Monday, March 23, 2009

OK... The Rest of the Gang


I CAN'T believe I have no pics. of my sister's beautiful children!  What??  They seriously are beautiful and I guess the kiddos were always off playing, so I have no pics.!  Darn it!  Well, here we are in the Red Rocks minus the kids.  We had a great hike that day and took everyone to our favorite giant swing.  It was a hit!

My Sweet Family

Our Grand Canyon Adventure!  My favorite Step-Dad Randy, looks like he's about to fly off the edge, but don't worry... he's an expert!!  In his hand he's holding our little friend "Flat Stanley".  The girls brought him and he's supposed to go around and have his pic. taken in interesting places, then you send it back to the owner.  "Flat Stanley" became the word of the day and was cracking us all up!
9 mos. pregnant and on the edge of the Canyon!  It was a beautiful day.  We couldn't have asked for better weather or company!
My amazing little "cousins".  They took such good care of my boys.  I really want to adopt them both.  They are the sweetest girls in the universe!
Hiking back to the car, Dylan made it his mission to impress the girls by lifting heavy objects.  Here is proof of his mighty strength!

OK, now I have more pics. somewhere with the rest of the gang.  I will find and post ASAP!  This was such a wonderful week.  Great weather, time with my wonderful family, hiking, eating, talking, laughing, shopping.  What else is there?  We are truly blessed to have these people to love.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

My Key Lime Pie

Another easy recipe for you that promises to be SO SO GOOD!

My Key Lime Pie

80z pkg. cream cheese softened (I use Nancy's organic cultured cream cheese... good for you)
8 oz of heavy whipping cream (Organic Valley is good)
juice of about 4-6 limes... depending on how limey you like it
3/4 c. sugar... add more if you like it sweeter.  No substitutes, use real sugar!

whip all of these ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Stir in about 2 tbsp. lime zest.  Pour into an organic graham cracker or homemade crust.  Sprinkle a little more lime zest on top and add a few lime slices for garnish. Chill for at least one hour.
YUM!  And don't feel guilty... this is real food!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

It Don't Mean a Thing if You Ain't Got a Swing!

This picture doesn't even show how BIG this swing was, but Michael is 6 feet tall and is reaching up for Dylan, so that kind of gives you the idea!  The boys and the Grandma and Grandpa had so much fun.  This huge swing was right by the creek!  It was such a super find after a long hike.  The weather was perfect and starting to feel spring-ish... even flowers blooming around the trees and grass.  The boys played in the water, caught crawdaddies for the fish tank (craymen), dug in the soft sand.
Grandma Ann and Soren.  Soren was a little too tipsy on this big swing by himself.  I think Grandma and Grandpa had just as much fun as the kiddos!
I know I've said it before, but these kids are so happy outside.  They are like different people when they can just run free and be kids in the great outdoors.  I LOVE that they can do this practically all year round... it's just a hop, skip and a jump away.
My sweet gentlemen.  See those red legs in the background??  That's another family that came across the giant swing.  You can really tell how high it was!
Look at the handsome guy :-)  It was so funny, at the end of our hike we came across some Japanese girls.  Grandpa taught Dylan how to say hello to them in Japanese and they thought he was the cutest little American boy ever.  One of the girls had me take a picture her posing with him.  Dylan was SO embarrassed by all of their giggling and attention and of course we had to tease him just a little about his new Japanese girlfriend.  Dylan reminds me of Michael... the ladies love him, but he has no clue!
This week my sister and her kiddos are coming, my dear cousin and her girls and my favorite auntie :-)  It's going to be an "est fest" (my mom's new phrase) with all these girls around.  I can't wait and I'll be posting lots of pics. of our adventures.
Speaking of adventures, we are about to have a big one.  Our baby girl is coming in about 3 weeks!  I can't believe it and I'm a little nervous, but so excited to meet her!  At our last appointment she measured about 5.5 lbs. which is right on for this point in pregnancy.  We saw her profile and I thought she kind of looked like me.  It's so hard to tell though.
We'll keep you posted :-) 

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Zoo?

Sadly, these are the only pics. I have of the boys at the World Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium.  They didn't come out very good and we were a little disappointed with this zoo experience.  Not to sound ungrateful, but it cost an arm and a leg to get in and then you had to pay for each little ride and extra separately.  I think Dylan enjoyed it more than any of us.  As you can see from Soren's look in every pic., he was not a fan!  The highlight was a water ride that the boys all rode (no pregnant girls allowed), it cooled them off and went under the aquarium, which was pretty cool!!
In front of Dylan's favorite, the Cassawaries (sp?).  They've been studying Australian animals in school, so these birds were a hit!
Another pic. where Soren refused to smile.  It was more like "get me out of here and let's go swimming ASAP!!!!!".  I think we all agreed and spent most of the rest of our weekend at the pool, shopping and playing miniature golf!  The Valley hit 90 degrees this weekend and while we love a mini-vacation, we were all happy to be home in the cool pines :-)