2 (of my many) problems solved!!

I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear this, my blog reading friend, but I have problems.  Some big and important, some pretty small and stupid.  Some which I just need to take by the horns and fix, and some are totally out of my control.  My job on the last group is to fix my attitude to accept that I don't have any control and find happiness in spite of them.  I know I am no different than anyone else in these declarations of problems, and solutions and non-solutions.  No one gets through life without their share of things to work through or around, or whatever.  

(Stick with me while I digress for a moment)  I was reminded of the importance of feeling gratitude no matter what you are going through just recently.  My good friend lost her child in a tragic accident.  This child also happens to have been one of my seminary students!  He was a smart, handsome, good young man, who loved his life, and the people in it.  To see his life cut short was a shock and as I said before, a tragedy.  My friend spoke at his funeral, and related how the thought came to her (in the form of a recent General Conference talk by Pres. Uchtdorf) about being grateful in any circumstance.  She took note of the magically folded and put away clothes in her dresser, the balanced meals that her kitchen seemed to produce from nowhere, and the texts that came to her phone at just the perfect time. (She voiced it much more eloquently)  Of course, these things were all facilitated by her friends and family, and she was able to, in the midst of her seemingly devastating grief, to recognize the service of others to her and her family.  Is she still grieving her son?  Of course, and most likely will be doing that in some form the rest of her life.  Is she debilitated by it?  Probably at times, but for the most part, she is using her gratitude to carry her through this horribly difficult time.  What a great example to me and to those at the funeral!!  I'm grateful for her!

(Ok, back to the original subject.  Although, after that, my "problems" seem pretty ridiculous, even absurd!!  If I could think of a different term to use, I would.  Maybe as I type it will come to me.)

So, what are these great "problems"?  First of all, I love to buy journals.  I am especially tempted when I go to TJ Maxx and take a peek at their inventory.  They always have something that catches my eye, and I usually succumb.  Now, a girl can only use some many of these, and as I'm not writing very often in a paper journal these days, I can't just keep buying them on a whim or my kids will curse my name for my empty journal collection when I die.  They will have enough things to curse me about.  I don't want my love of journals to be in that category.  So, what to do with this latest one I  bought?  I love it.  A bike?  Hello!  Reminders to enjoy the ride?  Hello!  Love both of those things.   

And, look inside.  Such cute pages.  (The pages rotate between about four or five different patterns.)  I <3 journal.="" nbsp="" p="" this="">

Now to the second dilemma (that's a good substitute for problem).  I love to cook, and I love all the recipe options available on the MANY blogs in the internet!  So many recipes!!  I have my favorites - ourbestbites.com, and smittenkitchen.com, just to name a couple.  Of course, allrecipes.com is a great place to go, and the foodnetwork website and pioneerwoman.com always have something.  Now how is a girl supposed to keep track of the recipes she tries, likes and wants to use again?  I was copying them into a recipe book but that is about full, and obviously redundant.  I don't need to reinvent the wheel here.  

Enter my new journal!  I realized I could make a record of the recipes I want to use again in it.  Great idea right?  But how to keep track of them and find them again?  I numbered the pages and created an alphabetical index at the back of the journal.  Now it doesn't matter if the entries aren't in any order.  I can easily find them as long as I remember to enter the page number they are on in the index.

When I thought of this last week, I couldn't help patting myself on the back for a brilliant idea.  (Now I realize someone has probably already figured this out, and posted it on Pinterest, or something like that, but I am not a very good Pinner and haven't seen anything so am feeling very creative and dilemma solving!  And you can be un-impressed if you choose, but I choose to be excited and a bit giddy about the whole thing.  And of course, grateful...

A New Discovery

While I'm not one to shy away from new food, and certainly not from squash, I have never done much with Spaghetti Squash.  I may have bought it years ago, or had a fresh one from someone's garden, but I'm not sure I made it into something that we all really loved.  In fact, I am sure of it, given that it has been so long since another one has come home from the grocery store.  But all that changed when I decided on a whim to buy one a few months ago, and then searched the internet (the fountain of all cooking wisdom) for some way to use it.

And now, Baked Spaghetti Squash with Beef and Veggies is the new recipe that is getting rave reviews around here. (Not my photo, my dishes aren't near that nice, and flat leaf parsley is not something I usually have hanging out in my vegetable drawers :)  I do like to make it with ground Italian sausage, and I'm not sure I use the exact amounts of red and green peppers, but so far, everyone has liked it.  Actually, I can't say everyone.  Even as I type, Trevor is wondering why we have been having it so often, so I guess not all are fans!  :)



So, in the interest of good food, I'm sharing it with you.  Give it a try, maybe it will become a favorite at your house too!

And in the interest of movies about food, if you haven't seen The Hundred Foot Journey, with Helen Mirren, you may want to give it a try!  It's both sweet and funny, and we all enjoyed watching it!

Bon Appetit!

The BIG Thing

A bit of a miracle happened last month. Our family only has one gallon of milk in the fridge at a time these days.  This is a change from the one gallon of 2% (drinkers - John, Kristin and Trevor) and one gallon of Fat Free (drinker - me).  I can't even begin to tell you how big this is. We have been divided on milk percentage for at least 10 years. Here's how the change came about....

We were visiting Chelsie and Dallin in February, and Dallin had John try some 1% milk they had in their fridge.  (Now you have to understand that John loves milk and the higher the fat percentage, the better.  2% milk is always his drink of choice, and he had no interest in even trying my fat-free (or chalk water, as he affectionately calls it :)  You needed that bit of background, but now back to the story.  After tasting their milk, John thought he would give Costco's 1% a try.  I bought some, we tried it, and after our respective milks ran out, we decided to compromise and this is the only milk jug to be found in our fridge! 

Yes, it is hard to believe.  We have shocked two of our daughters by sharing this news.  They really can't belive it, but here is the proof.  One jug of 1% milk sitting on the shelf nestled between the caesar dressing that fell victim to our persnickity fridge that randomly goes on tangents and freezes its contents, and the homemade spaghetti sauce that for some reason, turned out a little on the sweet side!  The only thing I can think is that I made it with home-grown tomatoes instead of canned.  Who knows?

So there you have it, the Rietz's are no longer a house divided over their milk.  This is strong evidence that you can teach old dogs new tricks. Woof!!

An experiment in dough...

We love the ciabatta rolls from our favorite warehouse club!  LOVE LOVE them.  (Well, I think most of us do anyway.  Some among my group my just really like them.)  Anyway...
Imagine my glee when I found this recipe in the King Arthur Flour catalog!!!

Of course, the name is different, but they look enough like the real thing to draw my attention.  I knew I had to try them.  The recipe starts with a biga, which is defined as the following...Biga is a type of pre-ferment used in Italian baking. Many popular Italian breads, such as ciabatta, are made using a biga. Using a biga adds complexity to the bread's flavour and is often used in breads which need a light, open texture with holes. .

My pre-ferment for Italian baking so my bread will have complex flavor and a light open texture with holes

You have to make it 12-20 hours in advance, so mine sat on my counter from about 4:30 yesterday afternoon until about 2:30 this afternoon, which appears to be 2 hours over the required time.  Oops.  Not off to a good start.  

I mixed up the rest of the ingredients (I thought) but my dough was very stiff and I ended up adding more water which was good, because I realized I left out the 1/2 tsp of yeast.  Hmm, is this project doomed?? 

The rising ciabatta

 After I added a little more water, with the yeast dissolved in it, it seemed more like it was supposed to be.  I let it proof for about 2 hours and then formed the rolls.  I thought I should make them smaller than was specified in the recipe, so I did.  Mistake #3.  (I am on a roll!  Ha, pun intended!!!)

They rose again, although, I wouldn't say they really got puffy.  But into the pre-heated oven on the pre-heated pizza stone they went.  

After they were done baking, I let them cool for a few minutes, and sliced one in half and tasted it.  They may not be pretty on the outside...

The finished product

but glory be, the inside looked just like I wanted it to.  The crust was a little too crisp on the bottom, but I am hoping that it will soften after they cool.  They were also a bit salty, but they tasted like they were supposed to!!  O happy day!!!  We'll have them with soup tomorrow for dinner!!  Soup seems appropriate since it is only supposed to get to 19 deg tomorrow, and the low will be 6!!!  Brr!

There is hope!!!

Will I make them again??  YES
Will I follow the directions more closely?  YES
Will I decrease the salt to about 1 1/2 tsp? YES
Will the recipe work better if I actually use 1/4 cup wheat flour in the biga?  MAYBE
Will any major characters on Downton Abbey die this season?  Oops, got off topic there. :)

Final analysis.  I doubt my ciabatta will ever look like Costco's, but these are easy enough and they turned out well enough, I will make them at least as many times as I would buy them.

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested in trying them.  (Courtesy King Arthur Flour Company)
Chewy Italian Rolls
BIGA
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 oz) white whole wheat flour
1 cup (8 oz) water
1/8 tsp instant yeast

Mix all of the ingredients until well blended.  Cover the bowl, and let rest at room temperature for 12 to 20 hours, until the biga is very bubbly.

DOUGH
biga (See above)
2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (4 oz) water
2 tsp salt (I will cut it down next time)
1/2 tsp instant yeast

Mix the biga with the remaining ingredients for 2 to 4 minutes, using an electric mixer set on slow speed.  Increase the mixer speed to medium, and mix for about 4 minutes; the dough will be soft and slightly sticky.  Add additional water or flour if necessary.
Let the dough rise, in a greased, covered bowl, for 1 to 2 hours, until very puffy.
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and shape it into a 6 x 12 square.  Cut out 8 - 3 in. square rolls.  Place the rolls, floured side up, onto parchment paper.
Cover the rolls, and allow them to rise for 45 mins or until puffy.
Place a baking steel or stone in the top third of your oven, and preheat the oven to 450 deg.
Bake the rolls for 13 to 15 mins, until they are golden brow.  Remove them from the oven, and cool on a wire rack.
Yield - 8 rolls.

Ciao and Buon Appetito!!!  (Just a little nod to my Italian heritage!!)

Post-Thanksgiving round up and a top ten

We are nothing if not predictable around here, so its no surprise that our Thanksgiving menu doesn't change much from year to year.  I did try Kate's Thanksgiving Turkey last year, and it was a keeper.  I think this year's turkey was even better, despite the fact that the Turkey Bags I always have in the pantry have somehow disappeared.  In the end I used Alton Brown's cooking method, and although it put our dinnertime about an hour later than we wanted, it was worth the wait.  So moist, and VERY flavorful.  Brining seems to be the way to go!  And as a former member of the "Buy the biggest turkey in the store" club, I have revoked that membership and joined the "Around 13 pounds is ideal" club.  

The partially carved turkey

Trev has found his Thanksgiving calling as the Dressing chef.  Notice his vigorous form in the picture below.  His dressing smells and tastes just like the dressing I grew up on, and it makes me smile to sniff or eat it.  YUM!!  The combination of onion, celery, basil, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, hamburger and Italian sausage is the perfect thing.  Not that I don't love other types of stuffing/dressing, but this is hands down my favorite.

Trev grinding the meat for the dressing.  The trusty Kitchen Aid is ever at the ready.  How does one pull off Thanksgiving without this most important tool on the counter??  

Mmm..the dressing is ready and waiting to be baked.  Notice the cranberries in the background.  I tried a new recipe with them this year also.  Thanks again, Kate at Our Best Bites.  Really yummy!!  Again, a new variation on an old theme.

 On the subject of cranberries - several years ago, I decided to try fresh cranberry sauce instead of the canned sort from years past.  Most of my immediate family doesn't really eat it, but for me, I will never go back.  We do have guests who are with us some Thanksgivings who like them from a can, so I can't give them the boot every year, but for the most part...fresh baby, all the way!!

We also managed to fit in a temple trip and a visit to Coeur d'Alene to visit with Chelsie and Dallin and the Dance clan.  It was great fun to spend a little time with the soon-to-be-new mom and dad!  Chelsie definitely has a baby bump, but not a very big one...

Here are my top ten photos of the day after Thanksgiving.  We did a little project and also participated in the 2nd annual Post-Thanksgiving Hike.  Good times!!

Here are our finished Symbols of Christmas!  We have a plan for them, but can't divulge it yet.  We all liked the candle best!  Oohh! Sparkly!

The kids can't pass up a chance to be a little weird!

Since we live in the land of Lewis and Clark, we had to have an impersonation.  I don't know who is Lewis or who is Clark, but I do know Trev is Seaman, the big, black Newfie who went on the journey.

It was fun to have our college freshman home for the weekend.  She was full of tales of life at BYU-I!  She spends A LOT of time studying, but still manages to have plenty of fun!!

Poor Trev!  Right in their sites!  Lucky for him, neither of them would know what to do with an actual gun if they had one in their hands.  Looking at Amber, I'd say she thought it was bow hunting season.

Stalking any unwary hikers.  Luckily, none came our way.  (Did I mention my kids like to be weird??)

Notice Amber's hat.  She has learned the importance of keeping her head covered now that she lives in Rexburg!  :)

Our hike took us to the river's edge.  Of course, that led to a rock skipping contest.  No winner was declared.

Amber had to prove she could balance on the rock and not get wet.  Kristin didn't fare so well.  She hiked back with one wet foot.

The happy hikers at the end of the trail.  It was a great hike!!

 One final note from this week.  Kristin missed school Monday because she had a vague unsettled pain in her stomach.  She rallied and went to school on Tuesday, but by that night, she was in pain, and if not for the lack of a fever, I was sure she had appendicitis.  I went to bed Tuesday night determined to call the Dr. the next morning if she was still not feeling well, fever or not!  It was all for naught, as she woke up Wednesday feeling much better, and she hasn't looked back!  Whew!!

Soup weather

Last week Mother Nature threw me a bone and we had several days of really beautiful Fall weather!  Really beautiful!!  

Well, this week we are back to grey, chilly days, which only means one thing!!  Its Soup Weather!!

Tuesday, Kristin had a soccer game, (they won, and Kristin had a great assist on one of the goals!!)  It was deceptively chilly at the game which means I took some time warming up (read - I ate dinner with my fuzzy bathrobe over my clothes!  Its very effective!)

Anyway...dinner that night was lasagna soup.  This is from the website, Our Best Bites, which is full of really yummy recipes.  It was warm, cheesy and flavorful!  I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta, since I never have ricotta in my fridge, and I didn't add as much sausage as it called for, although John thought it needed more.  I made it a few hours early and put it in the crock pot to keep warm until after the game.  It's a keeper!

Another of my favorite recipes from OBB is black bean soup.  It is deceptively flavorful, although, don't leave out the cilantro - it is a key player.  The other thing I love about this soup is the nutrition information.  Really low cal, low fat,  Winner, winner!!  (Of course, the cheese you add before you eat it isn't included in the fat count!  ;)

One more favorite from OBB is Baked Potato Soup.  Unlike lasagna soup (Trev didn't love the chunks of tomatoes) or black bean soup (truth be told, I am the only one who loves, although I think Amber and Kristin will humor me and eat it), everyone loves this soup!!  What's not to love? Cheese, bacon bits, sour cream!!  Yummy, warm and delicious!!

Soup weather means I get to pull out my imitation Le Crueset pot.  It is an authentic Le Costco.  I know some may scorn the substitution, but its either this or nothing as I am far too frugal (read - cheap) to put out the money for the real thing!!

My favorite soup pot sitting on my favorite toile tablecloth.

Happy Soup Weather from me to you!

Today I have something to say...

yesterday, I did not.  Hence, no blog post.  It was late when
Kristin had me help her with learning Latin American countries and capitals, and I realized when it was time to blog that I had nothing rattling around in my head to blog about!  I decided that rather than just rambling about nothing, I could feel good about skipping a day and spare whoever is reading this a dull, stupid blog post.  You are welcome!!  :)

But today, I had several different thoughts.  Should I blog about books I have read lately?  Should I blog about the class I signed up for at Big Picture Classes that has been eliciting all kinds of memories from my childhood?  No, I thought I would leave those for another time and revisit my good friends of late, summer squash!!

We are having a potluck for our RS Meeting tonight, with the main dish being this ridiculously easy pulled pork recipe.  The pork is being made by others and we are also supposed to bring a dessert or side dish, and as I still have more summer squash than I can possibly use before the next wave comes, I decided to make this recipe.

It is a good one.  I modify it a bit, as I never have radishes.  When I have tons of summer squash, I also have tons of cucumbers, so I put in a cup of julienned cucumbers and a cup of chopped onion (preferably a Walla Walla Sweet).  You will note that my "sticks" of veggies are nowhere close to uniform in size.  If I had a mandoline, I am sure it would look much better.  My limited experience with a mandoline left me missing a small chunk of my pinkie, so I choose to take a little extra time to cut them with a knife, and risk having them non-uniform.  (As if there is even a chance that they will be uniform!!  ;)

Btw - before I started this blog experiment, I had no idea how to get from my blog to a link using a word or phrase.  I'm sure for most others, this is common knowledge and you are at this moment rolling your eyes at this.  But...I am pretty excited that I figured it out all by myself.  I didn't even have to Google it!  Kudos to me!!

Try the salad if you so feel inclined and/or have a kitchen counter being overrun by green and yellow vegetables.  I think you'll like it.  (Here is a funny thing relating to zucchini - when I was buying Amber some food to get her started at school, she wanted a zucchini!!!  It took a little cajoling for me to actually pay money for one knowing what I had waiting for me at home!  As a mom, how could I turn down a request that included a vegetable???)

The raisin project - Day 18

We have had grapes down the side of our yard for many years.  The past few years they have really taken off, and this is the second year we had so many we could make grapes.  I do find it very ironic that they have finally become so prolific as the number of people living in our home is shrinking!!!

This year, John made a trellis so 1) the neighbor's horses wouldn't eat the grapes, and 2) the grapes would hang down and make it easier to pick the bunches.  The trellis is a great success!!  Unfortunately, it was a BAD year for wasps and they were as eager to get to our grapes as we were.  They ate a lot, and consequently, we picked the rest of the grapes before they were completely ripe.  Through the process of dehydrating them, though, they do become sweet and tasty.  

Ready to be washed and picked off the stems...
These will make some delicious golden raisins.

On the trays, waiting to go into the dehydrator.  I'm not going to lie.  Picking them off the stems is a mindless, boring job, made much easier by a good movie!!

In the dehydrator.
Here is a funny thing.  When I was looking at this picture on my camera, sans reading glasses, I couldn't figure out where I would have taken a picture of a black plaque with green lettering on it!!  (My eye dr. husband will not find that amusing!!  :)

One of the finished trays.  I did 2 full batches this year.  18 total trays.

Ready to be put into quart jars...

The finished product on the pantry shelves. We have 13 1/2 quarts this year.
We won't think about how many quarts the wasps got!  

Day 4 - Summer Harvest and Vegetable Tian

The garden has been producing zucchini and yellow squash, plus cucumbers for about a month, but just recently the tomatoes and peppers have come on.

This is the best red pepper I have EVER grown!!  I know its not much, but I'm so proud!!

The zucchini has given me fits because I have tried all season to get them when they are small like the one pictured.  If you've ever grown this vegetable, you know that in the morning it won't be quite big enough, so you intent to pick it in the evening, but of course, you forget, so the next morning, it is large enough to be Fred Flinstone's club!!  AAUUGGHH!!!  (Actually the same goes for the crookneck squash!!  What is it about summer squash anyway?)

At any rate, there have been some successes, and tonight I was able to create this yummy and very pretty dish.  Its called a vegetable tian.  Maybe you know what tian means, but I didn't, so here is a definition for all of us.   

"Tian is a French word that describes an earthenware square or rectangular casserole dish.  A tian can be a variety of dishes but originally referred to a Provencal-style mix of vegetables that are cooked, baked or roasted in a gratin style."  

This definition comes from this website http://aspoonfulofthyme.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-is-vegetable-tian.html

Well, that explains why I was attracted to this dish!!  French Provencal-Style? I am there!!  This is from a recipe Chelsie posted on Pinterest, and it is yummy, but here is a tip...When it says to season the dish, really season it, don't just sprinkle a little salt, pepper and italian seasoning on it.  It can take some serious flavor.  And I didn't use potatoes, because the first time I made it, I didn't care for them, so they are gone!

This is a perfect way to use up those fresh vegetables, and is a nice change from sauteed, or steamed then mashed squash.  YUM!!

The Most Boring Summer EVER!!!

According to someone in our house, we have just endured the most boring summer EVER!!! No fun out of town adventures, no day trips even, just hanging around home, doing chores and being hot, although not hot all the time because it took a while for the weather to catch up to the calendar. At any rate, we didn't sit and stare at each other the whole time and I have to pictures to prove it.


Exhibits 1 & 2 and 2A. Grandpa Sollenbarger's Surprise 70th Birthday Party. A quick trip to Denver to celebrate with family and Grandpa and Grandma's friends. It was a great success, marked by the fact that he survived two surprises - walking in the door of Jodi's house to many guests yelling SUPRISE! and Dawn and I walking down the stairs a few moments later. No rescue vehicles or responders were required. It was a great visit. I also got to spend a little time with Grandma Hughes which was on my list to do this summer, but didn't seem possible with schedule conflicts. Ya gotta love a two-fer.

Exhibits 3, 4, and 5. There is always the river for fun in the sun. Well, most years that is. This year was a little different. Really high and fast water combined with lots of debris in the river made for a late start. Combine that with a busy calendar (what kept us so busy?) and it made for not many trips to the Snake. We finally made it out the first week in July. You may recognize a familiar face in these pictures. Alli came home for a week from BYU. She got a well-deserved break and we enjoyed a mid-summer visit with her.


Exibits 6 & 7. Kristin and Amber channeled their creative side one afternoon and did a little cake decorating. Amber was making a birthday cake for a friend and Kristin just felt like making a tasty and colorful cake. (Can you tell what the paintbrush is made of?) You can't really see in the picture, but Amber used brown sugar to create sand in her beach scene. Nice work, girls.


Exhibits 8 & 9. Maybe the cool dude in the sunglasses reminds you of someone. Apparently, Trev decided to spend one of his summer afternoons as a model for a jean jacket company. I hope the sunglass manufacturer forwarded a good retainer. I'm pretty sure they have never had such a good looking young man sport a pair of their shades, ever! Exhibit 9 is Trev's last opportunity to wear his webelos uniform, as he is now an 11 yr old scout, wears a tan shirt instead of blue, and can actually go on a camp out or two this next year.

So, I rest my case. Clearly we didn't waste our summer away. Sure, no trips to Disneyland, no hiking, camping or any of that. We may have redefined the word "Stay-cation". Who knows.

Besides, our summer saved the best for last. Stay tuned for the up-coming post...

2 big cities, 4 short days, lots of pictures

Warning: This is a really loooooonnnnggg post. (My sincerest apologies in advance, but thanks for hanging in to the end.)

John and I spent 4 days in April with Ashley, Brandon and the boys. 2 days in Philadelphia, 2 days in New York City.

Can I just say 4 days was not long enough!!! We needed a few more days, mostly because we couldn't get enough of these two little cuties!!!



But I digress...easy to do with those two little tykes around.

Here is a whirlwind summary of the trip, the things we saw, and a little commentary along the way.


You can't go to Philly without seeing the Rocky statue and posing like said statue. Good imitation Grandpa and Talmage. Apparently another popular touristy thing to do is run up the stairs in front of the Art Museum just like Rocky. We chose to stick with posing. Although, we did watch some tourists running up the stairs. I say we can check it off our list.

This was a common sight during the trip. Talmage couldn't be with Grandpa enough. He was excited to show Grandpa everything about the Please Touch Museum. This picture is the two of them heading into the museum.


You also would be remiss if you skipped the Liberty Bell. There is so much American History in this town.



The trickiest thing to see in Philly is Independence Hall. I say tricky because you have to get tickets. We didn't get tickets as early as we wanted, so it was a little iffy with the boys because we had to wait a few hours until we could get in. But as luck would have it, the boys were troopers and we got in. The room in the picture above is the room where the Continental Congress met to write and sign the Declaration of Independence and form the United States of America . John and I both agree that you can feel the history surrounding you as you walk through the rooms.

Ashley and I agree that when you come to Philly, you have to go to Reading Terminal Market and buy the best pretzels in the world. Sadly, we didn't get a picture of the pretzels, the above picture is the produce section of the market. We just have the memory of the buttery, chewy, salty treat. Isn't there a recipe out there somewhere????

New York City was the destination for the other two days of our trip.

All I can say is wow! What a fantastic place!

#1 Favorite Place (in my opinion)
Central Park

The Plaza Hotel is right on the corner of Central Park. Even though I'm not a huge Eloise fan, I got a kick out of seeing a flag flying in her honor.

Talmage was just the right height to peek through the wall.

This is the fountain from the movie "Enchanted". I had hoped for a little production number to come through the park while we were there, but I had to settle for 2 drunk guys holding each other up as they walked through the park. :-) Maybe next time.

On many of the park benches there are metal plates with dedications to people or quotes like the one above. I have no idea who Jane and Terry Shea are but I love that they put this on the plate for this bench.

Talmage decided to have a little two-year old meltdown on the way through the park. Here he and Brandon are reconciling - just a little dad/son moment.

I put this picture in just because it says "Central Park West". Maybe some of you needed a little proof that we were actually in Central Park. :-)

This is the memorial to John Lennon in Strawberry Fields. I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure he lived just across the street from this part of the park. Ashley said there was a man who took care of Strawberry Fields, kind of its caretaker, I suppose, and quite often this is decorated with flowers. We clearly came on his day off. Even if you're not a huge Beatles fan, its a beautiful thing to see.

This is the view of Central Park from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. It doesn't even do the park justice. (And in case you are wondering, yes, I wish I had framed the picture a little better so that railing wasn't in it and from a different angle so the big, tall building wasn't the main focal point. Oh well...guess we'll have to go back so I can try again!)

Other things we saw in NYC.I took this picture of a hot dog stand just for Kristin. She was a little disappointed we didn't actually get a hot dog from it, but a picture was the perfect hot dog stand experience for me. Apparently, when many people see a corner in Manhatten they say "This is a great place for a hot dog stand." (That is the name of a book we adopted at our school library many years ago. :-)
There are so many old churches right in the middle of all the skyscrapers. This church is right across the street from Ground Zero and was used after the attack on the twin towers as a place for the rescue workers to rest, get food and take a break from the very difficult job they had to do. There was a tree that was uprooted from the attack, and the roots were huge. Not one of the gravestones was damaged when that happened. I thought that was amazing.
This is one of the doors of the Trinity Church (think National Treasure). The church has beautiful stained windows (no picture as they were having a service when we peeked through the doors). These doors were worth the trip though. Such detail is truly amazing.

Of all the religious buildings, this was our favorite. Right across from Julliard Music School and the Lincoln Center is our very own LDS Temple. To see all the huge buildings surrounding it, you wonder how those who enter are able to leave the world behind, but I imagine they do just fine with that.
They think of everything in NY. Notice the marquees (sp) in the steps of the Lincoln Center. We country mice thought that was pretty cool and efficient of the designers, architects - well whoever thought the concept up.

Brandon was so excited to take us to Empanada Mama. A hole in the wall (literally) that served authentic Columbian Empanadas. We were happy to indulge him and eat lunch there. Yum! John had a little trip back into time when he ate a dish he had often on his mission.

Here is a shot of the financial district from the Empire State Building. In case you are wondering, I wouldn't have done one thing different when I took this picture. I really love it because it gives you a feel of the vastness of New York City.My Mother's Day present from my family was a ticket for the musical "WICKED" Oh my word, it was fantastic!!! Ashley and I had ourselves a little girl's night out, and saw it together. Should I sing a few songs from it for you? I could...Seeing a show on Broadway is a once in a lifetime experience. Although, I wouldn't mind making it a twice in a lifetime thing...:-)

When we got into the subway system, a security person asked me not to take any pictures "inside the system". So, this is not a picture of us riding the subway to the financial district!

Here are my traveling companions at the very tip of the island. You can see Lady Liberty in the background. We chose to admire her from afar.

Times Square was the biggest sensory overload!!! Apparently, my senses were so overloaded that I didn't get a good picture of it. Take my word, it is an amazing place. There is a huge Toys r Us that had a ferris wheel in it. Talmage and Brandon gave it a whirl and gave it their stamp of approval.

We walked across this (the Brooklyn Bridge 1.3 miles)....

...so we could eat this!

We ate the yummiest pizza and meatballs in Brooklyn. Not at the famous pizza place (the name escapes me) but at a different one. John and I didn't know what the other place was like, but we really liked the food here. Tanner really loved it too. So much that he gave his mom and big slobbery kiss for taking him there!
Walking across the bridge was great. The view looking back to Manhatten was amazing, and the bridge itself is pretty amazing too. It is a suspension bridge, really old, and has a lot of character. We decided to skip the walk back and took the subway instead.

I thought I should take a picture of the NY Stock Exchange. I like to know where our money hangs out when it is not with us.

This is one of the things they have in the Pre-Memorial for the victims of 9/11. It is covered with patches and other stuff from the rescue workers. It is very sobering to see the whole area. We couldn't see the actual building foot prints with the construction going on all around, none the less, a person feels the significance of what happened that tragic day in September, almost ten years ago.

The Apple Store is right by Central Park. We watched an employee count off a certain number of people and when there was the right amount, they would stop letting people in and wait to let the next group in. I hope they all like their new iPads.

Of course, I had to get a picture of the New York Public Library. I can't be too jealous because we are finally getting a new library here! Yay! Maybe I'll suggest they fashion it after this one. I'd happily make a copy for them.

Here we are in Grand Central Station. It wasn't as bustling as I expected. We were probably not there at peak time. I was still in awe of its beauty and size.

The very last thing we saw before getting on the bus was Madison Square Garden. We didn't actually get to go inside the coliseum, but there were some pretty interesting things to look at outside it.

Well, we are still country mice. I have checked. After a not very scientific poll, not one person said I look more sophisticated after our trip. So, we are still country mice. I can tell you, these country mice were pretty happy to see our valley at the top of the Lewiston hill, but we wouldn't trade our trip back East for anything. Especially when we get to hang out with these two compadres and their parents.

Thanks, Ashley and Brandon, for showing us a heck of a good time!