Thomas is 11!!!

Thomas turned 11 on Saturday, but with family out of town, we decided to wait until tonight to celebrate.  He asked for this Reese's Cup Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake and I was happy to oblige.  The recipe will be up in a couple of weeks on my recipe blog, Mormon Mavens.

The finished cake....that frosting is SUBLIME!!!

Oooohhhhh....pretty candles.....

How to Train Your Dragon, book 2....and Despicable Me....SCORE!!!

Oh, and he also received a letter from Hogwart's.  You know, once you turn 11 you can go to wizarding school.  Dumbledore (Audrey) wrote it himself and sealed it with real wax.  I hear it was delivered by an owl, but I can't confirm that.

Recipe Blog

Gotta put a quick plug in for the recipe blog I started with a bunch of great ladies.  It's called Mormon Mavens in the Kitchen.  We just started a couple of weeks ago, but we are starting to build up a nice collection of recipes.  Go check it out.  Parts of the blog are still under construction, so pardon our dust!

Adventures in the Mountains!!

Beautiful, beautiful Aspen Grove!  Here are some pics from our latest adventures.

At the campfire show.....score on the free BYU basketball and football!

Aspen Follies....Finlaysons in our bright green family reunion shirts.

Aspen Follies....Lots of families competing.

Aspen Follies.....Melanie in action.

Aspen Follies....Danny, Jake, and Emma poking up through the tarp.

Aspen Follies.....and Thomas too!

Aspen Follies....that is one big beach ball.

Aspen Follies.....the human treadmill.

Aspen Follies....preparing for the next game.

Austin waiting to climb.

Austin climbing the log.

Getting ready for the rock wall.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Almost there.

YES!!

On the high ropes course (I'm using my zoom lens here).

Doesn't he look so nonchalant? 

CW = Cat Woman.  Okay.

Austin waiting to repel down.

Introducing.....the reason I have no stills of Austin repelling!  Thomas was up next on the climbing tower so I ran over there while Rick taped Austin's repel. 

Emma's turn.

Look at that flexibility.  She did NOT get that from me.

And then suddenly, she climbed horizontally!!!!  What a woman!!  Also, the trees grow horizontally in that particular area.

To the top!

"Hey, I climbed that!"

High Adventure!!

Austin got to do the high ropes course today for the first time. He did really well. He climbed up a hanging log that had footholds in it. Then he climbed from that point up a rock wall. The next part was a ropes course of high wires he had to walk....tree to tree, switching your caribeeners (sp?) at each tree. After that he repelled down.

My new friend

Hanging out with Henry at an outdoor water fountain during church. This boy walks up and tells me he's seen weeds as big as the rock I'm sitting on. Says his cousin can probably lift me (I like this kid). Then says, "you wanna be friends?". He then spends several minutes telling me about his family. Tells me he's gotta go sit with his family and, turning to leave, says, "I have a trick for making friends. I just used it on you. Just so you know. "

8 yr old Andrew, you just made my Sabbath!

i sent this from my iPhone.

New Blog Name?

Thinking of changing the blog name to Fashion Forward Finlaysons. Yeah. That works.

Emma and Thomas Make a Movie

They've been having a fun time with their camera.  My favorite part is when Emma says, "Have fun dyin!"  You can't hear them very well at times (my kids are horrible mumblers).  But it has its funny moments.  I'll spare you the sequel, which is longer and not as funny as the first.  I guess that's true of most sequels, though.