Sunshine and sunbonnets

We have been sooooo cooped up...

But no more!  Nice weather is here and I think it's here to stay!

What a gorgeous weekend we had!  Finally, finally, we have been able to spend some real, solid time outside.  Sure, there have been walks, runs, a handful of nice days here and there, but this weekend was the start to some serious outdoor time.

I made sure Rosie spent basically as much time outside as I did.  Since her arrival in November, I can pretty confidently say she knows exactly what each of the rooms in our house is like.  She's seen it all!  It's time she started learning about the great outdoors.

I found her a couple cute new sun hats over the weekend and Saturday afternoon she donned one of them and helped me plant some flowers...

Are you familiar with Sunbonnet Sue?  The old quilt pattern?  I have a Sunbonnet Sue quilt from when I was a little girl.  I think Rosie looks like a Sunbonnet Sue in the photo above.  Compare Rosie to the pattern here...

I also think it's quite appropriate that Rosie is playing with her giant ladybug while helping her mama garden!

Here she is modeling her new, cute hat...

We didn't spend as much time outside today.  She did, however, get some experience with lying in the grass.  She seemed to really love it.  She stayed very still and relaxed for quite some time.  I love how loung-y she looks...

Her legs, which are ALWAYS moving, were still - for several minutes...

Todd said I needed to move her around so she could mow the yard...

The poor dogs have been particularly cooped up.  They've done a number on our yard - brown spots, dead spots, bald spots - and Todd has worked hard to try to fix it.  This means the dogs have been quarantined to the house or the back "yard" which they hate.  Yard is in quotes because in its current state it can hardly be considered a yard.  It's just concrete.  No wonder they hate going back there and love to lounge like this instead.  Oh, Lulu...

Not to be outdone, here's Rigby posing for his lounge lizard shot...

Everyone is enjoying our nice weather!  

Fall fun - with two recipes

For the first time, as I understand anyway, Casper had a corn maze outside of town!

It's a great story...this farming family is involved in FFA (Future Farmers of America for those who may not know) and they decided to create a corn maze, not just for the community's enjoyment, but to raise funds for the local FFA Alumni chapter as well as the Natrona County ARC.

I have been dying to go!  Look how cool it is - designed with Wyoming's bucking horse and rider!

The Snyder family and I went last weekend (Todd went hunting) and we had a great time!  It wasn't fancy, just good ol' fashioned fall fun with a pumpkin patch, corn pit, farm animal petting barn and hayride.  Oh, and caramel apples which were quite tasty!

On our way in...

An idea of what we were getting ourselves into...

 The Snyder fam...

Samuel, their oldest boy, leading us through...

Hmmm...a fork in the road...

My twin in the corn maze...

The maze was not at all as scary as you would think from the picture above where it was green and HUGE looking.  It took us 36 minutes to make it through.

On our way to the petting barn...

I think some of these were baby turkeys.  Saved from Thanksgiving tables this year!

These chickens crack me up with their Tina Turner "hair"...

Hog heaven...

This little piggy was too cute.  Look at those ears! And that pink snout...

And we're pretty sure this rabbit thought it was a cat.  He was huge!  And so soft.  And he just let all the kids pet on him.  If he could purr I'm sure he would...

Green Acres corn maze is a lot of fun.  I think they've got one last weekend open - so get out there!

Ok, want a couple fall recipes?

I made these pumpkin cranberry muffins yesterday and are they good!  The candied pecans you could technically have any time of the year, but they seem especially fall-ish for salads.  Yum!

Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins
(Recipe says it makes 12, but I got about 20 out of it.)

These are awesome right out of the oven with a teeny bit of butter smeared on them.

2 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. allspice
1/3 c. vegetable or canola oil
1 large egg
3/4 c. canned unflavored pumpkin
2 c. chopped cranberries (fresh or frozen) I used fresh and gave them a whirl in my

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Beat oil, egg and pumpkin together until well blended.

Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture all at once.  Stir until moistened.

Fold in chopped cranberries.

Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups.  Bake 15-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Candied Pecans
These are SO easy to make and SO super tasty!

1 c. pecans (I prefer pecan halves, but you could use chopped)
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Bring all ingredients to a low boil in a small saucepan.

Add nuts and simmer 2 minutes.  Stirring until well coated.

Line a cookie sheet with a bit of foil and spritz with cooking spray.

Pour nuts onto sheet, drizzling with any remaining sauce from saucepan.

Bake about 10 minutes or until toasted.

Remove from oven and let cool.  The glaze will harden around the nuts.

Toss in a salad with sliced pear or apple and some blue cheese or goat cheese!

DELISH!

Cold fish

Yesterday, I went ice fishing for the first time in my life.

There is a reason I've never gone: It sounds totally miserable!  Sitting in the bitter cold and wind...waiting...waiting... ... ... ... waiting...  Nope. That's just not for me.

But Todd, as you may guess, is a big-time ice fisherman.  He's from Wisconsin - it's in his blood!

When Todd and I were first dating he asked if I ice fished.  I gave an emphatic, "No way, Jose!" Then he told me he does it differently.  No sitting on buckets staring at a hole - another part of the miserable image I had in my head.  He has a shanty and uses heaters.

The idea dropped a notch on the misery meter.

Todd spends a lot of time working the lakes outside town and has gotten to know some folks, like, the family that owns basically the only gas station/convenience store in the area.  And it was this family we went with.

The other reason I've been hesitant to ice fish?  The ice.  I kind of freak out about going through it and dying in the icy depths below.  Todd again tries to assure me that it's at least 8 inches if not 12 inches thick and nothing's going to happen...but still...you never know.  And since we also didn't know exactly how far we were going out we loaded the 4-wheeler to head out on the ice.  I did it.  But I had to do some breathing exercises...

Fortunately, we didn't have to go too far.  We got off the 4-wheeler and Todd started drilling holes...

I got down to business pulling out the important stuff...

Nothing compliments ice fishing better than champagne!

So Rigby would have a place to warm his paws we brought his old mat and put it on the lid of the storage bin...

A quick view of where we were...

Ok, back to the real business at hand...clearing the holes of slush and ice...

A bite!  Doesn't Todd just look quintessential Wisconsin?

The big guy fought hard for a while.  Todd plunged his hand into the icy waters a couple times to try to bring him in...

The first fish of the night!  Yes, I said night.  We didn't get going until about 4 p.m. and we stayed out there until about 10 p.m.!  This Rainbow Trout was 20 1/2 inches!

Rigby was very intrigued by the fish's flopping...

Chase and Marty and their daughter Dawn joined us.  Todd asked them to bring a grill and they brought a full one!  We were thinking Coleman...they brought a grill master!  haha...

Here's my fish.  I hardly had to do anything to bring it in.  It fought a lot less than Todd's.  I only had to wind the reel a couple of times and bloop!  There he was!

Todd set up his shanty - which is huge and can easily fit six people - and the heaters and we warmed up while we sat listening to the weird growling/thumping sound of the ice growing.  I didn't know what it was and Todd told me it was the mermaids bowling.

I liked that idea better.

Would I go again?  Yep!  But I think I'd prefer the daytime!

Wyoming road warrior

I was gone all of last week on a work trip around the state.  I love that I get to travel around Wyoming for my job.

We talked to so many neat businesses and the weather was PERFECT for a fall trip.  Fall can be kind of iffy weather-wise in ol' Wyo.  You never know if you're going to have snow, but the week was absolutely gorgeous.

Here's a few photos from the trip.  I'll be spreading some of these over the course of the next few days!

In Rock Springs, Wyo., there is a brewery I've been wanting to try.  They've been around for a while and I have to say, it was pretty good!  They brew several types of beers, the Bob being their most popular...

Here's their beer list...

And here's a sampler.  I like getting samplers because you can have a little taste of everything!

From Rock Springs we made our way to the western part of the state - basically to Idaho.  It was breathtaking there!  The mountains were beautiful with fall colors, the communities were so cute...  It was a nice place to be.  From a scenic overlook...

And another...

After stopping in Thanye, Wyo., we continued north into Jackson.  One of our office's board members owns the Antler Inn in downtown Jackson which is where we always stay for a good rate.

The next morning, we ate at a very popular restaurant called The Bunnery.  I wish I owned a place like it.  Super cute and super yummy... (Photo courtesy their website)

On the way out of Jackson we went through Teton National Forest.  Again, it was awesome.  The colors were beautiful and there were hardly any people in the park since it's after peak season.  It made for a very nice trip!  Here are the tetons...  Notice the perfect reflection in that lake?  It was really pretty.

You can't tell as well as I'd like, but this photo was of all brown and gold - Wyoming's colors...

More brown and gold...

Ok, this will take some explaining: Yellowstone is full of geysers or thermal areas.  This is what's called the Fishing Cone or Chowda Pot.  To prove the Internet has everything on anything I actually found a site devoted to it: http://www.fishingcone.com/ So, mountain men, Native Americans, etc., would stand on this hot cone and fish and and just dangle their catch in the boiling thermal water to cook it up right on the spot.  It's right on the shore of Yellowstone Lake...

A hot pool...

Get a load of the water bubbling on the edge of this pool...

Here's a closer shot.  I can see how something would cook pretty quickly!  Maybe throw some veggies in and make a nice stew...

If you don't understand how hot those pools are maybe this illustration from an informational board will clear it up.  Don't mind that the woman's arm looks like it's on fire.  That's nothin' compared to the boy about to be boiled!  But maybe none of this is something to worry about.  That other man is pretty unconcerned so why should we be?

Old Tardy... I believe he is Old Faithful's arch enemy.  Or maybe what Old Faithful aspires to be?  It's got to be tiring going off like clockwork for so many years!  I mean, maybe Old Faithful would like to be Old Tardy just once...

O.F. was still at it when we were there though.  My coworkers and I joked how the staff at the Old Faithful Inn probably sneak out each morning to sprinkle some Metamucil in the old guy.  I mean, how else can you be that regular?

Something really cool?  The Brink of the Lower Falls on the Yellowstone River.  You walk down a winding path that drops about 650 feet to right where the river is about to go over...

Whoosh!

And away it goes...

There are a couple viewing areas right over the water.  It's very cool!  But be prepared for a hike back up the hill.  Good workout...

I just thought this was pretty...

And this too.  One of our last Yellowstone photos on the way out of the park...

This was only half of our trip.  It was a long Wyoming road home!