A Day of Transition

Today was my last day at the hospital where I have worked for the past 2.5 years. It has been a wonderful place to work and try my wings at new things.

I start my new job on Monday. It is a nice promotion, but I can't say I'm looking forward to the commute downtown! Can you say car pool and HOV lane?

I was treated very nicely today with a cake reception open to the hospital. This is a picture of the left overs. Yummy fruit garnish and white chocolate curls on top of a layer of chocolate and a layer of white cake!!

Flowers, M&Ms, Cookbook, generous gift certificate to Sur LaTable... Do they know me or what?!

Hesston College Reunion

This weekend we traveled to Hesston, Kansas for Kendall's 25th college reunion. Deb met a lot of great people and we had a great time! The time was well planned and there were activities from Friday at 6:00 pm to Sunday at noon.

Check out the website: http://www.hesston.edu/

After dinner we gathered at a barn that had been relocated from a family farm in PA. It is a great combination of old and new coming together for a great purpose.

Deb has no eye foot coordination so Jenni was kind enough to be Kendall's partner at the square dance Friday night. Here they are getting instructions from Todd who does this a lot in Michigan.

In full swing!

A tradition at Hesston College is the run to Drubers for fresh donuts at midnight. Luckily for us they now open at 11:00! No need to wait so long for a treat. I finally did the donut run that I've heard about for years!

Kendall, Deb, Todd and his wife Faith

Kendall's parents live in Hesston and it was great to spend time with family as well - Kirby, Darcie, Chase, Brock, and cousin Marge. Mom had a fantastic Sunday dinner for us! She had Kendall's favorite meat loaf and all the trimmings. Yummy ending to the weekend!

Ice Cream and Stars

It may not be Katie's, but Cold Stone is right up there with the best for us! We hit the ice cream shop on the way to the Challenger Space Center for some space fun.
Emma REALLY enjoyed her "chocolate devotion" with chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, fudge sauce and fudge brownies!
By the time we left it was dusk and time to go look at stars.

Two budding astronauts. We watched a "show" about space travel and looked through some telescopes.

Wildlife Zoo

This morning we went to the Wildlife World Zoo and met our friend Kathy and her granddaughter Faith for a fun morning.We rode the sky tram over the animals. Faith and Kathy
Emma had fun feeding the giraffes
Then we took a train ride through the wild country side through the animal's enclosures.
Rachel and Uncle Kendall enjoying the views
Deb was attacked in the petting zoo because she had the food
Rachel liked the small animals

Happy Birthday Urbane!

Happy Birthday to Uncle Urbane. Here is the card that Emma, Rachel and I did as a "Project".
We made a birthday cake in his honor and Emma helped with the frosting and putting green sprinkles on the cake.
Sorry we didn't have birthday candles. We improvised with a tea light.

Notice the phone on the counter. That is Urbane on the other line after we sang Happy Birthday.

Peach Cobbler Bake Off Revisited

For those of you who have asked, Ken's recipe is the square pan and Deb's is the oblong one.
Here are the recipes so you can decide for yourselves.

Deb's recipe is the more traditional one from Mennonite Country-Style Recipes & Kitchen Secrets

Fruit Cobbler
Heat in a saucepan to boiling 1 quart of fruit including the juice and 1/2 cup sugar.
Dissolve and add, stirring constantly until thickened 2 T cornstarch and 1/4 cup water
Remove from heat and add 1 T butter.
Pour into 8x12 dish, sprinkle with cinnamon
Sift together in a bowl 2 cups flour, 2 T sugar, 1 T baking powder and 1 t. Salt.
Cut in 6 T butter or margarine.
stir in 1 1/4 cups of milk just until moistened then drop by spoonfuls over hot fruit.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Yield 8 to 10 servings.

Ken's recipe comes from a Firehouse Cookbook
Easy Peach Cobbler
1/2 stick butter
3/4 cup Self-rising flour
1/4 t. Salt
3/4 cup sugar
scant 2/3 cup milk
1 t. Vanilla
1 can peaches (27 - 29 oz)

Melt the butter and pour into 9-inch square baking pan. Add four, salt, sugar and vanilla. Stir in peaches with half the canned juices (for thinner pudding use more juice). Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees or until golden brown. Serves 4-6.

Happy Anniversary!

Three awesome years!

Peach Cobbler Bake Off!

Ken and Deb had a Peach Cobbler bake off last night. Ken won for ease of preparation and Deb won for peach flavor and sauciness of the recipe. Following the contest Ken looked for more recipes.
While Phebe and Rachel relaxed.

You know you are on vacation when...

you have chocolate chip pancakes with peanutbutter and syryp for breakfast and then nilla wafers and milk for a snack an hour later!

Go Cardinals!

Rachel and Uncle Kendall watched the cardinals football game while Ken, Phebe and Emma did some shopping.No longer a Steelers fan! Go Cards!

Rawhide

Last night we at the Rawhide Steak House. Emma and Rachel really enjoyed the fried rattlesnake. I'm not sure they really understood what they were eating! It tastes like a cross between chicken (of course!) and clams.The girls each got a balloon animal. Emma had a rattlesnake and Rachel had a cow with 6 utters.

This is one kind of pony ride. Emma also had a train ride with her Dad.
There just wasn't any more fun that could be had after we had our ice cream snack.

The Birds have arrived

The birds have flown to a temporary nest for a vacation. We had Chinese food for dinner and homemade ice cream for desert. With chocolate sauce of course!
Emma was making a nest in her bed with the pillows.

Quad Race on Sunday

After two races on Saturday, Kendall was ready for what we really went to Snowflake for... The Quad race! Kendall was the first one off at the starting line. By keeping everyone behind him he didn't get as dirty!
Coming through the pit area getting some air! Kendall takes the checker flag!!

Home again with a first place win. We decided not to wait another hour (after waiting 3 1/2 hours already) for the trophy ceremony. They were working on a contested race for one of the other classes.

We're sorry we didn't get to see Aunt Darlene on this visit, but she understood how tired we were after watching some racing on TV the night before. We have a rain check for the next time she is in town.

Truck Race at Snowflake

This is how we spent our holiday weekend; in the dust of eastern Arizona. Kendall is the co-driver in the truck for two races on Saturday. The first race was in the morning and then the second was at night. Quite a thrill!
Dusty pit stop during the morning race. It was too dark for night shots.
This is the truck the next morning. They finished fourth overall - the sum of the times for both races. They would have probably at least finished second if the shock wouldn't have blown out on the last lap of the night race. Fourth is great for 'limping' in!