Our 1 year anniversary

Hello - get ready for a long post!!!!!

So Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on Sunday May 24th. It is hard to believe that one year has passed. We decided to celebrate by going north for the weekend. Friday we picked up our small cake (so we didn't have to eat frozen ucky cake) and headed up to North Fork, ID to a bed and breakfast -100 Acre Wood Resort-. As a wedding gift my Aunt gave us a one night stay in a master suite. We had a wonderful dinner of steak and I got some crab with my steak 80) for dessert it was an orange creme brulee.


The view from the deck of our room.


We had a lot of fun looking out at the pond and the five new goslings that were running around.




The next morning we had a huge breakfast and then went to visit my Auntie Viccie who lives on the Salmon river. She and her friend Sid live on some property that is across the river in order to access the property you have to use the cable car of float across the river. They use a solar power generator for any "power" requirements. Sid purchased a washer and dryer, got it across river and hooked up, only to find out that it would not run off a generator. So while we were visiting we helped Anutie Viccie and Sid get the washer and dryer back across the river.

First Ben and Sid secured the appliances one at a time into the front loader tractor.


Then Sid drove them down to the raft.

Ben and Sid loaded the appliances onto the platform of the raft and secured them so that even if the raft tipped over the washer and dryer would not come loose. 80) Ben just told Sid "How about we don't tip the raft over, then we wont have to worry about it."


Because it is still early summer/late spring the river is running high and fast so Ben and Sid had to walk to raft up river a bit in order to make the pull out point they wanted.

Ben looking good while they were making it across the river.


Now comes the fun undocumented part. After we got the washer and dryer successfully across the river and into the trailer we had to make it back across the river. Because the river is moving so fast right now there was no way to row against the current to make it back to the property so Ben and Sid had placed the motor on the back of the raft and tested it out. With everything loaded up I asked to ride back across the river with Sid, after Ben pushed us off the bank and we were about 2 feet out the motor died. Sid was not happy, we were able to pull over only to spend some time assessing the damage and decided we were not going to be able to make it back up stream. Sid hollered to Ben the name of the take out point and then Sid and I went on an impromptu river ride. Auntie Viccie and Ben had to bring the truck and trailer to the take out point were we disassembled the raft completely.

This is us in the back of Sids truck. We did get a bit sunburned but not all that bad. So a bit wet and tired we said good bye to Sid and Auntie Viccie who was headed out to work and we got on the road to Missoula, Mt.


We took a brake from snapping photos then next day but had a lot of fun celebrating Beths (my brothers wife) birthday and just hanging out. Steph hooked up her WII and we made some great idiots out of ourselves doing soccer, hula hooping and ski jumping. Also just holding and talking to our cute niece Charlotte.

These are the flowers Ben got for me Saturday night. He suprised me with them Sunday morning however I found out about them Sat night. Sat as we headed up to Saundie and Matts from Beth and Dereks there was a huge lightning storm that knocked the power out. Ben told me he was going to cut and arrange the flowers after I had fallen asleep but with no power he couldn't see anything. I was so tired I was almost asleep when I told him he should just put them in some water and we could do it in the morning. When I woke up they were cut and arranged by the bed. Ben said he had a flashlight and found a hacksaw in the garage so he decided to cut them and arrange them during the night for me. Not may people can say they used a hacksaw for cutting flowers.




Now to Charlotte Harbour and the wonderful messy thing that is feeding time. She has to be one of the messiest babies when she eats. She just loves to turn her head to see what is going on and wont sit any kind of straight at all. 80) We love you CharHar.


See what I mean.


Now here is why I can tell that Charlotte is my brothers lil girl. Below is my brother feeding her in what I can only describe as the baby food funneling method. He has obviously done this before because she eats really well like this and loves it.!!! My brother is a goof.


Oh wait a camera..........

Ok more food now. 80)


It was so nice to spend so much time with family and we hope to do it again soon.

My Trukey

Happy Mothers Day

Oh first here is a pretty pic of lilacs that I cut from Joanne and Dennie's yard for the table. Reminded me of all the lilacs we planted in Montana.

So this weekend was mothers day!!! I got a call last week from my lil sister in law asking if we could help out with mother day dinner, we decided we would go all out and roast a turkey. I had seen a method called brining (brine - ing) it is kinda like a seasoned salt water bath for the turkey.



So here is my brine while it is simmering on the stove. I use thyme, rosemary, sage, onion, carrots, celery, paprika, and some bay leaves.


After it came down to room temp and the turkey was thawed it go to hop into its bath overnight.

then drum roll please ..... brummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The finished product!!! It was really moist, this was the first time I have not used one of those reynolds cooking bags. I also rubbed a compote butter of sage and some other stuff under the skin.

Exciting weekend

So this weekend was packed and so wonderful! First my sister Stephanie drove back down from Missoula, Montana to meet our friend Amber in Salt Lake. Amber flew in from the east coast to do her mothers temple work in the SLC temple. Thurs we went out for dinner up here in Ogden, Friday I was able to head down to SLC where we went out to lunch, met up with some more of Ambers friends, then went through the SLC temple. It was a very special occasion and extra special for me as it was the first time through the SLC temple and the first time with my sister Steph. I was preparing to go to dinner with the clan when I checked my email and had a notice from my professor that I had apx 4 hours left to take my online final. OOPS- So I had to pass on dinner and take my final as Ben drove down from Ogden to come pick me up.
As I went to start my final I got a call from my brother Derek and his wife Beth (they also live in Missoula, Mt) they had come down on a quick trip to Ogden for a family friends wedding and wanted to know if we were free for dinner.
At this point I was so frustrated that I had to miss both dinners to take this stupid test!!!! Oh well, Ben came and got me and we were able to see Beth and Bud for a few minutes before Charloette became, as they so lovelingly dubbed her " the screaming hornet" CharHar was really tired and had not slept all day so we excused ourselves and went home.
Wait I'm not finished yet.......
Then came Saturday! Tafton Jay Passeys first birthday. Ben and I spent some time in the morning running errands and buying last minute presents (really is there any other kind). We headed over to the Megan and Bens for the party. Tafton was in a really good mood got even more excited when Matt(megan and my bens older brother) and Val brought there lil dog with them. Tafton opened presents, played with ballons (which scared me because I could hear my Uncle Scott in the background telling me stories about lil kids choking on the pieces when they popped, he is a firefighter chief and EMT). Then ate some cake and made a much smaller mess than expected. After all the family went home Ben and Megan Passey, Ben and I and our friends Kip and Jackie with there little 2 year old Zach stayed to hang out. We ate some nutrisous pizza from dominoes and watched Harry Potter cause it was already on TV. Kip and Jackie had to head out early cause Zach we getting tired so the 4 of use left broke out a game of scrabble. The game was doing well but ended early because as Megan was passing Tafton to me to say goodnight-he was smack dab above the board- and then lost his dinner. Funny but you probably had to be there. And no I did not get pics of that.
Today I went to church alone cause Ben was sick and didn't get much sleep last night. The big man upstairs must have known what was going on cause only one girl in our class came today.

ahhhhhh So that was our/my weekend. I think it was the most exciting one we have had in a while. Thanks family for being our entertainment.

Pics below

Me with my little niece, if you look close you can see she is starting to fuss.



Full blown fuss mode aka "the screaming hornet"


Tafton with his cake and candle, the pic you don't see here is the one were he had pushed himself as far back in his chair as he can to get away from that candle.


Tafton ready to do some damage. He really didn't get that messy but he did fling a good bit of cake around with the fork.