Nicole's Fly Day...

I am going to try to keep up with the blog a bit more. Nicole passed the Wright Flight program that was an optional part of her 5th grade curriculum. She met her home and school goals and passed all the tests throughout the year. The pilot helped her take off and land, but once up in the air, Nicole got to take the wheel and fly. Normally two students will go up at a time and take turns flying with landing for the tradeoff, but Nicole didn't have a partner, so Scott got to go up with her. It was a fun surprise and they both had fun! Good job Nic!

New years...Happy 2011!

I have failed at keeping up on our blog. It has been three months since I have posted anything, but to my defense, we have been busy. We had a fantastic 3 week trip to China (which will be my next post with lots of pictures) and I have gone back to school for my BSN in nursing. I am enjoying it and it is the next stepping stone I need to get to my Masters. Scott and the girls are doing great...so come back soon, I will be catching up on the last few months.

The new 5th grade class Treasurer...

Nicole ran for 5th grade class Treasurer...and won! She had to campaign and give a speech. She did all of the work herself and did a very good job. We are very proud of her.
We are leaving tomorrow for our trip to China. I will be posting lots of pictures when we get back of our adventures!

This is the face of an Ironman...

We spent the weekend in Flagstaff for the Mountain Man Triathalon and Half Ironman. The Half Ironman consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13 mile run and Scott rocked it in 6 hours and 24 minutes! We are so proud of him, great job babe!We arrived at 0520 to set up in the transition area and for him to get marked. It was very cloudy and foggy, cool and muddy because it had rained hard the day before. We thought there was a big possibility for it to rain again, so before heading up to the lake in the morning, we stopped at Walmart and bought an umbrella and cheap blanket.Preparing for the swim!A little last minute energy from Nicole's orange juice. Sure tastes better than those goo packs!Racers...enter the water...Beeeeeep...(means go!)Every racer wears a sensor band around their ankle during the race and crosses a large pad between each stage of the race that keeps their time for that leg. Scott is done with the swim and heading to the transition area to start the bike.We had a really good parking spot along the race route that was just 75 yards up from this transition area. Of course we were there early and reparked twice closer to get the great spot. Last year we were probably 1/2 mile down the race route and had lots of walking. This parking spot was great since this race was much longer and since we had waiting to do between the different legs of the race we could go sit in the car and read/listen to ipod/rest. Of course our friends Mike and Tina both raced also so we spent time watching for them too. Here Scott is in transition between the swim and bike. The girls are cheering him on!Leaving the transition area for a 56 mile bike ride...It ended up not raining and somewhat warming up so the girls played in the lake while we waited for Scott to come in on the bike.Coming back into the transition area from the bike. This area was pretty hairy at times because traffic resumed up this canyon during the race. Just to the right of this picture is an entrance to the boat dock and lots of boats were heading to the water. The volunteers did a great job directing traffic and keeping the safety of the racers priority as last year two bikers got hit by cars. One Forest Service employee here in this area had such a commanding voice with the drivers he was almost scary aggressive! And we can't forget about the bullhorn nazi lady... "YOU IN THE WHITE SHIRT, YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THE RACERS, STAY TO THE RIGHT OF THE AMBULANCE...TO THE RIGHT OF THE AMBULANCE!!!" Starting the 13 mile run (which apparently had a nasty hill in it...)The finish line...what a beautiful sight!We talked the volunteer working the finish line into letting Nicole put the medal around Scott's neck instead of him. We thought it would be more special for Scott. The volunteer had no problem with it.

After being hot, tired and sweaty, Scott headed for the lake again to rinse and cool off. After packing up his bike and race stuff we did what any spent triathalon runner would do...we went to Sizzler. I drove home while Scott rested and we drove through Nico's Taco Shop for more food once home. Scott was famished! We are so proud of him and he is our #1 Ironman!!

Life is good...

The girls are back. My dad, brother and nephew drove them home from Utah. My brother Dave and his family are visiting from China, so the girls and the cousins got to play for most of their time there. We had a great visit with Dad, Dave and Joshua. They spent a lot of time in the pool and we all ate great food. I didn't take a single picture. (Ugh!) My 11 year old nephew Joshua is such an awesome boy! We live so far apart from them and they come to the states yearly or so. I think I have already announced this, but we are taking a 17 day family trip to China in October. It's our turn to go visit them. We are soooo excited! Grandma Jane and Grandpa Ted will travel with us also, but stay longer after we leave. Dave and Ophelia are setting up so many things for us to do. Here is a scratch of the surface...visit the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in Beijing, fly to the panda sanctuary in Cheng Du (this is just for Nicole!) and then fly to my brothers house in Kunming Province. They have set up many things for us to experience including a tour of the city hospital for me and for Scott to see a local mechanic/autobody shop. We will see the Stone Forest and visit a minority group village that my brother has contact with as well as many other plans. We can't wait!

The girls started school yesterday and we are quickly getting back into our routine. Jenny is now in 7th grade and Nicole is in 5th grade.

a WONDERFUL sandwich...

I made this for dinner last night and it was awesome. As some of you may (or may not) know, I am not a huge meat fan. I try to make several things on our menu with little or no meat. This sandwich was SO good. Scott and I both loved it and it will be one of our go to recipes. Scott is not a fan of tomatoes so we replaced them with a bunch of sliced mushrooms which tasted really good!

Roasted Veggie and Pesto Sandwich

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 red onion

2 roma tomatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup pesto

6 oz. mozzarella cheese

salt and pepper

A loaf of really good artisan bread (I used a garlic, parmesan italian loaf. $2 from Walmart) For the two of us, we only used 1/2 of the loaf.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with non stick spray and set aside. Thinly slice the zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, red onion and roma tomatoes. Place the veggie slices on the baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to coat. Spread the veggies out on the baking sheet evenly and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes or until veggies are tender. When the veggies are tender turn the broiler on and let them brown slightly. Split the loaf of bread. Put pesto on the top of the loaf. Place grilled veggies on the bottom of loaf. Divide the cheese evenly among the two halves. Broil for a couple of minutes to brown the cheese slightly. Keep a close eye on it! Place the tops on the bottoms and cut loaf into pieces.

As far as cooking the veggies, next time we will bake and broil them a bit more so they become more caramelized. They had great flavor, but we felt there is more flavor potential by cooking them a bit deeper and longer. Overall, it was a wonderful sandwich and we will definately make it again!

Bare wall no more...

Since the last post of the piano being sold, we have been looking for a replacement piece of furniture to take it's spot. We were looking for basically the same function as the piano (a glorified picture/vase holder) but also something to hold my china set. Something a little more respectful for the china than being wrapped up in brown paper stuffed in a cabinet in our bedroom. Fathers Day we were bumming around and stopped by Sam Levits furniture. We found this piece that is PERFECT in their clearance center. Originally $800 we got it for $299 and not a thing wrong with it! It was less expensive than what Ingvar paid for the piano, so we have some good $$ left over that is in another "envelope" (thank Dave Ramsey here) for the next purchase we have in mind. One side holds the china and the other side will house all of our family games. I need to put up more pictures/decorate it a little more, but just wanted to show you all. We love it!