Yes, more snow.

I know, it's late October, and you're already sick of my snow-posts. Sorry, but we've gotten more! This was a pretty bad storm, but I couldn't actually tell you how much snow we got because of the wind. There's no snow at all on the front porch, but we haven't tried yet to venture down the driveway yet. That'll be tomorrow. None of these pictures were taken from outside the house. Too scary out there.

This is a window screen.

This is Siberia.

Someone put a playground in Siberia.

Amazing salad!

Salad.

'nuff said.

Just kidding! That was not "enough said." This salad is amazing! I needed to take a salad someplace and wanted to try something new. Now normally that's considered a big no-no, because your little creation might just be horrible. I'm not sure what got into me. I felt a little confident because on allrecipes.com, it had 220+ reviews and everyone raved about it. Also, it was a make-the-lemon-poppyseed-dressing recipe, which I've never tried before. My family really liked it, and so did everyone! It has apples, pears, cashews, shredded Swiss, dried cranberries, romaine, and yes, it's a little time intensive. But I spread it out a bit, and it was worth it. It's a new favorite.

Want the recipe?

Winter Fruit Salad with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing
Ingredients
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons diced onion
1 teaspoon Dijon-style prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
4 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup cashews
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 apple - peeled, cored and diced
1 pears - peeled, cored and diced

Directions
In a blender or food processor, combine sugar, lemon juice, onion, mustard and salt. Process until well blended. With machine still running add oil in a slow steady stream until mixture is thick and smooth. Add poppy seeds and process just a few seconds more to mix.
In a large serving bowl combine the romaine lettuce, shredded Swiss cheese, cashews, dried cranberries, cubed apple and cubed pear. Toss to mix then pour dressing over salad just before serving and toss to coat. Makes 12-1 c. servings.

I recommend reading the reviews on allrecipes.com, because there are helpful hints and suggestions (like cut up the apples and pears ahead of time, and put them in the dressing so they won't brown). I made the recipe times 4, and we're still using the dressing because it makes so much. But it's delicious, and we'll make more when it's gone! Let me know if you try it and what you think.

"The 2nd Day of Snow" pictures

This is Elise again. :)

All of the animals were really excited about me going outside and playing with them while I was taking pictures. (Especially Daisy!)

Parker and Zorro

Daisy and Parker

Parker and tractor :)

HUGE carboard box + TONS of stuffed animals = Opportunity

Hey guys. This is my first post. (This is Elise.) I wanted to tell you Daniel and I have been playing with this HUGE box and we have a ton of stuffed animals.
(The rest is pretty obvious.)

A little "global warming" shout-out

Hey there, we know the whole world is basking in the heat from "global warming," but Colorado hasn't gotten the message. This is our second sub-freezing spell in just October. The first one lasted about 3 days, everything was encased in ice, and we kissed our pumpkins and watermelons in the garden goodbye. It may not look like a lot of snow, because it isn't, but the wind was howling crazy! It rearranges your lawn furniture without permission and puts huge snow drifts right where you don't want them. Last year, after Christmas, the wind gave our tree (sitting outside) to our neighbors half a mile down the street. They didn't want it, and we had to retrieve the base that was still attached! What a site that must've been... rogue Christmas tree! Well, the low temp last night was in the 20's, and we woke to school closures (not our school!) and delays.

Our top-notch trash service called at at 9:30 AM saying, "You didn't put out your trash. The driver's waiting." Yikes! Kyle bundled up and ran our wheeled trash bin over the river and through, no, I mean over mountains of snow drifts in the driveway!
This wasn't as bad as the last Siberia-like freeze, but the wind didn't stop blowing once yesterday or through the night! Brrr!
After taking the trash down, Kyle suggested we all huddle around the fireplace.
So we did.

New Stove!

Look! a new stove! It's almost like Christmas when a new stove arrives at your house at 7:04 AM... except the stove isn't yours, and well, neither is the house! Other than that, though, it's just like Christmas!

It's a beautiful little stove, and we're looking forward to lots of baking this winter in the nice, warm, cozy house.
And a final close-up...

Remembering Savannah

Yes, this is a history blog (but I guess all blogs are history, right?). Well, our family went to Savannah, Georgia, in September 2008 for Brian's work. We were there for about a week, and it now tops our list of most memorable places we've ever been. Rachel and I were crazy about almost everything. (After being there a few days, I read online about the ridiculously consistent high crime rate, including car jackings at gun point, and we did things a little differently from then on out.) I know, some of you are probably sick of hearing about how much we enjoyed Savannah. So I'm going to show you pictures, instead. This is typical Savannah architecture! Can you imagine? It's everywhere! Savannah was founded in 1733, so "old" there is "really old." We walked cobblestone streets (including "Jones Street," voted the most beautiful street in America), went to Forsyth Park, walked the Riverfront, and also went to Tybee Beach and the Tybee Island Lighthouse.

The colors are classic and so fitting. I'm also absolutely convinced that foliage of every kind grows totally unattended and maybe even neglected there. It's like another world.

Of course, with all that greenery, you can be certain that there are critters of monstrous proportions there! This spider was just huge (and beautiful, too, don't you think?).

Again, foliage, foliage everywhere. The humidity and temperatures are key players, obviously. It was just amazing to us.

The next photo is a hallway in our rented house, which had actually been restored (the house, not the hallway). The house on 1 side of us was old, scary, and actually leaning a bit, and the house on the other side had very nice barred up windows that the children waved at us through.

Daniel discovered for the first time what happens when you mix a jetted tub and soap.

Rachel took this next picture, and it's so sweet. She and Daniel were resting on the bed and just playing a little, and Rachel always has her camera in hand.

We had warned the children that we were going to be swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, and oceans are COLD. Well, the water was comfortable enough to walk right into! It was so, so great. We had a blast playing in that ocean. It was just all-around a memorable, treasured time that we are so thankful for.

Our first trip to the beach, we just went to check it out a little, not thinking we'd be in the water then. Well, that wasn't very realistic. The kids left there soaked and sandy.

After a couple times of being knocked down by waves and swallowing salt water, Daniel decided that this was more his speed.

Our hope is to go back to Savannah one day!

The Denver Zoo

Wednesday, October 7, was a free day at the Denver Zoo. We marked it on our calendars and said, "If the weather is good, we'll go." Well, the Lord provided exceptional weather that day! I think the high temp was around 70-75 deg, and we couldn't have asked for better. Plus, on a not-free day that zoo would cost us $60+. Yes, there are crowds on free days, but it's a small price to pay when compared to not-free admission, and we hadn't been to the Denver Zoo in years. We also took our neighbor, Justin, with us. Daniel got his very own map of the zoo and did a great job pointing to exactly where we wanted to go.

We got there early, spent 10-15 minutes hunting for a parking spot, and were still in time to watch the little penguins get breakfast. It was fairly cool out then, but warmed up quickly.

They told us that the elephants had been on diets and recently lost about 1,000 pounds each, and don't they look trim? Pretty impressive! Was it Atkins or South Beach? We all wanted to know! No, just diet and exercise. Huh. Go figure.

The leaves were turning and Rachel took this beautiful, beautiful picture. I'm not a tree-hugger, but it's very tempting in the fall, isn't it? You get extra credit points if you can spot the 5 lemurs in this photo.
I think our big expenditure of the day, not including gas, was for the birds (ha ha!). We spent $2 to buy nectar to feed them out of our hands, but I think about $1 worth was actually spilled on various children. It was still fun, and the birds were so pretty.

The kids were seeing which animal they jumped similar to in distance.

OK, the Denver Zoo people should visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to get some tips on what a really great giraffe set-up is. Their set-up isn't very impressive. Maybe the city could raise taxes again and build a... no, never mind, their giraffe area is quite good.

Their sea lion show was actually very fun, and I think Rachel wanted to jump right in that water and swim with them.

It really was a beautiful day, and the very next day we had snow, ice, wind, and super freezing temps. Can anyone say, "Colorado?"

Glenwood in August '09

We usually make a trip up to Glenwood Springs at least once a year. We really enjoy the hot springs pool for a day or two, and this year we took Grandma B. with us. If you've never been, you can see here that the pool is just huge.

Elise had a lot of fun practicing her diving, and I wanted to show you her progress.

And finally...


This next picture is not Elise.

The kids think they'll be ready for diving in Uncle Scott and Aunt Tara's pool next summer!