Barefoot Pizza

I love Pizza! I have tried many varieties of this dish. My favorite so far has been Italian Style pizza with a thin and crunchy crust. I am always up for trying a new version of this wonderful comfort food. I was excited to try White Pizza with Arugula for my Barefoot Bloggers group. As I started to make the pizza I realized I was out of a few main ingrediants such as goat cheese and Arugula. Since this was the last day of the month to post the recipe, I decided to go ahead and make it using what I had on hand. I made the dough ahead of time and stuck it in the fridge until closer to dinner time. I made the salad dressing and added tomatoes and lettuce and a little extra cheese to the salad. I also used part of the dough for plain cheese pizzas for the kids. Everyone ate all there dinner and I got to use these cool pizza plates that I bought last year. Our picky son even told me he liked it! Thanks to Andrea of Nummy Kitchen for choosing a great recipe.

First Day of School

Today the kids started back to school. It was a bittersweet moment for all of us. The kids both got the teachers that we wanted and they have friends in there class from last year. This always helps! I enjoyed my day of going to the gym, cleaning house and rearranging furniture all by myself. I was glad when it was time to pick them up. I missed my kids today! So another school year begins......

Mango Banana Daquiris

I was looking forward to trying this months selection from Veronica of Supermarket Serenade She chose Mango Banana Daiquiris as the 1st Ina Garten recipe for the month of August. These were super simple to make. I threw everything into my blender and started it up. My kitchen Aide blender made a funny sound and stopped working. I took the blender off to find that all of the black rubber had been worn off the bottom. After 11 years of always being there for me, it finally broke! I guess this means that I get to choose a color that is NOT cobalt blue.

I ended up making the drinks in the food processer and they turned out fine. I skipped the simple syrup step and bought simple syrup from Trader Joes. I think it was a little too much rum for me but then I usually only have a half a glass of wine with dinner. You can check out Barefoot Bloggers to see their take on this drink.

Summer Vacation

Garden of the gods in Colorado Springs

Grammy and the kids and the kissing cousins.

My niece loved the birds at the beach. We went to the beach to escape the heat wave Or was having. It was 112 a couple days in a row.

A great hike into the high lakes of the Wallowa Mountains. This turned out to be a alot longer then we thought (about 13 miles round trip).

hiking in the Wallowa Mountains

the cousins having some play time at our family reunion

Anna learned to drive the 4 wheeler.

Everyone enjoyed DQ after playing at the park all afternoon. The boys enjoying a fun water park.


Jonathan celebrated his 9th birthday while in Wa.

We arrived home from such a wonderful summer vacation. 6 weeks is a long time to travel around the U.S. We got to visit so many friends and family members. It was a great way to spend our summer. We are already talking about next summer : -)