summertime in indiana

just had a breakthrough!
i have tried to load more than four pics at a time on blogger, and it's never worked.
not sure what i was doing wrong-but alas! today it worked!

evan was headed to go backpacking in north carolina with his best friend from law school.
google 'roan mountain nc' and you will see where he went.
i'm insanely jealous. the mountains are covered with rhodedendrons
and will blow you away.
anywho, he was headed out of town and i thought 'why don't i drive to indiana?'
and so i called my sister in law amanda in upstate new york.
she came down with her gals ages 3 and 2, and we had the best time.

we stayed for 3 days at grandpa and grandma's. we found a frog, went exploring, had a water fight,
looked through old pics, and reveled in the quiet country. i love going out to evan's parents for the quiet.
amanda and i took the 5 little women to goodwill where we found some excellent finds, namely evan's father's day present:
a tasmanian devil/looney toons tie. :)

we headed up to evan's sister sarah's house for a few more days. there we swam, went on more treasure hunts for funky things, played outside, and i hardly saw my girls because they were playing with their cousins and it was awesome.

thanks everyone for such a fantastic visit!
we loved it!


the indiana landscape is breathtaking. love the rows of green corn and the overcast sky.

great grandma fetters and us. and we're all smiling-a miracle!

a spitting water fight-and looks like grandma is winning!

maya was completely soaked.

maya's first fat lip-she was actually kind of proud of this. it was awesome.

little zoesy cat at the pool. she kept dunking her face. looks like we have a water baby.

madden and zoe. this is evan's sister sarah's little man. sarah and i have been preggy at the same time three times. woot woot!

on the way home i earned the 'coolest mom EVER' award. we stopped at buffalo phil's in wisconsin. inside the restaurant a train brings you your food. best decision ever to eat here.

jumping puddles in the corn.

summer night in indiana. love love love it.

wish i could dance like this

first flowers

i could almost weep!

it's my first flower! and it's beautiful!

in my flower beds there is nothing but fugly shrubs and white rocks. and i've tried to remove some of the white rocks and they are deep, and a ginormous pain. but i have one tiny bed of dirt-oh glory be! and i planted this iris last summer and here she be!

this is my first victory against my yard! i will prevail!

zoe's first campout

a little fishing with dad

building a 'campsite' together

happy little gnome

ahh dandelions

a glorious success!
zoe loves camping, and we love that she loves it.
we almost didn't go camping and maya and brynn had HUGE problems with us not going camping.
we hiked up a huge hill of stairs to a water tower.
we found a caterpillar maya named 'sudee.'
we then lost sudee in the laundry room. boo.
evan, maya and brynn started to hike up a huge fire tower lookout. it freaked maya out, and they only made it halfway. brynn wanted to hike to the top, and was super ticked to have to come back down.
a great weekend had by all!

fire pit + camping = muy bueno!

maya trying out roasting hot dogs. she complained that this method "took too long."
it's really hard to wait 1.75 minutes for hot dogs. the hat she is wearing is one that evan and i
got at a fly fishing expo. she loves it...wears it to her preschool, out and about, and has started to
be sassy and wear it backwards. word.

we were smiling, but smelled like burning plastic from the fire pit.

the squirrels are a tiny bit excited for the first fire pit of the year.

and how. this is what i'm talkin' about willis.

we bought a little fire pit for our deck this year, and after the plastic funk-nasty smell was burned off we had a great time with it. the girls love fire, and we like to just sit on the deck. we tend to eat out on the deck even though we really don't have any furniture other than camping chairs as of now.

we taking off this weekend, the first camping adventure with three! we're headed to one of our favorite little spots here in minnesota called whitewater state park. maya and brynn both have fishing poles, and can't wait to fish with evan. that leaves little zoe with me and we'll just have to go on a little hike. i put her in the kelty pack on my back this week, and she made a growl/squeal sound the whole time, which for her means she is a happy camper.

happy memorial day weekend!

sayonara el mullet

the time had come.

little zoe's mullet needed to be gone, like demon mice and slugs be gone. it was cramping her style.

plus she had three dreds going in the back of her hair, so i was already working baby oil in her hair to get the dreds out. i cut off about three inches of her locks. and we love the outcome.

*i love her cheeks in the last picture-i want to bite her.

you will thank me for this....

....the best recipe of granola i've let my little taste buds try.

first the story of my love of granola:

in 8th grade, my history teacher mr. black let a few of us students try some granola his wife made. it was pure heaven, a perfect mix of coconut, sweetness and nuttiness. i asked for the recipe and have never been able to duplicate the taste i remember. i've made a few different varieties over the years, and then one day i happened upon this little recipe in the martha stewart everyday food recipe book, which mandy gave me for christmas-thanks mand.

what makes this recipe superior to all others is the simplicity of it, and the cardamom-oh for the love, what a great spice this is.

without further adieu i give you:

pistachio-apricot granola

3 c rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1 c shelled pistachios
1/4 c butter
1/3 c honey
1 t cardamom
1/2 t coarse salt
1 c dried apricots

preheat oven to 300. in a large bowl combine oats and pistachios. in a small sauepan, combine butter, honey, cardamom, and salt over medium heat. cook, stirring occasionally, until butter melts. pour butter mixture over oats and pistachios until they are completely covered. transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and spread in an even layer. bake until oats are lightly golden, 30-35 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. let cool completely on a wire rack, 20 minutes, then stir in apricots. store in an airtight container up to 3 weeks.

*evan and i are on our 3rd double batch of this stuff in 5 days.....but i did give some to my neighbors, so i haven't quite consumed all of it myself.

30

before turning 30 i explained my hopes to evan about turning 30. it went something like this:

me: i'd really like to be somewhere warm and exotic when i turn 30, you know, like greece.
evan: yeah, that would be fantastic. let's go to greece! (my husband is my favorite to present traveling ideas to-he ALWAYS agrees).

i had been daydreaming of going somewhere wild when turning 30, so that i could give a giant hurrah to my 20's. it was a lofty dream, but in a tiny way possible....but we had little zoe instead. and although she is so worth it, i turned 30 in minne, not in greece. so, evan asked me what i wanted for my big day, which we make a big deal of around here. so i told him i'd like an FFM party. just friends, food and music.

turns out we have a deck that can seat 30 people, and i happen to be married to someone who can cook enough food for 30 people, from scratch by himself. we served lettuce wraps, eggrolls, fruit salad, and strawberry shortcake. we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful blue sky. evan went all out, and it was an amazing party. we came inside and our friend played guitar in my living room. i just kept thinking that this was exactly what i wanted for my birthday. a little piece of heaven. problem is-a) i'd like to have a party like this every weekend and b) i took no pics of the party. so here are a few random shots, and then just a cute picture of zoe.

i had issues of turning the big 3-0, but it's not so bad...and at least i'm not 40 right?!

applesauce

and it's a no bueno for applesauce.
no bueno indeed.

that's what i'm talkin' about willis.....

..........donuts that is!

there is a little hole in the wall donut shop not far from our house. we went there saturday to partake of the goodness. you know a good donut shop by the size of the employees. this one is a goooood one.

the girls licked all the sprinkles off of their donuts, leaving the rest behind. evan and i had glazed. little piece of heaven para mi. that reminds me of a funny story. i had just had brynn in november of 2008 and my mom was visiting for the week. she and evan went to get a few groceries and i asked them to get a few donuts. my mom saw the donuts and went to get a dozen. evan picked up a much smaller box of 4 instead. when he came home i think i nearly burst into tears for only having 4 donuts and not a dozen! lesson learned: a new mama needs her dozen!

it's always nice to start a weekend off on the right foot.