one year older and wiser too!

HAPPY birthday Tessers!!  We love you!!

It's the Meadow!

This past weekend we went camping with our friends Tony and Cheryl Walser, up at Yankee Meadow.  We had so much fun!

We brought Leonidas for our protection.

Alia had fun and got a little sun.

The next day we went fishing at the lake.  

When we got back into town we went to the July Jamboree.  They close off Main Street and it's a big block party with rides, games, vendors, bands, and a car show.

Renaissance Festival

Cedar City is known for it's annual Renaissance Festival and the time when all the crazies come out to play.  It's seriously when people are allowed to play dress up and it's socially acceptable.  It's really funny though because the people who dress up are the people who dressed up like this in intermediate and high school.  You know who I'm talking about.  Every school has freaks like that, so you can just imagine the type of people who would dress up and have the worst English accent possible.  But hey, there's people like us who actually go to things like these.

We just so happened to arrive in time for the belly dancing show.  One of these girls had a real tattoo on her lower back that said, Harry Potter.  No Joke!

Some fair maiden selling popcorn.  I thought it pretty funny when you would see someone in an entire getup and then they'd have sunglasses on or be drinking Mountain Dew.

I bet you didn't know they had bounce houses during the Renaissance?

This guy took a break from helping William Wallace fight in order to be at the festival.

Then we got to see some "Knights" actually fight.  It was cool until one of them started having unwanted recreational activities with the other one.

Until next year Renaissance Festival!

If you like chile...

You'll like Dominican Chili Beans with Coconut Rice!

2 cans of kidney or pinto beans

1 to 2 lbs hamburger

2 t. salt - of these spices I used what I had and eyeballed it

1 t. pepper

1 1/2 T. chili powder   

1 T. garlic powder

1 t. onion powder

1 t. cumin

1 t. oregano

1 t. ground coriander

1 t. tumeric

2 Green peppers, chopped  - Kurt hates green peppers but I had a Serrano on hand that I used

1/4 - 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 qt. diced stewed tomatoes

1 onion, chopped

3 small cans tomato sauce or 1 big one

Brown the hamburger then add the beans and everything else.  Simmer 1 hour stirring occasionally.  Server over coconut rice.

Coconut Rice

For every cup of dry rice add 1 T. dry milk and 1 T. coconut extract.  Cook rice according to package directions.

But what I did is for ever cup of dry rice add that many cups of coconut milk.  Then add 1 3/4 cup water, 1 t. veggie oil, and a little salt.  If boiling on a stove bring up to a boil then turn it down and let it simmer on low for about 20 min.  Stir once or twice.

Seriously this is SO good and easy.  Sorry if I made it sound harder than it is but I always seem to do things differently than the directions.  And I love this recipe because you can change it to your liking.  I also usually have everything on the list in my kitchen at all times and I love recipes that I don't have to go out and buy things.

Matchy matchy

Before I had kids I promised myself that I would never do matching outfits unless I had twins.  Well I'm biting my tongue now because I made Drew and Alia matching dresses just opposite colors.  I wish I had better pictures but it wasn't a good day for Alia and I wasn't about to wake her up.  We went to the fabric store (which happens to be Ace Hardware) before going up to Draper and I let Drew pick out her fabric and got the same fabric but in green for Alia.  The dresses turned out SUPER cute thanks to my sister Nikki, who helped me sew them.

Nikki, I had to pry this dress off of Drew!  Thanks for your help!!

Stars and stripes

First of all I have to thank Kurt's Grandma Kay for buying us this very patriotic flag. ;)

No, but really we had a very fun 4th and I am so very grateful to be able to live in such a free country!

We woke the kids up to go to the parade.  Besides the heat we had fun.

Then we went to Enoch's Mud Mania for kids ages 1 - 14.  Drew saw a kid throw mud at his brother so she thought she would throw mud at Brody.  He got a mouthful but was a very good sport and didn't even whine.

Then we went to our friend's, Tony and Rachel's house for a shindig.

Complete with tether ball,

relaxing,

Plasma luge,

sparklers,

pinata's full of candy,

illegal fireworks,

guitar hero,

and a front row seat of the firework show.  Such a good 4th of July!

Here we go round the Mulberry bush

Ever wonder what a Mulberry bush is?