It's a beautiful Fall evening

What a beautiful evening.

Garden sunflowers...

Garden corn...

Foster Puppy...

Welcome Home!

WELCOME HOME!

Marlin James Scarborough

July 24, 2011 @ 0750

7lbs 2oz, 19in

Radishes!

Radishes! Our first harvest from the backyard garden this season!!!

To Do List

For over a month, updating our blog has been on my"to do" list. Finally, I'm sitting down to check it off.

We spent some time in May getting the garden prepped for planting and getting a few cold hardy things in the ground.

We drove to St. George, Utah to proudly support my friend Tom in his first Iron Man Triathlon. He was AWESOME!!!! He looked great during the entire race and finished in just over 12 hours. It was a very inspiring event.

We hosted a baby shower BBQ in honor of Ryan and Patricia (due in just 5 weeks!!!).

We spent Memorial Day weekend doing the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic for the third year in a row.

Stayed the weekend in Silverton, and can't believe we haven't before! A quick hike, Montanya Rum Distillery, Handlebars Restaurant and friends who are excited to share a $6 pack of fake mustaches. It was a spectacular 3 day weekend.

Dave spent the first few days of June hard at work in our garden planting what will hopefully become a bountiful harvest in a few months.

We planted generally the same crops as last year (minus peas, bush beans, and pumpkin).

New items in the garden this year.... parsnips, radishes, red kuri squash, hopi melon, asian greens, cabbage, kidney beans, black beans, hopi purple beans, edamame, brussle sprouts.

I Wholeheartedly Agree!!!

a delightfully snowy spring break

For the 4th year in a row, my brother and nieces made their way to the West for a spring break skiing vacation. My brother's friend, Kathy and her daughter, Maddie, joined them for the trip.

We basked in the spring sunshine while carving up the slopes of Wolf Creek for three glorious days!

I am so impressed with how good both of my nieces have become at their respective sports (Kailey - skiing, Ashley - snowboarding). It was awesome to see them enjoy the mountain, sun, powder, trees and challenge as much as I do.

Kailey had her first "bowl" experience, earned only after hiking 45 minutes to the top of Alberta Peak. I am so proud of her for doing it!

Only now, I'm a bit worried that it won't be too many

years of skiing/boarding until our roles reverse and my nieces are the ones running ME all over the mountain. Actually, come to think of it... I can't wait :o)

After searching for weeks online for cheap flights to somewhere warm and tropical to spend the second half of spring break, we ended up deciding on Jackson Hole, Wyoming. ... it's not warm... it's not tropical... and we most likely wouldn't even drink margaritas poolside.... but it still sounded good.

Our first day in town was rainy/snowy. We lounged around, watched a movie, took a walk downtown to do some window shopping, and actually enjoyed the weather as our excuse to be lazy. Little did we know until that evening that the mountain received 14 inches of fresh powder!! The next day we were up early to hit the slopes. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is AMAZING!!!! It boasts a vertical drop of over 4,000 feet with 50% of trails marked as "expert". They received 538 inches of snow this season (and we thought Wolf Creek was the bomb with 360 inches!!). We have never rode anything like this place, and we are counting down the days until we can go back.

We spent a day checking out breathtaking views at Grand Teton National Park. We stuffed our faces with delicious food at Calico and Snake River Brewing, played bingo at the Elks, and just enjoyed the scene in Jackson. It might even have been better than the beach!

Curds!

Back-to-back weekends spent at home allowed me to finally make my first batch of mozzarella cheese and can some luscious lemon and lime curd!

Patricia and I were so amazed that the cheese making adventure actually produced stringy, delicious cheese, that we didn't even stop between mouth watering bites to take pictures (but next time I will...). We are already daydreaming of warm summer nights with fresh cheese, tomatoes and basil. YUM!

Something about this week's warmer weather tricked me into thinking spring (as it also tricked a few flower bulbs sending green sprouts up to greet us), and mouth puckering citrus fruits.

I decided to make lemon curd and lime curd, using the recipe in "Put 'em Up".

Each batch made 3 half pint jars plus another 1/2 jar extra (for immediate consumption of course).

The result - WOW!!!! I never knew how easy to make and amazingly, decadent and luscious lemon/lime curd could be! While making it, I found myself wondering what baked goods I could make to put the curd on... but now I know, it will probably all be eaten straight from the jar, with nothing but a spoon!!! Citrus heaven!

(the pictures aren't the best, but I thought I would post them anyway)

This past weekend was the Mt. Taylor Quad. The Quad is a relay, team or individual event that includes 42 miles of racing from Grants, NM to the peak of Mt. Taylor (11,301 ft). 13 mile bike, 5 mile run, 2 mile cross-country ski, 1 mile snowshoe UP the mountain, then we turn around and race back down. I was the running leg of our relay team. I think we all felt it was a tough race since none of us really prepared for it...and the wind was gusting at over 30 mph... but we did earn 2nd place in our age group for a mixed team relay and 8th

overall (out of 36 total relay teams). Way to go team Contingent-C!

This picture is of the bike-run transition (Ryan - Me). Nice action shot!

The view of the peak from the bike-run transition.... it seems so far away.

In other news, earlier last week, while I was in Tucson for a work meeting, Dave was at home watching our utility company and maintenance men repair a frozen/busted water pipe in our front yard. UGH!

Despite the lack of recent snowfall, Dave and I decided it was completely pathetic that we had only been snowboarding once this season, and took off to Telluride and Rico for the weekend.

Our hearts grew heavier by the passing mile as we drove through Colorado... Cortez - no snow, Dolores - no snow, Stoner - no snow, Rico - at last - a few flurries in the air.

The forecast called for 30% chance of snow with little to no accumulation... but once we hit Lizard Head Pass and continued into Telluride, there were a inches on the ground and heavy snowfall! YES!!!!!!!! The Snow Gods blessed us with over 6 inches of fresh powder (10 inches by day's end)! WHOOO HOOOO!!!!!

We had another fabulous dinner at the Rico's Argentine Grill, relaxed in the hot tub, then headed home Sunday.

We stopped by a friend's house in Red Mesa to watch the first half of the Super Bowl but did some exploring in his "backyard" before hand. The Mesa is beautiful, with 360 degree views... and the obligatory impromptu trash dump.

After seeing this old sign... I thought twice about drinking the water....

Happy Birthday to Me! Rez style...

I knew that my co-worker Terry had a You-Tube video of how to sing Happy Birthday in Navajo.... but it wasn't until just this past weekend that I actually looked it up.

Here it is :o) Happy Birthday to Me!

2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!