we travel to utah just to eat pie with our families

Oh my silly silly, Lindsay loo. We all went out to brunch at Little America, for my dad's birthday since it's at the end of November.

Can you believe her poses? Such a diva.

One of Maloree's dog friends (we call her dog training friends her dog friends) had some German Shepherd puppies, and Mal brought some over so I could see how fluffy and cute they were.

SO FLUFFY AND CUTE! This one is Absolute, and she's adorable!

Yaaaaaaay for fabric shopping!!!!!!

Since Nick and his wife would be in Rock Springs with her family for Thanksgiving, we all had dinner together the day before at my parents house.

At the end of dinner, my mom asked me to go upstairs with Lindsay to check on the new kitty, and when I came back down, there were balloons and cake and they started singing Happy Birthday to....


...me! Since we don't come home for Christmas, and since my birthday is 2 day before, we don't get to celebrate my birthday together. 

I was so surprised! My mom and Stevie came up with the idea, isn't that awesome? My mom ordered an angel food cake with cherry frosting from Parson's, one of our favorite bakeries. It was the first dessert I'd had in over a month and a half.

It was divine.


My family had always been so good at celebrating my birthday, I'm so grateful to them for that. So thanks, family. I love you.

Both my sister and my brother must be patron saints of rescuing animals. 

This sweet kitty found her way into the parts department at his work, and even though she is chipped, they can't get ahold of the owners, that live somewhere in the midwest. They figured that they must have come through in a camper or something, and she got out somehow. So now they have 4 cats.

Ryker is very sad that the new kitty won't play with him.

It's pie time! Nan came over and we made pie. Mmmmmm!

That crust was amazing. It was SO EASY to make it look great. Recipe found here.

We may have also had cake for breakfast. Nothing beats two best friends eating cake for breakfast, laughing and blabbing, while pies bake in the oven. 

I miss you so much Nan, but when we do get together it's like we've never been apart. Thank you for being the bestest friend ever!

Danny snapped this shot of his dad at his family's feast. I think it's pretty awesome.


"Craig explains something."

Here is my cherry pie, all ready for the oven. I used this recipe. I ordered organic tart cherries from Northwest Wild Foods and they were amazing. I highly recommend them if you are a cherry snob like me.

My very first cherry pie (I usually stick to cobbler) along with my very first lattice pie crust. I'm very proud of myself!

It was so amazing. So, so amazing.

I also made this huge disappointment.

 I love banana cream pie, but I don't so much enjoy slimy bananas. All the recipes I found have vanilla custard, and sliced bananas, so I had this idea to make banana flavored custard instead, because while I like my bananas on the verge of rotten, my whole family likes them green. (ewww) 

What I didn't know is that cooked bananas turn brown, no matter what you do. So while this pie looks just awful and gross, it's not. It's heavenly.

Must work on this.

My mom put these amazing vintage pillowcases on our bed for us to use, aren't they gorgeous???

We had lunch with Nan, Mike and the boys before we headed out. This little guy is ALL over the place. Hey little man, wait for me!

We were so very naughty while in Utah, we were drinking soda again. Yikes. Here we are, his and hers, toasting to our last ones before boarding the plane.