sticky buns!

I made sticky buns yesterday. I woke up in the morning thinking it would be a good thing to try. I'd never made them before, but love my moms. It was a thing I had to do when the kids were in bed. So.... I stayed up til one a.m. yesterday making sticky buns. But it was well worth it because they turned out great! It wasn't as hard as I thought, just time consuming. :) So... I thought since I can't physically share them with everyone, I'd just post a pic so we can enjoy them that way. :)

sticky buns!

A hike up hogsback

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go for a hike after church with Pete and Janet. It was a cooler day, only in the 50's. It had been overcast all day, until we decided to hike up Hogsback Mt. When we arrived at the start of the trail, the sun decided to shine. So it was really perfect weather.
We all took turns carrying the kids, as we don't have a backpack for Travis, and in some parts it was a little bit steep and rough going for Jenna. But for the most part she wanted to "do it myself". Which is the case for pretty much everything these days. But anyways, as we were hiking, all of a sudden the trail just kind of stopped. So we foraged our way up rocks and through tress to the best of our ability. Every so often, Papa would have to find a "park bench" and take a breather. :) It was a good excuse to take either a break myself or grab a few more picture shots. You know me, never without my camera. :) At least I try not to be. You never know when a gooo picture opportunity might arise. I'm getting sidetracked. Back to the hike.
It was a bit challenging in some spots, but it was really enjoyable to just be outside in the beautiful fall weather that afternoon. I've been in the mood to do something like that for a while now. We were almost at the top when the mt turned to rock and was pretty steep. Aaron with Travis and Janet foraged ahead to see if this last rock hill was the top. Pete, and Jenna and I waited to see if it was the top, and enjoyed the little view we had from our standpoint. We did end up following Aars and Janet because it was to top. All that climbing was worth it. The view at the top was spectacualr. It will probably be better in a week or so, as all the trees weren't colored yet. But there were still quite a few reds, yellows and oranges scattered among all the green. We were able to see Hallow lake and Lake Superior from the top as well. It was awesome. When it came time to go back down, we saw a something that looked like it might be a trail. We decided to try to follow that, as it was a steep hike back down the way we came. What do you know, but it was the original trail that lead us back down to the trail we'd started on! We must've taken the Advanced hike up! We all got a chuckle out of that one. :) The trail we should've taken would have been ALOT easier. :) Oh well, we still made it to our destination, and lived through it. It was a lot of fun, and I got lots of fun pics.

Bonanza.........mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

It was a pretty good day today! I did go out for breakfast with the ladies, and did have a belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream, and some fried ham. I was stuffed to the limit. :) Also, Pete and Janet were down today, and we went out for supper at BONANZA. Oh.... heavenly days it was wonderful. I'm still stuffed two hours later! :) I got their all you can eat salad bar. Oh...... haha I'm still oohing over it! Sorry bout the food obession..... I'll stop now.
I found the camera cable so now I can add pictures. I'll put some up from Trav's birthday, and just some random park pics. There may be lots, so just bear with me. I've got catching up to do. Enjoy!

dreaming of breakfast

I don't know what I am going to do..... well I do know actually..... I guess I should kind of explain what my dilema is.
I got a job at Target. :) I'm excited and can't wait to start. But that's not what I am in a dilema about. My Travis has become a shy baby! I dropped him off at a friends the other day while I had a job interview for Target. When I left he was busy playing with a toy with his back turned to me. Well when I got back, that was NOT the case. He was sitting in front of the door bawling his little head off. And boy was he mad. I gues he cried for a good half hour when he noticed I was gone. He did the same thing when I went for a drug test. I was only gone for twenty minutes, and he was still pretty mad. So...... I guess It's going to be fun for whoever watches him during the layover when Aars has class and I have work. I love being a stay at home mom with my kids, it's great to be able to watch them grow up on a day to day basis, but it will be nice to get a little break. To actually interact with different people! :)
On a more cheerful note, I have been working with Jenna to say her prayers every night before she goes to sleep. She's getting the hang of it. She actually knows half of the words to "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep". I tell her one word, and the last couple of nights she's said the next two words after that. It just toally melts my heart to listen to her little heart say her prayers. She's so darn cute. Even when she's sassy. Lately though she has been pretty good. Even saying please and thank you without being prompted. It's hard to tell her no when she says please. :)
We have Fall Services down here this weekend. I'm hoping some people from the north travel south for services. It would be fun to see some familiar faces. The ladies from church are going out for breakfast for eight thirty in the morning tomorrow, and then going to go and peel many pounds of potatoes for sunday dinner after. I'm going to go..... I never go for breakfast and Aaron always does! I'm dreaming of a belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. And maybe a big glass of OJ. mmmmmm..... I'm making myself hungry....
My inlaws are headed to town tomorrow for some shopping and a visit to their grandkids. Should be fun to see them. We are always fired up to have company. Especially company that is family. :) The best kind. :) I am going to go and pick up..... we babysat for Dan and Heidi's girls while they went on a date tonight. Well.... two two year olds plus two crawling babies equals a messy house! So with that..... I bid you a goodnight!

Beef Stew

I know I promised I'd post pics, but i can't find the cable today. I'm going to have to clean my room really good tomorrow, and hopefully find it. If it's not there, than that means I HAVE to clean out the van......
I made an AWESOME supper tonight if I do say so myself. It was a yummy beef stew. One of my favorites. I love to dip like four pieces of bread to go with my heaping bowl of stew. I also pour ketchup over my stew. There probably is a recepie out there, but I just chop up my potatoes, carrots and celery and rutabega till it looks good,and throw in the stew meat ( I actually bought a chunk of beef the first time I made it and had to cut it up myself. My sister Alanna laughed at me when I told her that. She then informed me that they do sell stew meat cut up in the store..... ).
I then look in the cupboard and dig around for whatever seasonings look good. Cajun seasoning, lauwrys seasoning salt, lemon pepper, salt, pepper, garlic, and can't forget the boullion cubes. mmmmm...... it was so good. I can't wait to eat it for lunch again tomorrow.
Tomorrow.... yeah!!!! tomorrow is Friday. That means Aaron is done with school early and doesn't have to get up at 4:20 a.m. because he has class at seven. And he's done at noon. Then it's the weekend! woo hoo!

What a weekend!

We had a busy weekend up north! As always it went by way too fast!
The wedding was pretty, it was FREEZING cold on Sat. Go figure. It was eighty the day before and seventy the day after. But Sat. evening it was probably in the fifties with a stiff cold wind coming off of the lake. I served cheesecake at the wedding and was SO cold by the time we left.
We were able to see both families and some friends over the three day weekend. Friday night we went to my in laws and celebrated Janet's birthday. Sat, Aars worked on the garage and I slept in til ten and took a nap later in the afternoon! What a treat! :) We had the wedding at six thirty in the evening out at McLain's. We were able to squeeze in a late visit with Ryan and Sarah after. Sunday I went to church with the kids so Aaron could do his homework that was due Monday. We stayed at my parent's all weekend. Sunday afternoon we had a birthday party for Travis. His dad told everyone he needed boy toys. Well.... boy toys he got! Trucks, and balls galore! It was cute. He's so pumped to just push his trucks around. I just wish we had more room for him to push them. Our living room is kind of small.
We let him dig into his cake that Alanna made for him. It was a cute car :)
It was late by the time we hit the road to head home. We gave Loretta and Brad a tour of our house for sale. They are actually going to rent it for the winter! I'm pumped. It's a win-win situation for all of us.:)
So all in all, it was a good weekend home. I'll post pics tomorrow. I grabbed the camera/computer cable thingy to get pics onto the computer from our camera.