Brownie Heaven

We had company for dinner on Sunday and she made these delicious brownies.  From the first bite I knew that they weren't from a mix.  She gave me her recipe and it is too good not to share.  Warning:  these are not low-fat or low-cal, but they're so rich you can cut them into small servings.

1 1/3 c. butter
3/4 c. cocoa
2 tsp vanilla
3 c sugar
6 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 c. flour
1 c. chocolate chips

I creamed the butter and sugar, then added the rest of the ingredients.  The batter is pretty thick.  Spread it in a greased 9X13 pan.  Bake at 350 for some undetermined period of time.  My friend didn't tell me and I baked them for 30 minutes and it was still SUPER runny in the middle.  I kept setting the timer for 5 more minutes and checking it.  My oven is funky and bakes things weird, plus I live at a high altitude, etc.  I think they baked for 45 minutes and they were a little too undercooked.  Don't worry, we'll still eat them.

They are SO good. 

Motorcycling

We've been really busy with school, football (especially), LEGO robotics and various other things.  We squeezed in a trip to Idaho to the Idaho state fair.  We went to the tractor pulls there.  It was highly educational for everyone.  We camped at the fair.  Brian, Hudson and I stayed in Grandma Plummer's trailer, but the boys slept in a tent.  The kids had a good time.
Brian had a 10 day stretch off work.  We had a lot of plans, but really only worked on the basement and took the kids motorcycling 1 day.

 Hudson is at the age where, when he wants something, he just keeps repeating it...over...and...over...and...over until you want to rip your ears off.  He LOVES motorcycling.  He asks, probably daily, "Ride momo?...Ride momo?" times that by 500.  I'm not joking.  He wanted a soda the other day and started asking at home.  We got in the car and 20 minutes later he was still repeating the same phrase.  I'd already tried every technique to get him to stop.  I find I just have to ignore it and turn up the radio.

 This old abandoned bus is pretty cool.  They all posed with the bus. 

 As you can see, this is in the middle of nowhere.  It's west of Tooele on I-80 about 20 miles... out past the Morton Salt factory.  Someone has built this really cool track for motorcycles.  The kids just ride around and around, getting more daring with every lap.  "Mom!  Did you see that one?  I jumped like 5 feet in the air!"  (More like 1 1/2 feet, but who's counting?)

He posed himself.  Soooo cool. 

Not pictured:  me, sitting on the reclining lawn chair, reading;  Brian, trying to get Hudson to stop asking him to take him on the momo; and our two dogs who were running around until they were foaming at the mouth and had to sit under the trailer.

Some crafts

I made my first quilt!  I think it turned out cute.  I call all the imperfections the "homemade" look.  It gives it authenticity. 

I made a pillowcase as a demo for Young Women's.  It is such a hit around the house, they all want holiday pillowcases.

My first try with "french seams".  See... no raw edges. 

These are a just a few of the things I've made lately.  I didn't take any pictures of the 20+ baby burp cloths I sewed the last 2 weeks.  They were cute.  I also learned to make the newborn girl headbands out of tights where you can clip different flowers and bows to it. 

New Family Pictures

Apparently I've been remiss in updating my blog. (sorry Kyle) I have a lot of pictures to post, but I feel like I've been busy. I'll start with the latest family pictures we had done. Here are a few individuals of the kids.

Don't worry, during the time that she was taking Tristan and Hudson's pictures Jack was running around like a crazy person. So when it was his turn....
What? Who doesn't love that shade of red face?

Timpanogos Cave

This was fun to take the kids to because we can see Mt. Timpanogos from our house and I had never taken the kids to the cave. It's only 1.5 miles, but it's pretty steep. It also climbs to almost 7,000 ft in elevation, so if you live at Sea Level normally... there wasn't quite enough air. Since we live at 6,200 ft. we didn't notice. All the kids did great! There was minimal complaining and the cave was great.

On our way up. We left early in the morning and it was a little chilly. The chill didn't last long.

At the top.

Inside the cave. It's really hard to get a picture that does the formations justice.
The "heart" of Timpanogos. I was VERY disappointed that they no longer tell the legend of the heart of Timpanogos. There are a couple of versions. Here's one:

According to the legend, on a quest from his father a young Indian warrior named Timpanac met and fell in love with Ucanogas, a young Indian princess. As time progressed, this love caused the other braves to become jealous. In order to put an end to the jealousy, Ucnanogas' father proposed a challenge: the first brave to scale the highest peak of the mountain could claim Ucanogas as his bride. During the race, the braves ambushed Timpanac causing him to fall to his death.

When the young Ucanogas saw that her lover was dead, she offered herself to the Great Spirit to be with Timpanac. During the burial, the folds of her robes made a perfect profile of the mountain peaks; thus binding the two lovers together after death in Mount Timpanogas.

I can remember hearing this story as a kid and when you look at the mountains from straight on, you can see the Indian Princess lying on top of the mountains. Her hair makes Provo Canyon. Her heart lies inside the mountain. They also used to light up the "heart" with a red light. Umm... no more. You also can't touch the "salt and pepper shakers" anymore. It was still fun.

American Fork Canyon

We went, on Sunday, up American Fork Canyon to make S'mores and just hang out. We hiked a little, got really dirty and had a campfire. Amy and Eli came with us and we invited our friends to go too. As you can see, it was a good time.

The Great Tooth Debacle of 2011

This post is not to be confused with the Great Tooth Debacle of 2010, which I realize I didn't blog about. So, a little history. Before we moved Jack had gone to the dentist and had 2 cavities. He had them filled and he didn't have laughing gas. The experience was unmemorable. We move here and 6 months later he complains of a toothache. We didn't have dental insurance, so I just took him to a dentist I found on the web. They X-Ray and evaluate and tell me that he was 9 cavities!!! 9?! They kindly give me a quote for $1,400. *cough cough* I come home and panic a little. I then went online and signed us up for dental insurance. It was kind of lame insurance and we had very limited choices for dentists that took it. I called the closest one (which wasn't close at all) and made an appointment. Thus beginning the 2010 debacle. We went and Jack seemed ok at first. The dentist was very obese and old school. I had Hudson with me and there wasn't really anywhere for me to sit near Jack so I just had to keep checking on him and waiting in the waiting room.
Suddenly, Jack's not ok anymore. He's panicking. He's crying and screaming and hyperventilating, etc. The dentist had drilled out 4 of the teeth. I calm Jack down and the dentist puts this ring around the first tooth to fill it. In Jack's continuing panic, he somehow sucks the ring off the tooth and inhales it. Now he's choking. He can't breath. I was near his feet and he's clawing to sit up and staring at me like... "Mom!!! Help me!"
The dentist does nothing. No moves.
I jump up and pull him up and start to move behind to do the Heimlich when he coughs up the ring. So here's the problem. He can't leave because he has these big holes in his teeth from the drill. He has to lie back down and let the dentist finish. We left and vowed never to go back.
He still had 5 cavities to fill. I found a different dentist. Jack had a panic attack again at the new dentist, but no choking. We used laughing gas the next time and it was a MILLION times better.
This brings us to two weeks ago. Thursday night Jack tells me he has a pain in his mouth. I was busy and didn't really pay that much attention. After dinner was cleaned up I looked in his mouth and was shocked. He has this big pus pocket on his gums.
So, our regular, new, nice dentist doesn't work on Fridays. We had to go to another new guy. He tells me that the tooth has to be pulled. I try and discreetly tell him that Jack has high dental anxiety. Apparently, I was too discreet and should have shouted it out. We should have given him gas. He screamed, choked, sobbed and carried on. It was grueling. Don't worry, I had Hudson there and he peed through his pants and had to go around with no pants on. I made him a balloon out of a latex glove which he played with until it popped. THEN he put the popped glove on his hand and he kept running back into the room saying, "I fix Jackie's teeth." He would then try and get his hand into the action. I was sweating, the dentist was sweating. ugh.
If you've never seen a tooth pulled... it's ugly. The dentist kept stopping and coming to ask me if I wanted him to carry on, since Jack was so upset. What? We've come this far... press on. Finally it was over.

How to blow up a Barbie with bottle rockets

For Tyler:

The boys tried several different ways to blow up Barbie. First, they gave her a mullet hair cut. I'm not sure why, but they were REALLY excited about it. Then they tried taping her to the rocket and it didn't really work out. Bottle rockets are not as powerful as you'd think. So, they took off her head and taped it to the rocket. It didn't work. Maybe their tape was faulty. They finally put Barbie's head ON the rocket, lit it... and it went. Very successful.

They also taped 2 rockets to a toy car to try and get the car to shoot forward. The car was kind of too big and it only moved a few feet. Hardly the shoot off they were hoping for.

For all these experiments they decided they needed more powerful explosives. We didn't agree.

Challis- Lots of pictures!

We just got back from an 8 day trip to Challis, Idaho. For those of you who haven't been there, we took pictures this time.

Coleman riding around Brian's Mom's house.
Jack riding around the houseThe boys getting ready for their rides. Brian is supervising... starting bikes, etc.Tristan getting ready for a ride.

There is a skatepark in town. It's really nice. The boys forgot their scooters, skateboards and bikes, but Grandma Plummer has a collection of bikes that she bought at the thrift store in town, The Hub. They're mostly pink and sparkly, but the boys didn't have many options. They rode them anyway. They also didn't bring bike helmets, so they wore their motorcycle helmets.









Wait, who's this handsome guy?? You really should click and make it bigger. He was such a cute kid. I also dig the fro in 11th grade and the SWEET mullett in 12th.

The kids always get a kick out of the town. Challis is a small town with about 900 people. There aren't any stoplights. There is a Main street and a highway. The Main street is full of historic buildings, some of them dating from the mining days.

This is the county court house.
The boys like that there's a gas station called, "Stinker"
Here is the famous bowling alley. The only drive-up food in town. You can get a delicious shake or any number of fried foods. The first time I ate a finger steak was here. Yes, a finger steak... deep fried pieces of steak. Yes, it was delicious. We ate many shakes and bowled here at least once.

This is Brian's mom's insurance business. She owns the company and the building. It's nice because she's just down the block from Brian's brother's gas station. It makes visiting both of them easy.


The art gallery in town.
The Custer Saloon. It is still in business. See... They're now serving food... in addition to alcohol.
The most favorite Challis destination: The Hub. You can go here and buy a toy for $.25. We bought a barbie to blow up with bottle rockets and Hudson got a tool workbench. The kids ALWAYS find some treasure to get here.
The bottom of Main Street. The boys just wanted pictures of all of it.

Random abandoned building. Clearly original.
We had a great time. We bought fireworks at the Indian Reservation on our way up and the boys spent Saturday night lighting them off. Some of them were VERY big. We drove home Sunday and I took the kids to watch fireworks at a park by myself. Brian had to work.