Lotsa Boys!

The Sweeney boys came to our house for the afternoon.  We took them to our "fun place" and we all did the "fun thing".  Any guesses?

First photo and hint of our fun place...

 

 

 

This one surely gave it away.

 

Yep! It is our swimmin' hole. Better known as "The Cottonwoods"

Yes, one of the "fun things" is swimming but not in the fall.  We have another "fun thing".  What is it?

 

Here is the first hint of our fun thing.

 

 

 

Confusing, huh?

 

 

Ahh, now you should know.

It's a Zip-line!

It's Fast!

 

And it's FUN!!

(hence, the name, fun thing)

 

Waiting in line

 

 

                        Cameron                                                Brendan

         

 

                            Elizabeth                                 Weston

      

                             Maggie                                        Andrew

       

 

Drew and Dani

 

Look at the expression on Dani's face...

FUN!

A Party at the "Pot"

With a title like that, I bet I sparked some curiosity.

Saturday night, Grant and Shannon (my brother and his wife) treated Brian and I to dinner at The Melting Pot in downtown Salt Lake City!!

 

Grant and Shan

 

My Bri and Me

 

Dinner started with an appetizer of veggies and breads to dip in a spinach/artichoke (melted, of course) cheese.  And then a beautiful salad.  And then...

all of this raw meat!!

I can't remember all the fancy descriptions but it was basically, chicken, steak, pork, salmon, shrimp and lobster.  The lobster and salmon were my most favorite.  After seeing this platter and my earlier post on Sushi, you are probably thinking we don't ever cook anything around here...

 

We do!  And we did!!  This is the "pot" we cooked all of our meats in.  Ahh, do you see the yummy lobster at the top of the pic that my brother is about to eat.  YUM!

Well, I have covered 3 of the 4 courses for that night.  And they were all yummy but can I just say what I am about to show you was - - incredible!!

 

This!! 

With a pot of (melted) milk chocolate and a scoop of peanut butter stirred in.

What a fantastic way to finish the evening!

Thanks Grant and Shannon!  We had a great time.

 

---

Come Hungry!

Because you will eat a ton and leave "a ton" heavier.

Sushi night is a favorite around here. We have been doing this tradition for quite some time (5ish years) and we all look forward to it. 

 

Quality Control Crew

The children help out with choosing ingredients for each roll.  We have a yummy veggie platter and a variety of sushi fish on a platter to choose from. 

 

The Rollers

Once the ingredients are chosen, they go on a seaweed sheet covered with rice and then rolled.

 

The Women

 

The Cutters

 

The Taste Testers

 

Voila! The Sushi.

 

The Partiers

Deanne and Scott

 

Pete, Parker and Jenny

 

Rob and Christa ( their son, Sawyer, was off flirting with my girls)

 

 

The Drink

(Japanese style) 

Sake - one word...Gross!

I tried it and it made my tongue curl up.  Don't ask me what that looks like.  I just know it tasted terrible.

 

Always a fun evening!

Girlfriends

For 8 years we have been sharpening one another.

 

Erin -  mother of 4 blessings and one on the way

 Laurie - mother of 4 incredible boys

Mandy - mother of 5 blessings with 2 more on the way from Ethiopia

Me

We try to get together once a month. 

While eating popcorn and crocheting our next projects, we pray, share God's Word, share our hurts, share our praises, encourage, laugh, cry, and stay up real late!

I LOVE these girls!!

A Yurt! part 3

Let me guess, you have not been sleeping at night because you do not know what a Yurt is and you are still very curious.

Some of you geniuses already knew and others "googled" it.  Way to go smart people!  For those of you who are waiting for me to feed you the information - this is your lucky day!  Your curiosity will be put to rest.  Read on.

Welcome to Big Canyon's YURT!  Come on in.

 

This was the fun part.  Caleb, Mike, and Michael held up the center ring of the yurts roof while Brian and I stuck in the rafters.  One end went in the ring and the other hooked into the cable on the lattice.

 

The ring became stable on its own.  Michael helped with getting the rafters into their holes as Brian hooked them to the cable.

 

Caleb and Mike carried the rafter beams to us.

 

Done with the installation of the rafters!

 

Brace yourself for this next picture...

This is me. I am actually working. Even better yet, I am using a drill.

 

 

This is a Yurt!  Now you know.

Next will be staining the cement floor and framing the kitchen. Yipee!