Donut Day V - Year of the Maple Bar

This is our fifth year of celebrating one of the greatest holidays in the world (well, the U.S. at least).  Donut Day was another smashing success.  We decided to buck traditions this year and go with a maple bar recipe that Camille had found.  It was more time consuming, but holy cow, the results may never be matched.  She had to let the dough rise twice and then roll it out.

After rolling it out, she cut them into squares with a pizza cutter.  Note:  With our new camera it appears Camille is trying to be the next mormon mom with a cook book.  At least for now, and after having made these maple bars, she is a mormon mom with a fat husband!!

These were the pre-fried bars.  Note:  Nevermind the scraggily bits.  they were the ends that we fried and ate.  The donut fairy delivered those to Adam's belly.

The cooked products were ok.  We tasted them and thought they were somewhat bland.  We were a bit worried...at least until we made the glaze.  Oh the glaze!!  Adam said he had dreams about swimming in the glaze last night, it was that good.

The glazed glory, as Adam called them.  We dipped them a little prematurely when they were still hot and so the glazed ran a bit.  After dipping them, Adam applied a bit more, so they weren't as pretty as they could have been.  But that didn't matter because they tasted so good that Adam dreamt about them.

Another shot of the glazed glories.  The donut fairy was good to us this year.  Note:  Nevermind the water bottles and butter in the background.  Although, most things are good with butter on them, these maple bars did not require the annointing of this pictured butter.

Of course while we were busy making maple bars, our boy of all boys was running around with a gun shooting "guys" and dad.  At one point he told us he was shooting his nose.  We looked over and sure enough he had the barrel right up against his nose.  We are looking into conceled weapons classes and hunter's safety.

Grady quickly switched gears from shooting to football.  Adam was frying and Grady was right there, totally intrigued with what was happening.  He was also posturing for some yummy bites of glazed glory.

It was a wonderful donut day.  We passed our goodies out to some of friends around town and spread the good word of donuts.  Grady thought it was fun seeing all his friends and eating donuts.  We, of course, loved every minute of fun tradition.

 These last two pics having nothing to do with donuts, but the fact that next week Grady will be turning two.  Time has flown by so much, and we love our little boy more and more each day.  He certainly has a huge personality and quick wit.  We are sad time is passing so quickly, but love our Grado-tato!!

Memorial Day

 ...and we are back.  Since taking a couple of months off from the blogging world we wish we could tell you that something amazing has been going on in our lives...but, sadly, that is not the case.  We have just been busy with Grady, callings, and work.  One great thing that did happen is that we bought a fancy camera.  Of course the first pic ever taken was an awkward test photo of us.  We went to Utah for Memorial day and swung by and picked it up from some friends of ours who sold it to us.  We thought it was going to be such a wonderful trip.  But, we have decided that holidays and us, well, we just don't mix.

 We had been driving for almost 4 hours when Grady woke up and said he was dying of thirst.  So, we gave him some milk, which he pounded.  Then he started to beg for some food, claiming starvation.  We obliged with some Goldfish.  Then he started to look pale going through the Logan canyon...then *HURL*.  Puke was everywhere.  He had eaten blueberries for breakfast, so it was like a firestorm of blue cottage cheese.  Adam quickly pulled over and we spent a good hour cleaning up.  We thought perhaps he was just car sick.  He ended up having the flu and threw up several more times.  For the entire weekend each time we got into our car we had to swim through the stench of vomit. After a wedding and seeing Camille's family in Logan, we headed to Park City and a rented condo with Adam's family.  Grady was sick.

 Just not sick enough to flash a little smile for his dad.  Note:  After cleaning up puke for a day and a half, Adam then became ill, and we rarely left the condo for the entire weekend.

 Despite all the sickness, Grady LOVED playing with his cousins.  He tried to have some energy, but was just a bit too sick.  Note:  Other cousin, Max, was missing from this photo, but he too was heavily played with.

 Sunday afternoon we were major loungers.  Adam and Grady watched cartoons and slept most of the day, while Camille tried to stay sane.  At one point, Grady was sick of dad and cartoons, and just needed his momma.  Probably a good move on his part.

 Towards the end of the trip he started to perk up a bit and could keep some food down.  Note:  We are in the process of getting rid of binky, but sickness kind of threw a wrench into that process.

 Sunday was Adam's dad's birthday.  We decorated the condo, had yummy strawberry cake stuff (not sure of the official term for said goodness), an of course presents.  Note:  No one is looking at the camera except the birthday boy.  It was great to be together as a family and to celebrate fun times with Adam's Dad.

 Adam's brother Eric was worn out after having played games for hours.  Adam thought this photo was funny because Dylan's foot looks like it is resting on Eric's head.  Eric was in such a deep sleep that it very easily could have been.  Grady's job, when feeling better, was to do a little hero worshipping of the oldest cousin, Dylan, to which Grady did not fail.

 Dinner was prepared by Adam's mom, Camille, and the sister in laws (Aimei's shoulder is barley in view, sorry).  They made soups and stuff.  Adam really had no clue as to what was being cooked.  He just tried to stay away from any strong smells and quarantined himself to the bedroom.

 When it came time for presents and cake the cousins gathered like vultures.  They all wanted a piece of the candle blowing out action.  That and helping unwrap presents.  Grady somehow wormed his way right into the lap of his 'Papa' and was a great helper.  The other cousins were not far behind and also were great "helpers."  Note:  helpers is a strong word.

 Other hero worshipping that occurred was with Hanky.  Grady loved seeing all his cousins so much.  Between playing super heroes with Hanky and Max and being tended to by Brooke and Naynay, he was almost to the point of being spoiled.

By the end of the trip Grady was worn out and just wanted to chill with his sun glasses and a taco.  Adam was sick for almost the entire next week.  Camille never got sick.  Adam has a theory that mothers rarely get sick because they have some sort of genetic code that allows them to wallow in throw up without getting sick.  It was a great weekend despite the illness.  We loved being with family and seeing fun friends.