Baking and Buddies

This is one of Ben's favorite people in the entire world, and with good reason. Maddie is hysterical--she has the best facial expressions of any four-year-old I know. She is sweet, funny, silly, and a great buddy to play with. Ben and Maddie are like two peas in a pod. I love seeing my boys with good friends who enrich their lives.

Eating the spoils of the birthday cupcakies--I actually caught them re-dipping their beaters in the batter for more dough. Shhhh. . .don't tell.

Cheeseball. Love him.

In defense of the burger

So, we have changed our diet around the McMillan house lately, meaning we have made a dramatic reduction in the amount of meat we consume and a dramatic increase in all plant-based products. This hasn't made me extremely popular in the eyes of my little carnivorous beasts.

So, the other day I was frying up some veggie-bean burgers (which are delicious, if you want the recipe). Todd was bemoaning his lot in veggie-life, quite vociferously I may add. He had commented on their taste, their smell, their general appearance. He paused for a moment and then looked up, "Mom," he said, "it's like taking the name of a burger in vain."

Ha.

Ha.

Ha.

Jack is Back

So, call us crazy (we are. . .a little), but we made a special trip to Utah again for the Jack Johnson concert. And it was totally worth it. We went this year with my brother and sis-in-law (who think we're looney). Halfway through Jack's first song, Tal leaned over and said, "He's amazing live." Yep. That explains our lunacy. He is amazing live. And we love it.

Fun date night with the sibs.

Fun shots with the swanky camera. Lovin' it.

Cool screen.

Pre-show (laughing at the G-Love lyrics--not our favorite)

So many cute couples on our blog today.

Seriously fun date night. I'm so glad that I enjoy the company of my husband--(did you know some people don't love hanging with their husbands)? I'm a lucky girl. It was also a ton of fun to ditch all our kids and hang out with Scott and Tal. We both been married for 13 years this year. It's fun growing old/up together. When Jack is back again, we will be, too.

Boise Trip--August

We had a great time in Boise in August, enjoying the company of Grandma Cheri and Grandpa Kevin. The only event we got pictures of? The pool at Ivy Wild. We love this little gem of a water park. I think it costs us $9 for the family to get in. Every summer someone suggests we try out the "real" waterpark at Roaring Springs, but my kids always ask for Ivy Wild. I figure as long as they're happy with the less expensive stuff, why fork out $100 smackeroos? Let's just keep it simple. One of these days they'll want more, but for now I love that they're happy just being kids.

Aren't my mom and dad just the cutest? We had to -get this Vegas friends- wait for a day that was warm enough to get to the water park, and then we finally had to settle for a high of 72. Even as cool as the grandparents are, they wimped out and never even touched the water. But it was a nice day for shade-bathing.

Ben was not deterred by the lack of sun or warmth. He was shallow diving with the best of them.

This is the boy who refused to put his face even close to the water at the beginning of the summer. Thanks to Grandpa Glenn and some magic goggles, we are now a swimming family.

The incredible twin drop slides. Fun stuff!

What else did we do besides swim?

• Well, we chose the hottest day of our visit to go on a geocaching quest on a local trail. Grandma Cheri caught the geocaching bug and had a hard time leaving one of the caches unfound. It's much more difficult to find those hidden caches in areas where plants actually grow. I think we did find four caches in our 2 hours of hiking.
• We drove up the canyon toward Idaho City to Greyback Gulch. We had a fun time caching again and hiking. Ben had a crash and cut up his knee. We lost Ryan and Todd (though they claim they were never), we thought we lost Grandma, but we all made it back safely. Some gorgeous scenery and nice to be out in nature.
• We experimented with some delicious plant-based recipes.
• We enjoyed seeing grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles that we haven't seen in a while.
• Thanks for the fun trip, Mom and Dad.