pioneer party

On July 16th we had a Pioneer Day party with our friends. We actually missed the beginning of the party where they fed the ducks at Layton Commons Park because we were making freezer salsa at a Relief Society thing. But we made it just in time to tour the Layton Heritage Museum!

Christian threw a fit when a curator told him not to touch the antiques, but other than that we had a fun time seeing all the displays.

I think the weirdest are the old blow dryer and perm machine!

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After the museum, we headed to our house to eat pizza and breadsticks from The Pizza Place. I hadn't tried theirs before, yum!!

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For an activity/treat, I had the kids pull salt water taffy. They were so funny, they got pretty annoyed that it was sticky in their hands :)


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I was doling out the taffy and had sticky hands myself, but Natalie got these awesome shots of Christian's attempt.

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I pulled a lot of it and we enjoyed it all the rest of the afternoon. It turned out so yummy! I've made taffy many times before, but it had been years and years. Yet another recipe I'll have to post soon.

We sure had a lot of fun that day with our friends!

temple tour & petting farm

On July 11th our family toured the Oquirrh Mountain temple in the Daybreak area of South Jordan. Traffic was crazy and we arrived a few minutes late for our tour, but the main problem was that we had to wake Buddy so he was a bit grouchy at first. That's why we all look crappy in the family photo and Christian won't even look at the camera, but I wanted it taken because I knew it would be dark by the time the tour finished.


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Buddy cheered up and actually loved the tour! Of course, I think the kids' favorite part was the cookies at the end, but they each seemed really interested and excited about seeing the inside of a temple.



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They loved this fountain and all the lights on the outside.

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The funny part was that even though we were surrounded by to-die-for marble floors, dreamy crystal chandeliers and breathtaking wall murals, every time we came through a room with plastic carpet protector matting Christian would point to it and comment, "This a special room!" I have to give it to the kid, it was shiny and had a pretty diamond texture to it and I'm sure it looked extra fancy to him since he'd never seen it before :)

On the 14th I decided since it was only supposed to get up to 76 degrees (and then the temps would soar into the nineties) that I would take the kids to Carver's Cove Petting Farm in Eden. We'd never been before and I'd been meaning to go there for years! When Sarah heard I was going, she asked if her family could come too (of course--yes!!!) so we also invited Joy's family and mom to make it a family event. Soon after we got there, the owner handed Faith this baby goat.

(Sorry for the glowy photo effects on all of these, I think my lens had something smeared on it. Of course, the kids are always playing with it so it ususally does, but it seemed worse this day.)





Grandma and Sierra couldn't resist that fuzzy little head.




Christian looks a little surprised that the donkey is eating the molasses coated corn he offered.






There were llamas,

and sheep.
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Don't Alaura (in the red) and Celeste (in the pink) look adorable in their cowgirl hats? Noah wore a straw hat, red bandana kerchief, & a cow print vest. You can see a bit of him on the left of this one and the llama pic above. Cute!!

We were all enamored with this little foal.

Then the kids got to hold a kitten

and a bunny.

There were also pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, cows, and dogs.

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Finally, the moment that they had been waiting for came--the horse ride! Buddy desperately wanted to go first, but I knew if he did that he would throw a fit because he couldn't have more turns so I tried to hold him off until the end. Faith rode first and is quite the horsewoman. She really wants her own horse, but I told her that she would have to settle for riding lessons.

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Christian kept shouting, "I next! I next!" so my plan was foiled and I let him follow his sister. He LOVED it and was especially happy to feed the horse an apple wedge at the end of the ride. As I feared, almost immediately after his turn, he stared throwing a fit because he wanted another ride, so I just left him lying, stomach down, in the dirt, kicking and screaming, and went to feed the goats again.

After a good ten minute cry, he picked himself up and joined us. I had them pose on the tractor
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and the buggy, but Christian got really upset with me that I wouldn't make them "Go!" I guess his mood hadn't fully recovered since it was past naptime.

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Just before we left we saw that the baby bunnies had come out of their dirt tunnels, so we took a peek at them.

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It was such a fun place that the kids have already asked several times for a return trip, and I'll have to be sure to make it a yearly occurrence.

That night when Tony got home, he had a surprise for the kids-- firework snakes. They loved watching those gross little things grow!

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Seeing those snakes brought back memories for me of when I was young and doing them with the Peterson kids (my dad's half brothers and sisters). I kneeled in the aftermath and ruined some brand new pants mom had bought me for school. I haven't thought fondly of those things ever since!

Mitchell Family Potato Salad

8 medium Russet potatoes
10 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced
3/4 cup finely chopped candied party pickles*
one large can olives, finely chopped
1 tsp. Lawry's seasoned salt
1 ¼ cup Miracle Whip
2 Tbs. yellow mustard
2 Tbs. milk
paprika

Boil potatoes with skins on for 12-18 minutes, until tender but firm (not mushy). Keep checking by pricking with a fork. After draining and cooling, remove skins and dice.
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In a very large mixing bowl add potatoes, boiled eggs, pickles and olives. Sprinkle seasoned salt over the top. In a separate bowl, mix Miracle Whip, mustard and milk.

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Mix dressing into salad well. Taste test and add more Miracle Whip until desired consistency is reached. Sprinkle top with paprika and chill.

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*I use Storey's Sweet Memories distinctively flavored fancy candied party pickles which can be purchased at Macy's grocery store and possibly other Associated Foods stores. Sidenote--the picture is a stock photo. These pickles are a crazy bright neon green color and look realy fun in the salad!

I've gotten a few requests for another "hot guys" post and I'm only too happy to comply! Since I put boy band music on my blog, I've become re-obsessed with the Irish band Boyzone and specifically this song:


You can just ignore the Notting Hill clips with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts and focus on the hot band mates

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especially Ronan Keating,

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and most especially Stephen Gately.
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Of course, my hot guy posts have to feature vampires. I'm not the biggest Robert Pattinson fan and I did already include a pic on my last post, so this time I'll feature the hottest Twilight vampire, Dr. Cullen (Peter Facinelli).
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I'll admit, the blonde hair does throw you a bit at first, but they just can't cover up sex appeal like this no matter what they do to him!

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First runner up in that category: definately Kellan Lutz as Emmet. Sorry Edward, I'm sure you'll make my top five list, or at least top ten :)

Time to go old school with one of my first vampire crushes--Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys. He can even rock a mullet, and that's pretty impressive.

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No list of hottest vampires would be complete without Brad Pitt as Louis in Interview with the Vampire.

But for long-haired Brad ultimate hottness, it's got to be Legends of the Fall.

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For a current reference, there's Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) from True Blood,

but the hottest guys from that show aren't vampires. Sam (Sam Trammell) is a shape shifter

and Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is just a knucklehead.

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But if I'm mentioning vampire costars, I'm going to take this thing full circle and include this eye candy: Jacob's New Moon poster. WARNING--JAIL BAIT!! IF YOU ARE OVER THE AGE OF 19, VIEW THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.




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It's worth the risk, if you ask me, but I'll include the poster of the rest of the wolf pack here at the end for those that get a creepy "Primetime: To Catch a Predator" feeling from looking at that one.