Jonathan and Annisia like to sing. Here's another song...This one's Sing a Song of Sixpence.
One Saturday, Uncle Bret showed up on his motorcycle. You ought to have seen how quickly Jonathan moved to get a jacket and his helmet on! He was ready to ride!
My Mom and Dad came to visit in April. We did a lot of relaxing and the kids got positively spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa O reading to them! Annisia got to take a nap with Grandma O every afternoon! And they brought their wheat grinding machine and some wheat from their farm with them. So we ground wheat one afternoon. The kids thought that was cool! I did too...now I have some wheat flour from my parents farm!
Then we get yet another cheesy grin from Jonathan!
On Friday, March 27, Michael and Jonathan headed off to Red Lodge around 8:30am. It's a 3 1/2 hour drive, so they stopped in Billings to get lift tickets at Costco. (a great savings trick, btw. $70 for a pair ($35 ea) full day lift tickets compared to $47 full day/$37 half-day on the mountain) They got there in time for a half day Friday. The skiing was great! This first pic is of the snow on the lift line.
Jonathan already having a great time! Isn't he cute?!
Powder hound!
Then they took a few rides on the Magic Carpet.
That evening, Uncles Bret and Jon arrived. And the next day was a blast with them...as usual! Here's a taste of the fun they had. Bret and Jon were on snowboards. Check out this great wipe out by Bret. At :10, Bret says, "Did you get it?" Haha! I think it's great he wanted to make sure Michael got the video of the fall! At :27, Jon snowboards up to Jonathan, "Braack" (like a chicken) and says, "come on, get up!"
Jonathan was ready for the next step...an intermediate (blue) slope. Here are Uncle Jon, Jonathan, and Michael at the top of the Lazy M, a fun intermediate run.
Here's the video again of Jon messing around and Jonathan giggling about it.
And this one shows again how far up the spectrum Jonathan has come. At :25, Jon says, "What?!" And Jonathan says he's going to take a rest. "Oh, come on..." And Jonathan responds, "It's OK!" So cute!
Riding up the lift with Uncle Jon.
Cruising...
Uncle Jon, in his perfect ski form, (I mean, look at his parallel skis! beautiful!) demonstrating "post and turn" to Jonathan. Jonathan says Uncle Jon is saying, "Pokey turn!" because he pokes his pole into the snow when he turns.
Middle of the Lazy M. Isn't it beautiful?
That white ridge below is Miami Beach.
3/29 Jon left the night before, but Uncle Bret stayed on. More snow was blowing and falling! Jonathan was getting used to powder. At :45, he says, "Uncle Bret, I like the powder!" He kept going over to the side of the run where it wasn't groomed.
This is a sweet pic of Jonathan resting his skis on Daddy's snowboard while riding the lift. Michael is so proud of Jonathan coming up the curve so fast. He feels comfortable snowboarding while J skis. Just need to watch out getting on and off lifts. Once we had a big pile-up. Finally, lunch at Midway Lodge! They always knew when Jonathan was hungry. He started getting whiney and not listening on the slopes (a dangerous thing, you know!). Jonathan really likes the waffle fries there! Looks like he had a corn dog too.
Michael took Jonathan skiing to Red Lodge, MT, this past weekend. They had a blast! They left Friday morning and got some skiing in that afternoon. Uncle Jon and Uncle Bret arrived that evening and they all enjoyed a day together Saturday. Here is a video from that day, but I told Michael he needs to do a bigger post about this with some of his own stories. So maybe tomorrow evening, I'll actually get him to do that. Until then, enjoy my little man skiing!
This is the sunrise we awoke to Thanksgiving morning. Wasn't it beautiful?
I made the dinner rolls...the recipe is at the bottom of the post...they were great! And my apple pie turned out pretty good. At least it was pretty...(heehee)!
We had the day with Michael's family.
Pumpkin Cloverleaf Rolls
“The herb flavoring is subtle, but the texture is rich. In fact, these pull-aparts are sweet and buttery enough to please even the most stubborn self-proclaimed vegetable hater – despite the fact that they’re made with (shhh) squash.” (Family Fun magazine, November 2008)
3¾ cups flour, plus more for sprinkling 1 package or 2¼ tsp instant or bread machine yeast 1 tsp salt ¼ cup milk ¼ cup honey ½ cup canned or frozen and thawed pureed pumpkin or squash 1 large egg ½ cup warm water 8 fresh sage leaves, slivered (or 1 1/3 tsp dried leaves) ½ cup (1 stick) butter
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt and set it aside.
Pour the milk into a microwave-safe bowl or 4-cup glass measuring cup and microwave it on high for 30 seconds. Whisk in the honey, squash, egg, and water. (The liquid mixture should be less than 110°; anything hotter might kill the yeast.)
With a fork, blend the squash mixture into the flour mixture until you have soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Two hours before baking, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 6 sage leaves into the dough. Melt the butter and set it aside in a small bowl. Divide the dough in half, and then divide each half into 6 portions. Divide each portion into 3 pieces. With floured hands, roll each piece into a ball and dip it into the melted butter. Place 3 balls in a muffin cup. Continue until 12 muffin cups are filled.
Drizzle or brush each roll with ½ teaspoon of the leftover melted butter and then sprinkle them with the rest of the sage. Let the rolls rise in a warm spot (at least 70°) until they’re double in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours. The 3 balls of dough will rise together to form a cloverleaf shape.
Heat the oven to 350°. Bake the rolls until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.
Kayla turned 24! Wow! We have really been enjoying some extra time with her recently. She came over one night last week and made pasta and meatballs for us for dinner. But this post is about her birthday party. Gramma and Papa came over for dinner, taco salad, and then we broke out the birthday cake...key lime cheesecake! (yep, one of her favorites too, just like her Dad.) Uncle Bret came over for dessert; it's one of his favorites too!
Here's Michael putting the finishing touches on the bookshelf he built for Kayla. He noticed she had one on her Amazon wishlist, designed one and built it! What a handy guy! When he brought it in, she said, "Score!" Hmmm, I think she liked it!
Jonathan and Annisia laid on Bella's dog bed in the garage in some attempt to stay warm yet watch Daddy finishing the bookshelf. I missed getting a really cool pic of the two of them with hats and sunglasses on, laying on their tummies with their chins propped on their hands. bummer!
Sword fight!
Then beat up on Uncle Bret time. Wait a minute, two against one...is that fair?! He didn't seem to mind... ...even when Jonathan tried to push his cheek up into his eyes! Cheeky little bugger, isn't he!
