Summer Vacation to UT part 2

A sampling of our family reunion on my husband's side:

The accommodations were fantastic, and more than ample for 40 people. Thank you J and W!

 I enjoyed the rather rustic decor...

Everyone had a chance to do the money jar --catching up on the family birthday tradition.
I added this particular picture simply because I loved this table.

The food was definitely a highlight, and a family reunion
wouldn't be complete without 3 kinds of homemade ice cream.
Mmmm!

Al fresco for the kids.

The '09 babies came in all three flavors.
They were definitely comrades in crime, but oh so cute!
I also think they liked the dirt hill just as much as the swingset.

Kudos to uncle W for taking the the kids for a dip.
The hot-tub was a blast for the adults too,  after-hours of course,
but I didn't bother getting pictures of that (--aren't you so glad).

So much fun stuff to do... so little time.

Not pictured here is the basement with ping-pong and pool tables,

 a little kid-sized playroom, a big screen TV, and in addition to that, a huge Theater room 

complete with a projector with surround sound, and two rows of overstuffed couches and La-Z-boys.  

Yeah, did I mention how awesome this place was?

Still, even with all that, the kids couldn't resist a good book read by Grandma.
In this family, that's a classic kid magnet!

Bowling, yeah!

Notice my snazzy shoes I tried walking off with.  They caught me, of course.

"...Pinata-yata zing zing zing..."

A hike in the pouring rain to the other falls... but that's a story for another post.
(And yes, my husband is sporting a goatee, although this isn't the best picture of it.
He doesn't generally grow facial hair --or more accurately he hasn't been capable of it really--
but if it fills in, he's hoping it will make him look older for when he starts teaching again this fall.)

Yeah, it tuckered me out too.

Cousin baths are the greatest!

We'll be sure to remind them of this when they're older.
Maybe in front of their girlfriends.

Lots of good late-night adult time.  Getting to know each other better with Jeopardy,
80's trivial pursuit, and don't forget the annual family auction...

Our oh-so-talented auctioneer showing off his wares.

And The #1 part of family reunions:  

FAMILY!

(by definition really...)

The rest are just perks.

... and here's three really cute "perks," new to our family this year:

Man, I'm so glad I married into this family!

A Few Fun Projects --Rock Pets, Magnet Fun, and Sun-dried Fruit Leather

So I have a few recent handmade ideas I thought I'd share.  

What was at first a way to keep the kids occupied while I got stuff done ("Go outside and find me some cool rocks!"), turned into a fun project with the kids one day.  They found a couple nice round rocks (the order of the day) and I decided to make some rock pets with hot melt glue.

They turned out super cute, but with just hot melt glue, they couldn't stand up to being handled by kids, so they turned into fun garden ornaments instead.  I'll have to figure out what kind of fast-setting glue would work better for holding rocks together.

So while I was in Utah,  I made the most of the resources available to me, as usual.  

When my oldest son found an abandoned speaker by the side of the road, he wanted to smash it open to get the large magnet out.  (He had just learned that speakers have magnets a few days earlier when his cousins found a smashed sub-woofer and got that huge magnet out.)  He was so excited to use a big hammer to smash something too. 

Well, this magnet wasn't quite as big, but it seemed almost stronger.  We had to go over magnet etiquette a bunch before releasing the kids to roam around with a super powerful magnet (...no going near TVs, computers, phones -basically anything with a cord or battery, not to mention painted objects such as cars).  It was a very educational activity as well, allowing the kids to discover certain properties of various objects.  Finally, we made a fun toy out of a clear plastic container and some metal shavings from under my dad's metal lathe.

Also while in Utah, we got to sample a bit of the summer harvest, my mother has an apricot tree, but alas, to the kid's disappointment, they weren't quite ripe.  However, my mom, who can't stand any kind of waste, still puts up as much fruit as she can each year.  Now that all seven of her kids have moved away, she doesn't have as many people at home to help eat it (although we do our best each time we come to visit).  So, to help her rotate some of that old fruit, we put her old bottled apricots and peaches to good use making homemade fruit leather!

This stuff was older than my first child, and a bit discolored and mushy, but still tasted fine and was safe to eat.

 We drained off the syrup,

And blended it, about 6 cups worth, along with 2 TBS lemon juice, and 2 TBS Honey.  (We did end up picking some apricots from neighbor's trees that were a little riper, and with the fresh fruit, I added 2 more TBS of honey since it didn't have the extra sweetness from the syrup).

I spread out some freezer paper on my parent's trampoline, securing it with clothespins, and sprayed it with cooking spray (actually, the first batch, I forgot that VERY important step and had to throw it all away because I couldn't get it off the paper --so sad!  If you try this don't forget the cooking spray! Pam it!).  

Then I poured/spread 6" circles of the mixture on the paper about a 1/4 in thick.  To make it even and smooth, I tapped on the trampoline next to each circle to flatten it out a bit.  It worked great.

We hit the weather perfectly, since it reached a very dry 100 degrees on a mostly wind-less day, and it only took about 6-7 hours for these to dry out.  (There have been years when the weather didn't cooperate for trampoline drying, but otherwise this is a great method for high-volume dehydration).

Once they were dry, they came right off the paper and I rolled them up and put them in freezer storage bags.  I left the bags open to allow them to cure for a few days, getting rid of any extra moisture just in case --like you would for dehydrated fruit, so they would store well without any danger of mold (not that I needed to store them though, they didn't last much longer than a few weeks anyway, maybe if I had been there longer to make more... all this was the product of just one day). 

I have to admit that this is my favorite way to enjoy apricots, well, next to jam -but I have a feeling this is healthier.

Delicious!

Summer Vacation to UT part 1

"Dat kitty, he wuves me!"

That's a cute slip 'n slide Fail by cousin D

Mmmm pie!

Ahh, the perils of walking around barefoot.