A Day at the Lake

This weekend we were invited to go to our friends Rusty and Kim's lake "spot" and just hang out. They are members of a private lake and Kim has been going there since she was a few weeks old. They spend every single weekend there during the summer months. Our family had such an amazing time. The weather was perfect (not too hot!) and the kids just loved being in the water.

This is Rusty and Kim's "Hula Coupe."

The kids loved inner tubing. Even Riley did it!

My handsome hunk of a husband...

Carson our beer drinker. She also kept taking sips of my mojito. (sorry, Mimi...)

Lukie prefers water.

Owen and Eli learned to ski on this boom. Eli got up on his very first try! He's quite the athlete.

Missing the Kids (Sorta)

Jimmy here. I never seem to get to post, so while Donna is in the other room I'm going to sneak one in.

After some of the recent pics my lovely wife has posted of me on here, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites from our anniversary trip to Mexico a couple of weeks ago.

At one point Donna pulled out the camera and wanted me to take her picture to capture her sadness. Sad about what? Well, we'd been gone a couple of days and she was missing the kids. So we decided to catch the moment in pictures (sorta :-)....

Look what we woke up to this morning!

Happy 6th Birthday, Elijah!

We made a football cake together in the morning. He didn't want any frosting - just sprinkles and M&M's.

Our kids get to choose their favorite meal on their birthday (thanks, Danielle! :) and he chose, of course, beef hot dogs and chips.

Daddy is starting a trend - three pig tails for the girls.

Daddy bought Eli a guitar for his birthday. I cannot wait to hear all my guys pick'n away in the future!

Taking my load....

Today we hiked to the neighbor's home to take care of their cat while they're on vacation. We just walk through the woods behind our home (which has some beautiful rock out-croppings) about a quarter of a mile, and there they are. Today the boys really wanted to carry the twins (25 lbs. each) and I didn't think they'd make it, but they did! Owen wants to do it more often so he'll be stronger for the all-day hike Daddy and him will make to Mt. Logan behind our home.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Owen: Happy Father's Day, Daddy! I think you're the best daddy in the whole wide world!
Eli: I love you so much, Daddy, that I will never forget you when I grow up! I'm glad you're so good and I'm glad you play with me and I'm glad that I love you and I'm glad that you got me when I was a little baby. And I love even you and me!
Scout: Daddy, I love you so much! I can't wait until you get home, because I love you so much!
Riley: Father's Day! I like tickles!
Luke: Eeeeee-awwwww!
Carson: Dah-dah!

Have a great time at the College World Series, Daddy! GO TIGERS!!!!!

My new necklace

I'm a no-makeup-wearing, no jewelry-wearing type of gal (except for my wedding ring, of course). But when I saw that a fellow homeschooling mom could make me little tags with my children's names, I thought "I must have it!" I don't care for silver or gold chains, so I bought this leather rope-type necklace in Mexico. Isn't it neat?!

YES!

We finally got to see a bear! Owen and I were playing chess this morning and Daddy called from the basement, "Is everyone inside? There's a huge bear outside!" So we all ran to the window to see, and it took off running. (isn't that cool, Andrea? ;) So here it is!

Crazy Kids

Yesterday afternoon I set up a tent that our neighbors in Houston gave us so the kids could play in it. They asked Daddy if they could sleep in it that night, and surprisingly he said yes. They were thrilled. The only thing is, Daddy wasn't about to sacrifice sleep squished in a very small tent with three kids, or risk waking up with a sore back. And I didn't want to get eaten by mountain lions or bears. So.... they were on their own, and they were totally cool with it. Sweetie did sleep all night at the door of their tent, earning much-needed brownie points from Daddy.

This morning they woke up at the crack of dawn and ran inside full of excitement - they loved sleeping in the tent. They even seemed to be best buddies all day because of their bonding time. During breakfast Owen asked if they could sleep in the tent again tonight but deeper into our woods - not inside Sweetie's fence - and I said no, they needed to be inside her fence. To which he responded, "But Mommy, how in the world are we supposed to get accustomed to the wild if we have to sleep inside her fence?"

So it's 8:52 right now, and I just went and checked on them and they're having a ball. But it is cold right now - 48.2 degrees to be exact - and it's supposed to get down to 32 tonight! So I may go out there soon and make them come in. None of them have much blubber to keep them warm.

Ice Cream

It's no secret to my closer friends that I have a great love for ice cream. I'm pretty much an ice cream snob - I'll only eat it if it's the best of the best and won't waste my time with the cheap stuff.

In Isle Mujeres one evening I was reading in bed and I was craving this homemade ice cream we had in town. Jimmy rode five miles on his bike to get me three scoops (chocolate, banana, and nutella) and then threw his bike in the back of a taxi and got a ride home so it wouldn't be melted when I got it. There was an ice cream place about a mile from our hotel, but he knew that that ice cream just wouldn't cut it. My man knows how to love me!

Anyway, back to the reason for my post. My kids love ice cream as well, but I like to make them healthier desserts (I'll die an early death, but they'll live a long, healthy life :) Yesterday me and the kids made vanilla ice cream that was sweetened with raw agave nectar, which has a very low glycemic index. We also used raw milk and raw cream, which is extremely healthy and doesn't make you fluffy. :)

So here it is. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 cup whole organic milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
½ cup raw blue agave nectar
Pinch of sea salt
2 large free-range egg yolks
2 cups heavy organic cream

Have a large bowl of ice water ready. Place the milk in a small saucepan with the vanilla bean, vanilla seeds, agave nectar, and salt. Heat over low heat until the mixture is hot. Lightly beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Add ¼ cup of the hot milk and whisk. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it starts to thicken, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and place the saucepan in a bowl of ice water. Continue stirring to cool down the mixture. When the mixture is only slightly warm, stir in the cream. Remove the vanilla bean and discard. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until cold—several hours or overnight is best. Pour the mixture through a strainer into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Makes 1 quart.

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p.s. We also used the old-fashioned type of ice cream maker where you use ice and salt instead of the newer versions where you put your ice cream mixture in a container that has been in the freezer overnight and then turn it on to churn in the frozen container. We've discovered those don't work as well - the ice cream isn't as thick when it's done.

Isle Mujeres

We're back from our 10th anniversary celebration. We had an amazing time, but we're sooooo glad to be home. We missed the children tremendously!

Here's a few pictures from our trip:

This is the view from our hotel lobby. The little hut is the hotel's restaurant where we dined a few times.

This was down the road from our hotel. They had snorkeling and zip lines. We snorkeled off our hotel's pier (cuz this place cost $38 to snorkel) and we saw a sting ray, octopus, sea urchin, and lots and lots of beautiful fish.

Jimmy wore me out on our trip. The first day there we got on bikes and rode all the way to the other end of the island and back - ten miles round trip. All the other gringos rented golf carts, but Jimmy likes free bikes. :) The second day we went kayaking (way too far from shore for my comfort level) and my arms were so tired, Jimmy had to row us home. The third day we went snorkeling, which seems fairly innocuous, but for some reason I was very tired after we were finished. Probably because he kept pointing out sea creatures that could hurt me and I would swim away fast.

Thankfully we did a lot of my favorite thing to do, READ!

We saw many of these ugly things. I will state for the record that I will never move anywhere that has any of these lurking around.

We ate lunch one afternoon in town and these two guys appeared and starting playing their drums African-style and singing in Spanish. They sung a few songs and then asked very politely if anyone could spare any tips for them. I thought they were fabulous and gave them five dollars.

This is what Jimmy thought of them. He wanted to pay them to stop playing...

Heading to dinner on our last evening on the island.

The following pictures show part of the reason that Jimmy and I have such a wonderful marriage together - the guy makes me laugh all the time. Not just your regular 'ol laugh, but "my belly aches" kind of laugh. It makes the chaos that comes with raising six small children so much more fun!