Leaves, wonderful leaves!

A friend from work has some trees that drop tons of leaves. I asked for them so the kids could roll around in them. We have about 35 trees but they are all cedars and pinions, so no leaves.

What joy can be found rolling in leaves!




Sydney, Sloane and Andrew taking advantage of the big pile of soft leaves.

Green's Peak Picnic

We wanted to take a little day trip to Green's Peak and have a sunset dinner picnic. Wow, we did not quite expect the freezing temperatures. When we got in the car it was 60degrees, when we got out, 40, brrrrrrr......
The view all around was beautiful and the green trees have big areas of yellow from the aspen trees. The wind was crazy.

It was a little warmer the closer we got to the forest, the wind didn't blow as much. Notice Scott's Coco's jacket, he won a pie-eating contest at the AZ state fair with the scouts. I always knew he had it in him!

Andrew, Sloane and Sydney looking with awe at the view. A pretty dense forest is directly behind me taking the picture.

Three little ants on the log--oh four, forgot Charro.

Sloane's 11th Birthday

Samantha K, Chayla C, Sloane T and Emilee H having fun together!

Happy 11th Birthday Sloaney!!
Sloane didn't want a regular cake with ice cream this year, but wanted to make caramel apples. So, she had a few friends over and had a caramel apple bar. They all wanted to watch Percy Jackson The Lightening Thief (which she got for her birthday, along with a ripstick). Good, good times.

Sydney's 16th Birthday!

Today is Syd's birthday, of course we had birthday breakfast of pancakes in the shape of an "S". We also had monkey bread which is our tradition for Sunday morning General Conference.

We wanted to take her out to dinner for her birthday and did on the Saturday before (Oct 2). She asked to Taco Bell for double decker tacos, her most favorite thing in the world! So, to Taco Bell we went and had a great feast!

She got a hoodie that has headphones in the cord, a new ctr ring, a necklace and itunes of course.

She has to wait for one more month before getting her driver's license, but she's driving really well.

Our Garden Harvest

Here's the end product. Carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and watermelon. We decided to dehydrate some watermelon and see what it does. It dryed nicely and has a taffy-like consistency.

We canned all the good stuff while watching General Conference

We can hardly believe all the carrots that we grew. Never have we been successful with carrots!

These are the tomatoes from just today, we've been picking and eating all season. There are a ton more that are not quite ready.

The watermelons that Andrew has were not part of our garden, per se. We had a patch of sunflowers that were basically weeds. When Scott went to cut it down, he saw that watermelons were growing inside.

Sunday afternoon baking with Sloane

Today, Sloane and I decided to bake some yummy breadsticks.

Here's the recipe that we used:

3c warm water

2Tbl yeast

1/2 C yeast

Place ingredients in kitchen-aide bowl and let sit until foamy.

7C flour

2tsp salt

2Tbl italian seasoning

1Tbl garlic powder

Add flour slowly into the bowl and let knead for 10min (using the dough hook). Add a little more flour if needed. You want the sides of the bowl to be clean.

Cut the dough in half, take the dough and roll it out and cut strips with pizza cutter, twist and place on a greased jelly-roll pan. Let rise for about 30min, bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes. I like to broil the last couple minutes to brown the tops. Brush with butter, delish!

Fossil Springs Hiking Trip

Scott took Sydney and Sloane on a hiking trip to Fossil Springs. They went with Scott's brothers (Rick and Jay) and their cousins. It was an easy 4 miles down to Fossil Springs but a hard 4 miles up the next day! While at Fossil Springs, everyone swam, swung on rope swings, played in the water caves, jumped off cliffs and had a great time exploring! It was Sloane's first family backpacking trip, and, with the exception of being too cold or too hungry, I think she had a good time. Here are some pictures of the event:

Everyone in good spirits at the start of the hike!

At the bottom of the trail.

Sydney ready to take the plunge while cousin Jake waits for his turn!

Sloane "The Fish" showing us how its done!

The cool magical cave, or "Gollum's cave".

The water was cool and clear. Quinn, Sloane, Jake and Sydney in the cave.

"Dad, I'm hungry!"

Sloane, Quinn and Cole's friend at the waterfall.

Halfway up the trail. Sydney and Sloane are a little tired from skipping up the trail singing "Zippity Do Da"!

Triumphant smiles as another hike is conquered! I think Sloane is already asleep!