Act 3; Scene 7: Fall Colors Tour 2012

It's that time of year!

When the crisp breeze cools down the air, and the reds and yellows burst out

all over the mountainside.

We decided we'd better head up to the mountains to get a good feel for the colors before they are gone--they are always gone way too soon.

Let me tell you, it is a lot harder planning for things and going anywhere with a baby in tow.

We decided to start at the North end of the Alpine Loop, and work backwards. We finally made it out in the early afternoon.

And guess what? As we drove up, there was a big sign that read "Enjoy Free National Lands Day"--there was no fee yesterday! How providential that we had randomly decided to head to the Alpine Loop on free day?

Or so we thought.

It turns out that a lot of people actually knew about Free Lands Day. A. LOT. And they all decided to do the Alpine Loop.

Have you ever driven the Alpine Loop? It is a very, very narrow road, and many times one side of the road is straight down with no railing. 

Well, a lot of people owning huge and very wide SUVs had decided to drive the Alpine Loop, making it a bit tricky to continue two way traffic on that little road. Robert, driving, was pretty stressed out. Needless to say, we didn't end up catching as many scenes on the camera that we would have liked to--we were busy watching the road and sneaking past the larger vehicles.

BUT! We did manage to get out and see some beauty along the crowded trails for at least a little bit.

Trying out the front pack with Mom!

Not so sure about it

Still not so sure about the whole hiking thing

Cascade Falls

Gorgeous at Cascade Falls!

Cool moss/seaweed under the water

It really was a gorgeous fall day. However, we came to a few conclusions on this, our third annual colors tour:

1. It might be worth it to pay the fee rather than battle the crowds, and their SUVs
2. The South side of the Alpine Loop near Sundance really is the most beautiful part of the loop
3. Iceburg is a great place for shakes, an ok place for fries and onion rings, and a horrible place for anything else.

At least we got to see some colors and get out in the mountains a little bit. The yellow aspens are my favorite--they're so bright!

Happy Fall!

 

Act 3; Scene 6: A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Whew, a TON has happened in the past week or so!

Too much to write about. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm just going to let about a million or more worth of words be said by posting a picture tour of our week.

We'll begin with last Sunday, the baby blessing day:

Just before the blessing

Friends at the park

Picnic with family and friends at the park

Tommy peacing out during the whole picnic

At home

Lovin' his new toy from Aunt Suzanne

On Monday, we were out ALL DAY. It started with the Tracy Aviary, a picnic at the park, the City Creek Mall, and then dinner with my parents at their house.

You can't tell from the picture how ginormous this bird was

Tommy definitely has an owl face expression in this one!

On Wednesday we went up the canyon for dinner at Sundance

I was excited to wear my "vintage" shirt, brooch, and earrings to Sundance

Grandpa playing with Thomas

And oddly enough, I realize that I don't actually have that many pictures from the week--and some activities were completely skipped over by the camera, such as

Walking the Bridal Veil Falls trail
eating Cafe Rio
Going to Chalk the Block at the Riverwoods
Playing games at home with the fam
Lunching at Kneaders, then more Riverwoods

As you can see, it was a busy few days stuffed full of fun activities.
Whew! It might take us another week to recover from all the fun :-)

 

Act 3; Scene 5: Ahoy, Maytees!

Yo, Ho! Yo, Ho! A pirate's life for me!

Today is national "Talk Like a Pirate Day"

Yar, that's right.

And in honor of such a splendid, ridiculous, wonderful holiday--Krispy Kreme donuts decided to do something splendid, ridiculous, and wonderful:

Give out free donuts to anyone who talks like a pirate,

and give out a FREE ONE DOZEN donuts if you dress up like a pirate.

Shiver me timbers!

I mean, whether you like donuts or not, who can bypass the opportunity to dress up like a pirate and be rewarded with a box of light, sugary donuts?

Not us, you cod fish!

A very freaky mama pirate face, and a rather stunned, cute baby pirate face

We dressed up and hit the town! 

Or rather, plundered the store! Notice mama pirate's sword...

The whole of the attire

Krsipy Kreme was swarming with the scallywags watching the donuts come to "life"

the reflection made this turn out a little strange..

We made it! And this little tyke wasn't even grumpy the whole time we were there--even though his Mom made him wear a funny scarf on his head, which he was thoroughly confused by.

In front of the donuts, about to get our prize!

And here's our booty

One dozen for me, and one dozen for Tommy

Drink up (or in this case, eat up!) me hearties, yo ho!

Act 3; Scene 4: Overalls and a Sideways Video

When I found out I was having a baby boy, there was one thing I knew I wanted lots of.

Overalls.

I just love baby boys of all ages in overalls, long or short. They are so adorable!

Thanks to my mom and sister-in-law Kim, I have a few to choose from. And I found out on Sunday that Tommy is finally big enough for the smallest overalls I have. So he sported them to church, of course:

So handsome! It's strange to see how big he is getting already, and yet it feels like he hasn't grown at all...can I even remember what he was like as a brand new little guy?

Thomas is definitely an active little bugger. He loves to sit up (as you can see from the pictures), stand up, and kick and kick and kick. He has taken to kicking his legs and flailing his arms while panting like a puppy dog in his bouncy chair. It is too funny. I was so happy that I recorded it the other day--but of course, I have sleep-deprived baby brain. I forgot that you can't record on the camera sideways. So I have a sideways video. Argh! But hopefully you can hear his puppy dog breathing and see his thrashing legs. He can keep it up for hours (well, almost an hour :-) )

That's our little kicker.

More to come from him later.

For now, we're all feeling a bit like this

So off we go to catch up on Zzzzz's.

Happy napping!

Act 3; Scene 3: A Parisian Experiment

I love getting Bountiful Baskets because it's always a surprise--you never know what kinds of fruits and vegetables you will be surprised with, only that you'll get a lot of them.

This has led to some interesting cooking experiments, some more successful than others (cauliflower soup=success; fried eggplant=not a success). I really enjoy a reason to search out recipes and find new ideas for dinner that I probably wouldn't seek out on my own.

A few weeks ago, we received a plethora of onions in our Bountiful Basket. Onions are very handy, but we certainly didn't know what to do with 6 yellow onions.

So I decided that I would try to make French onion soup. 

What an adventure! 

I started out by skilleting/caramelizing a BUNCH of onions (and let me tell you, the cutting up of these onions was a tragedy for my eyes--the tears ran down my cheeks)

 Then I added all of the other stuff--beef broth, white vinegar, thyme, bay leaf (and realized that I needed an actual pot...)

 While that simmered, I put a baguette in the oven and grated some Swiss cheese. I wanted to add some Parmesan, but forgot to pick up the "real" kind so we used the "fake" powder kind :-)

 Then I packed the cheese onto the sliced baguette pieces (talk about a workout to slice a baguette!)

 Yummy toasted cheesy baguette!

 Then we dished up and put the toasted bread on top

 Bon Appetit!

Our conclusion: that toasted, cheesy French bread sure tastes good dipped in the onion-flavored broth!

And while I like onions, I don't think I like onions THIS much.

I never would have attempted French onions soup without the Bountiful Basket, and it was an awesome adventure! But I don't think I'll be making this soup again any time soon.

However, I will definitely be toasting cheese on baguettes very frequently :-)

Happy Cooking!