Island Park ... not too tropical

This week we took an Olsen family vacation up to Island Park, Idaho. When you hear Island Park, you may think of water sports and splish-splashety fun. Well, you'd be sorely disappointed ... yes, even in mid-June. The temperature averaged at about 55 degrees and it rained half of the time. And now that I've set the scene, I should mention that it was uber fun! We brought our mountain bikes up, and apart from my stupid bruised shin caused by my inherent try-stupid-tricks personality, it was a great ride.

 Island Park is very close to Yellowstone, so we spent one day driving into the park to see Old Faithful and a few other sights. That old geyser should have been called Old Rainful that day! It was raining the whole while as we waiting, but just as it was time to see it erupt, it started pouring. And since we're on that note, Ruby wet her pants in the car just minutes before, and all her clothes became contaminated ... a separate geyser story we probably don't want to get into right now. But at the end of the day, it was a great tour of a beautiful part of the world.

The World Cup started while we were up there and we just happened to be at a super-nice cabin (thanks Herm and Norma!) that had satellite TV, so we gathered to watch the US vs. England yesterday and were pretty happy to see us tie the game ... especially since the one US goal was partially due to a foolish error on the side of the English team. Wahoo!

Hippy recipe of the week:

Orange-Almond-Vanilla Grawnola  (http://goneraw.com/recipe/orange-almond-vanilla-grawnola

A combination of orange, vanilla, almond, cinnamon with a batch of sprouted buckwheat makes this grawnola a yummy breakfast treat. I am a big fan of grawnola, although I don't make it as much as I'd like to. Buckwheat is such a nice and light grain, especially when sprouted, and the orange-vanilla combination really highlights the overall flavours of the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup sprouted buckwheat (soaked overnight, sprouted for 1-2 days)
juice of 1 orange
leftover orange pulp can also be used, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond pulp (leftover from almond mylk)
1 tbsp agave syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
handful of sliced almonds

Preparation: 

Combine ingredients in a bowl and dehydrate for 4-5 hours. Serve with nut mylk of choice or as a topping for banana soft serve (I served mine with some sumptuous blueberries).

Here are a few photos from the week:

4 Generations of Olsen Ladies

From the bear and wolf museum/zoo in W. Yellowstone. 

Sonoma & Shrimp

Sonoma is just over two weeks old now. She seems to inherently know what newborns are supposed to do–eat, poop, and sleep. She’s doing all 3 of them far more often than us old folk, and is thus causing some scheduling issues we really need to talk to her about. Generally she’s a very good baby. Cuddly, quiet (for the most part), and still sleeps a lot. We think we’ll keep ‘er. More pics below.

Ruby and Olivia had their 3rd semesteral (a new word) preschool graduation at Union Preschool. Olivia’s last since she’ll be starting kindergarten this fall. Crazy. 

Ruby turned 3 this past week. Her annual checkup with her pediatrician revealed that she’s in the 5th percentile for height. I guess we need to get her off of my diet of bark and mulch and let her eat “real” food! Honestly, we’re not sure why she’s such a cute little shrimp, but maybe we’ll let her stay up in the evening to watch the giants playing at the NBA playoffs ... that should help, I’m sure. 

This weekend we’re at Sam and Kristen’s in Alpine. Sam has recently taken up painting following a 15+ year dry spell (basically since high school). We’re blown away at his ability to throw together such impressive art in such short time, and as rusty as he is!

I made my own attempt. I have far less experience or raw painting talent–but maybe with another 10 years, I can get to that level. 
Also, my sister-in-law Kristen went way overboard (oh how we love her) before our arrival and created a princess castle in the area under the stairs and painted big murals on the walls. Amazing! The girls loooooved it. Pics below.

Recipe of the week: 

Raspberry Banana Walnut French Toast

5 slices whole wheat breat

1/2 c. fresh raspberries

1 banana

1/4 c. walnut bits

1 T. honey

This is pretty simple, make the french toast as you usually do (with whole wheat bread), throw a 1/2 c. of raspberries and one banana and 1/4 c. of walnut bits into a bowl and smash together with a fork. Add 1 T of honey and smother the top of the french toast. Yum!

I'll put my painting first, so things improve from the top down! :)

 by Sam Smith

 by Sam Smith

 by Sam Smith

 by Sam Smith

Little Sonoma Arrives

Baby Sonoma arrived on May 12th at 6:58pm after 16 hours of labor (15 of which were passed at home, the last hour in the hospital). She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces, was 19 ½ inches long, and came out with very dark hair. I did it naturally for the first time, and am still in shock that I was able to do it! It was such an awesome experience in every sense of the word, including awesomely painful and awesomely glorious!

Since being home I have been so incredibly grateful for the out-pouring of support, love, and kindness from the giant network of friends and family that surround us. I do not take it lightly how much help we have at our fingertips. The girls have been showered with attention and love from family members who have taken them for a few hours here and there each day. We have been brought food and gifts from a number of people. My mom has come and stayed with us each night to help with Sonoma so that we could get some sleep. So many people have called to show their love as well. I have felt carried through the last few days and I am feeling great so far. I feel as though I am healing quickly, and that Sonoma is doing well. Life is so great. And, although it may be hard to believe, I am very grateful that I live in Logan, Utah right now.

One thing I have to include is what Ruby said the first time she saw me and Sonoma after getting home from the hospital. She looked at the baby, then looked and me and my stomach and said, “One baby came out.” I still look pregnant, obviously. How cute coming from the mouth of an almost 3 year old. Both Olivia and Ruby have been sooo cute with Sonoma. They are anxious to see her, touch her, and to help bring her things like blankets, wet wipes, toys, diapers, and anything else they can think of. They want to be involved and hold her all the time. It has been fun to watch their reaction to her.

Waiting ... waiting ... waiting ...

The past two weeks have been filled with one big, fat, painful, never-ending, fill-in-the-blank WAIT! Holly is due any day and we've tried to just keep killing time as we wait for the little pup to be ready. To make matters worse, Holly is a never-wait-until-Christmas-to-open-her-presents type of girl ... so she's trying reeeeeallllly hard to be patient.

In the meantime, we'll just post some photos from the past two weeks.

And we can't forget the recipe of the week–from sis-in-law Amber Olsen:

VEGGIE-STUFFED MUSHROOMS

20 large (1 ½ to 2-inch diameter) mushrooms (about 1 pound)
½ cup broccoli, finely chopped
¼ cup carrot, finely chopped
1 TBL onion, finely chopped
1 cup seasoned croutons, crushed (about ½ cup)
½ cup (2 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
1/8 tsp salt
2 TBL butter or margarine, melted

Carefully cut out stem end of each mushroom. Reserve enough stems for ¼ cup chopped mushrooms. Place hollowed out mushroom caps onto glass pie dish or (small) casserole dish.

Croutons is where you need to be careful. I toasted some homemade wheat bread and crumpled it up with garlic salt and a little olive oil, then broiled briefly in the oven.

With reserved chopped mushrooms, add the remaining ingredients. Spoon mixture into caps and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until tops are lightly golden. Serve warm.

Chillin' on the tramp on a sunny (finally!) day.

Carnival games with the tots.

One is a basketball ... hard to tell.

Holly with some of her students from USU on the last day of class.

Happiest mom around on Mother's day... not the most comfortable, perhaps, but very happy.

Six days from the due date.

Olivia has a green thumb under that mud. She's a princess, but doesn't mind getting dirty!

Olivia's soccer team.

Time in Alpine

It's been two weeks since we've posted. The past two weekends were spent with family at Sam's house. It has been a great chance to be together and get back to the quality of relationship that we *should* have with family, but that so easily is replaced by busyness. Busy is the illusion of being occupied with important matters. Busy is (often) the enemy of a truly fulfilling life. And more than anything, Busy just might be the mask that regret wears so we can justify (if not glory in) his existence without ever recognizing his true identity.

My hope is, that I can rip that mask from his face and always recognize him for who he really is – to ensure my days are filled with important, rather than urgent things.

With that soap box well trampled under my feet, I'll get back to general updates.

This past week, Clay (Holly's brother and one of my partners at Advent) and I were asked to give a "lecture" on creativity to appx 150 interior design students at USU. We probably spent a few too many hours preparing, but if you heard the details of our presentation, you'd understand why we needed it to be so. It seemed to go over very well and we hope to give it more often, I think it has a lot of value for those in the creative field. See some photos of the "Making Of" below.

Olivia is back in soccer and doing less of the sweeping-the-floor-and-spinning-in-circles type of soccer and more of the kind that applies to the game. It's fun to watch. She's also in a tumbling class, which she loves. Essentially they just run around and do funny poses ... so what's not to love?

Both Ruby and Olivia are having a blast in preschool. A few days ago they made small loaves of bread at school, and they were so excited to come home, bake them, and eat them. They also participated in a fundraiser for their school by going out to eat at a local restaurant. At the fundraiser, the children auctioned off a collaborative painting that they made in order to raise money for recent earthquake victims - part of a service-learning project that they worked on. It was awesome. See photos below.

We had a great time last weekend in Alpine ... and had to come back for another dose this weekend. Not only is it a great place for conversation, Mac talk, and discussions about design, architecture and the like, but now there is an exciting new attraction for the girls. Sam bought two baby lambs and some chicks. They have a small stable on their acre property and Sam wanted to find a healthy/fun distraction for the kids, specifically 8-year-old Charlie. The lambs are named Snowflake and Oreo. They are only a week old, so they need several feedings a day and a lot of attention ... but they're pretty darn cute and friendly. The girls are loving it.

They are also loving the crazy attention that they are getting from their Aunt Kristen. She took them to a very girly shop, bought them magic wands, lollipops, headbands, sparkly shoes, and put sparkles in their hair. They were in absolute heaven. Adam and I never do that sort of thing for them. Then this week Kristen went and bought some dress-ups, and fairy-girly type things including paint and plans to paint a giant princess castle on a wall downstairs (much to the surprise of her 3 sons) so that her nieces could be in heaven all the time when they come to visit. It is truly adorable!

Recipe of the week: Au Gratin Potatoes

provided by our awesome sister-in-law, Jen Adair...

So, this probably isn't the healthiest recipe of all time, but it is all natural. It took some work to find a potato recipe without sour cream, cream of chicken soup and a whole lot of butter. And the best part, they are delicious with out all of that stuff!

4-5 Medium potatoes

1 onion or a bunch of green onions

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

2 c. milk

1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese

1. Slice potatoes and layer in a 9X13 dish (spray with cooking spray)

2. Layer sliced onions on top.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan, whisk in flour. Add milk and lastly cheese.

4. Pour mixture over potatoes

5. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes to 1 hour (till potatoes are soft)

Ingredients used: We use organic milk from Smith's marketplace, and I even used wheat flour for the recipe. We grated the cheese from a block, we found out that pre shredded cheese has additives to help it not to clump.