Oh. My. Word.

It is still raining.

No flooding in the wash behind our house yet, but there is a steady stream across the road in our neighborhood, down into the wash across from us.


WOW.

Now it really does feel like fall....caramel apples, rainy weather and all!


~The Mom

Look!! It's Raining!!

And it is suppose to rain all day long!

I can't wait to get the school work done so we can snuggle in for some hot chocolate, reading and maybe some good inspiring food-tv.

~the Mom

My Very Own Twilight Zone and The Caramel Apples That Helped Me Escape...temporarily...

Fall.

Fall means crisp mornings, cool night, falling leaves, rainy, cloudy, cuddle-up-with-a-good-book days, wet leaves in the driveway, jean, sweaters, cute brown boots, hot cider in the morning, fires at night.

Fall in Phoenix? Well. Let's see.
We ate Thanksgiving dinner outside..comfortably. The kids got so hot playing Bball and football that they jumped into the pool.

Hmmmm...still thinking... We've had 2 cloudy days. Two. That's right. No cloudy , rainy, fall day upon day (the kind Twinkle loves). No, just two days like that. I enjoyed the first one...and couldn't wait to see the sun the next morning. And true to form, the sun appeared and brought 85 degree weather with it.

Almost Christmas? How can that be? It doesn't feel like Christmas...no freezing rain, promises of snow or heavy winter coats.

Welcome to my twilight zone of seasons.

So over the past few days I have tried to 'make' the feeling of fall for me and my family. We've had soup for lunch 2 days in a row now. The first time we ate it outside and I got so hot I considered jumping into the pool. I didn't. It's not that warm and I'm not that crazy.

Today I thought we could make caramel apples for a fall-ish type snack. Have any of you ever made caramel apples before? We have. We've unwrapped all of those little square caramels, melted them slowly over a double boiler, washed and dried our perfectly round apples and pressed a craft stick into each one. Then ever so slowly, like dipping candles, we dipped our apples in the the luscious goodness of the caramel. Our mouths watered at the delicious prospect ahead of us. Dip, twist, dip, twist...until the entire apple was covered. Oh they looked glorious. We could hardly wait for them to 'set' and cool so we could enjoy them.

Then.

Later.

You know what happened.... yes, the sad sad truth.... all that delicious , luscious caramel....? it slid right off of those perfect apples and puddled at their feet. (figuratively speaking, of course...I know apples don't really have feet.)

Sigh.

So the next year we tried another technique.

Same result.

And so we figured we were destined to only enjoy caramel apples on the very rare occasion of a visit to a candy store.

Until this year.

This year, Nora recommended the caramel apple wraps.




So we thought we'd try again.

We purchased our selection of red and green apples.




Wrapped the caramel.


and put them in the oven.

and waited.


And look at our snack......

Perfect.

and actually, I warmed mine in the microwave and it was even better.
Finally. A caramel apple worth making. well, at least a caramel apple that stays a caramel apple.

Welcome Fall.


And hey! don't remind me it is almost Christmas, ok? One season at a time OK...next week we'll start some family Christmas traditions....

Until then, we are off the fly Minnie's RC airplane in the local field. No coats, no boots, no rain, no falling leaves....

.....Hmmm, I might need another caramel apple to help me rediscover fall.


~The Mom

~I'm .. .dreamin... of a white......~

it's that time of year.. yuletide, chestnuts roasting, and white Christmases.... um, not in the desert it's not.. so we're going where there is plenty of sub-freezing temps and lots of snow..

it won't be for a few weeks but to get everyone in the mood, enjoy a tasting from winter's past..

that's Minnie and her friend Noelle... along with a father (who will go unnamed)... he almost bought a one-way ticket down the side of a 10,000 ft mountain top. (and he's supposed to be an expert).

The New Wing at the Local Library

Just wanted you all to know I made my first 'donation' to the local public library system. At this rate the new wing out here will be done well before the wing on the library back home.


and Jen, don't tell me that all i have to do is renew online!!!


anyway, thought you'd want to know.


~The Mom

Silence is golden

when we've had too much fun making memories this past week to actually sit down and memorialize them for our out-of-town friends and fam.

more to come soon.. but it was hard to beat football/ping pong..(err.. table tennis for the serious players who showed up)/basketball/fires/tons of food/our first watching of "White Christmas"/ listening to the 'Back Porch Boys" perform their signature christmas carols - (CD coming soon your way after the real-time audition with the music producer - (another story for another family)....... sorry for the rambling..

and what's more?

a dip in the pool on Thanksgiving evening..

to join the Polar Bear club the easy way...

Juvenile Delinquents on the Golf Course

You see, this evening, just before sunset, we decided to run up to the local golf course and get some special sunset pictures. this is a faithful narrative from three of the children present.

TWINKLE:

little did we know that that kind of behavior was "a problem." And we never ever not-in-our-wildest-dreams thought that a closed golf course with a very tempting sand pit would be "not a playground." Who am i quoting? A very very very nice girl was also very very very upset. We all are willing to believe that 1) she didn't see the Dad in the sand pit, taking pictures of us kids or 2) she was having a bad day or 3) she did not like us. i'm definitely willing to believe number 3.

KILEY:

all i can say is... what a PhoeNamenal day! =D Our day started off with some pancakes... and was ended with a 2 hour soak in the not-so-hot-hot tub. ( after swimming the English Channel, a.k.a, our pool! ) And sandwiched in between; a round of "knockout". "fun times, fun times, had by all!" : )

BRYNN:

um.... i have NO clue what to say.....taylor just shoved the computer in my face and told me to type :D well let me just say i am LOVING having the nams here!!!! i am having an awesome time with them!!! are the pictures not amazing???? gotta love them :D

From Sea to Shining Sea

In the spirit of the early pioneers, we finally made it to the left coast. can you see the excitement in the faces just before we hit the road again!?!?!

below is footage (pardon the pun) of our kids making touchdown on the California seaside, Redondo/Manhattan Beach, to be exact. by the way, that's NOT Dad's feet in the shot. that's the big brother's size 9.5 and counting...

The boys ran to the water, ran away..then discovered a distraction..

You can magnify the picture below, but they discovered whether man can outrun a thousand pigeons on the beach... (can't imagine what they would have done if they actually caught a pigeon - yuck)... they had to release all that testosterone builtup from the ride west.

No visit to the west coast is complete without an obligatory visit to our most excellent part of LA - Koreatown

and to make it really personal? a visit with Donald, Sohee and new boy Liam - dear friends whom we met from the caregroup back east. they head out of country soon and we were thrilled to see them again before they launch for more adventures!

the BEST korean bbque this side of the orient--- can you almost taste it?

we just topped off the weekend with a seaside restaurant down in Redondo Beach - frequented by all of the 'homeys.. crab, korean soup and a platter of sashimi... anyone remember high school biology? there's sea cucumber on that platter!

Little man and his crab:

we stopped at a dessert shop - over the top

In spite of the challenges of a new town, friends, church, house etc.. there have been some major upsides...this weekend was one of them. (work hard, play hard)

2 Peas in a Pod

This is the closest these two have gotten to a golf course; all work and no play... their swings are so close so the real question of the day is:

does the 8 year old has the swing of a 25 yr old, or the 25 yr old has a swing of an 8 yr old...?

Santana Moss who?

Practice, Practice, Practice...

Hunting in the Suburbs

All the kids with the Bass Pro workers who didn't give us a discount. (I was the one who asked.)

Mr. MacK trying to beat the Dad's record of 740 points.

Trying one more time...one more time...

D, careful. Aim at the door. No, the rabbit. No, the bear. Oh, you are out of bullets?

Smile! N! :)

On Wednesday night, the MacKs and us went out to dinner at Famous Dave's. Across the street was a Bass Pro Shop. We couldn't resist. We walked around, then headed towards the shooting game. There were about a million targets, a billion lights, and a zillion things that kept going, "PFFFFTT!" every time someone hit it. On my first try, I shot a 25. Pretty good, for my first try. Er, right.

Anyway, after a practice round, everyone got down to business. The Dad shot the record of 740. Making our way out the door, the Dad spotted a huge vat of tee-shirts and hats. He said that he'd buy us each one if we'd wear them. Of course we'd wear them! We took a picture and walked out feeling very cool. And touristy and just plain silly.

It was a great night.

Twinkle

Eight is Great!

We recently celebrated Mickey's 8th Birthday. We had sugary cereal for breakfast--froot loops and corn pops!


After church we went to Red Robin for burgers, milkshakes and a delicious mud-pie type dessert to celebrate his big day.

Afternoon was full of playing at the local field, throwing the football and playing a rousing game of wiffle ball.

Dinner menu? grilled steak, asparagus, baked potatoes and a watermelon. How old is this kid?? Our dinner adventure is another story we'll post later with pictures

Check out the pics of his lunch 'party'...notice the usual suspects--the MacK's, Nora and Travis, and our visiting florida friends. Missing--the J's, cousins of the MacK's and friends of ours as well.



And Mickey's favorite gift:


Yeah. Right.

Mickey on--"the things I've learned..."

1) Obey your mom and dad
2) Friends can help
3) I love outdoors
4) Brothers are helpful and can be really nice
5) The world is pretty full
6) The world is huge (he said this while thinking about our drive west)
7) Pools are fantastic in Arizona
8) Subway makes some good subs!


yup.. he's 8 now, and what's different about this kid?

-his party is besieged by cool adults (sans the parents)
-he acts like he belongs on a harley..
-the entire restaurant sings him happy birthday and he acts like he's been waiting for this all his life..

and he can shoot a basketball, he can throw a tight spiral, he can swing a club- chip-and read a putt...

he's adorable and wicked all at once.. and he's part of our family..

More collisions

Mr E, Scott S came to visit our friends here the E's.. B, P, J, R, C and M.

the pics are from the mountain trail behind their house and up a ways from our house. beautiful views, crushing hike..

Our Worlds Collide

Sorry for the lack of written posts lately.

We have been busy.

Our worlds are colliding.

In a good way.

In the last 3 days we finished our visit with some of our Florida friends--the D's, tried(unsuccessfully) to find a Wing-Stop (think lemon pepper wings...yum!)here in our neck of the southwest with a family who was in Md for the PC last year, and just today, who should drive up to our house to pick up the Dad for a regional men's conference but a good friend and neighbor from back home. The one and only Mr E with a message for my boys from the boys back home.

Yes.

Our Worlds are colliding.

And we couldn't be happier.

As a matter of fact we could stand for some more colliding.

And with the holidays coming up soon (tho we can't tell here--we are still in shorts, T-shirts, and even went swimming a few days ago), we expect alot more collisions.

Ya know what I say??



Bring it on.


The Mom

a bonanza of postings for today.. (it was a full weekend)

any of you watched the recent Willy Wonka movie? take a close look..

Ode To Joe, Will, Ray-Ray and Brian

Mickie is practicing for the big game back home..




Chip practicing too..

Dainty Girl

a dainty girl and a football: never the twain shall meet

Shrimp in the Park