We had Grams Allred over for dinner Wednesday night and showed her our newest little pets. We ate dinner and then the kids all sang for her the songs they've been working on this summer.
Afterward, we all went to Sno On The Go to get snowcones. Even Grams had one! She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a snowcone. Yummy!
This is a funny video to me, because how often do you get to hear a high class grandma tell us our hamsters poo?
Here is one of the songs we got to hear. Noel sings "God Help The Outcast" from the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She loves her voice lessons and is learning so much from them.
Samosas……those delightful tasty little savory patties are one of India’s great gifts to the world.
We found a healthy oven baked recipe using turkey instead of the deep fried beef and gave it a try tonight! Noel and Shera had a fun time trying an Indian recipe with unique spices of curry and ginger.
We made another sheet just like this one as well. You are supposed to eat them with chutney, but I didn't have any on hand, so we improvised and used gooseberry jam and lingonberry jam. We all loved them, even Luke!
Samosas
Heat oven to 400* and coat a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Let 4 boxes of Pie Crusts (8 Crusts) sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
Heat 2 tsp. Olive Oil in a large nonstick pot over medium-high heat. Saute 2 diced Potatoes and 1 chopped Onion 4 minutes until almost tender.
Add 2 lbs. lean Ground Turkey meat and cook until done. Drain excess fat and return to heat.
Stir in and cook 1 minute:
4 Tbs. Curry Powder
2 Tbs. Minced Garlic
2 Tbs. Minced Ginger
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Pepper
Stir in and cook 2 minutes or almost dry:
2 cups Petite Peas
1 cup Chicken Broth
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Unroll Pie Crusts on cutting board. Cut into 4 equal wedges. Moisten edges of 1 wedge with water. Place 1/3 cup filling onto half of wedge leaving about ½ inch border on two sides. Fold in half to make a triangle, pressing edges to seal in filling. Transfer to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining crust and filling.
Brush lightly with egg. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Serve warm with Chutney, Gooseberry jam, or Lingonberry jam. Makes about 32 Samosas.
We arrived at the river Friday afternoon and got directly on the water. It was a cloudy day which kept the heat down only 100 degrees! A nice surprise!
Shera was holding her breathe because Heidi had found a dead fish on the riverbank and rolled around on it. What possesses animals to do such a disgusting thing, I don't know. We washed her in the river with dishwashing liquid and cleaned her all up right after we took this photo.
Jeff goes a nice easy pace with Shera, Luke, Sasha and Heidi. They have a great time on the inner tube!
Jeff's brother, Brad, came out with his family also. Watch out when these two get together! They're a little crazy!
Floating down the river is one of the funnest parts. Here is Nathan, Braden, Noel, Talia, Shera, and Luke just hanging out. They always must have on their life jackets so they won't drown - but that never stops them from trying to drown each other by the dunking method!
Drew and Noel fell off the inner tube and went about 10 yards with Drew on top of Noel the whole way. She had a bloody lip at the end - but that was it!
Here is Jeff being a manly man - jumping off the tower about 20 feet. All the kids did it too! The river was high enough this trip so they all wanted to try! No injuries - Yay!
Yes, I am an animal lover and my kids have followed in my footsteps. It doesn't always make Jeff the happiest, but sometimes I think he just puts on the "Tough Dad" image, cuz I always cave in! Well, yesterday I caved! Big time! (Now we have 2 dogs, a turtle, a goldfish, 2 hamsters, 3 bird feeders, and 2 hummingbird feeders. We have birds all over our backyard all the time!)
We decided to surprise dad with two cute little boy hamsters that will live in an all pink cage with pink bedding, pink toys in a pink girls room!
The girls got their new little home all set up. Heidi and Sasha were very excited about the little hamsters too!
"Let Me Out! Let Me Out!"
Noel and Shera fed them and gave them water, then they settled right into their new home. Noel's white one is "Tucker" and Shera's golden one is "Mr. Teddy Bear Caramel"! They kept Noel up all night since they are nocturnal creatures and today they changed their living quarters to the pink bathroom! LOL And now they are safe from the dogs too! A month ago we lost our canary to Sasha and Heidi!
I woke up this morning and there was a female duck in our pool! The dogs were trying to get her - going around and around and even jumping onto the first step of the pool! But it's no wonder she wanted to be there - we've done nothing to keep it up this summer since we are about to redo it. It looks almost like a pond! But she didn't stay long. I think the dogs scared her. Luke reported to us that she flew away during our morning prayers. (I wonder where he was looking???)
Then we went to walk the Santa Margarita Lake and feed the ducks and geese. There were a ton of them and eating right out of the kids hands. The kids also fed the fish and turtles bread too. They would race to it underneath the water. We had a blast watching all of it today!
We went to the river this weekend to get away as a family for awhile. It was nice to sleep in and just hang out, watch family movies and play games. But, of course, our favorite thing to do is get on the water!
Sasha loves being on the bow of our boat and feel the wind in her face! She is a total water dog!
Jeff was getting some good air on this one!
Shera helped to hold up the flag when someone was down in the river.
Shera and Noel love to go on the raft!
Holly and Luke had so much fun too and Luke is getting braver to go faster and faster too!
We passed through Provo and I loved how this building was all done up with the flags for the 4th of July.
There were beautiful lavender fields when we passed through Mona, Utah.
We love to stop in St. George to get our In-n-Out fix after we've been gone so long.
St. George has gorgeous rock formations all over. Here is a sample of what we saw.
We stopped at the Indian Reservation outside of Las Vegas for more fireworks. Once we were out of Vegas we hit "The Holiday Traffic". We went about 5 miles an hour for the next 90 minutes! So when we finally got to the state line Jeff said that was enough of that and we drove into Whiskey Pete's. After an hour's wait to get our rooms we got in line at their McDonald's for another hour's wait. It seems that everyone else had the same idea too!
We slept in our clothes and Jeff woke us all up at 4am and drove home free of traffic! What a trip!
So, what do you do after you've just dropped off your son and won't see him for two years???
You go get a shaved ice of course! (Shera took this photo!)
We changed our clothes at the BYU dorms and then Jeff suggested that we get a shaved ice at one of the many stands in Provo!
Then we took a drive just to be as a family together. We went up through the Provo Canyon and stopped at Bridal Veil Falls. They were beautiful! The Indian Legend about it is kind of like a Romeo and Juliet story and she jumps from the ledge and she becomes a brides veil.
Afterward, we went the back way to Park City, rode the Alpine slides, and then drove a dirt rode called Guardsman's Pass to Big Cottonwood Canyon. We met Brad and Roberta's family at Silverfork Lodge and had dinner together.
We ate out on the balcony. As we were leaving, one of the outside heaters blew up and caught fire! Everyone ran off the balcony and they put it out with a fire extinguisher! We were all okay, but Jeff and Brad joked that if we had not paid our bill yet, our dinner would have been free! Ha! Ha!
Noel won Castille Elementary Student of the Year from the Kiwanis Club. She's here with Peter Vidmar - 2x Olympic Gold & 1x Olympic Silver Medal winner.
We had Grams Allred over for dinner Wednesday night and showed her our newest little pets. We ate dinner and then the kids all sang for her the songs they've been working on this summer.
Afterward, we all went to Sno On The Go to get snowcones. Even Grams had one! She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a snowcone. Yummy!
