FRANCIS PEAK

Today, Ken and I went up Framington Canyon with his parents. The picture above is one of the off shoots we always take. There is a fun "bump" at the end. You can really see the articulation of the Jeep a.k.a. Kirbicon. What a good looking machine!

I love the views from up there. You can see Morgan county on one side and Ogden on the other.

We love off roading with Kirby and Chris. Here are our machines facing off.

If there is a "trail" we want to go on but aren't sure if it is safe, we send out a search party. They walk the trail and see if there is a place to turn around or if it is too treacherous. Kenny and Kirby were our search party today. Aren't they cute!

Happy Bday Kirby!

Happy Birthday Kirby!!
Kirby doesn't turn 60 until the 26th but Sunday we all gathered at Chris and Kirby's to wish him a happy birthday. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am to have him as my FIL (Father in law). I find myself getting all puffed up when I talk about him, especially when I exclaim that he is an Architect (hey!). I love his buildings and get all excited when I tell people they are his. Here he is with his kids. They all love him Very much. Chris and Kirby did a great job raising them. They all have dozens of stories of their road trips, dad's pasta surprise, and learning how to appreciate cars. Kirby doesn't smile in pictures much. This is the biggest smile you get when the camera comes out. This is odd because as I mentioned before, he is SILLY. The whole family sits and laughs together. Their favorite thing is go on a pun round. One person starts a pun and they keep it going with similar puns until it is all "punned out". I believe Kirby was the one that informed me that puns are the highest form of humor. Of course I believe him!

In an earlier post, i mentioned that Kirby and Chris has a poodle with a Mo Hawk. here is a better shot of it. I wasn't kidding!

I could go on for hours about Kirby and his accomplishments (he has even tried out for Jeopardy) but I won't. He is awesome and I am glad I have him for my FIL.

HAPPY 60th Kirby M - guy with a beard.

Yummy Food!!!

Ken and I LOVE food. I am sure I have said this many times through out my blogging. we just cannot help it, we love it. Maybe that is how we got to be 100 lbs over weight (each) a few years back. We have several friends that are "foodies" as well. That is one of the reasons we started our cook off in May (see May's posts)

John and Steve are foodies to the extreme. They know how to cook EVERYTHING and they do. They pack their lunches every day but it is a not your typical lunch. It is usually a three course meal with a salad, entree and dessert. How they stay so skinny I will never know.

In January, they approached us about being in a cooking club. Of course we said yes! This is how it works. There are 4 couples involved. Each couple hosts once a year so we get together every 3 months. Everyone that attends is to bring one dish (assigned ahead of time) in a specific theme.

Our first club was Mardi Gras theme. We were assigned an appetiser and a sorbet. We brought Cajun meatballs and a chunky shrimp spread. The sorbets were lemon and mango. Others brought Gumbo, voodoo chicken, crab cakes, bean and tomato salad, and bread pudding. It was our first event, everyone overate and we had to roll ourselves home.

The second event was Spanish themed. We were assigned a tapa and a salad. That evening, we had crab croquettes, pork tenderloin bruschette, meatballs, salmon salad w/ orange vinaigrette, paella and flan. YUMMY!

Saturday was our third club. This was a bbq theme (everything had to be made on the grill). Who knew you could make a salad on the bbq? I sure didn't but man, I am glad we got to try it! ken and I were assigned an appetiser and a vegetable. We made Apple Gouda Quesadillas with home made tortillas!! They were awesome if I do say so myself. We also had bacon rapped scallops, corn on the cob, grilled zucchini, steak fries on the grill, salmon and grill pineapple for dessert. I will stop teasing you, here is the recipe for the quesadillas. Try them and let me know how you like them!

APPLE GOUDA QUESADILLAS

8 (8 inch) flour tortillas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard
2 green ions, chopped
2 red apples, cored and thinly sliced
2 cups shredded Gouda cheese
½ package bacon, cooked and crumbled


Preheat a grill to high heat.
Brush oil onto one side of tortilla and place on a plate oil side down. Spread about ½ tablespoon of mustard on the topside, and top with green onion, apple slices, bacon and ½ cup of shredded cheese. Place second tortilla on top, and brush the top with olive oil. Repeat with remaining ingredients until you have a total of 4 quesadillas.

Brush the grilling surface with oil and place the quesadillas carefully on the grill. Grill for about 3 minutes or until the bottom is crisp. Flip and grill on the other side until crisp. Remove from the grill to serving plates and cut into quarters. Serve warm.

I love this club! It challenges me and helps me try different recipes that I normally would shy away from. Thanks John and Steve for inviting us! We love it!!!

Oh, I forgot to mention, we trade recipes after the club. You walk away from every meal with 6 new recipes for your own cook book. How cool is that!?!?!?

The last one is in November. Ken and I are hosting it. The theme...French! Oh La La!

Road trip - oregon

Kenny and I just celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. We decided it was time for us to go on a trip. What better way to celebrate than on a road trip! Florence Oregon was to be our destination. It would be a 14 hour drive there (which we drove in one day). Above is the view from our balcony in the hotel. This is a draw bridge over the Siuslaw River.

Day two (day one being the driving day) we woke up early for a full day of site seeing. Our first stop was a "one hour tour" of the sand dunes. They had a thrill ride, a scenic ride or a one hour ride that was a bit of each. Man, our driver Brad knew every dip, every hill, all the sweet spots. I almost peed my pants when he took a few of the drops.

The dunes butt right up to the ocean. On one side, you see the trees and the dunes, the other you see ocean. What a beautiful place to be. Brad even stopped and found shells for each of the ladies. What a nice guy!

After a quick pit stop, we headed to the Heceta head light house.

They do tours that explain all the buildings, the lenses, attire, etc. Our guide was Harry. He did a great job. They even take you to the top so you can see the lenses.
Here it is! It is so intricate. They said you can see the light from this light house for 20 miles.

This is the view from the base of the light house.

Next, we headed over to the sea lion caves. They are the largest known oceanic caves. The sea lions come and rest on the rocks.

In order to get to the caves, you go down in an elevator 200 feet. I couldn't watch the needle, it made me a little nervous. The trip was worth it though. What an awesome sight.Day three we headed to Newport. It is about an hour's drive North on HWY 101. Here we went to the undersea gardens and the Oregon Aquarium. They were fun, but I think Sea World is more our style of aquarium. Sorry, no pics of these. We left the camera in the hotel (oops).

Day four we headed to Le grand, Oregon with a stop in Portland. You see, Ken's watch needed to have another link taken out and we thought we would do a little shopping while we were there. I love Tiffany's!! We both walked out with our own little boxes. Thanks sweetie!!!

Le grande, Oregon was to be our stop for the evening. We had planned on going to the drive in theatre that night and hitting the golf course in the Morning. The movies at the Drive in were all for kids so we decided to go to the indoor theatre. We have been spoiled with stadium seating. This theatre was state of the art ... in the 1970's. It reminds me of the one in Wheatland, Wyo. There were 3 total theatres, each holding about 100 people. The seats slopped down so if you were in the back of the theatre and dropped a smarty, it would roll to the front and hit the screen. The seat backs were low so the guys could do the old yawn and stretch and put their arms around their girl. What an adventure. I had forgotten how far movie theatres had come. We saw District 9.

Day five was our last 7 hours of driving and home. What a wonderful treat home is. We love our house and our critters. Phoenix was the only one home and she was LONELY! Chris and Kirby watched our house and Phoenix while we were gone. They even left some beautiful flowers on our table for us to come home to. Thanks again Chris and Kirby! you are the best Mil and Dil! Chris said she knew Phoenix was lonely when she would play with Chris and not bite her. yes, our cat is a little psycho, but we love her!

Gin came home the next night. She was glad to be out of boarding. She came in and played chase and jumped all around. She is so cute!!

Thanks again for the trip sweetie pie. What a rare treat to have you all to myself for 5 days. I love spending time with you. I love how silly you get. I love that you freak out when someone else pumps the gas because they might scratch the paint. I love that you are comfortable with who you are. Thank you for being you. thank you for all that you do for our little family. And Thank you for helping me get on and keeping me on the Roller Coaster.

Say hello to Bella and Jemma

Eric and Sara had their twins last week. What beautiful little girls! Sara was on couch and bed rest for the last 12 weeks of her pregnancy but this allowed her to carry the twins until they were 36 weeks.

This is Bella. She came out first and is almost a full pound bigger than her "younger" sister.

Here is Jemma. She was born 9 minutes after Bella. Jemma was breach at first. The doc was trying to turn her around when she spring boarded off his feet, did a summersault and came out head first. She might be a little gymnist!

Eric has been in marketing for quite some time. They have done something simlar to these "twins" bars for the births of all his girls. He does a great job. There was a twix inside the wrapping and everything. It is hard to read the back but it has all of the info about the girls including the doc that delivered them.

It is hard to tell if they are identical or not. The doctors are doing the dna tests to find out but they won't know for a while. Dad and Bet are looking at them to see if they can tell. Other than bella being heavier, there isn't much difference yet.

Audrey is still getting used to being a big sister instead of the baby. She will get there. Bella started crying while we were ther (she was hungry). Audrey promptly informed Grandpa Randy that "Bella needs Mommy".

Eric and sara are a great team. While having twins is no doubt a rough thing to handle, twins with three other little girls running around will bring it's own special challenges. They are surrounded by people who love them and are willing to help at any time (some of us are just a little farther away).

"I am double my age when I was 30!" - Chris Kirkman

Meet Chris! This is my MIL Christine "Chris" Kirkman. It is her 60th birthday today. I still cannot believe she is 60. Way to go Chris!!! The title of this Blog is a direct quote from her today. We went over for brunch with her and Kirby. About half of the kids were there, (Amanda just had a baby last week so they came over later. See the Taylor Tibbitts blog.) we had a great time.

Here she is with her two boys. Kenny (my sweetie pie) is on the right in his red shirt and silly grin. Matty is on the left with his cute "goat". The Kirkman's are a hard group to get to sit still. It took six pictures to get a "keeper" They are always cracking jokes and being silly together. It is one of the many reasons I love this family. They even have a standard poodle with a mo hawk!!

This is Lizzie. This isn't the best shot of the mo hawk but it works. The story goes that Kirby refused to walk a dog with the pansy poodle cut so they had to "mean" her up a bit. The mo hawk stays!!

Back to Chris. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful MIL. She has been a great role model for Ken and I. Here's to 60 more! Ok, maybe not 60 more, how about another 30?

Happy Birthday Chris!

Hello Ivy Jill Marble!

We have another wonderful addition to our family. Meet Ivy Jill Marble!Her middle name is from her Grandma Jill. Nate and Katie had their third little girl on Thursday. Isn't she beautiful! She opened her eyes and looked at us shortly before we left. She has the darkest eyes. I think they look like onyx. so dark, you can almost see your reflection in them. All the babies I have seen have blue eyes. Not this one!

We went up to Tremonton and spent the afternoon with the family. They are all so happy to have her here with us. Her older sister Sophie informed us the now SHE is a big sister, just like Ellie! Both Ellie and Sophie are very good with her. They are even able to hold her - sitting on a couch with a pillow to help with a support but still. They are very careful with her.

Here they are eating lunch. We caught Ellie with her mouth full but Sophie was ready and willing to pose!

Mom is doing amazingly well! She was helping the girls put together a puzzle in this picture. Look how happy and content she is. What a graceful and brave woman!

Here is my youngest brother Nate. He is a great dad and husband. Here he is washing off a mint for Elie, she dropped it on the floor and it had hair on it.

Here is Uncle Ken reading a book with Sophie. As soon as we were in the front room, she asked for her uncle ken to read with her. I think she kind of likes him...who can blame her. Look how cute he is!


Welcome to the world little feet!