Snowshoeing Trip

A big group of us went snowshoeing by MOONLIGHT the first weekend in February. The guide takes you up, builds a couple fires and brings hot cocoa and food to make over the fire. It is SO much fun! It was great exercise and we laughed nearly the whole way up AND down, much to the dismay of the tour guides!!!!! It reminded me of when I'm with my family - funny and loud! I loved every minute of it. The trip was full of silliness and fun. Kristen and I had the idea of making snow angels....well, we attempted to anyway! Ben nearly gave me and Kristen heart attacks...unbeknownst to us, he ran way ahead of the group, hid in the bushes and just as we were merrily coming along (of course talking), he jumped out at us and made sounds like a mountain lion!! So...we tried to run away in our snowshoes (have you ever tried running in snowshoes??!! Not easy!) and collapsed in fear on the ground and soon after, we were in a fit of giggles! The fires were great, but a little smokey at times. It was a beautiful trip - we walked along a creek and you could hear the water trickling and the moonlight just made everything look so pretty.

The whole group of us

The girls before the "hike" began

I thought this one was funny....Karen and Melissa trying to hide

from the smoke and laughing

Ben....making something good to eat

The whole gang around the fire making good food!

Kristen, proud of her burned grilled cheese!!

Kristen, Jen and Linds, having some sort of serious conversation
Brandy and Jen...I love this picture (do you notice the HUGE snowflakes coming down?)

Lindsay, Karen and Zach Schmidtt making grilled cheese sandwiches and trying to keep from getting smoke inhalation!!!

Kristen and Jen

Swim KUNKS?

This was so cute - I just had to blog about it! We have been doing swim lessons off and on at the Peak and we went today (not for lessons, but for open swim). So as I'm packing his bag, he keeps saying "swim kunks" - swim trunks! It just sounded so darn cute coming from him!! He is saying so much now - he's saying "come on" "get up" find it"and many more cute things. He is now counting to 10 all by himself and can nearly do the ABCs by himself too. He knows all of his colors and will tell you what color anything is. He has also been singing along to songs we listen to - THAT is cute!! One of his favorite nursery rhymes is "I'm a little teapot" - he even sings it with me!

Bacon-Mushroom Cheeseburgers

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground turkey or beef

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Bacon slices (depends on how many you're feeding)

1/2 lb white button mushrooms, sliced 1/4" thick

6 green onions, white and green portions, cut into 1" pieces

1 Tbs. olive oil

6 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, sliced

6 hamburger buns

*Note that this recipe will serve 6, so you can cut it in 1/2 to serve only 3 or double it to serve 12 and so on and so forth.

1. Prehat griddle or non-stick pan on medium-high heat. Divide meat into equal portions. Season with salt and pepper; set aside. Place bacon on griddle; cook until crisp, about 10 minutes.

2. In bowl, combine mushrooms, green onions, oil, salt and pepper. Spred this mixture on griddle. Cook, stirring until tender, appx 10 minutes. When finished, transfer to bowl.

3. Place burgers on griddle or grill. Cook until done. Top burgers with cheese and cook until melted. I cover mine so it melts a little quicker.

4. Transfer burger to bun and top with 2 bacon slices and some mushroom mixture.

We usually serve with baked beans and salad or something similar. Enjoy!

Pinecone?!

Ben and Ave looking at a picture book together. There is a huge picture of a tree and at the top it has a little (and I do mean little...we adults might just need a microscope to find it!!) flap and inside is a pinecone. Ok, it's really an acorn, but who's counting? So these two kept opening the flap and saying "pinecone" - it was so cute.

So into the flap book!

So focused!

Ben was concentrating so hard to get these blocks stacked! He was totally into it. I had to pry himi away just to eat lunch!

1st Dentist Appointment

We thought it was about time to take Ben in for his very first dental appointment. All went well....in the waiting room.....in the chair playing with the sunglasses.....looking out the window at the beautiful view of the river......but not so well when the dentist came in!!! He did ok until the doctor tried to recline his chair. So.....I had to jump in the chair (I hate the dentist, so I almost had a nervous breakdown myself!) and hold Ben on my lap. Ah...fun times.

Ben thinking his glasses are oh-so-cool