Kanarraville Falls

Last Saturday morning, Mark was getting ready to go to work when his brother David called and invited us to go on a hike with him, his family and their brother Paul that afternoon at 12:30 to Kanarraville Falls. He immediately said yes on behalf of him and Madelyn, but took a while for me to commit. Finally I decided that Luke and I should go too. We had to hurry and get ready while Mark was at the clinic, and then we all drove over there.

Kanarraville is a little town about 12 miles south of Cedar City, and I always admire it as we drive past on the freeway. It's very scenic and has some pretty ranches. At the base of the mountain, there's a trail head for the hike.

 It was uphill virtually the entire way....and hot

 

 

You cross an icy cold creek about halfway there, which the kids loved

 

Paul and David

 

Finally (after lots of whining on Madelyn's part) we reached the part of the hike where you're supposed to walk up the creek into a slot canyon and climb up some waterfalls, like this:

 image here

(random people) image here

Uh, huh. Like I'm taking my kids up that.

So, we stopped and the others walked on. I would have liked to have seen the awesome scenery, but the creek was freezing cold, swift and slippery and I didn't feel like having one of my children drown that day. Plus Mark was on call and needed to get back into cell phone range. Instead, the munchkins just got wet and chucked rocks into the creek for a while, and then changed into the dry clothes I'd hauled up for them in my water/snack/sunscreen/diaper bag.

 

 

 

  

 

 Can you see the whiptail lizard Madelyn found?

 

Back down...

We had to park about five blocks away from those cars you see down there, which felt like about another five miles. Our car was right in front of a playground, and apparently we hadn't worn out the kids enough because then they wanted to play for another half hour.

 

They had these giant, 12-feet high metal slides that reminded me of the ones we used to have in our city park growing up. Ah, small towns...

 

Mark would like me to mention that because I was snapping this picture instead of catching Luke, he went zooming past me and did a face plant in the dirt as he came off the slide. Don't worry......he was fine.........

See?? 

 

So we got home dirty and exhausted at about 4:30 and I am STILL SORE and bug bitten. It was nice spending some time together as a family though. We might go back to that playground again--it was pretty dang sweet!

A little ham for dinner

Luke, 21 months

Sayonara!

I have been nothing but excited for my best friend Nadia to get to spend the next 3-5 years living on a tropical island (on contract with the NHSC), but yesterday when it actually came down to her leaving the US, I was such a BOOB!. She was texting me from the airport, where they were going to fly from Albuquerque, NM to SLC, UT to Tokyo, Japan, to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Waaaaaaaay over there.

We haven't even lived in the same city for 2 1/2 years, but now that she's 6,500 miles away instead of 650, it's not like I can take a road trip or meet her in Vegas to go see her any time I want. 

*Side note: I just looked it up, and Mark was also 6,500 miles away from me while on his mission to southern Brazil. Geez. No wonder letters took 2 weeks to get there.

 Our kids will probably be burly teenagers the next time they see each other. Haha. Not really.

But back to being excited: Look at these pictures of the house they'll be living in (which I stole off her blog)

 

 

 

That would be the Phillipine Sea right out their window. The white line is a coral reef. They're going to have a hard life!!

 

They've had such a looooonnng journey with undergrad, medical school and residency and this is what they've been working towards for the whole 11 years they've been married. Jeremy will have a real salary (finally) and Beckham and Ravi are going to have the BEST time being kids there. I think they're going to be learning Mandarin Chinese in school, if I remember right. (People do speak English there--it is a Commonwealth of the US.)

Anyway, I'm going to miss them! Thank goodness for the internet!

My budding artist

My dear boy Luke has just been a curious little rascal lately! We keep Madelyn's art supplies in her closet, which he has no qualms about vandalizing. Plus, she leaves her stuff out everywhere, which is how this came about:

 

Turns out that marker was permanent.

 

Then yesterday, he walks up to me and says, "Uh, oh..."

 

And check out that gash he got over his eye he got from falling off a chair a couple days ago. This looks better than it initially did. He has figured out how to not only scale the dining room chairs to get onto the table, but he's able to get on top of our bar stools now. Siiiiigggghhhhh

 Then I went into Madelyn's room and discovered the 40 other things he'd drawn on with green marker. The carpet, every toy that was within reach, her beach towel, her dresser...

 

 ...her dress up baskets...

 And her bed, two of her blankets and the quilt which I had JUST WASHED the day before. Did I mention he ripped off all her wall stickers again, too???

 

I can't help thinking that if my children didn't roam around like free range chickens all day, things like this wouldn't happen so much. "Free Range Parenting." I should write a book. It involves having to actually be going about your life and your household duties without hovering over your children every second. Unfortunately, it involves a lot of messes and more than the usual amount of sand being eaten.

And your kid might end up being green a lot. Or black if he finds a pen. And pencils aren't safe from him either.

By the way, the marker washed out of everything but one of the wicker baskets, which will need a coat of paint, and the carpet still has a greenish tinge. Tally another point for Luke! So far he's winning in the carpet wars! Now excuse me while I go find a padlock for every writing implement in the house...

A scrumptious NO BAKE cheesecake?!

It turns out we did get some cheesecake on Father's Day--thanks to my fabulous mother-in-law who sent us home with some. :D This recipe is in our Yoder Family Cookbook but I've never tried it before. I was immediately won over when I found out you don't even have to bake it (aside from the crust). And it's not like those boxed Jell-o "cheesecakes", either. It tastes like the real deal! So without further ado:

Heavenly Orange Cheesecake

James and Laura Yoder

1 cup chocolate wafer or graham cracker crumbs

3 Tbl. butter, melted

1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup pure unsweetened orange juice

3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup whipping cream, whipped

2 tsp. grated orange peel

Combine crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9" springform pan. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. 

Soften gelatin in orange juice in saucepan; stir over low heat until dissolved. Combine cream cheese and sugar, mixing at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Gradually add gelatin mixture, mixing until blended. 

Chill until slightly thickened; fold in whipped cream and orange peel. Pour over crust. Chill. Garnish with orange sections and mint leaves, if desired. 10-12 servings.

Photo source here

Reason #2 to buy some Cheez-Its

 Reason #1 is of course that they're delicious and cheesy, and are one of the only foods I was able to stomach during the first 24 weeks of my pregnancy with Madelyn.

Reason #2 is this:



You all know I have a need to go overseas. In fact, I've recently been looking into taking the family to Japan, but was somewhat deterred by the fact that we'd need about $10,000 to go over there. *choke*

So winning one of the 12 grand prizes from Cheez-It would make my life a LOT easier. They'll provide airfare, accommodations for a week and a $1,000 debit card for expenses  for a family of four to either Paris, London, Tokyo or London.  YES, PLEASE!!!!

The only problem is deciding where to go. I immediately said Paris, and Mark said that would be his last choice--he'd rather go to London. So let's have a rundown of the top 5 of each city.

Paris:

1. Hello, it's Paris.
2. The food!
3. The markets!
4. The Louvre!
5. The cathedrals/architecture!

 London:

1. Jane Austen/Harry Potter/The Beatles!
2. They all speak English!
3. Lots of family history!
4. Westminster Abbey!
5. Jaunts to the English countryside!

 Tokyo:

1. Shopping/nightlife!
2. Tokyo Disneyland! (There's a Disneyland in Paris, too. Whodathunk?)
3. The traditional architecture/gardens!
4. Jaunts to the Japanese countryside/the motherland! (China. Where Mark's g-pa was born.)
5. Nadia will fly over from Saipan to hang out with us and geek out over anime!

Rome:

1. Hello, it's ♥Italy♥.

2. The food!

3. The history/architecture!

4. Bona fide Michelangelo sculptures at the Vatican!

5. The Pantheon!

 Dang it. Now I think I've changed my mind to Rome. Mark, are you OK with this?

So now I want to take a poll: Where would you choose to go, and why? Have any of you been to any of these places? I think I need to go buy more Cheez-Its.

Happy Father's Day

August 20, 2010

...to the chap who gave me these two marvelous, cheesecake making children. I'd post more, but you are too busy on the "real" computer playing Guild Wars with Madelyn and her warrior princess Cutie Heart, whom Madelyn says "...has a little dead guy to help her and raises all the dead animals that she kills." I love a man who plays with his kids! Even if they're pretending to be necromancers.

PS. We did not make cheesecake today, unfortunately, but yesterday I did make a double batch of Coconut Lime Banana Bread and today a triple batch of  my Cinnamon Rolls loaded with dark brown sugar, raisins, toasted pecans and cream cheese frosting. Any excuse to bake, right?

Yum yum

Here's some of my favorite FOOD things!

I am picky when it comes to microwave popcorn. Pop Weaver (sold at Walmart) used to be my favorite, but then they changed their formulation (to become more healthy, psh)  and since then, it's been decidedly lackluster. So I tried Pop Secret Jumbo Pop, and I'm in love!!

 

It's made with real Land O Lakes butter and has the perfect ratio of fluffiness to flavor. I can only seem to find the Jumbo version at Lin's (Associated Foods) for around $4-5, but you can also buy it in large, cheap quantities here on Amazon. You can even do a subscribe and save and have a case of four sent to your house every 1, 2, 3 or 6 months! Just like you do with diapers! How awesome is that?!?? That's a lot of popcorn.

Even though Walmart has failed in my popcorn needs, I have recently found a couple of things that I now want to eat all the time.

Mark's favorite fruit is mango, but they're hard to find (good ones, anyway) fresh. So I found these on the baking aisle at Walmart for $3.50. YUM. Our whole family ate a bag in about five minutes. Kind of pricey for how fast they disappear, but they're good for you! Just think of it that way....

I don't usually buy stuff from the Walmart bakery....I find their donuts and stuff....what's the word......gross? Too preservative-y? But when I saw this cheese bread ($3) I thought it would be worth a try. I love the cheddar cheese topped bagels from the Smith's bakery. It turns out this bread has cheddar on the inside as well as the out. It was freaking delicious. I cut slices of it, put it in the toaster and then smeared it with cream cheese. Mmmmm!

Here's a treasure from Smith's:

 Their Private Selection (Kroger) brand of ice cream has all sorts of delicious flavors--this one is Black Raspberry with Dark Chocolate Chunks :D.... and we've also tried a vanilla with toffee and caramel something or other. It's creamy and sophisticated, all for the same price as one serving from an ice cream shop!

I've only found these new minty 3 Musketeer bars in trial size packs at Smith's. They're good! Kind of like York patties, but thicker and fluffier. It's a nice little refreshing treat, and they're low fat. Can't go wrong there.

And you need to try the Wild Strawberry+Tangy Citrus Trident Layers gum.

And the new Wendy's Natural-Cut Fries with sea salt. The end. I need to go now.