"Holy Donuts"

     Tuesday was our annual donut making day.  My mom, Rachel, and I have had this tradition for many years.  When we were kids growing up, my mom used to make homemade donuts occasionally for the six kids, and as we became adults and realized the importance of family traditions, we started writing down some of our favorite recipes.  Ever since I moved to Minnesota, every summer the three of us gather to make mom's donuts.  This year my dad asked us to double the recipe (as many family members were going to be stopping over throughout the day), so Rachel and I looked at the many donuts as they were being made and shouted, "HOLY DONUTS!!!!"  My mom got a big kick out of it, and then we decided that we should start our own donut making business by the same title. :)  This day is always A LOT of fun; as usual there is always a lot of laughter too!!

 Here we are hard at work...:0)

   

  Mom is the "dough roller."  

Rach and grandma cut out the donuts and donut holes.

 

 I am the official "donut fryer."

Donuts in progress...really, grandpa, did we need a double batch??!!  These are only part of them....

 

   

 I am also the dishwasher.   

   

Grandpa gets the first donut as he is the official taste tester!!

 JJ, the beggar  

Dakota, the supervisor

The finished product (glazed & sugar)....yum!!!!!!!!!

     On Monday, Darrell, my dad, Eric, and Timmy went to the mountains for the day, so my mom and I went to lunch and shopping. :0) 

    

     After our donut making adventure, we cleaned up, had dinner, and headed to the Wyo Theater for the Craft Brothers.  They are a tradition during rodeo week, so we couldn't miss it. :0)  They are three very talented brothers that perform a music and comedy show.  They played at Eric & Jessica's wedding as they are good friends with the youngest Craft brother, JT.  It's always such a fun time when we go see them.  The picture is not great as you can't take pictures during their performance (especially last night as they were filming a live DVD performance), but I was able to snap this one picture at the end.  As you can see, we are having a great time on our vacation!! :0)

Wyoming Weekend Update

Mother Nature's Gifts...

     These are pictures that I took on our walk Saturday morning.  The poppies are in full bloom right now, but the picture doesn't show how red and pretty they really are.

   

    

     Bronze statues can be found all around town.  One of my favorites is called "Cool Waters" depicting a cowboy on a horse drinking water from his cowboy hat. Real water even flows from his hat!! How cool is that??!!  We encounter him every morning on our walk.

     Saturday afternoon my brother picked us up, got lunch, and headed to his new house that he is having built in perfect view of the Big Horn Mountains.  He and Melanie are pretty excited as the house is moving right along, so they should be all moved in by late October/early November.  They sold their house this weekend, so things are moving quite rapidly for them.  Dave took us on a tour on the new house, and it's going to be awesome!!!  There are many windows, and no matter which one you look out of, there is a gorgeous view!!

 A view from the front patio

 Here we are enjoying lunch on the front patio.

 This will be their view from the kitchen window.  Not bad...:0)

     After church Saturday night, we decided that it was time to walk to the park (only a couple of blocks from my parents' house) for an ice cream cone.  Bob, Debbie, and Rach waited on the porch for us to get home from church and off we went.

     They have the same ice cream stand that they did when we were growing up, and they have the best old fashioned ice cream!!  Dad and I enjoying our first licorice ice cream cone of the summer together...it won't be our last one before we leave though!! :)

     After our trip to the park and delicious ice cream, we came back to enjoying an evening on the porch.  There was a nice cool breeze, and no one was in a hurry, so we got a lot of visiting time in.  Bob, Debbie, Rach, and I joined together for this picture.

     Guess who is up early and ready to walk on Sunday morning???  He even grabs his own leash and packs it about 1/2 way through our daily walk.  What a goofball!!

 

        This is what we encountered on this walk yesterday morning...and these aren't bronze statues!!

     The bison came down to feed and drink.  The dogs weren't quite sure what to think of these rather large creatures since we were only 8-10 feet away from them!!

     Sunday night presented us with dinner and a movie.  Here I am with my nephew, Eric/Dr. Eric :), his wife, Jessica, and my niece, Rachel.  It was so nice to see Eric and Jess as they have been traveling around every three months for his residency rotations for the past year.  They are back in Sheridan for the summer to explore his job opportunities.

     The nine of us gathered around Cowboy Joe/Wyoming's bucking horse logo for an after dinner picture.

Rachel and Aunt Lulu

Eric and Rachel showing some sibling love :0)

    

Greetings From Out West

     We arrived safely in Sheridan Thursday night. We are looking forward to rest and relaxation and spending a lot of family time together. :0)  It is great to be home again. 

Here is one of the views of Sheridan close to my brother's house. 

     The dogs did a great job of snoozing on our long trip as we drove it in one day instead of breaking it up.  Dakota was quite happy that JJ spent part of the time on my lap in the front seat; he then was able to spread out and have lots of room in the back seat.  These aren't the best quality pictures since I took them from my cell phone, but they'll do.  I don't think you can really see Dakota clearly, but he was all snuggled up in his dog bed holding a couple of his squeaky toys like a baby would hold a blanket to go to sleep.  :)

     Here is my dad giving my mom a goodnight kiss.  Awww....

      After their long naps in the car, the dogs woke me up bright and early for a long walk.  I don't know that I was as ready and energized as they were as we stayed up until midnight visiting with my parents, but as you can see in the pictures below, it was worth getting up early just for the view alone.

      Two pictures from my walk this morning of the beautiful Big Horns

Tonight we visited my brother, Dave, and his lovely wife, Melanie.

I will be posting more throughout our stay... :)

4th of July..."Let Freedom Ring!"

     HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!  We have had a wonderful three day weekend with some friends at their cabin on Farm Island Lake.  Mike and Darci invited us to their cabin a few months ago for the 4th of July to spend a three day weekend with their family and with the Segner family.  The weather was incredible, and it was so nice for us to spend time together with friends on the lake.  Plenty of food, sun, music, and laughs were had by all.  Not being from Minnesota, one of the coolest things that I experienced this weekend was waking up around 3 AM one night to the sounds of the loons nearby; that was an incredible sound to hear when all was quiet at that time of the night.

     A lot of time was spent on the lake taking pontoon rides, and we were a part of the boat parade on Sunday morning, which was very cool.  It was neat to see everyone's boats all decorated for Independence Day.  Many of the boaters were sporting some fun as well as crazy red, white, and blue clothing.  I was able to get several great pictures all weekend long, so I thought that I would share some of them on today's blog. Thanks so much to the Nagorski family for hosting such an awesome weekend!!

Segner's daughter, Miranda, and Nagorski's daughter, Emma, posing with me

This is what greeted me when we arrived.  Ann welcoming me to the cabin

                                                                   (I teach with Ann.)

Darci snuck a picture of Darrell and me enjoying some time together at the end of the dock.

            

               Good buddies...Miranda & Emma   Logan Nagorski goofing around with Scout

A nice view from the deck of the cabin

The girls enjoying some time on the slide

                               Darci, me, & Ann             Kyle, Logan, Emma, & Miranda

Emma & Miranda on our pontoon ride Saturday night

Saturday night's incredible sunset

Another sunset view on our pontoon ride

Here are the ten of us at the end of our pontoon ride.

                           Emma, me, and Miranda                     Darrell and me

           Steve lighting one of six sky lanterns         Time for S'mores...yum!!

One of the sky lanterns after being released

Here we are in the boat parade on Sunday morning.

The four kids showing off the squirt guns that Darrell and I bought them

The kids really enjoyed their time during the boat parade.

Steve and Scout enjoying an afternoon nap

Mike and Darci, our hosts, on last night's pontoon ride

We came across a mom, dad, and baby loon family.  We were able to get very close to them; everybody really enjoyed this part of the boat ride.

Another amazing sunset last night

                                The Nagorskis                              The Segners

                                                            Darrell & me

      The wind picked up on our ride to go watch the fireworks last night, so I was able to get a neat picture of the ripples on the left side with the gorgeous sunset in the background.  The fireworks display was worth the battle we had with the mosquitoes!!

         

 Two cutie pies

     You can't have 4th of July without apple pie, so we enjoyed this tasty apple pie (thanks to one of my new cookbooks) with whipped cream at the end of last night's pontoon ride and fireworks display.
                         

A good way to summarize today...how grateful we are to have freedom and live in this wonderful country.