4th of July

After paging through the several hundred photos that I took over the course of our 18 day vacation, I decided that I'm just going to have to wing it a bit and split the trip up into a few (I'm not willing to put a number to it at this point!) posts. Hopefully I'll control myself and not bore everyone TOO much!

Once we arrived in Elk Rapids we were ready to play! In between pulling out the summer furniture and toys we managed to take a walk/ride down to the water at the end of Bob and Kay's street. Ruby's a mean tricyclist this year... I wish we could have brought her two wheeler along.

Max isn't so handy on the bike, so we were thankful for this push along version! Maybe he'll get the pedaling concept next summer!

As you can see it was a bit chillier in Michigan than we had been used to. I did bring one cool weather outfit for each kiddo--we got a lot of use out of those!

Max enjoyed helping Bobo mow the lawn, though he wasn't crazy about the noise! I guess he needs a pair of noise-cancelling earphones just like Bobo.

All the cousins, aunts, uncles, and even MawMaw were in attendance at the fourth of July hoopla. I found this little picnic table at a yard sale and the kids just loved it. I'm going to have to keep my eye out for one in our neck of the woods.

Kiddos in attendance: Ruby (4), Jenna (2), Annie (3), Noah (2), and Max (2). It was a busy group!

Jill brought poppers for the kids to throw on the patio. It's amazing how fast they can go through a box of those little buggers!

Max and Bobo just hangin'.

Check back tomorrow for more pics from our big trip!

cincinnati-style 5-way chili

Wow! We are back in North Carolina after our loooong vacation in Michigan and Wisconsin. We had a wonderful time... lots of photos to come... but I also got some great feedback about Tasty Tuesday, so I'm kicking off my return to the bloggy world with a wonderful recipe I made before we went on our trip. It's from "Family Circle" (May '09) and absolutely wonderful! Please note that this is a long simmering chili that's actually best the next day, so save it for a day that you have lots of time around the house. Enjoy!

Cincinnati-Style 5-way Chili (12 servings)

2 T. ground ancho chile powder
1-2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 T. olive oil
3 medium sized yellow onions, minced
1 T. minced garlic
1 medium-sized green bell pepper chopped
2 tsp. coarse salt
2 lbs. ground beef
2 cans (28oz) whole Italian tomatoes with juice
2 cans (15oz) kidney beans
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 pound spaghetti
Shredded cheddar, for serving
Chopped onion, for serving

1. Combine chile powder, cumin, oregano, dry mustard, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Set aside.
2. Brown and crumble ground beef in a large skillet. Drain.
3. At the same time, in a large, heavy pot, heat olive oil until it begins to sizzle. Stir in onions and garlic, and saute for 5 minutes. Add green pepper, salt, and ground spice mixture and saute 2 minutes longer. Add browned ground beef and stir. Add tomatoes with juice and crush tomatoes while stirring in. Add the bouillon cubes and stir in. Taste and add any additional seasoning.
4. Simmer chili at least 2 hours over medium-low heat, uncovered, adding water as necessary. Refrigerate chili overnight to allow flavors to fully meld.
5. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boiling. Cook spaghetti following package directions, about 10 minutes. Drain and keep warm. Gently reheat chili over low heat. Stir in drained and rinsed kidney beans and heat through. Serve chili over noodles, topped with additional chopped onion and cheddar cheese.

Big Boy!

This announcement has been long overdue, but I am happy and proud to announce that Maxwell is potty trained! And the extra cool thing is that he did is pretty much all on his own. No timer or reward charts this time, just let him lead and decide when he wanted to wear underwear and it worked!

Max really had a good time picking out his big boy undies (everything from Thomas the Tank Engine to the Transformers!) and is really revelling in the freedom of being able to stand up to pee! I'm just waiting for Ruby to try and leave a giant puddle on the floor and herself... She's already told me she thinks it would be more fun to be a boy, but I've assured her, being a girl is pretty great too.

p.s. No, he didn't grow facial hair too--just sampling some frosting from my birthday cake a few weeks ago--and boy, was it good. ;)

DuPont with the Johns Family

Way back in May, we had a great time meeting Michael and Julie Johns for a picnic lunch and fun time playing at the base of High Falls with their pups and Bubba. I went to high school with Michael and we've been able to keep in touch a little bit over the years. Michael and Julie live north of Charlotte and were so sweet to drive all the way over for a picnic lunch and some LIGHT hiking!We're so happy to be here in North Carolina now where we're relatively close to quite a few of our friends.

Since this outing, the Johns family has grown to include their

sweet little boy, Asher, born just last week! We're looking forward to meeting him in a month or so after all of the grandparents have had their chance lovin' on him.

Here's a photo of my three favorite people down at the base of High Falls in DuPont State Forest. The path down to the falls is a bit treacherous, but it was really fun once we were down there. Great swimming and wading holes and lots of opportunity to enjoy the cold waterfall spray. There were even some people sliding down a section of the falls, which was fun to see. I'm glad I wasn't one of the ones sliding though---brrrr and ouch!

The rocks were really slippery and Max looked so funny slip sliding along. It's a good thing Jared always had a good hold on him or he would have been down in a flash.

Ruby thought her version of "water skiing" was pretty cool. The water was really moving fast and they all really had a blast!

This may seem out of the blue, and it kind of is, but has anyone out there ever signed me up for "Outdoor Life" magazine? Because I had a subscription show up to my PO Box out of the blue when we moved to Brevard. That one has now ended (thankfully--I'm really not much of a hunter, believe it or not!) and now another mystery magazine subscription has begun--this one to "Backpacker"! I'm a little more excited about this subscription and was really juiced when I read an article about the best places to raise outdoorsy kids. Guess what!? Little old Brevard, NC made the list!! We're #20 out of 30, but still that's pretty cool. Also, Asheville, which is just up the road from us is #11. Yeah!

I suppose I'll end this rambling post with a photo of the title family--Michael and Julie! I didn't get the dogs in, but they were there and very sweet and easy going. Congrats guys on your sweet blessing! We rejoice with you and pray that you get some sleep some time soon!

In parting, I have a bit of sad news to share. I'm sad to say (for those few that don't know) that Bubba had to return to his original family. He had some pretty major separation anxiety issues stemming from the fact that he was never left alone until he came to live with us. How do people live like that?! Anyway, we've decided to hold off on another dog until later in the summer and we'll probably just get a puppy so that we can teach him everything we think he ought to know from the start. So, I'll keep you posted on that.

Crusty French Rolls

This bread machine recipe is a keeper. Super simple and delish. Just be sure to freeze any rolls you don't eat the same day you bake them. They reheat wonderfully in the oven!

Crusty French Rolls

1 1/4 cups water (70 to 80 degrees F)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

1. In bread machine pan, place the first five ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).
2. When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 18 portions; shape each into a round ball. Place on a lightly greased baking sheets; sprinkle with cornmeal.
3. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.
4. Beat egg white and water; brush over dough.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes; brush again with glaze. Bake 10 minutes longer or until golden brown.

Follow the (yellow) brick road!

I thought I'd come on back to the blogging world with an update from our sidewalk project. This was actually done last weekend. Thankfully the daily thunderstorms let up for us so that we were able to get the whole job done. Anyway, here it is!
Jared filled the excavated pathway with coarse gravel first, then the sand. Getting it perfectly flat was a challenge, especially without trampling the flowers. I think Jared might actually have a little bit of "Spiderman" in him that he was able to do this at all! Imagine our chagrin when we saw Sunday morning that a cat and a raccoon had scampered along the back of the house where we hadn't yet laid the brick pavers down!

Here's Jared laying some pavers. This was at the bend in the sidewalk which was our stopping point on Saturday evening. We were both pretty sore from all of the squatting, kneeling, carrying, and just handling the rough bricks with our bare hands--ouch!

This was Sunday night. All the pavers were down and Jared got all of the bricks cut for the turn beautifully. Talk about advanced math skills! Jared was sweeping in the polymeric sand, next he compacted the bricks down--I'm sure our neighbors loved us making a huge racket at nine at night, but we had to get the equipment returned!

Check it out! I need to get one again in the daylight, but this will do for now. One home improvement project down, a million to go!

A weekend in our neck of the woods

I know-- I'm unreliable blogger. Sometimes life just gets in the way, and really that's okay. Right? But if you've been wondering here's what we've been up to this weekend...

My sister, Heidi, and her boyfriend, Kelly, drove down from Indiana on Friday to help us tear out and replace the walk behind our house. It was slanted towards the house and had rotted out the bottom board of the sun porch. Tearing out the concrete and digging out so that we could lay our brick paver path was a BIG TOUGH job!

Here's about half the path ready for gravel. You can see the huge pile of gravel at the end of the walk with the concrete they had torn out sitting behind it.

On Sunday, we all went down to Sliding Rock for a little fun since muscles were too sore to do much. Here's Heidi and Kelly.

Max decided that he wanted to go down with Daddy! The water is about 50 degrees and the pool at the bottom is 8 feet deep! Our little man didn't even cry--unlike Ruby's attempt a few weeks ago! He did say he was ready to go home after that though!

Here's Kelly making the plunge! I think the guys did it three or four times. The line was quite long so after that we decided it was time to warm up and have some dinner.

We had a great time with Heidi and Kelly and look forward to seeing them again soon. Hopefully I'll be posting photos of the finished pathway soon!