Happy Birthday Honey!

You don't look a day over 60!!!!! Don't worry......I won't tell! I love you!

Right Outside Our Door

You have to love it when you can walk outside your front door and see this.......a mama quail and 8 little babies. Sunday night we saw the little babies running back and forth in front of the curb, unable to climb up onto the grass where their mother was. We helped them all get up and watched as they all ran under the bushes. We didn't see their mother for the rest of the evening and were so sure that the little ones had been deserted....maybe because we had touched them. Some animals are like that.

But fortunately the next day we saw them scurrying across the street....the whole family including the daddy. These little babies were the size of a silver dollar. So Cute!!!

Amazingly in just one day most of them could jump up the curb onto the grass. I still had to help the last one...the runt of the family. It was amazing to watch them.

I LOVE SUMMER - ESPECIALLY IN JULY!

So many fun things about summer happen in July. Gardens start producing our vegetables, flowers are beautiful, lots of sunshine......I love the sunshine. What I love the very most is family time....lots and lots of family time. On July 3rd we had our annual barbeque and fireworks with a lot of our family. Mace and Melissa were here from Arizona so it was fun to get the cousins together.

I need lots and lots of grandchildren time. I love all of my grandkids and I can't get enough of them. These are just a few of the 18 that we have.

Jane with little Avery before the Aspen Way fireworks begin....is she going to make it or will she sleep through the whole thing?

Mace with Graycie.

Graycie and Avery trying to jump into the waterfeature, but their parents wouldn't take their eyes off of them long enough. These little ones have no fear of the water and would walk right in if they could.

And then there are the water fights. The kids loved the water balloons!

And Scot got the worst of it! He was a good sport and let the little ones use him as their target. He was my target too!

They were all pretty proud of themselves for getting him soaking wet.

Kaya and Kenyon had a birthday the week before and were in Lake Powell celebrating so I made some cupcakes and we had a little birthday cake for them too. My daughter, Kristen gave me this cupcake tower for my birthday a couple of years ago and I have had so much fun making cupcakes for the kids. They love them.

The birthday girl got first choice....then Kenyon picked second. Their birthdays are only 3 days apart.

Isabella sporting her frosting lips and her adorable 4th of July outfit! Such a cutie!

I hope they eat them all because I don't want to have them sitting around tempting me! Eat up kids!

Graycie didn't have any trouble munching one down.

Neither did Avery. They thought they were in heaven or it was their 1st birthday again.

Isaac was proud of his cupcake lips too.

Birthday boy, Kenyon wasn't going to get to far from the rest of them.. Keep eating kids.

Kade said "Hey where's mine?"

Kenyon loved his birthday present......Bakugans. He loved them more than the fireworks and played with them all night long.

Jennifer, Kaya and Kenyon....

Kaya with her Fairy Shrinky Dinks and Webkin horse. I didn't even know they still made shrinky dinks. I played with those when I was a kid......okay so maybe I was 15.

Thanks fam for the fun time. We loved it.

CATARACT CANYON ANYONE?

Dean and I returned on Friday from the trip of a lifetime! We rafted down the Colorado River into Cataract Canyon with 13 other couples from our area. I've always heard about Cataract and how hard it was, but I never in a million years thought that we would actually have this experience. Thanks to some good friends, we were cohersed into going on this trip. Wow! what a rush! I will NEVER regret or forget it!

This is just a sample of the beautiful landscape that we experienced. This is Dead Horse Point. Everything was gorgeous and the weather cooperated all four days.

These are three of our five guides from left to right - Bryan, Honey, and Jessica. Shadrack and Josh are missing. I wanted to adopt them all. They were

such hard workers and made everything so fun and perfect for us. The food was great!

This is our group of 28 people. Everyone was so nice and even though we didn't know everyone, by the end of the trip we were all very close friends.

Calm water made it easy to relax a bit on the pontoons and enjoy the scenery.

Josh is in the background in the tan shirt. He was the lead guide and was prepping us for what was to come. Why was he so calm and confident?????

We're ready to take out of Moab on Tuesday morning. We had 2 J Rig Rafts with sixteen people on each one. Here were are together all ready for a calm day on the water. The first day was actually kind of boring. Nothing happened, but we were able to get better acquainted with everyone.

Days two, three and four........not so boring. This is Dean, Josh, myself, and Shad at the warning sign where we had to register for the last two nights camp spots. As you can see, the rapids are a mere two miles downstream.....We didn't know what we were in for. It's a good thing because I would have definitely jumped off the raft and swam back to Moab.

Big Drop One and Two..........OH MY GOSH!!!! Is the raft going to endo?

Here we go again! We had about 20 of these to go through on the last two days. The water slaps you with such force that it was easy to lose your grip. I was so proud of Dean and I. I swore that I wouldn't ride in front on the pontoons. Turns out.....that's where I spent all of my time. Towards the end of the third day, I wasn't only sucking rubber, but I was praying my guts out! PLEASE DON'T LET ME FALL OFF THE RAFT......PLEASE HELP ME TO HOLD ON JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER!!!!

On the fourth and last day, the second rapid, one of the ladies in our group, Rochelle Clark, broke her wrist. OUCH! That is her in the tan cap, lying down under the umbrella. She was in a lot of pain, but the guides got her wrist wrapped up so she could make it the rest of the day. Needless to say, we didn't hit the rest of the rapids very hard because she couldn't hold on and we had to keep her safe. Shad did a great job manuevering through the rapids to calm water.

Another lady, Dixie tore some ligaments in her hand as well. It was a rough day on the water!

We stopped a few times and went on some awesome hikes. They were challenging as well. Sometime I would like to go there just to hike!

Dean and I at the top of one of the hikes.

These are two of the five Cessnas that took us all back to Moab on Friday afternoon. You have GOT to take this trip. It was incredible!!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Happy 35th! We love you!

MOTO CROSS - A BOYS NIGHT OUT!

Dean went to the annual Moto Cross at Rice Stadium with Derik, Scot and 3 of our grandsons, Jesse, Brock and Tanner. They had a blast in spite of some rain. It's a guy thing......watching grown men riding like maniacs, some crashing and clogging the race track with upside down motorcycles. Makes me proud to be a woman.

Tanner had his face painted, appearing to have a motorcycle run right over his face! He assured grandpa that it didn't hurt a bit!

They absolutely love that stuff. Time well spent together. I'm sure it will be an annual event for them.

Try using your food storage with this great find!

This is a great recipe and a good way to use your food storage. Try it!

BTW, here's the recipe to get the basic wheat berries you'll be using in the salad. They're delicious on their own as breakfast cereal or mixed with rice as an additional grain. Amazing little things, aren't they!?
4 c. raw whole wheat
10 c. water
1 T. salt

Oil a large (4 quart or larger) slow cooker and fill with wheat, water, and salt. Cover and cook on low all night, 8-10 hours. Cooked wheat may be bagged and stored in the refrigerator for at least a week or in the freezer for months.Once you have a small supply of cooked wheat berries prepared, try experimenting with adding a cup to your favorite soups, chicken salads, or casseroles. When combined with regular white rice it makes a very simple—but healthy—pilaf.


FIESTA WHEAT AND BEAN SALAD
Fresh Ingredients
1 orange or red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 bunch fresh cilantro, leaves chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper, cored and diced
juice of 1 lime
Storage Ingredients
3 c. cooked wheat berries
1 can corn, drained (16 oz.)
1 can black beans, drained (15 oz.)
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 c. cider vinegar
1 T. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss well. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.
Here it is friends. This is my all time, best, #1, very favorite way to use the wheat from my long-term storage. Whenever I give food storage presentations I always suggest/beg/insist that this salsa be served with chips. Experience has proven that even non-believers are converted once they taste wheat prepared this way.