It's official

We're going to Yellowstone! Woo!! Just booked our hotel this morning. Our first official Summer Family Vacation.

Some things we'll be seeing:
The Hill Aerospace Museum
Bear World
The zoo in Idaho Falls
and of course the lovely Old Faithful Geyser among other natural wonders in the park.

Just my kind of vacation. Low key and someplace I've never been. We'll be packing our bags the end of June.

Its getting out of control over here

the amount of growing up our little Des is doing. You see, mom found a sa-weeet big boy bike at DI last week and he loved it. loved. it. So we bought it. Best 8 bucks we've spent on the kid as far as Des is concerned.

Can he ride it? No, not really. But does he love it all the same. You betcha.

At first he was dying to just get on it so Dad was nice to fix it up and push him around.


with a few stops to pet the kitty (with the ever-helpful Emmy from next door)


Then we went and bought some training wheels so our backs could have a rest.


so now he mostly just sits there. I try to teach him it has these swell pedals that make it move but so far he doesn't really care. He's just happy to have a "big boy bike" like Henry across the street.

We went to the lake yesterday

and it was lovely. Just up the road from us too. I've been there as a child but had since forgotten it's existence.



Kolt fished


Des and I ate chips

Des' New hat

Des got a new hat the other day...






and our peas and lettuce are growing! This was last week so they're even taller now. I love spring!

I don't usually post recipes

since I only like recipes that come with beautiful pictures BUT you should try this. Really.

It's from the Pioneer Woman and pretty much she cooks amazing homey sorta food. Sometimes the butter content is enough to choke a cow...but its still amazing. The recipe is for Short Ribs in Tomato Sauce and it makes the perfect Sunday dinner. I put it in right before heading to church and it was done when we got home and cooked the pasta and sides. (so like 4 hours)

Some things I changed:

I used Country Style Pork Ribs instead of Beef Short Ribs. I'm pretty sure this eliminated the grease problem she had with hers because we ate ours right out of the oven and it wasn't greasy at all. And I was worried the meat would dry out because of the lack of bones in Country Style ribs but they were suuuuper moist and falling apart.

I thickened the sauce a bit at the end. Just pulled out all the tasty Ribs and stuck them on a plate. Then I made a quick slurry with flour and water and added it to the tomato sauce until it was thick. Then I stuck the ribs back in and served it from the pot.

I totally forgot to put on the Parmesan (and I didn't have any parsley) but it was really good without. Today it needs some parm perhaps but the meat was still delicious and falling apart.

So there you go.

Facts about Des at Two

Des was very brave (he'll tell you so) and went to the doctors yesterday for his big 2-year-old check up. Here's how it went:

First, he played in their playhouse until that terrible door opened and the nurse called his name. To which he promptly began crying. does it every time. we remedied the tears with a quick puppy sticker. whew.

Next, he undressed and clung like a monkey to his mommy (we've been trying to get him to hold on for two years. he still just chills there when you hold him like a sack of potatoes) and he bottomed out the baby scale. So they stuck him on the big kid scale (hard to do with a clingy monkey). came in just under 31 lbs. (that's a heavy clingy monkey if you're keeping track at home.)

Then we went to the terrible, awful, no-good stretch out on a cold table to get your height torture devise. more tears. we concluded that he'll be about 5 ft 9" when he's all grown up (if he sticks to the "formula" for height at two x 2 = adult height). shorty. and then they measured his noggin. he's gonna have some big brains that kid. rockin' the charts at 90 percent. "like an orange on a teuthpeck."

After the promise of more stickers (little does he know one's the result of a shot) he braved the rest of the appointment and even said, "see ya later" to both the dr. and the nurse who stuck him. That's success in my book.

so here are the real numbers:

height: 34.5" / 54%
weight: 30.5 lbs / 79%
head: 50.5 cm / 90%

and the wee-wee-one is supposed to be the size of a turnip (or 5 inches long and 5 ounces for those who decided turnips are yucky and therefore don't get the comparison). Its moving more and more and I even got a cute little jab the other day. I can call it cute now. Later, we'll have some words about the jabs.

aaand since this is a whole buncha words I'll throw in some cute Des and kitty pictures.



"nose"


"ears"


"mater"


"come back!"

Des at two

Des hit the big 2 yesterday. It was the busiest conference sunday I've had since, well, last year. I baked two cakes. Not just two layers of cake but two different recipes since the first was TERRIBLE. Awful. No good. Very bad. I am, however, now very converted to cake mixes. (sorry carrie.) So between all the cake baking, frosting, cooking of dinner, building of bed, and listening I only had a few minutes to hit the shower before the babe was up and we were headed into full party mode.

The party really got started the day before in Fillmore where we celebrated with Kolt's family. The highlight for Destry:



It was like he died and gone to heaven. His eyes lit up, his jaw dropped, and he practically leaped inside when aunt jessi brought it out. Favorite. toy. Ever.

Here's some other snap shots of the two days:


blowing out the candles on cake #1 (made by aunt Kelsie)


"fixing the car"


a big boy bed! (notice how we're all peaking from the hallway?)


Got a cool new light


Le cake de Train






running to open presents


blowing out the candles round three (he couldn't wait for the singing to be over so we had a "do-over" for pictures.)