September Sushi Spectacular

September is an busy month. So much to do. Kids back in school, sport games starting up, cello, etc. But most importantly, September 15Th marks the shared birthdays of my wonderful daddy dearest and fabulous mother-in-law.

This year we celebrated their birthdays at Kathy's house making homemade sushi. WHAT A NIGHT! I can see why sushi chefs get paid so much and why sushi is so expensive. We all had such a wonderful time. Sieauna even jumped in and made her own crab and shrimp rolls! Great time. Amazing food and the Saki wasn't to bad too! Thank you Kathy, for opening your home to us and showing us how to make some mean sushi rolls.

Why I Love Running.

Here is my run from yesterday. It was long but breathtaking and relaxing (and hey, who can say that while you're burning 1200 calories?) I enjoyed it so much. I am very lucky to be able to run in such a beautiful city.

Just Call Me Domestic Diva

When I visited Kitty in Washington, she gave me some fun How-To books with quilting projects as well as some random fabrics she didn't think she was going to use. Well, yesterday I was bored. Yep. Justin was off at the U of U game, the kids were playing with friends, the house was clean and chores were done so I decided to try my hand at a cute table runner pattern I found in one of those to-do books.

This is how it went.

Here are some of the squares after I cut the fabric but before I sewed the squares together:And after the squares were all sewn together:After adding three different borders:Then came the batting and binding. Now I didn't think I'd get this far so I was very sad when I was "in the sew-zone" and found I had no batting. :(. SOOOOO, thanks to the amazing sweetness of my friend Holli (who just happened to be on the phone with me when I discovered this and was expressing to her my sadness) took it upon herself to run to the store and get me some. I was able to finish! - Love you Holli!!!

After the entire runner was put together and binded, I decided to try my hand at stippling-closely spaced, random quilting stitches that tend to flatten the quilted area. I'd seen the work of my talented sister-in-law and wanted to try it out. Now, please don't look to closely, but I am pretty proud of the results.And here we have the finished project. Let's just call it my "Domestic Diva Day". It probably wont happen again for awhile. ;)

Quick Trip for Labor Day

We decided to take a road trip with the kids and drove to Cle Elum, Washington over Labor Day to spend some time with Kitty and Steve. We left Thursday after picking up the kids from school and drove to Boise. We arrived around 9:30 and had some late night hot wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. Did I mention the hot "Blazin" wings come with a warning? Yes, they ARE that hot! That place is awesome and it just so happened that beers are two-for-one Thursday nights after 8PM so, hello!?! Perfect timing! We stayed the night at a hotel in Boise and woke up bright and early for the long haul to Cle Elum.

We stopped in Prosser, WA and had lunch at a fabulous brewery, the Whitstran Brewing Company, where I had the most amazing blue cheese burger with onions sauteed in the brewery's own stout. So good. SO SO good. Then we just had to do a little wine tasting as Prosser is considered Wine Country! They had 49 wineries in town! Their roads were named such names as "Cabernet", "Merlot", "Chardonnay" etc. It was a wonderful town and someday I'd like to go back and spend a weekend just there trying to hit as many wineries as I can. They even have a RV park called Wine Country RV Park!

Back on the road and the next stop was Thorpe where we purchased some onions, whipped honey, doughnut peaches and other local fresh fruits and vegetables. Then onto our destination point, Cle Elum.
While there we did some shopping and walking around the local Farmer's Market (where I picked up the most beautiful rosemary tree) and ventured over to the fish hatchery where we learned all about how these guys keep up the salmon population! But the most fun was just hanging out with Kitty and Steve. We had a ton of yummy food and Steve surprised us by sharing his bottle of 1992 Dom Perignon with us! We felt so privileged. None of us wanted to leave. We all slept so well in the mountain air and had such a relaxing time. We all ready miss them!

Monday we drove home. All the way home. Let me just tell you that 14 hours in a car with two kids gets a little crazy towards the end! But we are home safe now and get to cherish the memories we made.

A New Year!

5Th and 3rd.

Yes, you read that right. It is not a typo. My BABIES are in 5Th and 3rd grade this year! Where has the time gone? How did they grow so fast? Why is Alex so BIG? How did this happen? Okay, enough obvious questions, let's talk about them!

They were both super excited to go back to school (ME too). Sieauna is especially excited because 1) she got the only male teacher in the school; 2) he's allergic to tree nuts too!; 3) they are the only class that gets to use laptops; 4) her teacher plays the guitar for them in the morning. Alex, well, (seeing as he will probably never read this) totally has a crush on Miss Crocker. I'm referring to the kind of crush where his eyes kinda glaze over and he answers her questions with "Uh huh." It's soooo cute. I picked them up from school yesterday and Alex said "I love Miss Crocker! She is so funny, and she giggles, and she loves recess and she has four sisters and MOM SHE WENT TO BRIGHTON TOO!" But I think Sieauna's response wraps it up best: "Mom, it was the best day EVER!"

Saved The Best For Last?

We spent the weekend at Jordanelle for a short last camping trip of the season. It was nice to get away, but not my favorite of the camping trips and we probably wont be going back. The beach was very rocky and the water was really cold. The wind was horrendous and we all got sunburned. Alex even got a little case of sunstroke. However, it was relaxing and the scenery was beautiful.

But are we really done? Was that the last hurrah of the summer?

Nope.

We couldn't bear to winterize the trailer just yet and decided we have a couple more quick trips in our future. Who knows when and where, but it WILL happen! Mark my words.

"Melts" My Heart

I LOVE my nieces and nephews. One of the best things about being an Aunt is getting to spend time with those cuties. On this particular evening, the two youngest of the clan were especially loving and adorable and I couldn't resist taking some pics.

The whole family got together at grandma and grandpa's on the eve before Nanny & Poppa's departure. Grandma gave each of the eight grandchildren an ice cream cone. Jack, oh Jack, LOVED this treat. As he literally sucked the ice cream out, he made the cutest little moaning sounds, a sure sign of his complete contentment. Brielle decided I was her favorite that night and she wanted to go home with me. I took her to the car but it was locked. She marched her little body back to Justin, held out her hands and said "Keys? Car?" She is SUCH a doll. I scooped her up and we made it all the way back to the car before she decided she wanted mommy to come with her. Oh these two melt my heart.

Summertime Fun

Here are a few of the things we did this summer. Most of them involve water, because my kids are water babies and LIVE for the water! These were just some fun random summer things we did in addition to the copious amounts of camping. This summer both the kids learned to jump off the diving boards at the pool. Alex kicked it up a notch and decided he has no fear of heights! He proceeded to jump off the high dive, the first platform and finally the second platform at Cottonwood Heights all in the same afternoon! The kid is CRAZY!
We are sad to see summer go, but are happy we had one of the best ones yet!

It Pays to Wait!

So I've been hoarding all my Famous Footwear coupons patiently waiting for their back to school clearance. So excited about my savings I had to share!

For Sieauna:
Tall brown boots.
Were: $99.99
ON SALE for $30.00
Savings of $69.99

For Alex:
Black dress shoes.
Were: $34.99
ON SALE for $24.99
1/2 off BOGO SALE made them $12.49
Savings of $22.50

Additional 20% coupon I had: -$8.50
My $5 off Rewards Certificate: - $5.00
Brings the total to: $35.82

That's right! I got both the kids very nice (Sieauna's were $100 normally!) school shoes for a total of 35.82. TOTAL SAVINGS OF $105.99. YES!

Feels good to save money.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

60 SURPRISE!

Mom turned 60 this weekend and what a week/weekend it has been! We started off the "surprises" with a visit from Nanny and Poppa. They flew in all the way from New York to be here for their daughter's big day. I picked them up from the airport with a little surprise for them....all their great-grand kids there to welcome them to Utah (including the two babies they hadn't met yet!) We took them home to mom's house for lunch. Sieauna played a couple of tunes on the cello and it was wonderful to just sit and chat and catch up before mom got home from work. Mom was totally surprised to come home and find her parents waiting there for her. She was a little confused and emotional and it was wonderful to see her so happy! Later that night, we all gathered together again at mom's to talk and have dinner with the surprise guests whom we've missed so much!Up to the cabin they went for surprise number two: Dad had a hot tub installed at the cabin! Mom was so excited! Saturday was the big party and 34 of her friends and family came up to the cabin to celebrate with her. Her long-time friends, Day and Rich flew in from Phoenix and her "other sister" Judy came in from Colorado. Along with all the family and other great friends, it was a party to remember. Her talented and adorable grand daughters preformed a dance for her (sooooo cute!) and she even got a rendition of the Phineas and Ferb "I Love you Mom" from me (haha-not impressive trust me!)A fun week and weekend for sure. We love you mom. Hope your birthday was all you imagined. You are beautiful and definitely DO NOT look 60!!!!!