reenactment of the Hans Neilsen story. The little lady pulled her sick husband up and over Rocky Ridge to Rock Creek Hollow camp. That was a very touching experience. When we reached camp, we had an evening of personal time. In the morning, Friday, we had a testimony meeting and then traveled to Salt Lake. That evening we had dinner and a devotional by John Bytheway. The kids stayed at host families and the adults stayed in a hotel. Saturday we broke into groups and did baptisms for the dead at three different temples. Anthony got to do the baptizing for our family. He was really thrilled about getting to do that. He has never had that chance before. When we finished, we went on our way back to Anthony's parents, while the rest traveled back to Nevada.
We stayed a week there and went to Hogle Zoo one day. We took his sister, Christina and his mom, Sandra. We had an enjoyable day even though it was really hot. We also did some work around their new yard and put a new door on their shop. On Sunday the 15th, we went up the canyon above Park City and attended Devarie's baby blessing. We then traveled back up to Idaho. Trent had us do some jobs that he has been needing to get done around the house and out at the Mobile Home Park. We put up a new fence along the north border of the property at the house from the back of the corrals all the way to the ditch in front. We also hooked up a trailer with sewer and water and put a frame on it for skirting.
August- The boys took their annual trip to Leadore this last weekend. They packed their gear in on horses and fished their time away. The weren't able to get up to Bear Valley Lake because the road was being worked on, so they had to go to a different lake called Lunker Lake or No Name Lake. The were able to catch lots of fish and went on a hike to Yellow Lake that was over a ridge or so. On the way there they got a flat tire on the trailer. Fortunately they had gotten two spares. They had previously lost a tire on the trailer so one spare was already being used.
On Sunday we went with Trent and Janice to Matt and Amber's baby blessing. It was really fun to see everyone and to hear about how they are all doing.
This week we are going to finish the corral part of the fences, build a porch for the trailer we have been working on, and go to a family reunion at Heise Hot Springs with Anthony's family.
All in all it has been a fun and busy summer for us.

Butter, baking, and blogs

Well there are some perks to living out here in the middle of nowhere. One of those is that Anthony and I get free fresh milk and eggs. There are two families in our ward that have cows and they have been wonderful to give us milk for free. With that milk comes the yummy cream. Well I decided to get fancy and make butter. I remember helping mom make butter and thought it was always so easy. I called mom to double check on the procedure and started my little adventure. Well I think that butter making is a lot easier when all I have to to is mold it into little turtles. I tell you what, my hands were so tired from squeezing and squeezing. But it was worth it here is the result.








We also got one of those perfect brownie pans that cooks them in the little squares. We were a little skeptical of it, but figured we should give it a shot before we just got rid of it. We were pleasantly surprised with how our brownies turned out. We used some mix we got in bulk at Winco while in Boise. It turned out more cake like but still tasted yummy. Here is what they looked like.








Now for a plug for blogs. Anthony and I have been trying out some new recipes that we have found on some blogs. Our favorite blog so far is called melskitchencafe.com. It has recipes for all kids of different things. We tried out a pot roast recipe when Trent and Wyatt came to visit us. It turned out great and made delicious sandwiches the next few days. Tonight we are trying Italian Beef sandwiches and tomorrow we are trying ribs. They have all been amazing so far. There are also desserts galore. If you are sick of your recipes try a new one from there today. (I sound like a commercial but it is really awesome.)

Catch Up!

I was talking to Tiffany on my birthday and she told reminded me that I have a blog. Well I am really bad at taking pictures and even worse at sharing them on my blog, but I want to get better. I have decided to make it a goal this year. (I'm starting a little late with the resolution but oh well.) On Jan. 20th, Anthony and I went to visit Dad. We drove to Twin Falls and went to the temple there that night. It was a full house because the Boise Temple is under reconstruction so there were several people from that area there. It was really great to go to a new temple. It is a lot like the Rexburg one and has beautiful murals of the falls. Unfortunately it was rainy and gross I didn't get any pictures. Sorry.
We drove to Boise the next morning hoping to see Dad. Well my application had been denied for some reason so I wasn't able to do that. Well we really didn't have anything else planned so we went to the Capitol Building. The last time I remember being there was a while ago. It was really neat to see. While we were there, they had a march for the abortion law, so there were several people out on the lawn. There was also a Miss Rodeo thing going on inside. Anthony enjoyed seeing the different areas of the house and senate rooms. We couldn't go in since they were in session but we looked into them.
While we were walking back to where we were parked we saw some geese on the lawn. I couldn't get a picture of them, but we saw a whole bunch more as we were driving to our hotel.
Later that evening I was able to go to my favorite!!! ice cream place. Sub Zero. You choose what flavor of ice cream you want and then they use liquid nitrogen to freeze it right in front of you! It is so awesome to watch and it is soo delicious. The one in Logan closed down, so I was really excited to find one in Boise. We drove home a different way, through Mountain Home. It was pretty dull. There was a fun canyon we drove through with a lot of snow and twists and turns but that was about the extent of the excitement.