Pirate Night

Saturday evening pirate extravaganza!  

Mini golf

Nate shot the cannon!

Dinner at the Pirate's Table

ice cream

WHAT A DAY!!

Greenery

Nate super excited to help with his new Diego shovel!

We finally decided to go for it and buy some flowers. We were still worried about the weather a bit, since it hasn't been real warm yet. But I think it has stayed above freezing long enough to take the plunge. Since our house will change hands this summer, and the new owners will be taking over the landscaping, I didn't want to put anything in the ground, only to have them tear it up in August. So, I stuck to planters.

That wouldn't be a coincidence that I gave him the snapdragon without any flowers

He was very gentle and helped push the dirt around nicely.

Our front porch and back deck still desperately need some paint. Hopefully Dave can get that done before he leaves. But, I love the red geraniums. I went to a local greenhouse in Rapid, and it was a wonderful place!

Along our driveway and sidewalk it looks like a border was ripped out, and the grass is still kind of patchy. So we were nervous about putting a border back in. But I had all of these planters already, so I just lined them along the walkway.

I put little cheesy garden sticks in the planters to distract Nate from the flowers. I can stick the little doodads back in much easier than a petunia that has been ripped out....

On either side of the garage I put my large planters, with a similar set up to what I had in New Mexico last summer. I just loved them last year.

Now I pray is stays nice out!

Moment of the Week

I'm still a little off in my understanding of SD's seasons.... but I do understand

'tis the season for skinned knees

Evan's Party

It was a delightful weekend visiting family, but the best part for me was that Nate got to go to his cousin's birthday party.  I grew up with lots of cousins and can hardly stand the fact that Nate doesn't live nearby any of his.  So to make the trip down to attend this momentous occasion was really nice.  

So Nate got to go to his cousin's party.  Its a big deal in our world.

 Sock Monkey Birthday Party!  Too cute right?

The birthday boy! 

 Playing around with grandma

 It was a really nice trip.  Right after the party we headed home.

The party was well worth the trip!

Fish Report

 While Becky worked and Marc got some party stuff together we took the kids swimming at our hotel's pool.

Belated Moment of the Week

 We spent most of Friday in the car.  Driving to Denver to see the Maddisons and Dave's mom.  The drive wasn't super momentous... it mostly was wide open nothingness Wyoming...

 Sometimes the landscape looked like this..

 Or we would spot some old homestead

 Or a big hill would pop out of nowhere...

But we did spot this in Hot Springs, SD!  I had no clue there are 200 stores across 17 states... I thought there was just that lonely one in Imlay City!

And we spotted another one!!  This one in Wheatland, WY.  Who knew??

We had a really nice weekend though!!  You'll probably hear about that soon!

Begging for Some Beef

grilled portobello burgers. SUPER YUM  

Just kidding!  No one is getting testy or crazed.  We have been eating pretty well over here!  Its just not animal flesh. Tonight we had burgers made with portobello mushrooms that were tossed in Worcestershire and then sprinkled with a little Montreal steak seasoning.  With melted swiss cheese...totally incredible!

Asparagus Cashew Stir-fry

 We had this yummy stir fry last week.  The sauce was really good, and the veg mix was really delish.  

Here is a link to the recipe 

Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms. 

Also last week we had this tasty dish.  I think the only thing I would change would be to stuff two mushrooms per person with the same amount of stuffing.  But the flavors were top notch, and the meatiness of the mushrooms was awesome.

Here is a link to the recipe

I super super love Taste of Home.com!  I love that you can just click what your making for the week and it makes you a nice organized shopping list!  Super awesome!

Bowling

Moment of the Week

Nate give's bowling his thumbs up/wink/click!

softer edges

I was looking through photos for some reason or another a few days ago, and came across this one.  I took this July 2010 in New Mexico at the grave of Billy the Kid.  Jackie and Cody were visiting and it was one of the only tourist options we had. (we did go walk through Carlsbad Caverns tho)  The grave wasn't too far from where we lived.  And this lizard was one of the only 'wild' animals we ever saw during our life there.  Katie can attest to the fact that I hit 4 tarantulas with my car in one week during 2 small road trips we took while she was visiting.(and by small I mean 100 miles each way! LOL)  

Our new life up north includes daily sighting of deer and bunnies... and occasional sightings of turkeys and fox.    Its a relief and super fun for us. 

And if you ever think you might want to visit rest assured there are TONS of things for us to do here.  Caves, monuments, national parks, tourist traps.  LOTS to do and see!  

Moment of the Week

a hot mess

jeez we are just a mess over here.  I had a painful visit to the doc's yesterday... luckily we have chased down some answers to the scary questions that have been floating around for the past few months.  Thankfully I do not have breast cancer.  It has been stressful, and a bit painful, to get this great news.  But I still need to have surgery on one breast to remove a sinister milk duct.  Hopefully I can get this taken care of before Dave deploys. 

Along with me whining about my biopsy wound Nate has been burning up.  Nothing wrong with him, he just had a nice high fever the past couple of days.  I think it broke a few hours ago, and he is cool as a cucumber now.  Thank heavens.  

 Aside from the cancer scare and Nate's hot potato stint, thing have been really nice here.  The weather is wonderful, Dave is working short days during this class he is taking, and life is pretty great as a whole.  

Once we got word that Dave will be deploying and will miss our 10th wedding anniversary this coming winter(and the trip we were planning), Dave swooped in and bought me a new ring.  I got it early, and I love it so much!  

New life is sprouting up in my window sill.  MONTHS ago Nate pulled a leaf off my jade plant... fearing he would be in trouble I saw him hide it in another pot.... well a little while later I went to toss it and saw it was rooting!  I was so excited.  so here is the new plant sprouting off the old leaf.  It makes my day watching it grow.   Next week I get to water my shamrock plant!  I am so excited to wake it up.  It is my favorite plant and I have been missing it, but I know it needed a rest.  

Meatless May is going really well!  Wednesday we had Tortellini with Tomato-Cream Sauce.  It was incredible.  Dave scooped some of the sauce up with his bread and said,  "Is this dinner or desert?!"  It was really really wonderful!  Dave and I agreed that we didn't miss meat at all!!  And it was satisfying.  And it was a cinch to make! 

Tonight we had Black Bean Tortilla Pie.  It was really good!  Full of flavor and we didn't miss meat tonight either.  We served it up with homemade spanish rice.  

On the 1-10 scale both of us rate both of these meals at a 10 for satisfying and a 0 for missing meat.  YAY!