Weekend Adventure

So, originally, we were going to give the boys a trip to San Diego for Christmas. 

 

And then we remembered that People are in San Diego, and neither Mark or I like People. 

 

And since SoCal gets a LOT of traffic this time of year, we decided to go out in the middle of nowhere instead.

 

Well, actually, we went to St George, took a left and ended up in the middle of no where.

 

Beep Beep I'm a Jeep Time!

 

The first day, we drove out along a trail that sort of meandered through this:

 

And somewhere out there, we found some dunes.   

 

 

 

Mark of course, had a BLAST, the whole while I was repeating "Find your happy place, find your happy place!!"

 

And luckily, there were some other crazy souls out there that pulled us off the top of the dune that Mark high centered us on.  I did NOT take any pictures of that.

 

The next day, Mark somehow talked me into going out again.

 

And while we couldn't find the trail he was searching for, we had a great ride through the middle of no where... and found a few places where Mark could play with the jeep.

 

 

He was so excited... more so than Evan and Ryan on Christmas morning at the chance to REALLY use all the jeep's special features.

 

When I got back in after spotting him over this THREE FOOT DROP, he was grinning from ear to ear and proudly announced, "Everything is ON!" (referring to the sway bar disconnect, the front and rear locks, and whatever else allows the jeep to go up and down THREE FOOT LEDGES!).

 

The boys also had a blast, and spending two and half days with each other, no interruptions, was the perfect Christmas gift... even if it meant three foot ledges and high centering on sand dunes.

 

A few of my favorite moments...

Evan had only opened a few gifts when he picked up this one from his Grandma Nancy.  It was a book of memories and pictures she put together.  And he stopped, and flipped slowly through it all.  With the piles of gifts surrounding him, with the toys and treasures, this is the one that stopped him in his tracks.  As he reached the last few pages, I saw him discreetly brush his hands over his eyes.

And cute little Ryan... who was soooooo excited about the train toy box that Grandpa Steve had made for him.  Even with presents left still to open, he would stop and flip the light on or off... or occasionally climb in.   When we moved it downstairs, he was VERY particular about where we put it... and immediately pulled all his tracks out to put inside.  It reminded me so much of when Evan received his fire truck toy box from my dad.  I have very similar pictures of Evan. 

And the final one for today...

There were hours and hours and hours over the last several days of these two playing peacefully together, which may be the best gift I could receive!  They are in a stage where they are getting along... Evan was sooooooo patient with his brother, playing little boy games and helping Ryan learn BIG boy games (like how to put together legos).  They have been getting along smashingly, and I'm loving every minute of it! 

Silly Boy

Ryan opened a box from his Grandma, pulled out the sheet of those air pillow cushions, squealed with excitement and declared, "It's JUST WHAT I WANTED!!!!"

To be young...

Clementine Cranberry Buns

 I stumbled across what may possibly be my all time FAVORITE recipe.

Deb, over at Smitten Kitchen has MANY to die for recipes.  A nice combo of savory and sweet.  I've tried many many of her recipes, and have never been disappointed.  

Then, last week, I was catching up and came across her recipe for Cranberry Orange Breakfast Buns.

There were a few things that caught my eye... Other than the name (because I don't think there are enough things in the world that combine orange and cranberry)... my favorite was that the dough rises over night in the fridge, so when you wake up on a lazy Sunday morning, you just have to pop the pan into the oven and 30 mins later you are standing in a clean kitchen (because you did all the dishes the night before) smelling the heavenly breakfast that magically appeared. 

Seriously, by the time I made coffee and whipped the "icing" together, it was time for this:

Everyone ABSOLUTELY loved them, and will be a frequent weekend treat at our house!

Also, this dough will be making MANY appearances in our house!!  It was very quick to put together and oh so perfect in texture.  It's not sweet, so you can use it for sweet OR savory buns.  I can't wait to try it out in other applications! 

Enough raving... here's a link to the original recipe:

Smitten Kitchen Cranberry Orange Breakfast Buns

A few tweaks... 

1.  I only had clementines... so, I replaced the orange in the recipe with clementine juice and zest.  To zest a clementine, you just take a veggie peeler and gently scrap the peel, then chop it into fine pieces.  If you try and zest it on a grater, the "easy to peel" peel will rip off in obnoxious chunks.  If this happens, you can always use the veggie peeler to scrape the pith (spongey white part) off, and then chop.  This is more obnoxious though. 

2.  I only had Active Dry Yeast, so I warmed the buttermilk just a little past room temp and then proofed the yeast in that.  Don't heat the buttermilk too much because it's easy to curdle... and then you end up with nastiness.  Because I just barely had enough warmth to wake up the yeast, it took double the amount of time for the first rise... but the second rise happened just as the recipe said it would.  Just be patient that first time, and keep the completed dough in a nice warm place to help encourage the yeast to wake up.  

Tis the Season for Gingerbread

 Sunday was COOKIE DAY!!!!

We made up a batch of gingerbread, and then loaded the sugar on the top.

There aren't many times during the year that my kids are allowed unlimited access to sugar....

And probably even fewer that they get to PLAY with their food... 

So combining the two was just the perfect afternoon!

Evan was very excited about his gingerbread "Ugly Sweater" 

 

Ryan was just excited that I gave him unlimited sugar and allowed him to EAT it.

It's SANTA!!!!!

So, I was cleaning the bathroom on Sunday, and I hear Evan "Ho, Ho. Ho!" behind me.  

And I turn around to THIS:

That would be Ryan's dirty pajama shirt he wrapped around his face as a beard.

I laughed, snapped the picture, and went back to cleaning.

Then I walked out into the living room to THIS:

 Yes... Evan and Ryan are playing "Sit on Santa's Lap!"

More laughing.

And then, Evan tired of the game and went off to do something else... and I came across THIS:

Which continued for most of the day!

It's a Marshmallow World

We had a huge winter storm roll through on Saturday... 

And it was the first GOOD snow we've had all year.  

 

Which means on Sunday morning, when the sun came out...

It was time to play.

And play.

And play.

And if you've never heard Dean Martin's Marshmallow world... 

It's Ryan's current favorite.

Hello Marshmallows.

I had to work on Black Friday... so Mark took the boys down to Manti to visit family and play in the mountains.  

They came back with a gift from Grandma Rie... A bag of mini-marshmallows! 

Now call me a bad mom, but Ryan, at 4 years old, has never had hot cocoa with marshmallows.

I'm pretty sure I can never go back to just normal hot cocoa.

Mostly he eats them by the spoonful, then asks for more, and ends up leaving about half of the cocoa because "he's all full"... unless I give in and pour more marshmallows in!