2021 Blue Jeans Week 33

 School has officially started here.  Mr J started mid week.  Junior year here we go!  It was Miss E's last week of work before she goes back to school.  Busy week!  It was a good week.  Take a look....

We have one apple tree in our backyard.  We really do nothing to take care of them.  It is a pretty old tree, but about every 3 years it produces a pretty good crop.  Mr J went out and got a few of them today.  They are not sweet, eating apples, but they make great apple sauce, apple crisp, and apple pies!

Happy first day of school for Mr J!  Hello junior year of high school!

Making some yummy granola for quick breakfasts before school. Recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe here

This girl has been working so hard this summer as a phlebotomist at two different hospitals.  She is amazing!  This week is her last week of work before she heads back to school next week.  I admire her so much!

We picked the rest of our apples this week.  They are ready pretty early.  Looking forward to making some applesauce!

My cake for this month was a citrus olive oil cake with a browned butter frosting.  I got it from the Female foodie here.  It was so moist and the frosting was amazing!!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are healthy and safe and well!  Have a great week!

Catching up 2021 Weeks 31 and 32

Catching up.  This is a long post with lots of photos!  We had a family vacation the last week and a half.  We all met up at a little ski town in the mountains of Colorado where the highs were not above 75 and no one has A/C up there and the lows in the morning were in the low 40's. It was heavenly!  Our whole family was there for a glorious week and Ben's parents joined us for a few days which we all loved.  So this is catching up on 2 weeks.  Take a look....

Miss E continues to make amazing bread each week!  This is whole wheat quinoa bread and it is so good!  I am sooo going to miss her when she goes back to college in a few weeks!

My mom is an amazing quilter, and she is slowly making all her kids and grandkids their own flannel quilt.  This is Miss E's that she got done in time for her to take back to college, and Miss E is so exited!  love it and all the colors!  Miss E picked out the pattern and colors, and it totally fits her.

On our way to Colorado.  At a gas station break Miss E and Mr J found a new friend.

We are all together!!!  Miss O brought her boyfriend who we have met virtually and talked to often, but this was the first time we have met him in person, and we loved having him with us for the week!  

This was my cake for July that I made and froze and took to Colorado to share with all my family.  It is a marshmallow moon cake from Cake by Courtney, and it was yummy!  Vanilla cake, chocolate ganache, toasted graham crackers and a toasted marshmallow buttercream.  Loved it!  So fun to share it with everyone!

Checking out the river by where we were staying.  Such a beautiful place!

All together!   Love it!

Went on some hikes.

We found some rocks that reminded everyone of the rock people in Frozen.  :)

Hiked to this lily pad lake which was so cool!

We played pickle ball a lot.  This is something we all enjoy. 

We tried to have unique activities each day.  One day we divided into pairs and made boats that we raced down the river.  The kids letting them go.  My in-laws' boat won!  

Our very unique boats that we all made.

One day we started the day by heading down the Vail pass.  14 miles downhill, and it is my favorite and one of the most beautiful rides ever!  So fun to go together!  We took our bikes and enjoyed biking around some each day.

Another day's activity was sculpting marzipan.  That is an almond flour based sweet dough/candy.  It is really common in Europe, and it tastes so yummy!  Miss E made a few batches of it before we left and we froze it to bring it with us.

These are our marzipan creations that we all made and then enjoyed eating after!

One day we went disc golfing on a beautiful course right by the lake.

So pretty and so much fun!  Love being with these people!

We brought lots of board/card games and puzzles that we also did each day.  Ben with his parents.  His mom especially likes doing puzzles.

Having fun at the river again!

One day we did apple tasting.  We got 7 different apples and cut them up, and everyone had to rate their favorite by taste.  We had marked what kind each was separately so no one knew.  Our top favorites were Pink Lady, Honey Crisp and Fuji.  Our least favorites were Gala, red delicious and Granny Smith. Ambrosia was the middle one.

Hiking one day all together with beautiful views!

One day we made bows out of popsicle sticks and arrows out of straws.  It was something Miss E had done her first year of college with a group of friends, so she taught us.

Making our bows and arrows.

We had a contest in the basement parking garage of the condo where we stayed to see who could shoot them the farthest.  I think I won :)

Then one day we did a Jelly Belly jelly bean tasting contest.  We had 44 different jelly beans that we tasted and had to decide what flavor.  I think the most anyone got right was 22.  Yummy!  Miss E did a lot of work to get this game ready!

Ben and Mr and Mrs A went down the Vail pass another day together while everyone else went riding around the lake.  Such beautiful country!

And we played games every day.  Sometimes on the porch, sometimes inside.  We had a lot of fun, made great memories!  So grateful we were able to do it and get everyone there! That was a huge blessing!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are safe and healthy and well!  School starts here this week, so good-bye summer!  Hope your beginning of school goes well!

2021 Blue Jeans Week 30

We have had a super hot and humid summer week this week.  It is a week to definitely stay indoors which is good because the Olympics are on and we love watching those.  Can't believe August has hit and school starting in just a few weeks!  We are healthy and well and so grateful for that!  Take a look at our week...

Mr J in his free time has been doing old Lego sets.  These were this week's creations and then he takes them apart and gets out new ones.  It makes me happy to see them.  You are never too old for Legos!

In our back field they are bailing hay this week.  I love to watch them do that!  The bailer is like magic!  Yes, I am a country girl!

Happy birthday to my amazing Mom!  Sure love her!  For her birthday "cake" I made her this heavenly blueberries and cream angel food cake dessert from none other than the amazing Mel's Kitchen Cafe here.  SO good!  She has a raspberry version we have made too, and it is also to die for!

Mr J helping me make cookies this week.  We made the double chocolate s'mores cookies from again the amazing Mel's Kitchen Cafe here.  I seriously make a recipe of her's almost daily.

These two wanted to help me grocery shop this week.  For the last year and a half since COVID started I have limited my grocery store visits to once every two weeks.  It has been good and challenging, but menu planning helps make it work.  So today was my two week trip, and these two joined me.  

Happy national cheesecake day!  When I saw it was National Cheesecake day I knew I had to make some!  So I made these super easy mini cheesecakes that is my mom's recipe from when I was a little kid.  Vanilla wafer in the bottom of the foil cupcake liner, then beat 2 eggs and add 3/4 cup sugar, beat, then add 2 (8 oz) package cream cheese (softened)  and 1 tsp vanilla.  Beat well and divide batter into cup cake liners. Bake 325 for 15 minutes. Top with fruit or eat plain.  Makes about 20

A sign that you live in a small town when this is in front of you going down the road.  We pulled up behind this and just had to laugh as we followed it down the street.  We love where we live!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!  Stay safe and healthy and happy!

2021 Blue Jeans Week 29

We are just seeing summer fly by here.  Anyone else?  Once the 4th is over, it seems summer just flies by.  We are good.  Healthy and happy and grateful for that.  Here is a look at our week....

Our Sunday game this week was Mr J's choice....The Scrambled States of American Game which we have had for a long time and is supposed to be for younger kids, but we all enjoy it.  

Miss E has had some amazing projects this summer.  She has been making bread almost weekly which we love, and she also has been making homemade Greek yogurt almost weekly which we also love!  Man, I am going to have a hard time when she leaves and heads back to college!  This is her batch of Greek yogurt this week as she gets it in the fridge to drain overnight which is what makes it Greek.  She makes the yogurt in the insta-pot, and it is sooo good!  I eat it every morning with honey stirred in because it is plain, and it is just so amazing!  At the beginning of the summer she just googled how to make homemade yogurt and then we bought an instant read thermometer and a cheese cloth and we were set!

Miss E wanted to try a fancy cake this week.  I made the actual cake, but she made the buttercream and decorated it.  She did a great job!  This was for a birthday at Ben's work and is a cookies and cream cake.  So yummy!

Miss O and her boyfriend were counselors this week at a church youth conference, and they had an amazing week!  So proud of them!  They didn't get paid for being there the whole week.  It was a service, and they are just awesome!  I know they blessed so many lives of the youth that were there!  They are amazing examples!

Ben and Miss E decided for our family vacation coming up they wanted to do jelly bean taste testing/guessing, so they went through a huge Costco sized container of jelly belly's and separated them into flavors---they think.  Some of them were too similar to each other to tell which flavor they were.  Going to be fun!

This kid got braces a few weeks ago because he has a tooth that is horizontal beneath his front bottom teeth, and so he had oral surgery today to find the tooth and put a button and chain on it that will be attached to his braces so every time he gets his braces adjusted they will pull on the chain and pull the tooth up so hopefully in a few months the tooth will come up in the right spot and he will have a perfect smile with all his adult teeth.  So today was oral surgery day.  Not fun, but glad it went well and ready for the healing!

Hello to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo!  We LOVE the Olympics at our house and always have.  I just love all the stories of the athletes from all over the world.  So in honor of the Opening Ceremony, we had an Olympic party with Olympic themed food.  Yummy!

Date night this week was as early evening walk on the trails to just have some time together and talk.  Sure love this guy!  So blessed to have him!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a good week!  Stay safe and healthy and happy!

2021 Blue Jeans Momma week 28

Busy week.  Mr J was gone to a church camp all week.  Mrs A ran a marathon and we had a lot more rain.  It was a good week.  Take a look....

Our Sunday activity this week was making marzipan.  Miss E made marzipan sushi. 

Mr J and his friend as they were dropped off for a week of church youth conference.  Excited for them!

Had a bunch more rain!  We don't really need it.  It was pouring, you can see the raindrops hitting the pavement.

Mr and Mrs A made real sushi and sent us a picture.  

Miss E made some amazing cinnamon bread this week for her bread of the week.

Miss E and Ben working on a project this week.

They made this amazing creche for my Willow Tree nativity set.  So excited!  It looks awesome!

Mrs A ran a marathon this week!  So awesome!  Mr A rode his bike along with her and supplied water.  She didn't run in a sponsored marathon, she just mapped out the route and did it all on her own.  Pretty amazing!  So proud of her hard work!!!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are all safe and healthy and happy!  Have a great week!