Husbandry

Husbandry is the art of growing grapes and stuff.* What we didn't realize when we moved into this house is that there were grape vines in the back that actually produced (a green one and a red one!). Furthermore, the apple tree produced really really good apples, which we've been enjoying, but this post isn't about that. Yesterday I decided to pick some of the grapes. To my surprise, behind the broad leaves was a ton** of grapes. The kids ate a bunch (three bunches to be exact), but we still had lots left over, so we decided to make grape juice. We didn't know how, but how hard could it be, right?*** You have to boil and smash it a lot and visiting Royal did a smashing job.

I thought it would be tons of fun to make Stromboli, but no one else knew what it was (it's bread with good stuff in it) but it was fair, since I didn't know how to make bread so we taught each other. Elizabeth, Grace, and Sienna made the bread:
The cutest little helper:

I was in charge of toppings! Nicole helped with the bread and also directed the juicing

I also made "monster bread" (freshly baked bread topped with butter, fresh sliced garlic, cheeses and some spices). This time we served it with a balsamic dipping oil.The final product: Bon Appetite indeed!
(Stromboli insides: 1) Pepperoni, Mozerella, Tomato Sauce 2) Ham & Cheese, 3) Carmelized Onions, Fresh Garlic, Smoked Gouda 4) Everything.)

*I'm sure the "stuff" part of husbandry includes being nice to your wife.

**Not a literal ton, but a shopping bag completely full.

***A lot harder than you'd imagine, actually.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Apparently Sis-in-law has never ridden a motorcycle. So I said she could use mine*. She was so excited: Here's the fateful moment captured:

They got on the right track:

*It's actually a scooter, but she said that didn't sound as cool and she thought it was really fun anyway.
**This is the same sister-in-law who went parasailing earlier this week, so scooters must be cool!

Sick House - OK GO!

While Nicole's Sister's Family was visiting, we agreed to watch her 4 kids while Mommy and Daddy went on an all too rare getaway (it's not their official anniversary, but you take 'em when you can!) Besides giving Elizabeth and Royal some needed away time, it was also an opportunity for Nicole and I to get a preview of what having four children might be like. We decided to really get into that experience and over the last 4 days all four of the kids (and both of us) got a stomach flu. Although the poor baby vomited on me (twice) I'm still not deterred from wanting to be a father, so I guess the experiment was a success. We also discovered a pretty good sick day activity: Watching "OK Go" videos. Here's the photographic evidence, with apologies for the early morning pj's and wild hair:
Above we are watching

In this shot (with Grandma!) they are watching the same song and band, but with a different video:

As promised in the music videos, when it came to the sicknesses "This too shall pass."

Now we're all better - although now that Elizabeth and Royal have been back a day, they're not feeling too well....

Round about the house

I've been trying to remember to take pictures of ordinary life, not just when we're traveling. Here's one from the front window of our first snowfall a little while ago: I don't normally wear long-sleaved sweaters, but it seemed like an excuse to try out a wool sweater we got in Ireland. I grabbed my "Paddy cap" to complete the outfit:

It was a bit too itchy, even with another sweater under it. Speaking of said other sweater, here's a shot of it and Nicole in a typical hang around the house sort of shot. We regularly sit around the house posing for pictures, so this is really representative:

Idaho

We recently (this weekend) drove up to Idaho. On the way back Nicole insisted we get off I-15 and take the "Scenic Route" to Logan, shown here: While I must admit there is a certain beauty here, after our recent trip to Connecticut, I also thought this particular shot could also qualify as a "lone and dreary wilderness." To be fair, Nicole thought this was going to be Route-89 from Bear Lake (and we were a little late for the foliage anyway, although Logan proper was still pretty).
As promised, we spent the trip with our nieces. Here's some updated shots of me 'n' Mae:

And she made the cutest cowardly lion (Hair by Nicole):

The Reason for all this family togetherness and traveling was, in fact, family. Specifically, Nicole's little brother got married! They're perfect for each other.

I can't think of a better reason to go to Idaho*

*Out of deference to my many good friends from Idaho, I'll refrain here from making any good-natured snide remarks about there being no other reasons to go to Idaho. (Come to think of it though, the last time we went was also for a wedding...)

Double Bubble Toil and Trouble

We went "Tricks or Treatsing"* with Nicole's sister (the witch) and her family. While my awesome costume of steampunk awesomeness deserves its own post, I wanted to get the Halloween shot up before too long.

From left to right: Glinda (or, as I keep calling her since the "Wicked" soundtrack, "Galinda"), A Man in Black (Agent "R?"), a flying monkey (see his cute little wings!), The Wicked Witch of one of the cardinal directions sans hat, Scarecrow, The cutest lil' cowardly lion ever (Nicole made the mane), Dorthy, and Captain Thaddeus Venture (with steampunk gun that has "quilt behind you" cameo coloring).

*We watched "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumkin" (twice) and they pluralized everything for some reason.

Sink Me! Zauberflöte 3

Last Christmas we received as a gift season passes to Hale Center Theater in Orem. We've greatly enjoyed the experience, and this week marked the last play of the regular season. They saved the best for last, as Sink Me! It was the Scarlet Pimpernel. The story and music are incredibly passionate and moving and full of adventure, excitement, intrigue and things of this nature. I'm not ashamed to admit I was brought to tears several times. While I'm not ashamed, I'm still not going to admit it. Anyway, it was so popular that they were completely sold out and we didn't get to sit together at first (they moved us after a few no -shows, and boy did the No-Shows miss out). We had watched the Jane Seymour* version awhile ago and Nicole just read the classic book. Delightful in any rendition, but the musical was definately a treat.

On Friday, after a long work day, we thought we'd try the dollar theater. Dispicable Me was sold out three people in front of us. Inception was sold out 3 hours before us. So we got tickets to Toy Story 3, but not in 3-D. It was another sold-out theatre, but our seats were decent. Pixar really does a good job with story structure and whatnot and I was impressed. I resisted being brought to tears on this one, but it was hard. The Pixar short before the show, "Day and Night," was pretty crazy. It was about two blobs who are windows to either the day or night world. And they fight, but end up learning from each other. Y'know, that short really resists any simple explanation. I have no idea how they pitched it. Maybe something like "A metaphysical morality play with lots of negative space!" or something.

Anyway, speaking of relatively new releases, we also went to see "The Magic Flue" a play that just came out in 1791 by some unknown called "Mozart." ;)

Apparently there was a lot of symbolism in it. Oh, and it was in German. I think I want to learn German now. I was listening to "Ode to Joy" in German right before and, at least as of last night, I'm leaning towards learning German before French. (Niether of which will be accomplished anytime soon). The only problem is that the DVDs in our collection only have Spanish and French, not German. Maybe I can get some from Nicole's Brother and family, they're in the Air Force and station in Germany right now. Or I'll just go to opera's with subtext-er, subtitles.
Our favorite characters might very well be Papageno/a. Definately the funniest, but they also are the characters that model happily having children (as opposed to the Queen of the Night above who nearly drives her daughter to suicide). Anyway, the kiddie Papageno/as were cute. And touching.

I laughed, but I didn't cry. Still, as Albert Einstein said, now that I've seen this, I can be "cultured."****

*Aparently Jane Seymour (OBE**) was born Joyce Penelope Whilhelmina Frankenberg. Good change Jane.

**Order of the British Empire - That's right, she's like a Knight!

***Aparently she also was a Bond girl and has different color eyes. If it weren't for wikipedia, I'd have just thought she was Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

****That's not what he said about the play exactly.

More Family and Home

Today I got a surprise visit from my Dad. We've certainly been blessed to have so many opportunities to be with family recently. Nicole is super excited to have her sister in town next week, and more so because the nieces and nephew will be here as well. I actually just found out that I made a cameo on their blog (feeding the newest niece Mae Nicole), so in honor of their visit, I swiped the picture for our blog:

In other news, we finished* titling the basement, now we can really host family! Also my Mom wrote and suggested that we tiled the basement and not titled it, but rather than correct my spelling mistakes, I'll just roll with it. Henceforth, that Basement Room shall be Titled "The Autumnal Equinox: The Guest Room of Awesomeness" but Nicole says we may change it depending on what sort of rug we put in.

*Well, virtually, finished, one of the tiles was too big and we're going to have to recut it. Also, it's not dry yet, so we can't move the washer back, but still, it finally LOOKS done!

Friends and Family at Home!

Having our wanderlust well and truly satisfied with our recent adventures, we crammed a lot of activities at home with our loved ones this past week. (We need to get some "home time" in before next week when Nicole's little brother gets married in Idaho! )

Here was a group of friends we had over for dinner Friday doing Silly Faces, including said brother to be married and the girl giving him bunny-ears (his future wife):
That's right, I rocked the monocle smile. Same group, but with Seth switched in for Randy and without the shinanagins:
Here's Rebecca, soon to be in-law and her Kimono which I understand is associated with the impending nuptials. It's only fitting, rumor has it she got a samuri sword as part of the proposal...

Sunday my Grandmother and Aunt (and Brother) came over to play hearts. Tabitha Kathrine (the tabby cat) is playing my hand in this picture and not missing a trick!

Later, the animals got to meet some new friends as Tim Johnson and family visited (Tim not pictured). I trained Tim as a missionary in Ireland and it was good to see him.

Most impressive was the dessert he made -- Chocolate Spiders!

Homemade! Look at this detail. Good Job Tim!

(In between Friday and Sunday's guests, we titled our basement (almost done) finally! We actually placed half the titles tonight with some help from friends in the ward, one of which is defending her Master's Thesis tomorrow and having a baby on Saturday! Now that's a week. We'll post titling pictures soon.

Renaissance Fair(e)

CT adventures, part 6

On Columbus Day, we went to our first Renaissance Fair. In retrospect, comic-con was a good prep, there were a LOT of people in costumes and the lady who took our tickets greeted us in period apropriate language (and remarked that our horses must have been tired traveling from Utah).

It was kinda like a combination of play and historical education. For instance, here's a guy doing actual metal work (blacksmithing) with a real bellows (behind him in the picture):

I'm pretty sure the pirate costumes were mostly for the fun and less for the historical education:
But the girl with the sword slicing up a water jug, that's just cool in any century:I didn't quite fit into the period piece:

But I did win the hula hoop contest (it was just me and Nicole)

They had a parade with Pirates, Belly-dancers, Jousters, Wonderfool, and in this picture, looks like banits and an executioner. I've decided that a Renaissance Fair's success should be measured in the number of swords and sword-play it has:

Therefore, I judge this one a profound success!

This is now on my Christmas list. Imagine the uses!