New Recipes

I’ve added several new recipes to my recipe box.  Including

Sweet Potato Rolls

and

Pumpkin Filled Cream Puffs with Caramel-Maple Sauce

Enjoy!

Fun facts about Jeff

 

• Jeff has an incredible metabolism and energy level.  He was 185 pounds when we married 22 years ago, and he is 197 pounds now.  I’m not even going to tell you how my weight has fluctuated during this time.  Suffice to say, he is Mr. Universe.  Lately you will find him biking/hiking at least four times a week.
• Jeff has a minor degree in philosophy.  We used to stay up all night long and talk about philosophy and the mysteries of life.
• Jeff loves sports.  Throughout his life he has played basketball, baseball and football.  He has coached the boys teams as well.  Lately he has taken to hiking and nearly every weekend you’ll find him somewhere up in the mountains with the dog.
• Jeff is a morning person. Up at the crack of dawn.    If I want him to sleep in on Sunday mornings with me, I have to slip him a tylenol PM while he isn’t looking.
• Jeff likes horseradish.  I don’t understand, I don’t understand!
• Jeff loves to travel.  And when he can’t travel, you will often find him on Google maps browsing for places.
• Jeff is a walking calculator.  He can calculate percentages and ratios and word problems within seconds.   He loves math and once we had a college calculus textbook for reading material in our bathroom.  I guarantee it wasn’t me reading it!
• Jeff loves fresh berries.  He’s in happy heaven when he can go out in the back in the summer and pick a quart of fresh strawberries and raspberries.
• Jeff has a dry, witty humor.  The fact he can still make me laugh in even the darkest of nights should be a testament to his natural ability to see the funny side of life.
• Jeff has beautiful broad shoulders and slim hips.  And a perfect, round derriere that thankfully my sons have inherited.
• You will rarely see Jeff without socks.
• Jeff scored a 30 on his college ACT.
• It took watching A&E’s Pride and Prejudice two times before Jeff decided he liked it.
• Jeff’s favorite egg is the omelet.  A denver omelet with bacon, green onions and peppers, mushrooms, cheese and freshly cut tomato slices and parsley.
• Jeff is an extraordinarily clean individual and is very hygeinic.
• Jeff used to work for Geneva Steel.
• Jeff sleeps on the right side of the bed, facing out to the door in case burglars come in.  No really.  ‘)
• Jeff looks and acts ten years younger than what he really is.
• Jeff loves the Eagles. 
• Jeff reads a lot for relaxation and learning. 

 

Jeff, July 2009

Birthday week at our house

 

We celebrated Jeff’s 48th birthday on Tuesday and Jessica’s 21st birthday on Thursday.  We are not too horribly big on birthdays around this house.  Everyone gets to choose the meal and cake they want and I will cook it.   Jeff spent last week in California with his family for his birthday and he enjoyed that very much.   Jessica spent this week settling into her new job.

Happy birthday to you both!  I hope this upcoming year bodes well for each of you.  You are beautiful people.

strawberry ice cream cake with chocolate covered blueberries and strawberries

 

 

Jessica at 2 years old. Also Alexis (2) and Chance (1).

Through the years - Jess (15) and DC

Jessica at 18

Birthday crew - Jeff and Jessica 2009

Berry birthday cake. Yum!

Utah’s Autumn Splendor!

Tibble Fork at daybreak

Tibble Fork at daybreak

I traipsed into the canyon in the morning hours to nab these pictures. There really is nothing that compares to the beauty of the Utah canyons during this time of year!

Deer Creek Reservoir before the storm

Camping with the boys

Jeff, Chance, Justin, Quinn and I went back up to Strawberry for the last camping trip of the season last weekend. It was gorgeous. And very cold, it froze the night we were there. But I was glad we went, even though none of us got a lick of sleep and I think it gave me the rotten flu I’ve been dealing with all week. The boys are very cool to have on camping trips. They gather wood, make bows and arrows out of natural materials, and make sure the fire is kept nice and warm. Useful is what I say. Chance is an expert bowmaker and an expert marshmallow roaster. Quinn got a video of Justin catching his 7 pound trout, hopefully I can get it to upload on the blog when Quinn comes this weekend.

Strawberry in the morning

Fall Colors

Yellow maples everywhere

Chance’s expert marshmallow roasting skills

The hollowed insides of the strawberry roasted marshmallow

More of Chance’s perfectly toasted marshmallows

Justin trying to duck from the camera

Around the campfire

Ahh, beautiful glimmering campfire coals!

Morning sun at Strawberry reservoir

I call them swampy LOTR residue. Dried out seaweed on the bushes.

Someone left wood artwork in the sand.

The boys all caught 7 pound trout in this corner of the reservoir.

Autumn red on the ride back.

Just across from the Provo river

The drive back from Strawberry

Credit Card Company NOT to do business with

I received this letter in the mail today and have highlighted the salient points.  First Equity Card Corporation reported the status of our credit card to Experian because we were 9 days late on $10.    Please keep this cute little letter in mind as you are sifting through your credit card invitations.

The past two weeks

What a feast!

 Jeff and I went camping with friends at Strawberry Reservoir and had so much fun.   We spent hours chumming for crawfish and caught about 50 to eat.   And as if chumming wasn’t enough fun, we then cooked and ate them!  Good times.   It is such wonderful fun to go play with just adult friends.  We all have busy lives with jobs and children.  Adult friends have a carefree feel to them.

morning storm

Catching the crawfish with bare hands

Hidee and Jessica on the hunt

crawfish galore

 

Dawna, Jessica, Chris and Hidee, stargazing

 

Amazingly vivid starry sky!

Jeff had some time off this week so we went hiking up Big Cottowood canyon to dog lake.  It was overcast the entire time and we thought for sure we’d get rained on, but we didn’t.  It was the first time I’d been here, and I was underwhelmed by the actual lake.  Still, it was pretty and we saw a total of three people on the entire trek, and I really loved that.

 

One of the many rock formations in this canyon, it is part of the wasatch fault

Rainclouds keeping us company

Dog Lake

Leaves turning, almost Fall!

Striking peak view

Thursday night, the sky turned peachish pink.  I am told it was from a fire just north of Lehi.  Whatever it was, it was an eery feeling!  The air was quite warm, and it felt like a premonition.

view from my window

Last night, we decided to see if there were crawfish in the Tibble Fork reservoir.  So the boys and I (Chance, Justin, Quinn and JK) headed up just in time to experience a downpour.  The lightning in the canyon was at intervals of 20 seconds to 3 minutes and this lasted for about 25 minutes.  I didn’t even realize lightning could hit in a canyon.  I guess I know better now!  We had to wait in the car until the lightning subsided.  We chummed, we got nothing.  Can you transplant crawfish from lake to lake?  This inquiring mind wants to know.  The boys brought fishing poles.  It got dark and cold really fast, but not before the boys circled the reservoir with JK who had the time of his life, prancing around in the 3 inches deep water on the outskirts of the reservoir.  He loves being in the great outdoors, that is for sure.

Tibblefork in the rain

Mouth of the reservoir

JK, Chance, Quinn and Justin

Sunset after the rain

 

Skies after the rain

I loved this pic. Chance has a full body halo and JK is possessed!

Skies after the rain - Chance took from the car on the drive home

Things of interest to me the past few weeks

I’m glad the kids are back in school.  I have discovered that not working full time makes me lose sense of both space and time.  It is surreal.  I forget what day of the week it is, and the hours on the clock lose all relativity to me.  My goal this upcoming month is to structure my days a bit better so I can regain my sense of time.  I am loving being back home, and spend all of my days reading and baking.  So while I am highly unstructured, my stress level is nonexistent! 

3,800 light years away in the constellation Scorpius

I changed my desktop background this week in honor of the repair of the Hubble telescope and the amazing space pictures that are being taken!   Nothing like a little sky gazing to get a pretty good feel of our ultimate insignificance.

Speaking of sky, I woke up this morning to balloons quite close to the house.  I took this pic from my bedroom window at 8:15 am.

View from my window, Cedar Hills, Utah.

We spent last weekend at Lagoon.  It was great fun.  I have not been there for 20 years.  They have a ride, the Rattlesnake Rapids.  I could spend all day on it.  Here are a few pics from that outing.

3,800 light years away in the constellation Scorpius

View from my window, Cedar Hills, Utah.

Back side of Timp from Sundance Venue

A fully domesticated white/brown barn owl

Live Band

Jeff and I went to the Sundance Food/Wine Festival last weekend as well.  Saw some friends while we were there, and tasted some amazing food.  The ambiance was awesome, it was an overcast day and it is quite the sight to behold up there in the mountains with an eclectic group of people.   It was an expensive event, $65 a ticket, but very enjoyable nonetheless.  There were food vendors from the nearby 4 and 5 star restaurants.   And lots of wine.  There were some Salt Lake City restaurants like Biaggis represented, but most were from the Park City/Midway area.   There were people from the Owlz bar that brought some owls.  They were awesome.  There was also live folk music, and you really can’t beat that.  Sorry about the quality of the pics, they were taken by my cell phone.

Diamond Fork Hot Springs

Kayla and Justin

Diamond Fork Hot Springs (also known as fifth water) is a fun place to visit.   It is up in Spanish Fork canyon.  In order to get there you take the Highway 6 exit from I-15. It is exit 261 coming from the North or exit 260 coming from the south. Head east for about 10 miles and turn left up Diamond Fork for 10 miles to the Three Forks sign. There is a parking lot at the trailhead.  The canyon to Three Forks is a gorgeous little canyon with a good size creek rambling through it. 

There are some real positives to this trail.  It is about 2.5 miles to get to the springs.  The trail hugs the creek the entire way which is lovely because you can hear the rushing water and it is pretty wet.   The trail is covered with a canopy of trees for about half the way, so you don’t have to deal with the beating sun when you are hiking.   It is a moderate climb, just enough to get your aerobic exercise in on the way up, and put some pressure on your joints and feet on the way down.

There are also some downsides to the trail.  At about the two mile mark, you get the sulfur smell.  The canyon the creek runs through is very narrow, so the smell carries.   It is very strong in some places.    The other downside is the risk you take running into skinny dippers in the pools.  Or rather, plump dippers because as always seems to be the case when I encounter them.  I don’t mind so much that people want to get nekkid, I just mind when their body is so offensive as to scare the rest of us off.

Having said that, here’s some pics! 

Trailhead

Jeff, Kayla and Justin

Creek

aggregate rock formations absolutely everywhere.

Canyon trail

Justin and Kayla on the bridge

Dragonflies everywhere! Blue and doubled-winged copper colored ones. It felt like Fablehaven

Kayla at the top of the springs

Justin and Kayla

Upper pools falls

Jeff in his swimsuited glory

Justin in the upper pool

What appeared to be black ravens flew overhead the whole time we were there

Kayla and Justin

22 Years of Marriage

Yesterday on August 15th, Jeff and I celebrated our 22nd year of marriage.  I can’t even hardly believe it.  We celebrated it in the manner that only old people know.  We walked to Bridal Veil Falls.  Anyone who has been on the trail knows it is half a mile…which is not a lot.  Went to Squaw Peak and saw a few hang gliders who had jumped off the peak.  Squaw Peak was notorious in our college days for being the perfect make-out spot.  Did we make out?  Ridiculous.  Came back.  Decided we didn’t want to eat because neither of us were hungry, nor did we want to spend the money since I was laid off from my job last week.  We went to Smiths and brought Dreyers ice cream since it was on sale $1.99 for a half gallon.  Came back, ate ice cream and watched Failure to Launch. 

We are the last of the romantics. 

But take heart!  Today we are going to the hot springs with the kids.  Makes the heart go pitter patter, doesn’t it?  I’m putting up pictures of Squaw Peak and Bridal Veil Falls.  When we get home I’ll post pics of the hike.

Granites near Bridal Veil Falls

looking north from Bridal Veil Falls

Two upper falls

all three falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Lower Falls area

View north from Falls

View from Squaw Peak

Hang gliders jumping from Peak

View from overlook

View of back side of Timp from Squaw Peak

South views from Squaw Peak

Jeff looking out over the valley