Labor Day, BBQ, Peach Days & Greasy Goodness

Labor Day presented us with a day off so we headed to Weston with Dallas & Natalie and James & Emily. We had a yummy lunch of bratwurst, than hit the water slide! It was a great time, and many crashes happened. After we decided our bodies couldn't handle anymore crashes we played some hillbilly golf, you many know it as lasso golf. Due to the house job we had to hurry back by 530, but don't worry the party didn't stop we ordered pizza & watched Better of Dead.

We have been going to meet Natalie & Dallas for dinner in "celebration" of Mark getting a job since well he got a job & we just never have. Friday night we, along with Matthew and Kris & Axton, we headed down to Salt Lake for dinner at Famous Daves. We it was pretty good, they served our dinner in a garbage can lid....I hope it was sanitary! After eating way to much good food we headed back to Natalie's apartment & played some Yahtzee. There were actually lots of toys for Axton to play with so that was great, we only had to hide the dice from him a couple of times. Dallas was the only one of us to get a Yahtzee, but in the end Mark won the game!

We stayed at Matthew & Kris Friday night so the 5 of us could spend Saturday together. We had a yummy breakfast of German Pancakes than headed off to peach days. The parade lasted for 2 hours! We watched about 30-40 minutes before we'd seen enough parade. The Peach Days parade does officially rank pretty high on my list of parades worth seeing, why? They had a complete Star Wars group, it was pretty awesome. We wandered a few, okay lots of booths than headed decided we needed to refuel but didn't want to pay for over priced fair food so we ate at the Chinese restaurant in town.

Seeing Corn Dogs at the fair gave us a craving for the greasy goodness they offer, but frozen ones just wouldn't suffice so we made some from scratch! Oh so yummy! There a few kinks to work out but we'll get it, just have to practice more!

While everyone took naps that afternoon Kris & I had run errands including a stop at a fruit stand for some fresh peaches, can't celebrate Peach Days without eating them! Mark thought making homemade donuts sounding good since we already had hot oil so we had a very unhealthy but good dessert of fresh peaches, hot donuts & ice cream!

family, cake & over active yeast.

With a long weekend upon us we decided to make the most of it and invited James & Em to come visit, which they did! We started our evening with having Pizza Fondue, sounds crazy but oh so yummy. Our cousin Sara came over too with her boyfriend Eric, not only did we get to hangout with Sara but we finally got to meet Eric. They've been dating since may and we just barely met him, we really enjoyed getting to know him. This last week was Em's birthday so we celebrated together, I was slightly unorganized and forgot the candles so we used the 2 from Mark's birthday and she just blew it out twice.

Last November we discovered a recipe in the Hendricks cook book that we really enjoy, a caramel nut roll due to my allergy it has become a caramel almond ring. You prepare it the night before & let it rise than wake up stick it in the oven and there is caramel goodness in 25-30 minutes. Well I forgot how warm our house stays at night if I don't open the windows, and I didn't open the windows in the Kitchen since they don't effect if my room is hot or not I just forgot. It goes without saying the yeast when rise crazy! I even tried punching it down before baking it but still ended up with this.....
Still yummy but I am really glad I had a tray underneath it to catch the drippings or I'd be scrubbing the oven instead of writing this post!

extended road trip

well that is what my Dad kept calling it. We took off this past weekend with my family and headed to Island Park. Once we got there it was a pretty fantastic trip, getting there was a long journey...mostly because I kept having serious stomach attacks/pains/spasms/pain! Don't worry though with the help of my gastroenterologist it'll be okay. We stayed at a wonderful cabin, it was so much nicer than a hotel cause we actually got to cook our food. Upon arrival Jess found an original nintendo, that's right I said original, inside so we spent some time revisiting childhood while we waited for Mark, Mike & Miles to join us. All three of them had to work late so they joined us later. Saturday we floated one of the rivers up there, it was fantastic! My mom had never floated a river before, I just couldn't believe it. Other than few times of my rear end being introduced to rocks it was a fantastic trip. That afternoon we headed up to Big Springs were we walked the nature path up to the actual spring, it was so pretty and they really did have huge fish there...no fishing aloud in the spring. That night we went to Les Miserables at Mack's Inn Playhouse, it was hilarious. I can't wait to see what they preform next year, hopefully we can go again. The cabin had a fire pit so we decided to build a fire that night and roast marshmallows and starbursts, it was at this point we realized we hadn't sat around a campfire all summer...how sad is that! Sunday we got up and decided to visit what we thought was called satellite hill, well that isn't the name & I can't remember the real name but it was awesome. There was giant radar tower on top that they use to track stuff for air travel, it was pretty awesome. The view was also amazing! After a quick lunch we had to head home, but not without one final tourist stop. Mesa Falls, amazingly beautiful! And thus ended our extended road trip!

much thought & consideration

When our car was purchased we had a very hard time coming up with a name (all important things should have a name), after much consideration & thought not to mention driving of our new (awesome) car we have decided upon...

you can laugh at the name, I did a little when Mark suggested it but it just fits so our new family member will be from this time forward known as Sully.

Saturday we headed over the mountain to Bear Lake to meet my family for a fun day in the sun. It was so great! One thing about my family is there is never a dull moment and I love it! My Uncle Jason brought up his boat and let everyone who wanted take a turn behind it, Mark learned to wakeboard he did very well for his second time ever. We had fun eating, playing in the sand, eating, getting sunburned, and watching a mud fight happen. I couldn't get involved I had to document it! After our fun/exhausting day a the beach we stopped by La Beau's for a fresh raspberry shake before heading back, it was WONDERFUL! We must report we are loving our new car, it handled the canyon awesome even with the ac on max! Now gotta name it....

Sunday after the temple dedication we joined Mark's family at Aunt Laurie & Uncle Bryce's for BLT's, fresh corn & some good conversation. I made an amazing discovery at the lunch, I don't hate all tomatoes, I really enjoy Roma tomatoes. Who knew? Not me! After eating way to much food we headed over the canyon to Matthew & Kristin's to watch Axton while they attended the temple dedication. It was a very good time, especially after I got him to take a nap. There is nothing as wonderful as his little laugh. We made some wonderful Kabobs (Matthew I can spell it now) with fresh zucchini from their garden, steak and potatoes. So yummy! We finished off the evening with Zucchini cake & grilled pineapple topped with vanilla ice cream. A very unhealthy way to end the day but oh so good!

Today started the week of firsts for us, Mark had his first day of one of his new jobs. He began training at the boys home today, he seemed to really enjoy it. Tomorrow he starts his training for his flight instructing! How blessed we are!

Well it's official....

After much a soul searching, budgeting, prayers and talking with our parents we have decided to make a major change to our little family, a change that could make Mark's new job (& income) very, very important.
Now we are at a point where we can share this exciting moment with all of you and we can also ask for you input on names....keep in mind we don't like names that are hard to remember...

Presenting:

the New Hendricks Family member....

Sadly Cletus the cavalier is not going be driven anymore, he will be parked in Weston till Alaina is ready for college and at that time we will hand him off to her. Cletus has been a good companion these last years, many a good road trip has happened with Cletus. However due to a few technical difficulties (speedometer, window, backseat falling off) we needed to up grade. Cletus you will forever have a special place in our heart! Alaina you better take care of Cletus!

This past weekend we decided to rent the new Wii Sports Resort game, we also decided just the two of us playing would not be nearly as fun and having friends join us, plus what kind of celebration of Mark's job would it have been for us to spend the weekend home alone...a boring one! Friday night our friends Jordan & Kim came over to play and celebrate with us. Of course when we made plans to hangout we didn't have a reason to celebrate but once the job was offered and accepted we did! Jordan & Kim were friends from the first ward we attended as a married couple, when we moved to we lost touch but recently "found" each other again, and also found out they are going to be having a little girl in November/December. We are so excited to have found our friends again! Saturday Matthew, Kristin & Axton called to see if we were up for visitors....silly question we always love visitors. They made the drive through the canyon and we "escaped" from our house for a mini-celebration at Chili's. Good friends, good food, good times. After eating, way to much food, we headed back to play some wii (we may be nintendo nerds) Axton was totally hypnotised by the game, it was really cute.

Warning if you don't want to see a whole picture collage of Axton you had better stop scrolling down, he was just so cute Saturday night I couldn't help but snap lots of pictures. Thanks cousins for letting us spoil your child!

oh and the verdict on wii sports resort is a winner, we really have enjoyed playing it. It is much more of a work out than the other sport games, not like break a sweat or anything but you do more than move your wrist. The only downer you have to have a special motion accessory to capture all your movements and only one was included in the rental. In time we will probably add this game to our collections.