Ahh....Life. It just keeps on going. It seems that all of the things I have been looking forward to are over. That is a sad state of events. I will just have to find new things to look forward to.
I think I'm going to have to go backwards in recalling what we done. The Barrus Reunion was a highlight, of course, and seeing some of you. We enjoyed learning about our Barrus/Clark family histories and will definitely be scheduling an outing for our older kids to see the museums and historic sites in Grantsville and Tooele. We enjoyed our day at Heritage Park in Salt Lake, our 'rained out' day filled with games in Dave's basement, bowling and soup. The memory of watching Lee and Ann being goalies on opposing teams and a series of Bruce, Rob, Dave and then myself all kicking at but missing the huge soccer ball and falling down like bowling pins brings a smile to my face. It was a pleasure to watch the kids swimming and gaining confidence as they rode horses. Thank you all for the work and help each contributed. Thanks especially to our particular hosts - Carole and John for the fabulous accommodations, cooking facilities and fun.
Sometimes trials come to some but others reap blessings such as in the case of having Julie nailed down for a bit at Jean's and getting to visit and play games with she and Boyd.
Another play time was the chance to go to the Days of 47 rodeo on the tails of Jean and Bruce. That is always fun to see together.
Amy and her family came for about 16 days earlier in the month and we played hard. We took our 'Seven Peaks Passes' and went to Hollywood Connection riding rides, miniature golf, roller skating (TWICE), visited Tracy Aviary and played in the Wasatch Mountain creeks and rivers topical water play map thing. For one weekend we all went down to Alex and Andrew's dividing ourselves among apartments (Alex's manager let us have a 3 bedroom apartment for free). The passes got us into a trampoline park and the next day we went to Provo's Seven Peaks waterpark. I always enjoy watching the kids have fun but was surprised to find that I was having fun sliding down water slides and 'screaming our guts out 'with Lydia, Megan and Isaac.
Every year when Amy's kids visit they get to paint a picture with Grandpa's instruction. This year the girls painted scenes of dolphins and Isaac, who had painted a landscape of the Washington Coast, gave his to his DeGraw grandparents. While in Orem we took the grand kids to Target for a group picture. An adventure all by itself. We dressed them in different bold colored t-shirts and jeans. It turned out priceless. After pictures we spent the afternoon in the fabulous Orem library where Willow works. I don't know if we enjoyed the books or the air conditioning more. Later in the week the kids designed their t-shirts with various shaped leaves from our yard. We did the bleach spray technique to make their souvenir of this trip.
On Sunday, with all of our family (husbands, wives, children) we attended Andrew's ward as he blessed Avery. What a real treat to be with such good people trying hard to live the gospel and do what is right. Everything is not perfect in their lives, nor mine, but I love the goodness that is so much a part of each of them.
As you can see we just had a great July.
Just for opposition sake:
I had a horticulturalist come and give us a prognosis on the plants in our yard. Our large plum tree just died even though it was full of plums. We had planted it too low and after 8 years the bark at ground level had rotted. Basically it had died of thirst. Curt tried not to weep as he cut it down. Then our entire failing raspberry beds need to be relocated to around the corner for more shade. That means pulling up some nice bushes and flowers. Arrggg. That is a lot of work. AND we finally had a new air conditioner installed (translation: $$$!) Curt is in heaven and I am back to freezing.
We love all of you,
Aunt Susan and Uncle Curt
PS –I Forgot to send the pancake recipe that some people wanted with my family letter.
A higher protein pancake and extremely EASY and SO delicious.....
Reunion Pancakes - makes 4 large or 8 small pancakes
6 oz. of your favorite plain Greek yogurt (can be vanilla)
1 egg
scant 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1. Open the yogurt container and stir the yogurt until it's smooth and creamy. Crack an egg over the yogurt and stir to combine. The resulting mixture should be pale yellow in color and have a few lumps here and there.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda. Stir to combine. The batter will be extremely thick.
3. Spoon the batter onto a SPRAYED griddle or pan heated to medium-high. Don't get too close - they get puffy.
4. Don't wait to flip the pancakes until the sides look done. Turn when golden brown on the underside.
***** Curt and I made our own Greek yogurt the other day. Way, Way, Way easy.
4 C. of milk (skim, whatever)
- Heat in microwave to just BEFORE boiling (about 8 minutes in ours...stop microwave and stir every few minutes)
- You will know it is right when you can see little tiny bubbles and skim forming around just the edges.
- Stir in 2 TB of plain Greek yogurt (this is the start - similar to sour dough)
- Put in oven warmed to 180. Then TURN OFF OVEN. Do not open. Let sit for 4.5 hours.
- Take out bowl with milk. Pour into large bowl with cheese cloth (I happened to have a scrap of netting I doubled and taped onto the bowl and used that.)
- Put in fridge and let sit. The whey in the milk will gather into the bowl and the yogurt will stay in the netting.
**I did a blind taste test with Curt (who HATES Greek Yogurt) and it scored better than the Oikos and Chibani brands...**
Give it a try....what have you got to loose?
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