Recent happenings

Apparently we do have things going on in our life, besides preparing for baby.

Steve completed another ultra, the Devil's Backbone 50-miler.  I'm losing count how many 50-milers we're at...four? five? six?  He also ran 100K last year.  Let's blame it on pregnancy brain.
We met our good friends in Bozeman for the race - they're from Sheridan & we miss them since moving to Helena, so it was great to catch up.  The two crazies pre-race:

 (It's ok hubby, you can smile.  Or maybe you're thinking about another pre-race porta potty trip).

Ah-ha, there's the smile!  Post-race excitement.

 Nothing like an ultra through the mountains, followed by a refreshing IPA.

This race is known for being extremely tough & to make matters more exciting, it's essentially unsupported.  The runners are expected to have general navigation skills, in addition to packing their own water (or filter system) & food.  Steve finished in a very admirable 11:35 - good job honey!

Now that we live in Helena and within twenty minutes of several lakes (yay!), we've tried to take full advantage of the warm weather.  Here's what it looks like when we take four big dogs to the lake:

The last weekend of July, we zipped over to Missoula for their annual Celtic Festival.  With Enter the Haggis and Young Dubliners playing, we couldn't pass up the quick trip.

Guinness (appropriately named) enjoying the park after a dip in the river.

Enter the Haggis.

Just like a little kid, he quickly passed out after a busy afternoon.

Young Dubliners with special guest Eric Rigler (far left)

They put on a great show & the fact everything was free was awesome!  We got their early enough to score great seats (it's in a park, so BYO chair) & had a very fun time.

It's never to early to introduce baby to our love for all things Irish.  She certainly spent a good portion of the night dancing.  We don't know who's playing at the festival next year but we might have to bring her along.

A random collage

We're rapidly approaching winter.  *Sigh*  I love living near the mountains but oh dear, I go into winter kicking & screaming.

Since we're so behind on blog posts, here's a random collage of pictures:

 "Hi Mom.  Just waiting from someone to drop something on the kitchen floor for me to eat."

Sometimes you have to snuggle with your yogurt cup.  Or wear it as a top hat.

Someone stole a stick from the wood pile...

 This is a very typical picture...

Busy bees soaking up the last of the nectar from our Russian Sage.

Our potted clover showing off its floral beauty.

And the post wouldn't be complete without a few of our favorite little guy...

We will be the coolest aunt & uncle.  So we start them young learning to order craft beer.

 "This guy must not be a Ramirez because he's really tall."

 "This is my Blue Steel look"

Home

I have to dance around the house every time this song comes on Pandora.

Fun

In case you need a good laugh...

Kitchen happenins & other stuff

A recent procurement of 40 lbs of Jumani apples through Bountiful Baskets led to two long days of canning.  The majority of apples were made into applesauce but I wanted to have some other items to mix up our pantry lined with applesauce, peaches, & numerous jams.  I'm not much of a chutney fan but I liked the idea of a savory apple mixture to use with meals.  Unable to find specific recipes, most of my research was spent ensuring the ingredients were safe for water canning (& canning in general) - everything else was fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants & taste.  We split the rest of the batch into curry apples (chopped apples reduced down in Simply Apple juice & curry powder) & apple rum cinnamon sauce (chopped apples reduced down in Simply Apple juice, brown sugar, rum & cinnamon - idea from Ball peach rum sauce).

We opened a jar of the curry apples to have with pork chops - success!

 Apple rum cinnamon sauce - with ice cream, it's like a party in your mouth.

If you need a successful black bean burger recipe, check it out.  The secret ingredient to keep it all glued together?  Plaintains.  Who knew.  These are delicious dish.

 Homemade ranch dressing.  This stuff is the bomb dot com.  Never again will I be able to eat store-bought ranch dressing.  Ever.

Our local community college offers "community enrichment" classes - most are one-day & for a small fee, you can learn such items as baking, cooking, jewelry-making, soap-making, etc.  I took a ceramics class in high school & was hooked but never made much of an effort to pursue it after graduating.  Note: I didn't say I was good.  Just that I really enjoy making ceramics.  Fast forward post-college in Sheridan & I find out one of the local potters is offering a 10 week, Monday night ceramics class at the community college.  We don't have assignments but instead show up & for three hours, once per week, have complete access to the clay, wheels, glazes, & kilns (our pieces are fired with the college student pieces, which is a nice perk).  Since then, I have taken the class a handful of times the past few years & I decided to take it again this semester.  I'm finally noticing improvement.  Ceramics is an art form that most certainly takes a lot of practice - our instructor, who makes beautiful pottery, mentioned it took her ten years before she felt comfortable opening her own shop.  Of course, our house now has more damn bowls than I should admit, but I think I'm getting the hang of some other shapes.  :)

June camping trip

Escaping to the mountains is a supreme way to get the hell out of the heat (of which we've had an abundance this summer).  "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."  Ay-ay, el capitan.  We're outta here!

Steve working hard to cut firewood.  Me "working hard" to take pictures.  It's a rough life.

Pretty wildflowers!

We decided to make it a cushy camping trip & bring our air mattress.  What we forgot is a key piece for said air mattress...the inverter to plug into the vehicle cigarette lighter to turn on the electric pump to blow up the mattress.  Steve convinced me it would be ok to manually inflate the mattress.  I'm either passed out from emptying my lungs into the mattress or taking a nap.

 (An hour-and-a-half later, after switching back & forth, we successfully inflated the mattress.  Yay runners lungs.)

We're enrolling Brewer in modeling classes.  He's a natural.

Shell Falls

Porcupine Falls (200')

Pretending to be Jane Fonda

When it's nasty out & I don't have a run on the schedule & I don't feel like going to the gym, I'm not opposed to a good workout DVD.  I learned well from my mama - I remember trying to bust some Jane Fonda moves with her when I was little & she was getting her workout in while trying to take care of two active kiddos.  These two, however...

...think it's Wrestle-Mania time when mom clears the floor:

I eventually yelled at them to get out & they proceeded to pout.  Mom is no fun.

Arizona race pt 2

On our second day in Arizona, we meandered to the Phoenix Zoo.  We thoroughly enjoyed it, although it did get a bit warm (high-80's is hot for pale Wyomingites in March).

Of course I spent part of the time worrying that all the animals had enough space & love.  One elephant looked particularly lonely.  Steve reassured me he was probably just hot.  (He doesn't realize he married someone that tried to plant a branch that had recently broken off a live tree because I was worried it would suffer.  Doesn't a tree have feelings??  I was approximately 7 years old at the time.  I've matured since then.  Slightly).

 I asked Steve if we could take home a kitty because I thought Brewer needed a friend.  He said no.

 The zoo doesn't quite know how old the tortoises are...except that they're really, really old.  And they eat really, really slow.

 The monkeys were so cute & curious!

A terribly zoomed-in & blurry picture of my absolute favorite animal of the zoo.  Aren't they so elegant?  Another kitty I wanted to take home.  Steve wasn't too keen on the idea.

 Even rhino had enough of the heat.

Play ball!  We spent the afternoon in the shade at a Cubs spring training game.  The game was fun (albeit short) & we enjoyed a beer & hot dog, old school style.

We finished up the day with one of these:

Visiting a fast-paced & crowded city is not our idea of a relaxing vacay, but we enjoyed the many activity & restaurant choices Phoenix had to offer.  (It helped we zipped around in a new Mustang.)  It was fabulous to step away from Wyoming & into warm, sunny Arizona.  Who knows, maybe we'll try to hit a race in every state!  :)