Lately I have been thinking about how my kids know barely anything about my grandparents, my dad, and my sister Tammy. They all passed away 10 + years ago. To help remedy this problem I’m going to do some memory books. I will of course include important dates, places, and lots of  pictures . I’m really excited to work on this project and hope to get to know my paternal grandparents a little better and help my kids understand what a great man my father was.

A couple of  years I started  making a recipe book of my grandmothers recipes for her posterity to enjoy. I’m almost done typing them all out and began to think about how I was going to get it printed up. I came across this cute recipe book in a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. This recipe book will not work for me on this project but I wanted to share it.

http://www.bhglifeinphotos.com/shop/gifts/recipe_books/counter_recipe_book/

Hogle Zoo is doing free admission days again this year. It is the last Wednesday of each month during the months of November to February. We went last year on the last Weds. in November it was perfect weather and not a huge crowd. I hope for the same this year.

I recently finished reading an interesting book that I discovered via the Travel Channel. Sunk Without a Sound, by Brad Dimmock, is a true story about a newlywed couple that decides to float the Colorado River for their honeymoon in 1928. The wife, Bessie Hyde would have been the first woman to float the whole river, But instead, they disappear, and their boat is found with all their belongings on it. Most of the book proposes theories of what may have happened to the couple.

I mentioned this book to my brother, and he brought up the story of Everett Ruess, an exporing poet in the early 1930’s who disappeared near Escalante Utah. A couple of weeks ago they thought his mystery was solved with the discovery of some human remains, but further DNA testing showed that they were not his. There is a book about Everett Ruess’ disappearance that I’m going to read: A Vagabond for Beauty by W.L. Rusho.

This new fascination I have with adventure mysteries is odd, because normally I’m very fond of resolution. These stories, by their very nature have none, but I enjoy them all the same.

So my blog got hacked and had to be cleaned up and updated before I posted anything new. That really isn’t the real reason that I haven’t blogged in a while. I guess I haven’t had anything to jabber about (even though my husband may say otherwise).  Here are 2 recipes (and some variants) I learned from my mom:

Orange Julius

• 1/2 can of frozen orange juice concentrate
• 6 ice cubes
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Put all ingredients into a blender and mix until the ice is crushed. It is yummy and frothy.

This next recipe is a white sauce recipe. I use it as a base for soups, sauces, creams, and much more. I rarely cook with cream soups anymore.

White Sauce Recipe

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 4 tbsp. flour
• 1 cup milk or more if you need more
• Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter and flour in a sauce  pan over medium heat.  Then slowly add milk  (about 1/4 cup at a time) and stir with a wire whisk until thickened.  Keep adding milk until you get the desired consistency.

This white sauce is yummy on boiled red potatoes, but you can also user this white sauce as a base for your desired sauce or cream.

Here are a few things you can make by adding ingredients to the white sauce base:

Cheese Sauce (yummy on steamed veggies)

1. Use white sauce as a base
2. Remove the white sauce from heat and stir in 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
3. Salt and pepper to taste

Cream Soup Substitute

1. Use white sauce as a base
2. Add  1 1/2 tsp of bouillon
3. Salt to taste

Pot Pie Gravy

1. Use white sauce as a base
2. Add 1 1/2 tsp. bouillon (chicken or beef) depending on what type of pot pie you are making
3. Add veggies and meat

Chicken or Beef Stroganoff

1. Use white sauce as a base
2. Add sautéed onions and garlic
3. Add 1 1/2 tsp. chicken or beef  bouillon
4. Add 1 cup sour cream
5. Add 1/2 cup milk
6. Bring to a boil then turn heat to low
7. Salt and pepper to taste
8. Stir in cooked chicken or beef and pour over noodles.

Right now the Park City Marriott is running a special. Buy one night at $99, get the 2nd night (or 2nd room) for $10.  We took advantage of this special and went last week for one night. It was nice to get out of the house. Here is the link with all the details.

If you are not in Utah, just go to Marriott home page and click on “deals”, then enter your destination and see if they have a deal that appeals to you. Some of the other deals may include gift cards or dining credits.

Barbies were one of my favorite things to play with when I was a little girl. Some of the Barbies I owned were: Astronaut Barbie, The Heart Family, Peaches and Cream, Diva from Barbie and the Rockers, and Great Shape Barbie. What Barbies did you have?

If you go to YouTube you can watch commercials.

We finally got some family pictures taken. I love them. My brother took them in Huntsville. Here are a couple of them:

I have not posted for awhile so I thought I would do a quick update of what is going on. Soccer has been over for a month or so and I have started hiking with people from my neighborhood one night every other week and I absolutely love it. In the winter they are hoping to do snowshoeing. Also I finally got to do a zip line.

This weekend we will go to our 3rd and final family reunion for the year. However, that does not end the family stuff we have going on. We have 3 weddings one each month for the next 3 months and we will welcome 4 new babies between now and November. We are excited to get to know all these people coming into our families.

As for trips we have planned, we will be going to Idaho to visit my sister and then in September we will be going to St.George (Zions) for a couple of days.

One last thing: I want to try to make fried ice cream and homemade granola bars if they turn out good I will blog about it.

A couple of weekends ago we went to a Gunderson family reunion at Riverdale Resort just outside of Preston, Idaho. Riverdale is a hot springs resort with camping, a small motel, and a water slide. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere –completely surrounded by diary farms.

Growing up, my family used to drive past the Riverdale Resort every time we went to Grace, Idaho (the place where my father grew up and where my family would go to visit my Grandpa and Step Grandma). So after the Gunderson family reunion we decided to head over to Grace to see some Blair family history.

Revisiting that old town brought back many memories. Since it is has stayed small, many things are the same when I was visited there as a kid.

Here are pictures of places and things that are of significance to me:

These are the graves of my paternal grandparents. I never met my grandmother.

Not only did my dad go to school here at Grace High, but my mom was hired to teach home-ec here; and that's why she came to Grace and how they eventually met. By then, my dad was fresh of his mission and looking for wife.

This is the house were we would come to visit my grandparents. It only has 2 bedrooms. Whenever we visited, my grandparents would sleep in their trailer and yield the bed to my mom and dad. We kids would sleep on the floor of the front room. The bathroom door had a sliding latch that was really hard to open, so I don't know how many times I got locked in the bathroom. There use to be 2 huge pine trees where the little aspens are now.

My dad worked on this (wooden) pipe one summer, repairing holes.

My daughter played at this park, just a couple blocks away from the house. This is the same slide that I played on when I was kid --only it used to be red.

The giant tires and merry-go-round were still there, but the white pipes have taken the place of multi-colored steel drums.

It’s fun to revisit your roots every once in a while. I highly recommend it!