A while back I posted that the Park City Marriott had special. It is back. When you book a room you can either choose a second night or a second room for $10. We split the cost with another family. If you go with kids request a poolside room when you check in. This is a great stay-cation idea. Here are the details.

Right now when you open a kids account with Mountain America Credit Union you can get a kids and adults annual pass to the Living Planet Aquarium. Here is more information.

Here are 3 salad recipes we really like at our house:

Chicken Bow Tie Salad from Cooking Light

• 3  cups  uncooked farfalle (bow tie pasta) (about 8 ounces)
• 1/3  cup  fresh orange juice
• 1/4  cup  fresh lemon juice
• 2  tablespoons  extravirgin olive oil
• 1  tablespoon  stone-ground mustard
• 2  teaspoons  sugar
• 1 1/4  teaspoons  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  rice vinegar
• 2  cups  shredded cooked chicken breast (about 2 breasts)
• 1 1/2  cups  seedless red grapes, halved
• 1  cup  thin diagonally cut celery
• 1/3  cup  finely chopped red onion
• 1/3  cup  coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
• 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh chives
• 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh parsley

I finally made the fried ice cream I talked about forever ago. It was really yummy but not very pretty looking. I made the mistake of using a shallow pan to fry the ice cream in. I added some coconut and graham cracker to the recipe:

This is my most recent project. It is a quilt for my son. I have had a lot of fun working on it after the kids go to bed.

One day I got thinking about all the different kinds of meats I have eaten, mostly on my mission in Florida. Yes, when it comes to eating bizarre foods, Bear Grylls has got me beat. But still…

Goat – I ate this in Florida with jerk spice. One of the Jamaican church members made it for us. They would jerk the goat to make the meat taste better.

Haggis -  A Scottish ward member served this to us. He didn’t tell us what is was until after we ate some. It didn’t taste too bad. but it’s gross to think what it’s actually made out of. I think he snuck it through customs just so we could try it.

Frog Legs and Alligator – I ate these in Florida as well. The frog legs tastes like chicken. One of the ward members was a hunter, and every year he would cook his killings and serve them up.

Moose and Caribou- Once upon a time I went out on a date with a kid from Alaska. At the time, I had a huge obsession with moose.  Well, he found out about this and cooked me a Valentines breakfast that included moose and caribou. It was a nice gesture, but I should have explained that I mostly liked to look at them, not eat them. 

As a side note, I realize that some this might not be entirely captivating, but it’s fun for me to think back on things; and recording it gives me some semblance of personal history. Hopefully one day my kids or grandkids will understand me a little better from what they read about me.

I made a piñata for my daughters b-day.  It was both fun and easy, so I thought I’d made a list of instructions in case others could benefit from it. For simplicity, I chose to do a “hot air balloon” piñata. I used a 9″ balloon.

1. Make some papier-mâché paste.
2. Apply a layer of  1′ wide shredded newspaper and paste to cover the entire balloon, then let it dry for 24 hours.
3. Apply another layer, this time covering a 6 ‘ piece of wire with a loop exposed at the top so so the piñata can hang from a rope.
4. Repeat this process 3 or 4 times, then pop the balloon at the bottom and cut a hole in the bottom to put the candy in.
5. After filling it half full with candy, wad up a piece of newspaper and stick it in the hole to act as a stopper. Optionally tape over it to keep it in place.
6. Paint it with acrylic paint. I used a kids craft paint, but I wouldn’t really recommend it.
7. Use a sour cream or yoghurt tub for the basket. I mâchéd over it for easier painting, but I probably wouldn’t have had to do that if I had been using a better paint.
8. Punched a few holes near the top of the basket then attach it to the balloon.

This is a very easy project, and each layer of mâché only took me 10 minutes to complete. Just remember that you need to have about 24 hours to dry between layers.

I got another purse idea from Country Living magazine.  Here are the simple directions. My wonderful mom sewed the handle on and put a lining in it for me.

In a past post talked about my interest in non-fiction adventure mysteries. Well, there was a story on the  Backpacker magazine blog that caught my attention. There is controversy over who summited  Mt.Everest first. Mallory or Hilary?  Hilary gets the credit because he made it home to tell the story. However, Mallory died somewhere near the summit. According to this blog post a historian has been looking at satellite images of  an area of  Mt. Everest where Mallory  climbing partner body was possibly seen years ago by hikers. He  thinks he has located the body in the satellite images. This spring he will be hiking to see if they find the camera that may have pictures of Mallory on the summit. It will be interesting to see if this mystery is solved.

Here is the full post:

http://www.backpacker.com/mallory_irvine_everest_body/blogs/daily_dirt/1623

There is a PBS Nova that talked about the Everest summit controversy.

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.