Leaving Home....

Once upon a time there was a sweet little baby girl...

who grew up way too fast...   

and decided to go to college far away from home!

One day (August 7th to be precise), it was time leave home.

She said her goodbyes to the dog and the house and we all piled into our very full van.

Over the course of a couple of days, we trekked about 1500 miles and arrived to the land of her father's hometown...Denver, Colorado!  

We spent a day with Glen's long lost brothers, including Ryan....

his dad and brother Kurt, whom he hadn't seen in over ten years.  

We spent time with Glen's mom...

and just enjoyed spending time with this branch of the family we don't see anywhere near as often as we'd like.

It was only the beginning of our adventures of dropping our Cami Rose off to BYU...

but it was a great way to get started.   

Stay tuned for lots more adventures in the West!  

Priceless!

Baseball Tickets:  $15

Parking:  $20 

Ballpark dinner for 3: $50

Cute pink Nats hat:  $5

Baseball:  free after the ballgirl passed it to her 

Out-of-this-world smile:  Priceless!   

Family Gathering

When we moved to the DC area 15-1/2 years ago, young and naive,  most people assumed that we didn't know a soul.   Really, though, our family's ties to this area run pretty deep.   Glen's parents were both born in Washington, DC and Glen's mom even graduated from the same high school as Spencer and Cami.   When we moved here, we had Glen's paternal grandparents living nearby, as well as three aunts and their families.     

The Crain side wasn't represented yet, but they soon changed that as well.   Over the course of that decade and a half that we've lived here, we've had all of my seven siblings do at least a short stint living in the area.   Four of them have settled down and made it their home.    

My side of the family is pretty tight knit and we see each other pretty regularly.   Glen's family, however, is another story.   When Grandma was alive, we used to get together with them a couple times a year.  Since she passed away a few years ago, it's been a much less frequent occasion and we miss seeing them as much.  So when Glen's aunt hosted a cousins' get-together a couple weeks ago, we  were excited to go!  

↑↑↑ This was all the Goold cousins except Glen's five siblings and Stephanie.   ↑↑↑

There were kids galore...

and lots of activities to keep them busy 

for the young...

and the old.   

It was fun spending time with some of the younger generation...

There was some serious adorableness going on there...

and I couldn't get enough of this smiley little sweetie-pie!  

My girls were excited to get their fill of baby-loving while they were there!  

Cami's the cousin once-removed in this picture, but Jane and Jill are much closer to her  age than Glen is!

Danny and Jeff had a little impromptu jam-session going on that was fun to listen to!  I knew that musicality ran in the Goold side of the family, but I had no idea how talented they were! 

This little cutie, Tristan, was very impressive!  He is barely two, but can name every single one of the animals in this set....in English and in Farsi!    And I'm not just talking dog, cat, cow...  He says daschund, polar bear, jaguar, etc.  

We all really enjoyed the time we spent together that day and it was great to reconnect.  They may mostly live in the DC area, but we definitely don't see them often enough!  

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Scouting Adventures

Adam is well in the throes of the scouting program now.   He's finished several merit badges now and has been to scout camp... 

on longish hikes, and campouts in the cold.    

And why do we have so many pictures of him away from home?  

It's because the photographer is Glen.  

He was recently called to work with the deacons in our ward...

and he will now be at all these fun scouting activities with Adam!   

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How am I doing in my quest to create the most boring blog in the universe?   

Word on the street says I have it in the bag!  

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Pioneer Day Picnic

One of the things I love about my friend, Rachel, besides the fact that she's an awesome mom, a great listener, someone who also loves photography, baking, and blogging, is that she's good at making things happen.  While I only daydream about planning fun social activities with our friends, she actually goes the distance and makes it happen!

Take this Pioneer Day picnic at the park...

She made the decision to do it in the first place... 

did all the advertising for it...

and planned all of the activities.   

It turned out to be a great way to celebrate our pioneer ancestors' sacrifices and to be reminded why it's such a blessing to have great friends in our lives.

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Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Everywhere!

If someone were to track our family's grocery purchases over a period of time, they would end up pretty  confused.  On the one hand, we buy spinach, carrots, chia seeds, avocados, quinoa, and bell peppers by the bucketload.    I've even had to scold my girls for using a few healthy items too quickly because of the expense (like coconut oil and nuts).  On the other hand though, in the past few weeks we've plowed through 20-lbs. of butter, several quarts of whipping cream, 2 Costco size containers of vanilla, over 15-lbs. of cream cheese, pounds and pounds of flour and sugar, and countless dozens of eggs.  

No, we don't deep fat fry all of our spinach leaves in butter....

What we have is two teenage girls who are walking incongruities.    

Emma and Cami both love to bake sugary goodies with everything that they are, BUT themselves eat zero sugar, few grains, and loads of nuts, fruits, and vegetables.    And since they don't eat their own goodies, guess who ends up being their frosting sampler to make sure the flavor/consistency are good....me!     

Recently Cami had an order for 20-dozen cupcakes and a cake topper for a wedding.   

I was a little nervous when she said that she'd accepted the job to make a cake topper, since her specialty is definitely cupcakes and not cakes.  

But she did an absolutely beautiful job.   

The order overwhelmed our house a bit (the chairs were to keep Rocky from getting at them)...

but she pulled it off without a hitch!  

The display was absolutely gorgeous (as was the cupcake baker)! 

Shortly after we finished cleaning up from that order, Cami hosted a cupcake camp at our house.  

It was mainly 12-year-old girls who were part of the camp...

They did a lot of baking over the course of the week...

and I think it was a smashing success by all accounts.   

They each got to bake cupcakes on their own and decorate them on their own as well.   It was a delight to see their creativity in action!  

It did give Cami a  little boost into her college fund...

but more than anything I think she was mostly excited to share her love of baking with the next generation!  

Speaking of which....with Cami at college, Emma is now poised to take over the cupcake business.   She's been a faithful assistant to Cami over the years and she is ready to take the reins now!  

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