Pumpkin Walk

We sure had a busy weekend. Friday morning we drove to Ogden so Dennis could go to a work conference. The children and I had lunch and stopped by grandma and grandpa Markers house. Grandpa happened to be home and he suggested a walk down by the dinosaur park to see all the Halloween decorations, and a stop by the play ground. Friday night we went to our Marker Family Halloween party. My kids were kind of party poopers this year because they said they just wanted to dress up like a normal person. It was fun playing together though.




Saturday we made it to Logan for the pumpkin walk with some friends that live there, Ben and Sheri Brown. Dennis took Isaac and Afton to the USU football game and I took Jacob and Khora to Pepperage Farms and around shopping. We all had a great time. It sprinkled on us a little bit, but it was a great day!

Recipe Share: Butternut Squash Soup

I like squash, but struggle to find ways to cook it. I bought a butternut squash at the fruit stand last week and thought I would try this one out tonight. I love soups this time of year so this sounded sooo good. It has the consistency of tomato soup and is pretty light. We ate ours with home made bread sticks. I thought it was worth sharing!

Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1/2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1/2 C sliced carrots (abt 1 med carrot or 12 baby ones)
2 stalks celery, diced
1 C diced onion
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 medium butternut squash, (abt 4 cups diced)
1 medium potato, diced (about 2 C diced)
32 oz chicken broth (that's one box/carton)
1 T brown sugar
1 1/2 t kosher salt
3/4 t dried sage
1 pinch cayenne pepper or a douse of hot sauce

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil and butter. When butter is melted add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic

Saute for 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add the squash.

Then add potato, sage, salt, red pepper, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 30-40 minutes or until everything is tender. Check a piece of squash and also a piece of celery and potato to make sure they area fork tender. Stir in 1 T brown sugar.

Use an immersion blender, or transfer soup to a regular blender and puree until smooth.

I topped mine with a little parsley so it didn't look so plain! A small drizzle of heavy cream or sour cream is also tasty.

Our Best Bites is one of my favorites sites! There are a lot of other goodies on there too.

Yellowstone Trip

Last week we took a family road trip to visit Yellowstone. We followed my in-laws with the Korean caravan up through Idaho into West Yellowstone. My father-in-law was the tour guide to a group of 6 Koreans who are studying in Ogden for a semester. We had a lovely time and saw lots and lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife including bears, wolves, elk, cranes, buffalo, a coyote, deer and lots of small rodent types and birds.

(Isaac trying to blow a bubble.)

Two thoughts though, Wild life is wild, it deserves a little respect. Thus, please, Dennis, do not roll the window down when a huge wild buffalo bull is walking down my side of the road. Those things are big and hairy and a van has very thin walls I'm sure of it!!! Also, it boggles the mind to think that large groups of people will congregate from all over the country just to googgle over sulfer pots that reak to high heaven!!! PEEEUUUUUWWWWW!!!(Smoke in the background is smoke from the wildfire.)

Because of a wild fire that decided to cross one of the main road roads, we were detoured a couple hundred miles up into Montana in order to get home. It made for a very loooong road trip and we were so grateful to finally be home. I actually lost my camera at one of the stops we made and was so devastated, however after we got home, we got a call from my mother-in-law saying that they stopped on their way down through the park and found it. I was soooo happy! What in the world would I do without a camera for three months . . . (it's on my wish list for Christmas.) So I don't have any pictures to post with this because my camera is in Ogden at the time, but sometime soon.

Fall vs Autumn

Afton and I were having a discussion on Fall vs Autumn. I was telling her that I prefer to call this season Autumn because I like to think of all the beautiful colors. Gold, yellow and rust colored leaves. I picture sunflowers and mums, dried corn stalks and straw bales tied with ribbon and big orange pumpkins on the porch.
. . . Fall just reminds me that the trees will be bare and ugly when their leaves fall off and that winter is on it's way. She said that she likes to call it Fall because she likes we get to rake up the leaves and jump in them. I am so grateful for her perspective!

Ummm ... Let Me Think

Where do you think we should go Khora? "Ummm . . . let me think!!!"

Over Labor Day weekend we up the canyon to spend the night in grandpa and grandma's trailer. It was also fun to spend some time with Omner, Jessie and Haven as well. We had dinner and then sat around the campfire roasting marshmellows, making s'mores and just talking. Finally the boys talked Dennis and Omner into taking them on a 4-Wheeler ride. They were having all sorts of wars with each other with the tops of the "Brown-eyed Susans".

It rained on us off and on up there, but we managed to get in some fishing and brought home 3 pan sized trout. I don't think I've been up there too often this late in the season, but it was so nice and cool and despite the holiday weekend not really that busy. That's my kind of holiday!!

Kind of sad, though, that this weekend marks the end of summer. I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to it yet. We didn't see too many fall leaves yet so maybe there's a little more time before I settle in.







We did a little bit of labor on Monday. We helped my dad in his yard as he's trying to get things ready to plant grass around the back and side of their house. It will be so nice to have grass there. I think Dennis got in a little tennis time and he even took the girls so I could have some quiet time to myself. What a sweetie!!

$$$4Dirt

Until I moved here I would never have thought about actually paying money for . . . well, for dirt. I grew up in a small town and dirt was everywhere, so who would want to pay for it? Well we did. Dennis has been working more on our landscaping and that required bringing in a big load of "top soil", which I guess is the city word for dirt that you pay for. . . I still laugh in side. So for about a week we had a big pile of dirt...oh excuse me, topsoil, in our driveway and in the children's shoes and ears and hair. Dennis and the boys loaded it into wheelbarrows and took it around our yard. He's also been bringing in stones to line the flowerbeds, for free, glad to see it stops somewhere. It's coming together so well and looks great. We're going to be bringing in some mulch next. I'm so excited. It's all coming together so well.

Santaquin Carnival

Last week our family went to the first ever Santaquin City Carnival. The children had so much fun on all the rides I think it might have made up for the stream of "disappointed hopes" this summer, (long story).
We got in just after 5pm and were about the first people there. It was just the sort of crowd I like. I like that there were so many rides that the girls could ride and yet the boys had their fill of excitement. Dennis ended up getting sick, but by that time the boys were fear free and able to go on the rides by themselves. The carnival is scheduled to come every year from now on. Mark your calendars!