Goodbye Summer

Summer has started to come to an end for me.  School started back up last week and it is going great.  I'm glad to be back to work and and back on a routine.  Last weekend for Labor day Travis and I went down to Moab for the weekend to celebrate Mom and Nichole's birthday's.  Over the weekend the girls made tamales for Christmas and the guys helped dad on the carport he's building.  It was a great weekend and we had lots of fun.

 

 

Mom and Nichole's cake

 

On Monday we went on a 4 wheeler ride out to picture frame arch.

Latest Favorite Video

Some of you may have already seen this since I posted this video on my facebook page.  The Principal of my school showed the staff this youtube video this morning at our back to school faculty meeting.  I must say it was my favorite part of the meeting.  It seems to say it all.  :)

I can't figure out how to post it so its just the link. . .enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFSSwisAM8

A Death in the Family

I'm sad to say that recently we have had a death in the family.  I went out to check on the garden and found it had been infested with squash bugs.  Luckily we only lost one plant and we were able to "take care" of the rest of the bugs in time before they killed any other plants.  The garden is doing surprisingly well otherwise :)  I am loving all the vegetables we are getting!  Sorry the pictures are blurry

The one we lost.

A surprise little treat I found while pulling weeds.  Yikes!

Onions

Squash

Carrots and Corn

Yellowstone

 Over the 24th of July we took a motorcycle trip up to Yellowstone.  It was Mom & Dad, Natalie & Mason, and Me & Travis. . . It was so much fun!  We were pretty saddle sore by the end of the trip to say the least, but it was worth it.  We saw so many beautiful views and tons of wildlife inside the park.  Here are just a few of the pictures.

Leaving from Logan

The most elk antlers I've ever seen! Afton, WY

Dad

Natalie & Mason, just inside Yellowstone

Just as we got to the visitor center we saw an elk right off the sidewalk.  Pretty sweet

Me and Travis at Old Faithful

One of the many hot pots. . .

Probably the biggest hot pot we saw (that is steam coming off the water)

One of the smaller waterfalls (I don't remember the name of it)

Mammoth Springs, probably one of my favorite places in the park

A close look. . . so cool!!!

A herd of elk chillin on the grass as we drove by. . . no big deal.  Way cool!

A herd of Mountain Goats

We stopped at an old fashoned ice cream shoppe in Big Timber Montana and it was DELICIOUS!

The green rolling hills of Montana, so beautiful!

The top of Beartooth pass in Montana

The restaurant we ate at in Cody, Wyoming

Northern part of Yellowstone,  so many dead trees from a forest fire in 1988

More of the wildlife up close.  Bison and ducks

The Upper Falls

A rainbow at Lower Falls

Lower Falls

Wonderful mosquito bites that I enjoyed all week long (9 to be exact)

Boiling mud. . .look closely to see the bubbles

Happy Birthday

I've been wanting to try to learn to decorate cakes for a long time and just haven't done it. So. . . I finally just decided to do it and quit waiting around.   I have bought a few cheap frosting tips over the years but never really done much with them.  This weekend is Travis' Birthday so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try to decorate a cake with fondant and do some fancy decorating with frosting.  He is a pretty big golfer so I decided on a golf theme cake.  Here are pictures of how it went.

Baking the cakes

Fresh out of the oven

I was shocked how well the came out of the pan,  didn't even stick a little bit  :)

Crumb coating with buttercream icing

Each of the cakes with fondant, not at tough as I expected but I definitely need more practice with this still

Stacking and placing the cakes

Added the tee (right), green (left) and bunker with brown sugar

I used the leftover icing to make the grass

I decided to add a small pond with dyed sugar

The last finishing touches: the pin, ball, tee markers, and the birthday message

 

Happy Birthday!

 I had so much fun making this and I love how it turned out.  I must admit though, it took a few hours of watching you tube videos, several trips to the store, and a small investments in some new pans and decorating tools, but it was all definitely worth it.  Happy Birthday Travis!