Ice Cream Pie, Anyone?

M made an ice cream cake on Sunday. He crushed Oreos for the crust and mixed it with butter then baked it. While that was baking, he made ice cream with cocoa powder, honey, vanilla, and cream. It was very rich and thick. After he took the crust out of the oven he put it in the freezer to chill before pouring the ice cream on top. Once the ice cream was poured in, he froze it for 24 hours. We ate it after family home evening and it was very yummy. The crust was a little hard, though, so M is planning on making another one.

He used my flower DeMarle form.
I love these forms, they are great to work with.

Of course you can't forget the whipped cream for the top.

K helped by cleaning up the ice cream beater.

Messy face.

The girls enjoying their piece.

Raking Leaves is Fun To Do, Fun To Do...

This afternoon I came home from my Ward Council meeting to find K in the backyard raking up the leaves. I know it isn't a Saturday activity, but she was having fun so I just let her continue. I was impressed with what a good job she did. It looks like this year I will have a raking buddy when the leaves really start falling. It will be nice to have her to talk and share the work with. I love that at this age she thinks work is fun to do. Guess I will have to remember to keep the work fun to do as she grows older so she will still enjoy doing it.

Raking under the swing set.

Her cute little pile.

Getting all her leaves into a nice big pile.
Daddy got rid of the piles for her when she was done.

Game 2

Today was K's second soccer game and she made the first goal! She got control of the ball, took it right down the field with her teammates shielding her from the other team and she scored! She was so proud of herself, as she should be and shouted to me "Mom! I made a goal! That was my first one!" So adorable.
The team we played today was much better than last weeks and I am pretty sure they made more goals then we did. However, our team is much better than last week and they played together well. It is so fun watching the kids learn the game and improve with each new week of practice.

K's bear ears.

She had to have ribbon to match her jersey.

When K got control of the ball before making her first goal.
I was so excited for her, I forgot to take a picture past this point.

Here is a picture right after the goal was made.

Here she is kicking off to put the ball into play.

Here she is throwing in the ball after it went out.

I love seeing all the kids hustle for the ball.

Here she is waiting on the side line until her turn to play again.

Dinner Divine

What do you do when you find a Costco size bag of broccoli in your refrigerator that you have forgotten about for a week? You make Cheesy Broccoli Potato soup, of course!
My husband, who seldom uses a recipe, definitely has a way with food. I could never make a meal without using a recipe and following it perfectly. However he feels a recipe is only good for giving you a general idea of what to put into a dish, but is not something to follow. He always makes his own recipes up and they are wonderful 98-99% of the time. Whether it's baking or cooking, my hubby's got a knack for it. Here is the recipe he threw together for our dinner tonight and I must say it was divine.

Dice 3 onions and 5 cloves of garlic, then saute in a stick of butter. He also added 2 bell peppers from our garden that were getting kind of wilty. While that is cooking, lightly steam 2 pounds of broccoli. Cut 5 pounds of potatoes into cubes and add to the onion mixture. Add 2 cans of chicken broth, about 2 cups of cream and some milk until it looks right. Like I said, no recipes in this house.
He also added pepper and salt to taste and about 6 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. Once every thing has cooked for a while and the potatoes are softened, he took about half of the big chunks out of the pot and pureed them in a blender then added them back to the pot. He said this would help thicken up the stock. When he was done, we had a small bowl and it was wonderful, however we thought it needed more broccoli chunks. So he steamed some more broccoli until it was slightly tender and threw it into the pot. He let it sit over night and we had it for dinner this evening.
There ended up being 10 quarts of soup. We thought about canning it but read in several places you shouldn't can things with dairy in them. Something about the texture and separation. So we put some in quart jars and froze it. An easy meal to defrost this winter when we are craving soup to warm us up.

Game One and We Won!

Not that anyone kept score officially, but I did and our team did an awesome job! We have 9 kids on the team which means they all get a lot of time on the field. K and one of the boys, Nate, got the most play time today. Nate is amazing! Every time he got the ball, he ran it in for a goal. K was never far behind and she even made a goal herself. Both teams did an awesome job and remembered which way their goal was, most of the time. I had heard that the U6 games were boring to watch, but I loved it. I was just so impressed with how well everyone did and it was their first game. They can only get better from here.
By the way, did anyone notice how rainy it was today? Glad I took my umbrella to stand under, at one point it was pouring. The kids didn't seem to mind it though. K kept telling me she wasn't getting wet though her clothes were telling a different story. Glad she had fun in the rain and mud! Now to get her uniform clean before the next practice.

The starting teams choosing who goes first.

Our teams line up.

The other teams line up.

Everyone's going for the ball.

K gets the ball and starts kicking it to our goal.

Still in possession.

Here is Nate running it down the field.

Go Snakes!

Heaven in a Bowl

M made some apple pie ice cream tonight. He crumbled graham crackers in the bottom of a bowl, put in some of the ice cream and topped it with homemade whipped cream. It was heavenly, tasted just like apple pie, only better.
M mixed together 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream with 1/2 cup sugar. Then he added some canned apple pie filling that a friend of ours made and gave to us last year. He added some extra spices to it: cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves then mixed it all together and put it in our machine.

We were wanting to make pumpkin ice cream, however none of the stores he visited had any canned pumpkin puree for sale. Maybe we can try that closer to Halloween.

Soccer Mom?

Me? A soccer mom? I would never have thunk it, but that is what I have become. At least for this season, anyway. K started her first soccer practice yesterday and I must say, I think she is a natural. Just look at that scowl on her face, doesn't she seem menacing?
First we met her coach who happens to be a member of our ward, how fun is that? He has been coaching soccer for years up in Utah and was even a player when he was younger. I think he is going to do a wonderful job with these kids.
He started them off with some stretches before having them practice "dribbles" with the ball. Dribbles...I thought dribbling was only in basketball, who knew? Certainly not me. Although, I am not what you would call "well versed" in any sport. Guess I will be learning right along with my daughter.

Here the kids were told to run and get their ball. Don't they look excited and energetic? It's so adorable seeing the little 5 year old kids all dressed up in their uniforms.
Here the coach was teaching them to kick the balls back and forth to their partner. K's partner was the coaches son and I think she may have a little crush on him. She even had to give him a hug before we left practice. I think she has seen him a couple of times at church but this is the first time she has had any real communication with him. It was kind of cute watching her interact with him, especially since he wasn't quite as reciprocating.
A little instruction from the coach now. Do you see K in her jersey? I love how her foot is resting on the soccer ball. I have seen real players do this on the occasion I have glanced at a soccer game on tv playing in the background while I am eating my dinner at Applebee's. Did I mention I am not really into sports?
And they are off, dribbling their ball down the field. K started in the back but is soon in the lead. She kicks her ball semi-straight and true. She makes it to the treeline in no time and never once misses kicking her ball. I am so impressed. She has never dribbled before today and she has nailed it! I am so proud of her. I can hardly wait to see what next practice will bring. In the meantime, we will be practicing in the backyard every day for 15-20 minutes. That should be enough, right? Don't want to overwhelm her.

Her first game is Saturday. It will be fun watching the kids kick the ball around. We are going though AYSO which is a great organization. They are all about teaching the kids how to have fun and work together. At this young of an age, they don't even keep score. If one team seems to be making more 'goals' then the other, the teams are switched up a little so it's more of a fair game. I think this is great because it teaches the kids how to play the game and not focus on the outcome so much. They don't even have goalies at this age. The kids just pretty much kick the ball around and get a feel for how the game works. As they get older, they learn more and it becomes more of a real game.

I Scream, You Scream...

My wonderful mother-in-law recently gave me her ice cream maker. It isn't one of those salt and ice kind, it's an honest to goodness ice cream maker. It even has a freezer so you can leave it in the machine on chill until you are ready to eat it. Although, our family never leaves it alone long enough for that. We have had such great creations come out of it: chocolate, strawberry, blackberry, lemon pear, lemon pear banana, and lemon pear banana blackberry. We also made some strawberry sorbet, though I didn't care for it much.
What amazes me most, beside the yummy flavor and the ease of making it, is that so little can fill me up. I eat a quarter of what I usually eat from the store variety and I am full and satisfied every time. If you don't have one, I definitely recommend getting yourself an ice cream maker. Thanks again for such a wonderful machine, Mel.

Triangle Lake

My hubby got to go on another outing with the boys. This time they went to Triangle Lake for some shooting practice. Ah, shooting practice. I remember the days fondly. I have only been out a handful of times, if that, in the past 2 years. I sure do miss it.
Anyway, after shooting they headed out to Lake Creek Falls for some swimming. M said it was gorgeous and the water was really warm. There are some natural rock slides there and the boys took turns sliding down the rocks into the pool of water below. There is also a deep swimming hole you can jump off the rocks into. He said it was really fun and we should take the girls there sometime. I was quite jealous but glad he got to have some fun and get to know some of the guys from church a little better. I don't have any pictures, so I stole some off of the internet. Doesn't it look inviting?

Hike from Elk Lake to Charlton Lake

The lady of the house wants me to post about my hike last weekend on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Too sum it up: it was fun.

Now, on with the pictures. Presented in chronological order.

Beginning our trip at Elk Lake.

This is Dumbbell Lake we stopped here for a snack.
Where do meadows in the middle of the forest come from? Why aren't there any trees growing here?


Horseshoe Lake, one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I don't remember if this is Merrill or Mac Lake.
Waiting for the sun to come up Sunday morning at Cougar Flat. This was where we camped our first night. We walked about 16 miles that first day.
We came across this guy right about here. That was exciting. Click to embiggen and look at the center of the picture.
Lovely wife tells me that it is hard to tell what that was a picture of. So here is a closer one. I didn't have anything to rest the camera on so these came out a bit blurry.


The other two guys almost walked right past Stormy Lake without even looking.


This panorama of Brahma Lake didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped it would.
These three rocks are on the south side of Brahma Lake.

This is Irish Lake. NF road 600 goes just south of this lake. It was the first road we crossed on our hike.

A view of the Sisters from a ridge about 1/4 mile north of Lily Lake.

Lily Lake. About 26 miles into our hike. I would love to go back here again.

Cool and refreshing after a day walking in the sun. I didn't stay in long though..lakes are cold at 6000 feet.

I left my pack at camp and took a walk around the lake. The next two pictures were taken along the south edge of Lily Lake.

We could see fish jumping in the middle of the lake. Unfortunately, that is where they stayed.

This is the Eastern sky looking across Lily Lake at sunset.
Someone should have brought marshmallows.
I caught a reflection of the moon a little before sunrise Monday morning.
Here comes the sun...That's for you babe.
It was 34 degrees when I got up. The fire was my friend.
We arrived at Charlton Lake at about noon on Monday.
We had about 3 hours to burn before our ride came to bring us home so two of us decided to walk around the lake. There are a couple of neat little islands on the Southeast end of Charlton.