the rocks

stephanie rock climbing near lucky peak

Last year I started learning how to rock climb with Johnpaul. It has been one of my favorite things ever. You see, I have wanted to learn to rock climb forever. Last year for my birthday Johnpaul bought me a rock climbing harness and we started climbing last spring. I am still learning, but I do have a lot of fun with it.

Last weekend was the perfect weekend to go. It was warm, but not too warm when we went up around 10:00. Johnpaul's friend from work, Christy, went with us. It was fun to have another person around to talk to and with one of us not on the rock or belaying, there was someone to take pictures. This was our first weekend out rock climbing since the weather warmed up. It was awesome. I was so tired after we got done that I slept really well that night.

Living in Boise makes it so awesome to go because it is only five minutes down the road from our house. If we were feeling really ambitious we could maybe bike there. I mean, I know we can bike there, but with all the gear it may be a bit of a stretch.

homecoming

stephanie and tracey at lucky peak

So. I know this post is a little late, but we had such a great time, that I still just have to put it on there. Last week, Tracey was home and we had a great time. I took a day off of school and we just hung out. We went to almost every store I can think of...which is funny because neither of us are really shoppers, but it was awesome.

On Thursday we celebrated Mother's Day with my mom. We were waiting until Tracey was home so that we can all celebrate together. We bought my mom a little grill for Mother's Day and we made some really good shish kabobs on it. I made some with marinated tofu and Tracey made some with chicken. We both used pineapple, red onions, mushrooms, yellow and orange peppers, and asparagus. They were delicious. It was so fun. Ryan, Tracey,Johnpaul, mom and I all had a really nice evening.

We also went to Roaring Springs on its opening weekend. It was really fun and pretty warm. We only went on one ride and hung out in the river, but it was nice to see that summer is almost here. I can't wait for the warm weather and freedom that summer brings. I can almost taste it. One more week!

crayons

crayons

At the end of the school year there are always a million and one crayons left over. They are crayons that have been used, but not used all the way. You send some home with the kids, but there are still multitudes of crayons left over. This year, I decided, will be different. My task was to figure out how to use up the extras. I remembered that one of the kindergarten teachers that I student taught with made these cool, multicolored circle crayons by melting broken crayons in muffin tins. I looked it up on the internet and it is totally easy.

freshly melted wax

You just peel the wrappers off the crayons (this is the hardest part), break them up into muffin tins that you have sprayed with cooking spray, bake them for five minutes (or less...just until it melts into each other) at 400 degrees, and wait for them to cool, then pop (or slam) them out of the trays.

circle crayons

You end up with these cute circle crayons that I am sure the kids will LOVE to take home with them. There are some other, messier ideas on how to use up your crayons posted on the internet...including melting the crayons and painting with the wax. I am sure the kids would love that, but I am not sure I would love cleaning up the leftover.

xoxo ~ stephanie

More French Toast

When Steph and my mom came over to see Ben Folds, I made them some French Toast for dinner. I bought fresh strawberries, which i think were perhaps better than the raspberries.




Ok, so I had a series of pictures to go along with this post. But as you may or may not know, I have the worst internet on the face of the earth. My pictures wouldn't all download the right way. Therefore, you only get the finished product.

I used heavy whipping cream (which I am aware is kind of gross), vanilla soy milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and an egg. The bread was this big, tasty sourdough (which I enjoyed for my morning toast for over a week).

After it was all cooked up, I put a scoop of vanilla ice cream (low fat to balance out that heavy cream), fresh strawberries, and some powdered sugar. If it didn't taste awesome, at least it was pretty :)

Love always, Tracey.
Photo by:Stephanie

What I have been laughing at for about a month or so now....

This is a photo of our insurance agent...One day on Ben's way home from work, he called me and said "Oh my God! Have you seen this gigantic billboard of our insurance agent? I really wish it wasn't such a hassle to switch insurance companies because I would love to call them and tell them I am changing companies because of this billboard."

Every time I drive by it , it makes me laugh so hard. I don't think you can really tell from this photo just how enormous it is. It is really crazy in real life. -M
PS. My carpool buddy tells me that they took it down today. :(

Silver Falls

Today was a rather odd day because Ben actually had to work at night instead of the day time. So, this morning we got up and went down to Silver Falls. We had not ever visited the falls before, so it was a new adventure.
We went to South Falls and hiked around the loop that goes behind the falls. It was so much fun. We could only spend a short time down there, so Ben could get back for work, but we are planning to go back soon, maybe to do some cabin camping.
Here are a few photos from the trip.

This is what it looks like behind the waterfall. It is really wet back there, and my camera got a bit of water on the lens as you can see.

Here we are!

-M

Ben Folds, Ben Lee, Barfy.

that's right...ben lee too!

So...remember that great weekend that I had planned with Tracey? I ended up getting sick. Really sick. Don't worry...I still managed to make it to the Ben Folds concert, barely and maybe not wisely, but I still made it none the less. Thank goodness for great moms who still take care of you when you are sick, even though you're twenty nine. I love you mama!

There was an added surprise as we drove up to the venue at Washington State University; Ben Lee was listed on the reader board as opening for Ben Folds. We LOVE Ben Lee and nowhere had we seen that he was opening the show for Ben Folds. How exciting is that? They are like the perfect musical couple...great music and funny, sarcastic personalities.

Ben Lee was adorable, as always. Shortly after we arrived Ben Lee began playing...it was really early. We were all very worried because there were not many people in the audience. We began to think that no one was going to show up for poor Ben Folds. We have been to plenty of shows like that. Anyway. Ben Lee was playing without his band behind him so he kept pulling up his "band" which was his ipod that played over speakers behind him. As he finished up, he thanks the audience and starts to head off stage when a sound guy comes up and says something in his ear. He comes back to the mic and says, "apparently I started playing twenty minutes early and they need me to fill twenty more minutes." So, he previewed some half written stuff from his next album and then called people on stage to make up songs with him. It was funny and we had a great time watching him. By the time he finished his set (with an added twenty minutes), the venue had totally filled up for Ben Folds.

Ben Folds had a bit of a cold, but still totally made me want to dance...even in my condition. It was a slow, stay in your seat kind of dance, but I still participated. He played several of our favorite songs and did some amazing things with an altoids tin, a maraca, and a pie tin. If you haven't heard Ben Folds rockin' his piano you have to get your hands on some of his music. It is amazing. We do love him. Forever. And ever. Warning: his music is not appropriate for small kids...he does have some colorful language.

All in all...it was great to see Tracey and Ben Folds and Ben Lee, but I really could have lived without the barfy.

xoxo ~ Stephanie (with a photo by Tracey)