Hunter Earned His Eagle!

Long time no post! Sorry everyone! It's amazing how quickly life can pass by. My new resolution is to post at least a few times a month. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, I was trying to remember the things that have happened since my last post. Here is one of the more significant milestones for our family...Hunter, (and Wes and Grandpa) earned his Eagle! Finally! It did take threats of relieving him of his keys and making him ride the bus to get him to finish, but whatever it takes, right? For his project, he replaced the foot boards on the opponent bleachers at the high school. Most of the boards had been replaced at one time or another, so there were no less than five different bolt sizes and most of them were so rusty that they couldn't turn them. They ended up cutting most of them off. They finished just as it started to rain. I'm not sure how happy Hunter was about all this scouting stuff, but he did make me happy getting it done. Oh, and he has his keys and doesn't have to ride the bus. That would have been embarrassing for a senior!

One more big thank you to Mr. Perkins for helping Hunter get everything filled out and in place for this project. He is an amazing man. When Hunter went for his interview, I had a chance to visit with Mr. Perkins for a minute. Not only has he helped dozens of boys finish their Eagles, but he was in the Armed Forces (Army I believe) and faithfully served our country for many years. I hope these boys that he has helped over the years realize what an outstanding man he is. Hopefully, they learned something about serving others from this great man.

The Best Banana Nut Muffins

Banana Nut Muffins

Makes 12-15 muffins

2 C flour

1 C sugar

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

3 very ripe bananas- mashed should be about 1 1/2 C

1/3 C buttermilk

2 large eggs

6 T butter- melted and slightly cooled

1 t. vanilla

1 C walnuts- chopped finely

Oven rack to the lower-middle position. Preheat to 400 degrees. Prepare muffin tins by spraying with non-stick spray or you can use liners.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix bananas, buttermilk, eggs, butter, vanilla and 3/4 C of the nuts. Fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients. until just combined- batter will look lumpy. Be careful not to over mix!

Use an ice cream scoop to drop the batter into the tins. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 C nuts on the tops of the muffins.

Place in oven and drop the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake 20-23 minutes until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Cool in tin 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack for 10 more minutes of cooling before eating.

Happy Birthday to Kelle Belle!

Aren't school pictures great?

Happy, happy birthday Kelle! You've sure have gotten old fast! Where does time go???

Fudgy Goodness!

Wes' mom gave me this recipe shortly after I met him. Next to chocolate chews, these fudgy babies come in second on his list of favorite treats his mom made. I added my own little twist...hidden Mickey's! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Revel Bars

3 c. quick oats

2 eggs

1 c. butter-softened

1 t. soda

2-1/2 c. flour

2 t. vanilla

2 c. brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Mix oats, eggs, butter, soda, flour, vanilla and brown sugar together in the mixer. Press 2/3 of the mixture into a lightly greased sheet pan.

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1-1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 T butter

2 t. vanilla

In a saucepan, melt together the milk, chips, butter and vanilla over low heat. Stir until smooth. Pour over mixture in pan and spread evenly leaving 1/4" edges. Dot with remaining oat mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges are set and lightly golden.

Visiting the Bear

Wes invited us to go for a ride with him to Randolph...with the promise of stopping at Bear Lake on the way back. He said he would need to fix a wheel on a swather and then take it down the road from where it was at to a different farmer so he could demo it. He said,"Shouldn't take longer than a few minutes." We couldn't turn down that offer.

We picked up lunch on the way and after a long ride to Randolph-and the first SuperFriends disc watched, Wes had the tire fixed in record time. We stayed in the truck...It was @99 degrees outside and there were these HUGE black bugs there that could carry off a toddler. Poor Wes had to wear a long sleeved jacket in that heat to keep the bugs from assaulting him. Anyway, It took roughly 45 minutes to follow him to the farmer's field where the swather was to be left. He promised that it would only take @ 15 minutes to show the guy how to run it. Funny thing, on the way down this DESOLATE dirt road there was suddenly a traffic jam. Eight vehicles not including myself and the swather! STRANGE.... SURPRISE! ALL the farmers in the trucks were on their way to demo the swather.....EIGHT of them. I realized right away that it was going to be longer than 15 minutes.

At first, we had the windows down for the breeze...the big black bugs finally smelled our blood and showed up in swarms...Windows up! GREAT! Now we have to run the A/C in short blocks of time to keep from over heating while we're sitting there. Next comes the "I'm Bored!" from the back. SuperFriends was not going to keep their attention much longer...Wait! I remember I have a deck of cards stashed in the truck somewhere- (You never know when you may need a deck of cards for a spontaneous game of poker...) At least 50 games of Go Fish later, Wes was finally ready to go. Good thing, Katelyn REALLY REALLY needs to GO! Poor Wes was drenched from head to toe after having to wear that long sleeved jacket for 4 hours- he drank all the rest of the water we had in the truck.

On our way back to the lake, we talked about the pioneers and how they must have thought that Brigham Young had lost his mind when they traveled through this area. Swamps, big black biting bugs, mountains in the distance that you just knew you were going to have to cross... We decided that we would have made terrible pioneers...Oh and about 15 minutes down the road we had to turn around...the swather was making a funny noise. Woo Hoo! More Go Fish!

After the stop at the icky blue boxes it was off to the lake for a while...

Katelyn and Ryan looking for shells.Ryan picking up rocks to throw in the lake, (notice the respect that he gives me??? Pretty brave since he was a long way from home!)Ryan trying to skip rocks.Wading out as far as Dad will let them. Ryan walking on water...

All in all, it wasn't too bad. We picked up dinner at LeBeaus on the way out. By the time we made it home it was time for bath and bed. Good thing, it was a looooooooong day!

OOooooo...The Claw.....

These were super easy and tons of fun to make! The Littles have been standing over them repeating "The Claw..." and then stealing one to eat.

Beautiful Sunset

Thought I'd share a sunset view from our deck...

We've had some breathtaking ones this summer!