See you in 2 weeks (+ a parting gift!)

Tomorrow, I am going to New Jersey to meet my parents and sisters and then Sunday morning we are going on to Kenya for a safari!  I have been looking forward to this for a year and a half now still can't quite believe that it's here.  

I think I have everything packed up and ready to go.  I'm sure I forgot something, but hopefully it's not too important.  

So, I apologize in advance for the posts that will not be coming your way for 2 weeks - but stay tuned because I promise it will be worth the wait!

But before I go, I wanted to give you something sweet :)

APPLE CRISP

6-8 Apples - peeled, cored and sliced

1/4 c. Water

Salt

1 stick Butter

1 c. Sugar

1 c. Flour

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1.  Place apples in 9x13" casserole.  Pour water over top and lightly salt.

2.  Melt butter.  Add sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Stir gently with a fork until crumbles form.

3.  Cover apples with crumble mixture.

4.  Bake at 350˚ for about 30 minutes.

*I make mine with extra crisp on top (since that's the best part anyway!), and it tends to take longer than 30 minutes to cook up (more like 45).

The Wild West

Remember how I told you I would post the rest of my pictures soon.  Well, I lied.  Working really gets in the way of everything else.

Yes, you read that right, I am now working - well for one more week, then I go on Safari!!!  I didn't want to get to too overwhelmed, you know :)  Yesterday, Austin and I spent the majority of the day in Target getting the last of the stuff that I need for Kenya.  You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find clothing that is not bright or white.

Anyway while I was at home, I went to Gage's graduation (Austin's brother) and his graduation party.  It was a pretty standard high school graduation, but it felt weird to see Gage finished with high school!  I first met him when he was only 12 years old and since I am the youngest in my family, I've never experienced that before :)

Other than that, I went for a walk on one of the trails by my house and took some pictures:

Then on Saturday afternoon Austin, his grandpa, his dad, my dad, and I went out to Echo Canyon to go shootin'!  I shot 5 pigeons this time and I got to fire a muzzle loader!

Other than it being too short of a weekend, it was pretty perfect :)

Week 23 - Colors

Isn't it easy to find beauty in the mountains!  These are some pictures I took this weekend while I was home...more will follow soon!

a recap of last week

Last week my Mom came to visit!  By far the hardest part of living on the East Coast is being so far away from family, so it was so nice to have my mom here.

Unfortunately, we saw everything there is to see so she has no reason to come back.

Week 22 - Separate

I want to share a lesson with you today.  It's a simple one: Floss!  Everyday.  Even when you're camping or tired or drunk.

A while back one of my teeth chipped and when I was home last, I went to the dentist and ended up needing not one, but TWO root canals!

Well, Thursday I finally got my crowns put on and let me tell you, it feels so good to have something that resembles a real tooth back there :)

Now that we've had our lesson, I will share my week 22 picture picture with you.  My new DC dentist gave me the mold that my crowns came on, which was definitely the best part of this monthlong process and yes, I do have very pointy, vampire teeth.  Thanks for noticing ;)

The Beehive State

Austin and I are going home tomorrow and we couldn't be more excited!

One major benefit: it's not going to be so deathly hot.  It's not going to look like this:

...but it's not going to be hot either.  (Although I think it has looked like that just up until a couple of weeks ago.)

It should look a little more like this - without the fall colors :)

We are going to cram in a graduation, a graduation party, an anniversary party, and maybe if there is time in the three days that we are there, we might even get to shoot some skeet, go for a hike, and breathe some cool, fresh, mountain air!

Cassidy's Baby Shower

      

Last Sunday my cousin had her surprise baby shower.  There were a ton of people for a shower, and even more onesies (at least 100)!

The food was delicious and the cake even better!

The families put together great decorations, and games that did not include eating anything out of a diaper :)

Don't ask me what the egg chair is for, I don't know that tradition :)

      

Mostly, it was just great to see family again - I can't wait to meet Braden Lattari!

Get out of the Pool (Keylime) Pie!

The summer before 9th grade, my sister taught me how to swim.  Not that I didn't know how to swim - I wasn't going to drown in the bath tub or anything like that.  I decided I wanted to join the swim team the next year.  That was my attempt in high school to be a "team player!"

You're probably wondering what that story could possibly have to do with keylime pie.  Well, do you remember those giant keylime pies you can get at costco with a little dollop of whipped cream on each slice.  We had one of those in the fridge that summer and when we were done with our 2 hour swim at 8 a.m. (yes, that means we got to the pool at 6), we would have a slice of that.

Well, subsequently each time I raced in high school I would get a ridiculously strong craving for keylime pie - maybe that's why I swam so fast...the faster I got out of the pool, the faster I got to indulge in my craving :)

Even if you don't like to swim, and even if you don't have crazy associations that stick with you forever, make this pie!

Looking In

Week 21's theme was "looking in" or "person/people - no faces" so I guess this picture fits either theme.  Technically I didn't take this picture as you can tell since I'm the one in the picture, but my mom did while she was visiting us.

And for the observant reader, you will notice that I skipped week 20 (theme was self-portrait).  I'll get to it I'm sure.

Good Stuff Eatery

If you don't actually know me, you don't know how cheap I am.  DC has so many great places to eat - or at least we've heard.  They aren't exactly worried about catering to people who live on a budget.  Good Stuff Eatery is the exception.  Not only is it affordable, it is amazing!

Not just amazing for cheap food.  This is amazing for any price!  We're talking the best milkshakes you will ever have!

Strawberry Cupcakes

At this point, it is too hot for fires or even the thought of fires to make s'mores cookies.  It was 97˚ yesterday and I needed something refreshing.

Enter Strawberry Cupcakes (actually white cupcakes with strawberry meringue buttercream icing - strawberry cupcakes rolls of the tongue a little easier).

Not only do they taste good, they look good.  They look like they have strawberry ice cream piled on top of a perfectly white cake - all topped off with a giant deep red strawberry!