~ celebrating 19 years ~

Nearly a week away, just the two of us...

Taking off in a little white pickup truck and heading north...

Where we visited one of our most favorite cities... 

and undoubtedly one of the most drastically different environments from Niger...

We walked slipped and slid...

We enjoyed the Christmas lights...

We shopped ducked into stores to warm up...

We caught up with friends we've not seen in several years...

We drank hot chocolate at an indoor café...

We ate traditional fare at a super yummy restaurant...

We had lots of time to talk and visit...

Delightful!

Any

guesses?

The Great Salt Lake... our morning on Antelope Island.

... remember the buffalo burgers? 

 

For geography studiers (that would be Tim), nature lovers (really everyone, but particularly Brendan and Rebekah), adventurers (Richelle, Nadia, Anna, Tori & Jonathan), social butterfliers  (Elsie Mae), and happy to be along with-ers (who else but Mary Michelle)... we thought Antelope Island would be a great thing to do first thing the morning after the fireworks, and before we headed through the Wasatch Mountains and to Bear Lake and Idaho.

It wasn't exactly what we hoped it would be.

We got a later start than we had initially planned on.

And we forgot to fill the gas tank up before we paid and drove the causeway out to the island which meant Tim didn't want to risk too much driving on the island.

We still tried to make the best of it. 

Driving across the causeway, the reflection of the sky, clouds and mountains on the still water was pretty impressive. I though Anna did a pretty good job 

snapping these photos from our moving van!

However, as soon as we drove on to the island, the kids immediately 

started noticing the briny stench.

They weren't impressed and they weren't very forgiving. 

This was the beach we were heading for... Some were insisting they wanted to swim in the lake. They were telling this story about a missionary man they knew who decided to stick his head under water in the Dead Sea even after he'd been clearly warned not to. He didn't believe anything bad would happen.

It did... 

Any ideas what happened to their friend?

We reminded them that this WAS NOT going to be another Huntington Beach escapade (fun as that was!) and that

they'd only have the opportunity to wade.

Probably our most devoted Dr. Quinn fan, Elsie Mae wanted to re-enact 

this episode when she saw this buffalo sculpture.

A herd of buffalo as well as lots of other animals inhabit the island.

How many buffalo do you see in this photo???

Rebekah buddied up with Mary Michelle.

And no one could keep up with Elsie Mae and Jonathan.

Victoria and her mama... a shadow photo!

Brine flies... there were a lot of them...

Big sis helping little sis.

The orange swimmy things are brine shrimp. These and the flies are the only two things that live naturally in the Salt Lake.

Each one indicating their opinion... what they thought of the Great Salt Lake. 

It was very mixed, as you can tell.

Of course, this was BEFORE the buffalo burgers.

Yep... we were photo-bombed!

Modeling those shades... 

You'd never guess they were sisters, would you?

Radio Silence...

... for a few days! We're camping somewhere in Yellowstone. 

More pictures to come, soon!

... relaxing @ the Great Salt Lake

A perfect Valentine's Day Breakfast for those who've stolen my heart ~

There's nine of 'em, you know... 

...my Valentines!

I usually don't make a big deal of Valentine's Day around our house... I didn't marry one of those gushy, romantic sort of dudes who brings me flowers or chocolates or both on a regular basis. He DOES bring me yummy Niger bottled cokes, and THAT makes me just as happy, however!

A friend recently sent me this recipe for grapefruit doughnuts and I was totally compelled to try it. Several of my kids LOVE grapefruit - they'll cut them in half, freeze them overnight, sprinkle with sugar and then eat them the next morning for breakfast - so I was pretty sure it would be a popular breakfast choice - and breakfast variety (anything besides oatmeal or baguette with peanut butter on it) has been sorely lack in recent weeks. 

I tried the recipe for the first time last week - and with the exception of two complaints, everyone in the family enjoyed them - some saying that this IS their new favorite doughnut. Not only that, it is a delightfully easy recipe to do - making the dough the night before and leaving it in the fridge so that all I need to do is get up, roll 'em, cut 'em and fry 'em the following morning. And you just can't beat the treat that it is - fresh doughnuts for breakfast.

A total aside? The French word for grapefruit is pamplemousse. That is so much much more fun to say than grapefruit, don't you agree? And where does the name grapefruit come from, anyway?

I decided they were such a perfect pink and had an unbelievable flavor for my wacky kiddos who really like grapefruit, I had to do it again this week for Valentine's Day. I broke with my tradition and Valentine's Day has been a bigger than normal deal this year! I made the donuts heart shaped... some where grapefruit flavored and some were raspberry flavored... and all were a lovely pink!

And I'm plotting how to modify this recipe to do a collage of pastel-glazed doughnuts when we celebrate Easter in the very near future!

The kids shared with their classes at school - and now they're all gone!

Did you do anything spacial for Valentine's Day this year? If so, 

please share!