1st Annual Mushroom Extravaganza

Dear Love and Children,

     When Trey Daug and I were hiking back to the car after our six day adventure we saw lots of people hunting for mushrooms.  When we inquired about it they said it was mushroom season (that would explain the 2,562 mushrooms) and that they were specifically searching for Porcini mushrooms.  Oh my yum!  Porcini's are a gourmet mushroom with a nutty flavor and because they're extremely difficult to grow, fresh ones are very expensive.  

We had to wait a full week after our hike to venture out because life is just too darn busy, but one fateful Sunday we came home from church, changed into our mushroom harvesting gear, and drove to the mountains. 

Because we had seen so many people collecting the previous week and we saw lots of people that Sunday with overflowing bags of Porcini, we were worried the mountain would be wiped clean.  We only had to look for a short time before I found the first mushrooms!  We were pumped.

What a fun scavenger hunt, searching for those tasty treats.  The kids were in heaven and so were Trey and I.  We stopped to have a little snack we had packed and discussed what we should make with our harvest.  So many possibilities!  

Jonas found the biggest one of the day and he thought he was a rockstar, which pretty much, he was.

Before we went on our little adventure Trey had done some research into mushrooms so we would be sure to get the edible variety.  He sent me a link to an article about an author who was out harvesting mushrooms, which he had done hundreds of times before, accidentally took home some poisonous ones that he then cooked and fed to his family.  They had to go to the Emergency Room and horrible lifelong consequences resulted. 

Needless to say, I was a bit worried about our amateur mushroom hunting so once we got our harvest home we triple checked all of them and threw out any questionable ones.  The resulting bounty:

That night Trey made delicious Chicken Marsala with Porcini Mushrooms.

The following night he made Porcini Mushroom Ravioli completely from scratch.

He then topped it with fresh garden tomatoes and basil.  The most delicious meal ever!!!!!  He made so much that we ate it two nights in a row, froze the rest, and then had the Miller family over for a feast and we still had leftovers. 

He gets a little zealous with his cooking sometimes. 

One time he made homemade chicken noodle soup from scratch and we ate it every night for an entire week!  Haha, I love that man.

We still had quite a bit of mushrooms so I dried five trays full in the dehydrator.  The bounty that keeps on giving. We all enjoyed the mushroom process so much that we plan on making it a tradition. 

See you next year my loves, Me 





Making Mud Pies

August 2, 2012

Dear Children,
The other day you asked if you could make mud pies.  I thought that sounded like fun so I agreed.  It was messy, gooey and dirty.  All the ingredients for a good time.

Delicious too.  Ok, not really.  Clara just wanted to trick everyone.  She got ya, didn't she?

I'm a-okay with making mud pies.  What I'm not okay with is when I leave four children at home with a babysitter for four hours and the youngest decides to turn on the hose while I'm gone without anyone knowing.  I left the house at 7:30am and returned at 11:30am so somewhere in that time frame the water was turned on.  

I noticed water in the backyard at approximately 4:30pm.  Do you know what that means??!!!  To quote Jonas, "Wow, it looks like a swamp in our backyard."  Agreed.  Water was also running down the street.  I'm so excited to get the water bill.

Mud pies, good.  Backyard swamps, bad.

Still love you, Mama

Visit to see My Man... continued

April 25, 2012

Dear Family,

Day 3- As soon as Trey woke up he took the van in to get it fixed.  I was so worried it was going to cost a fortune and that they'd have to order parts for it.  It cost a whopping $25.00 and was done really fast.  Sweet!  

Once we got the van back we headed downtown to a little store called:

Atticus was in Heaven.  He's a little obsessed with Cowboys right now.  He was so excited to pet this horse and he wanted every. single. thing. in the store.  We picked out some stuff without him seeing and we're going to surprise him with it at some point.  

Before we left the house in the morning we were talking about going to a Cowboy store and Nora said, "I love Cowboys.  If I see one today I'm going to kiss him."  What the?!  Um, okay.

She happened to see one so she puckered up!

Clara asked me to take a picture of her posing like this because she thought she looked cute.  Yep.  

Why is it necessary for me to remind my children in every picture to pretend like they like eachother??  Ugh.  Just "Love One Another" already!

At this point in the trip it was time for us to head back to Farmington while we left the husband/ papa in Panguitch.  But wait!  That's not what happened at all.  

You see, while we were on the road headed to see Mr. Handsome he called and asked where we were.  I told him we were about 2 1/2 hours away.  He said he couldn't take the waiting anymore and that he was going to start driving toward us and then we could meet up somewhere.  He's done this before when he was living in NV and we were in Farmington.   

It's completely impractical for us to drive toward eachother, both using gas and then to leave his car in a town while he gets in my car and drives us the rest of the way to our destination.  Then, at the end of our trip he drives us back to his car where we then part ways and he has to drive 2+ hours back to where he came from and we drive back to Farmington.  It makes no sense at all but I love, love, love it. 

I just love that he's so excited he can't wait to see us.  When we got to Page, AZ he called again and told us just to wait there so we could have a two hour drive together on our last day.  We waited and waited... and waited.  It seemed like forever, but finally he showed up and we were ecstatic!  We left his car at a Hotel and he drove us the rest of the way to Panguitch.

So, here we were on our last day and instead of having to say goodbye we all just hopped in the car and started our little two hour road trip to Page.  We packed a lunch before we left and thought it would be fun to have a picnic somewhere along the way.  

When we were just outside of Kanab we saw Moqui Cave and decided to stop and take a tour. "Moqui Cave is an astonishing museum of natural history located inside a huge 200 ft. sandstone cave.  This museum portrays life of the ancient Anasazi Indians of southern Utah, exhibits including over 1000 arrowheads, pots, bowls, jugs, ceremonial points, and working tools from centuries ago.  Fossils and dinosaur tracks also inhabit this naturally cooled cave, as well as one of the largest fluorescent rock displays in the U.S." 

It was pretty cool.  We got back into the car and were on the lookout for a park so we could stop and eat our lunch.  We never saw one though so we just kept driving.  Trey told me to take a little nap so I would be well rested for when we parted ways and I had to drive to Farmington.  When I woke up he found the perfect spot to eat.  Lone Rock.

There was a little beach and the water was just the right temperature.  The kids asked to go swimming and we thought "sure, why not?".   We didn't have swimsuits so the boys stripped down to their undies and the girls planned on just wading, but eventually they were all the way in too.  They loved the spontaneity of it.

I'm fairly certain Jonas was being a punk and splashing his little brother in this picture.

While the kids played I was busy getting to work on my drip castle.

An intense game of crocodiles.

I told the kids to pose in front of the drip castles Trey and I made and Jonas willingly obliged.

This is more along the lines of what I was thinking.  What is up with Clara's smile?  Maybe she was still in crocodile mode.

It was such a fantastic day and the best little road trip I ever had.  It made saying goodbye a whole lot easier.  Easy, no.  Easier, yes.

I love you all dearly,

Me

Splash Park Papa

July 17, 2011

Dear Children,

Your papa has made up a new game that you absolutely love.  Instead of bathing you in the bathtub he puts you in the shower and then makes up all kinds of crazy "Splash Park" related games.

Tickets are required and after he collects them the fun begins.  The top ticket is Nora's and then Clara and Jonas'.

I love it because you all beg for him to bathe you instead of me. I'm alright with that.  No, really.
Love, Mama

A wonderful day in the neighborhood

July 15, 2011

Dear Family,
     Aaah yeah!  What a great day!  It started off with Papa heading out bright and early for a 15 mile bike ride.  Wowza.

When he got home we watched a movie so he could cool down and take a breather before I whooped him in tennis.  I talked a lot of trash and when it came time for the tennis game he trashed me!!  Ouch. We ended up playing at noon when it was 95 degrees out.  What were we thinking?!  I thought I was going to die and my face took on a very reddish-purple hue for a few hours.  I was so HOT and told Trey I needed a cold shower or swimming so he said, "okay".

On our way home Trey asked the kids if they wanted to use their money to go swimming.  They all said yes, except Jonas because he's saving his money for a school trip.  Atticus piped up and said, "I give you some my money Jo."  Once we got home Atticus rushed into the house and pulled a penny out of his special drawer.  "Here Jonas," he said.  Jonas tried to decline the offer, but Atticus persisted.  Jonas took it and said, "Wow, thanks buddy that's so nice".  Atticus was absolutely beaming.  Oh, sweet brotherly love.

 Nora was loving the little slide and refused to go on the big one.  Stubborn?  What, my child?  Once she saw Jonas and Clara do it a few times she agreed to give it a try and then she didn't want to do anything else.  Typical.

Trey tried to get some underwater shots of Clara and they turned out, um... see for yourself.  Ha!

Oh my goodness those are some seriously white crocodile legs!!

Atticus and I were going under the waterfall towards Trey.  The second picture is gorgeous, I know.

Ha, ha I love these twinner faces.

The waterdog.

After swimming we hurried home, changed our clothes again, and then headed out to dinner.  

Sweet Tomatoes + Family Coupon + Healthy Appetites = Killer Deal

When we were done stuffing our faces we went to our old stand-by for entertainment; the pet store.  We got to hold or pet a cockatoo, a rat, a rabbit and a Siberian Husky.  We love that place.

I enjoyed your company immensely today, my dears.  Love, Me