My first endeavor was a polka dot cake for my niece Mckenna’s birthday party (The picture was taken before I tied a pink ribbon around it). This was my first time working with fondant and I rolled it in granulated sugar. Had I read the back of the box instead of just doing what I thought I should do I would have realized that it actually said POWDERED sugar (my family has never been really into reading instructions). Nevertheless it turned out pretty well for my first attempt.

The problem with my family is that when you tell them you can do something you are all of the sudden the resident ___________. For example, I learned to play the piano, so now I am the resident pianist, I am the only person without kids and they know I love kids so I am the resident babysitter, when I told them I was going to start making cakes, I became the resident cake maker! I don’t mind it though because it has given me a lot of practice with such a big family and lots of birthdays.

I would hardly call myself an expert…….more of an apprentice/novice level. But I have fun making them, and once I figured out that you are supposed to use powdered sugar, it made a WORLD of difference in my mood while I make cakes! So Tim is VERY grateful for that discovery.

This year went a lot smoother than previous years,with rule bickering kept to a minimum. On the first day we had the races, each contestant entered 3 speed tanks, with points earned for winning and going certain distances. Megan and I had one of our tanks go the second farthest, robbed by the Lazarte’s Monsters Inc. car. The first day ended with Scott and Christy winning the overall race contest, with the Lazartes and Megan and I in close second and third.

I got a few extra points on the beauty contest for my Santa’s Slay creation which tied me for first place going into the battle competition, but my destruction tanks flopped. After a lot of excitement and fire we tallied up the votes and retired for next year. Maybe if Megan and I start early this year we can have something to show for all of our smack talk.

Results:

1st-
Lazartes
2nd-
Scott & Christy
3rd-
Kevin & Sheena
4th-
Tim & Megan
5th-
Thiess kids
6th-
Richard & Alice
Thiesses

More tank wars pictures.

Then this song came on the Radio…

I just need 9 people spilling out of my back seat and I’ve got it down. Volunteers?

It was a beautiful drive up the canyons, and we made a few stops along the way to go geocaching, the hottest new sport for GPS nerds like Bryan and I. We did a little hike along one of the many Mormon Pioneer trails that followed a nice little stream, quite possibly THE giving little stream that the pioneers sang about. And more possibly it wasn’t. We may never find out. Anyway, Bryan and I bush-whacked our way off of the trail and into the thick trees to find the geocache, and after a few minutes of getting molested by arachnids we found it. It was a big one that was all about origami cranes for some reason, so I attempted at a crane, got frustrated and crumpled my paper, and spent ten more minutes watching Bryan make his. The girls played around in the giving stream patiently while us manly men made our manly origami.

We continued on our way but our car got stopped by a herd of sheep so we got out and took some pictures. Bryan almost got attacked by a tiny black lamb, but no blood was shed. We continued on our way, found another geocache in Morgan, stopped at the Subway there because it was the only thing they had, and drove on to the abandoned train yard in Taggart. This was by far one of the coolest places I had seen to hang out and take pictures. We walked through the tunnels and overlooked a river that was there, and tried to figure out where all the old bones on the ground came from. Candice seems to think they’re from birds, but I think they came from the starved Chinese immigrant workers that were forced to build the place.

We took a load of pictures then realized it was getting late so we booked it back down to the valley so we could catch a baseball game. The baseball game was as boring as baseball always is. Bryan was on the kissing cam with our married friend Marty. Awkward!…and to make matters worse, he hid from the camera by hiding next to Megan. Now the two of them were on the kissing cam. Even more awkward! We ate some of the best hotdogs I have ever tried, and watched some fireworks after the game so it wasn’t all that bad. Awesome day, but extremely exhausting.

More photos from the mini road trip HERE

The first night there we made a pizza and just hung out at the cabin, playing True Colors (way fun board game that we’re trying to track down and buy. Nobody carries it.) and just enjoying each other’s company.

The next day I got up at the crack of dawn because I can never sleep in on vacations, and went to go exploring around the cabin, taking pictures, and watching the sunrise while waiting for everyone else to wake up. A few hours later they did, thanks to Candice ringing the meal bell very loudly even though breakfast wasn’t made yet. Bryan was mad for being woken up so early just to have to make his own breakfast. Candice’s bell privileges were taken away for the rest of the weekend.


We had a delicious meal of french toast and cheese eggs then got ready for the day. That afternoon we drove up to Rockport and took some pictures of the lake, then went to Midway to swim in the world-class hot springs. It turned out to just be a filthy cesspool that scalded anyone trying to get in. Some creepy old man who was impervious to pain sat his lawn chair in the pool, sucked back a few brewskies, and gave the rapist eye to all the girls coming to the hot springs. I found some cacti near the springs, and since I’d been watching a ton of discovery channel lately, decided I wanted to eat one and see what all the fuss was about. They had no taste, but very juicy, with a watermelon texture for anyone curious. Since it was too hot to get in, my fingers had cactus splinters in them, and we were thoroughly creeped out, we headed back to the cabin.

That night we had amazing BBQ chicken with Bryan’s not-so-secret sauce (Famous Dave’s) and corn-on-the-cob. For dessert, smores and roasted starbursts over a fire. The rest of the group went for a freezing, midnight hike but Megan and I stayed at the cabin and watched “How I Met Your Mother” (Hilarious TV show) because we’re not that adventurous apparently.

Sunday morning we went to church, Megan got complimented on her amazing voice again, and we took the day to play some more games, eat lunch, and clean the cabin before heading back home.

More cabin photos HERE.

These pictures are downloadable, so if I have pictures of you or your family, all you have to do is hit the download button and it’s all yours. This will make the photos more widely available and save me the hassle of trying to get each person their own specific pictures.

So far I have pictures from:

-Trip to San Diego
-Mountain Pictures
-Home pictures
-Trip to the Sand Dunes
-The Beach
-Easter ’09
-Tulip Festival
-Kamden’s Soccer Game
-Kelsey’s Birthday Party

Also I will soon be adding pictures from our trip to Bryan’s Cabin, and Megan’s night at Wicked. The links to these sites are on the left hand side of our blog, labeled “Event Photos”. I’ll be updating these periodically so check back often.

I got a coveted Wicked ticket through a happy coincidence! My sister called me the night before Wicked and said she had an extra ticket if I wanted to go. It ended up causing a lot of drama in my family that I was the one that got the extra ticket, but it was Wicked! Who in their right mind would say no? It was the most amazing show that I have ever seen. I would recommend it to anyone.



Ticket – $78
Parking – About $5 dollars between us in coins found in the seat of the car and the bottom of our purses (we didn’t plan extremely well)
Dinner – $15
Dessert at Denny’s – $10
Gas – $5
Seeing an amazing show with my favorite person in the world, sister, and best friend – Priceless!

(But if anyone else has any extra tickets I am open to change this last one)

Now my boys have had a little more practice and so far this season we have won both of our pre-season games (don’t count), and lost our last two regular season games (do count). Not really a fair trade off, but its still just fun to play. We got some sweet, brand new jerseys that one of our guys designed, which makes us at least look good when we’re getting pummeled.

I play every Thursday night, so if you’re wanting to see a game, I’m sure Megan (our team’s only fan) would appreciate the company. I have scored 2 goals and have 4 assists, so far in those 4 games, which is not bad when my team has only scored about 8 or 9 goals total. I am currently leading my team in points, and with a game misconduct and major penalty I got last game for defending my teammate, I am currently the leading penalty minute man as well.

We may not have the best team, but I’m having a ton of fun, and getting some much needed exercise.

The garden was one of the prettiest places we’ve ever seen, and were surprised that such a beautiful man-made garden could exist in the middle of such a barren environment as Lehi, Utah.

Flip-flops weren’t the smartest choice for an activity involving a lot of walking on a cold, rainy day, but they survived with some hot chocolate and a heavily discounted “chimney chute” which the guy was practically giving away due to lack of business. They were surprisingly delicious and innovative. They even made them right in front of us. I wish I would have taken a picture because the design was pretty cool. It was like a hollow cylinder of churro that unravels from the top into thin pieces.

Our favorite part by far were the waterfalls. It’s pretty cool that we have such impressive technology that we can recreate such breathtaking parts of nature. There was a walkway that went on top of the waterfalls and it was really cool to be able to look down upon the falls.

Nate loved the lake because therewere hundreds of fish everywhere. We bought some fish pellets and watched the fish maul each other over the food. It was incredible to see such a large amount of fish everywhere.

Another cool part was the hidden garden, which was a little, well…garden, that could be accesses only through a little passageway with a door at the end of it.

It started raining again the second we left the gardens. Our timing was perfect. We were hungry and cold, so we headed back to Keri’s house where she generously offered to make us dinner. After a good visit and a good meal, we headed back home, and saw a beautiful sunset that was the perfect ending to the day. More Photos

We ended up capping off the night with a family football game in the front yard, which got pretty intense. Megan’s performance at quarterback would have made Max Hall proud, with 0 completions, 2 interceptions, and a fumble which was luckily recovered by our team. It was a close game and a way fun way to end the evening.

The next night we celebrated our friend Bryan’s birthday by taking him to Rodizio Grille. He served his mission in Brazil, and therefore loves everything Brazilian, so it seemed pretty fitting. He thought he was pretty neat speaking Portugese to all of the waiters and pounding down his “native food”. The meal was delicious, but a never-ending flow of exotic meats to one’s table never ends well, and we were all wishing for death in the end. That night, a major April shower struck the parking lot was full of giant puddles, so we did what any normal people would do and hit the puddle as fast as we could, then turned back around for more.

Megan and I also got a chance to go to Wheeler Farm this week with Kamden and London. They loved seeing all of the animals and I got a good opportunity to snap some photos so it worked out nice for everyone. Kamden was excited that he got the ducks to eat out of his hand, but London got scared and just dropped the bread before the ducks got too close.

Saturday was another nice day so we decided to get a group together and play some “ball” at the stake center’s baseball field. We played some kickball and some softball with a tennis ball since no one had mitts.It was lucky we didn’t have a real ball anyway because I got a line drive off of my shin, which the kids thought was the funniest thing they’ve ever seen. They weren’t laughing a few plays later though when I cranked one out of the field so far that even Barry Bonds would be accusing me of a corked bat and steroid usage. Tanner struck out and threatened to slam Maddie’s head against the fence, so we decided that was a perfect time to end the game. All in all, I’m excited that winter is officially over so that we can get back to the fun activities of spring.