::conference project::

We got a great little puzzle when we were in Disneyland earlier this year, and what better time to work on a puzzle than during General Conference?

The puzzle is super cute. It came in this cardbox box that looks like a hardbound book. It's a picture of Disneyland with the monorail and every character you can think of--except the villains. I thought Max would dig it. Turns out the pieces were a little small for him, but he still helped a lot.


We all worked on it together for a while, then the guys took shifts while doing other things in between.

It took us both sessions on sunday, some extra time in the evening and a little time monday morning to get it done.
It turned out to be a pretty huge puzzle, and of course I didn't get a picture of it finished because things never work out that way.

Come over and we'll pull it out and put it together again!!

And by the way, did I mention that I love conference? It's like a weekend off but with extra nice spiritual food. Maybe we should do it more often.

::youch & cinnamon rolls::

Yesterday when Max was out adventuring he had an unfortunate incident. He had a brush with death (i.e. a bumblebee). The bumblebee was flying at him as he was riding his bike on the trail behind our house. This bumblebee may or may not have existed, and it may or may not have stung him on the cheek (it didn't.) But this supposed bumblebee startled him enough that he ran into a cactus. YOUCH.
This really isn't surprising because the man NEVER watches where he's going while riding his bike. It drives me crazy. He's talking and swerving and having close calls all the time he's riding.

So anyway, he was out for just a few minutes riding by himself when the horrific event happened. I heard him come in and I said, "How was your ride, Max?" He said, "BAD!" But since he's the little stoic, he couldn't just tell us what had happened. Instead he lay down on the floor and pulled his pants down and there were the spikes.

(Post spike removal.)
He really didn't get spiked too bad--not as many spikes as he could've ended up with. But the big one in the middle must've really hurt. It left a big purple bruise.
Kris got his loupes and tweezers and a headlamp, and I held his head while we pulled them out.
Once they were out he was pretty cool about it. He got a long warm bath and then all was ok.
Would you like to run into one of these?

I don't want to, but I'm sure I'll have my turn at some point. These spikey things are everywhere!! There's even a story involving the Land Rover and cactuses that I'll save for Kris to tell another day. It's just too good to waste.

(Dramatic re-inactment. This one is right on our driveway!)

And the next item here in today's post is cinnamon rolls.
I figure it's always fun to have something yummy to eat during conference, and on conference sunday sometimes I actually have time to do something like make food, which doesn't happen a lot.
So anyway, I decided to make real cinnamon rolls from scratch for the first time in my life. They turned out really good!

I was pretty worried the dough wouldn't rise at first, but after I waited a bit (left the room, took a shower, stopped checking on it) it did fine.

Cute little rolls.


Done!
It took forever, that was the only problem. I started on them at probably about 8AM and they were finally ready to eat at about 11:30. Max almost didn't have enough patience to survive. He was asking me if he could "have one" before I had even finished mixing the yeast into the dough!

And he was very happy when he finally got to eat one. Picture him whispering reverently "From scratch..." as he munched.

And Sandy insisted on heating most of mine, though I tried hard to convinve him that cheerios were a better idea.

And that's all for now. Happy conference sunday. Wish it would come more often that twice a year. How about once a month?

::yesterday::

Being out east makes conference days really strange. Instead of the sessions starting at 10AM and 2PM with the priesthood session at 6PM we're the day starts with the first session at noon. Then the second doesn't start until 4PM. Priesthood is at 8PM!! It sort of ruins the boys night out for ice cream afterwards. Good thing there's nobody out here to try to take Kris out anyway.

I was inspired by Marilyn--she and her family had a muffin day and ate a bunch of different delicious muffins. I was thinking that would be a fun tradition to attach to conference--at least the October session.
Is there a little boy out there that wouldn't look forward to 8 hours of church meetings as long as there were a lot of yummy muffins involved?

Unfortunately this time I planned a whole bunch of other delicious food too--like chocolate croissants, french toast, apple dumplings, etc. etc. A whole bunch of sugary, delicious, filling foods. So we only got to try two different kinds of muffins during the weekend. (I know, it hardly counts to say "only" on top of all that other food, but muffins are important!)
We had a mix from trader joe's that I didn't like much. It was too healthyish tasting for me really--too much fiber and smushy blueberries and cranberries.
But on sunday I made this recipe--strawberry vanilla muffins. And they were delish. Yum.

Enough about delicious food (for now).

In between sessions yesterday we went over to a little lake in our city so that Kris and Max could try to catch some little fish. They went a couple of weeks ago and caught a bunch while I was taking a nap.

Looks like a pretty nice place from this view, right?
How about this one?

Erg, blech. Yuck.
Remember, the industrial revolution did start around here somewhere. Who knows what's in that lake.

The color of the water didn't stop Max from having fun--or trying to get in the water--or from sitting down in the mud a zillion times.

Kris tried to catch fish.
Max found a groaty spoon.

Kris tried to catch fish.
Max threw muddy sand into the lake and scared all the fish away.

Kris tried to catch fish but,
he caught a tree instead.

Kris tried to catch fish.
Max caught a long long twisty branch (by pulling it down out of a tree.)
and then he threw it in the lake.
So if there were any fish left at that point they ran away!

So at the end, Kris didn't catch any fish, but Max succeeded in catching some time in the time out chair for not listening. Lucky him!

Isn't this a crazy beautiful spiderweb I found in the yucky icky lake mud? It looks like a gorgeous necklace. I keep learning that if I keep my eyes open there are beautiful things to see.
And hear--conference was great too.

::thanks::

Thank goodness for the internet. Because there's no way Max would make it even two hours on a hard church bench. Thank goodness I can watch from home even though we're so far away.
Thank goodness for puzzles and toys and things that could hold attention for a few minutes at a time.
Thank goodness for a living evolving gospel and a prophet on the earth today!

(and I'm glad Kris is back too, thank goodness)