ABQ

So now that we are here in Albuquerque, here are some highlights so far. First, my lovely friend Amanda who we are staying with:











Next, we had a fantastic evening with a co-worker of mine, Kevin, who is an incredible cook. Casey LOVED hanging out with his son Jacob and did I mention the food was incredible? Pizzas but he cooked them on the grill outside. Has anyone done that? He had a Thai pizza with Thai sauce, carrots, and chicken. Sounds bizarre, but way tasty. Also a BBQ sauce with carmelized onions, a bianca, and a cheese. Wow was it ever good. Here he is with his wife, Donny:










Gillian likes to make guest appearances in photos.

Here is the fun kid, Jacob:










Natural history museum moments (hooray for reciprocal memberships!)










Next up: mission moment! Here I am with one of my former comps, Tamara Peterson, and Presidente Payne with Hermana and Sarah Payne!
















We had a great time at Tamara's parent's house south of here in a small town called Peralta, right on the Rio Grande. It was beautiful and it turns out that Bridget and Anya, Tamara's oldest daughter, have the same birthday! They were instant friends and had a great time all night:
















Aren't her girls cute? I don't have one of the youngest but she is a doll too!

Lastly
Hot Air Balloons.
All the rage in NM:

Death by Chocolate

Here is a great recipe if you really, really like chocolate:

Ingredients

8 oz (225 g) chocolate chips
2/3 cup (140 g) butter
1 cup (210 g) sugar
4 eggs
4 heaped tablespoons (1 dl) all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ teaspoon baking powder or 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons sour cream

Instructions:

1. Melt chocolate and butter, set aside
2. Beat eggs and sugar
3. Add flour, cocoa, bp, vanilla
4. Add chocolate mixture and sour cream to bowl

Put in two round pie pans (I used glass even though the recipe called for tins)

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes

There was some complicated frosting in the recipe but this is what I used:

1 pint whipping cream, whipped with sugar and vanilla
12 ounces dark chocolate chips, melted

Fold the cooled chocolate in with the cream.

This was seriously an awesome and pretty easy recipe. You could skip the frosting/mousse thingy and go straight for the ice cream instead.

I love ice and other travel updates

I love ice. Thanks to my friends who have ice makers for ruining the enamel on my teeth.

So I am now down in Nuevo Mexico with the muggy post-rain weather. Quite lovely, really. The drive from Colorado was absolutely amazing! I accidentally deleted the pic of Pike's Peak which has me up in arms (new camera) but here are a few shots of the beauty that is Colorado/New Mexico. First up, Bridget outside the car in a traffic Jam outside of Pueblo, Colorado. There was an accident and we were stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes. People were outside of their vehicles and everything. The line was apparently over two miles long. Yikers!



Next we drove by this really cool place on the way up to Raton Summit in Northern New Mexico by the Kit Carson museum. Does anyone know exactly who Kit Carson was? Some kind of explorer I guess? Anyway here is the one side of it:



And here was the other side:



I think these pictures are not doing it justice.

But here is a nice one everyone can enjoy:

Babysitting

So I am watching six kids by myself- I realize some people actually HAVE six kids, but for me, this is double my normal. The funny thing is, the other kids aren't bugging me at all, it is MY kids who drive me crazy. The littlest one in the house asks for juice when I am halfway up the stairs and it is cute- when my youngest asks for juice it irritates me.

The other thing I have figured out is that I spend all day doing food- so when the last one gets up we are doing breakfast and by the time I do the clean up it seems like I better start making lunch. After lunch clean-up and getting the little one down for a nap, I have to start processing what I am going to do for dinner. At home I think I wait until they ask for food. Does that make me a bad mom?

Travel

I am currently in Denver in my dream life. My bff from my BYU days, Tiffany Anderson, has the coolest set up. The kitchen has everything necessary (including multiple varieties of whisks and at least six cookie sheets) and it is such a relaxing environment. There are no expectations which is good for me at this stage in my pregnancy.

I might add that I am extremely impressed with Tiff who pretends like she does nothing but is actually a totally productive, efficient, and talented individual. More later with pics...

As for my next steps, I am leaving on Monday to head to New Mexico where I will see Amanda Allen and Family! I am also going to get a quick check-up since I will be 34 weeks along and haven't had an appointment since mid-June. Oh! Also I got an email today from my mission president and I am going to see his family as well as one of my favorite former comps who I haven't seen since the year we got home! I am starting to feel old because I have been home for over ten years plus they eliminated my mission entirely. It is now part of the Málaga Mission. So obviously the fruit of my labors was not very... fruitful. But I did get, as Tiff's husband says, a cheap language immersion program.

Fun Places to Visit

Today we went to the Provo Veteran's Pool. That and the Scera Pool in Orem represent the fun-ness that it Utah. Santa Barbara of course doesn't need a water park because it is one big water park, but on hot days it is nice to have these places to relax.

Along those same lines we went to Thanksgiving Point's Children's Discovery Garden yesterday. How Utah is this: Noah's Ark in the entrance. It is like a big water fountain with the ark as the center piece and the animals in bronze throughout the park. It was a pretty fun place but I wondered why Utah Valley is so like this. Newly opened in Lehi: Liberty Land. We didn't see any people there but they do have the Founding Fathers/Mt. Rushmore thingy. In spite of Charter schools popping up all over the place in Utah with the patriotic themes, it has not caught on yet. Maybe in time..

Blah blah blah

Some people say this is a phrase I use a lot. This is the appropriate way to use it:

I am at the end of a long tale and blah blah blah. Kind of like the Seinfeld yaddas. I use them when I feel like people are just bored of the story.

So Bridget is learning to use it the wrong way hence the following conversation:

Me: Hey lady, I don't really like to hear you refer to kids your age as a "baby" because it sounds like teasing. I think that you need to think about the things you say and how they effect people, because really, you are so cool that I bet it makes people feel bad about themselves.

Bridget: But he WAS acting like a baby.

Me: You know, sometimes I think that when you hang out with older kids, like your cousin, you start to act this way and it really-

Bridget: Blah....blah....blah

Favorites online

Someone said I should post all my favorite links online periodically.

Current faves:
The Repressed Pastry Chef
A random find with some awesome pics and even more amazing recipes. Try the Chocolate Mint Cupcakes which are TDF.

The House that Jack Built
A funny chica that lives in my apt complex and goes to church with us. She is mighty hilarious.

The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
Think America's schools are doing fine? Think again. This report echoes (mostly) what it is that I do for a living and justifies my indignation over the public school system. I hope that by the time my kids are in secondary school we won't even be asking ourselves why we are stuck in the 20th century in public education.

Baby Name Voyager
A fun way to look at names. If you are in the market for a name you can see its popularity in history. If you are not in the market you can just look up your own name and make fun of yourself.

More reviews later

Like mother, like daughter

We are staying with some friends in West Jordan (the mom and kids are out of town) and we were making dinner in the kitchen. I decided now is the time to start teaching Bridget about cooking since she is demonstrating interest, so I was walking her through a basic roux- white sauce to mix with the spaghetti sauce we had just made. Here is the gist of the conversation:

Me: Okay so the trick to cooking anything is to add just a little at a time. If you add too much milk you can get lumps. See how I just added too much? It is a little lumpy now.

Bridget: Yes but you could just get rid of those lumps with a whisk.

Me: Um, yeah, but I don't think she has a whisk.

Bridget: WHAT! What kind of person does not have a whisk?

Exactly.