Zucchini Bread

One of my favorite breads to cook in the summer is Zucchini Bread.  I got this wonderful recipe from a girl I worked with in North Carolina.  I think it was her Mom's recipe that she got from a friend.  It is INCREDIBLE!!  I can eat 2 small loaves by myself.  I grow a lot of zucchini in the summer and this bread is perfect because you can freeze it.

Here is the recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

Grease and flour (very important to flour the pan) the pan.  Either two 8 loaf individual loaf pans or 2  9" x 5" loaf pans

3 eggs

1 cup salad oil ( I use olive oil)

2 cups sugar ( or less if you want)

2 tsp vanilla

Beat eggs until they are foamy and thick.  Then add other ingredients.

Stir in:

            2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini 

            1 can (8&1/2 oz) crushed pineapple ( do not drain juice)

Combine and stir in:

            3 cups flour

            2 tsp soda

            1/2 tsp baking powder

            1&1/2 tsp cinnamon

            3/4 tsp nutmeg

            1/4 tsp ground cloves

            1 cup chopped nuts

Bake for 30 minutes if making individual loaves and 50-60 minutes for a whole loaf.  Time might needed to be adjusted for your oven.

Hope you really enjoys these.  I know I do!

Into the Wild

This past week we had family come up from TN!!  I was really happy to see them and we had lots of stuff planned to do.  One of the most exciting things that happened was we decided to ride out the Stampeade Trail.  The Stampeade Trail is the road  Christopher McCandless went down and died.  If you don't know about his story you can read about it by clicking his name or reading the book Into the Wild.  It's a pretty amazing story.

Anyway, we couldn't go down the whole way because of a river AND we were told the road was so bad that Gabe's big truck wouldn't make it so we decided to go take a look at this lake.

You can kind of see the road we attempted to drive on.  I say attempted because this is what happened.

Leslie and my attempt at mad faces!  Both of us were trying really hard not to laugh.

There were the clumps of grass that you thought were solid ground that just disintergrated into water!  That's one reason we got stuck.  Plus the tundra is like walking in a bouncy house.  It's really soft and you really get no traction.  Why we tried this road I have no idea.  Oh yea I do, everyone wanted to go but me.  The boys said we would have no problem.  They were obviously wrong!  I even got to say I told you so.  If you know Gabe that doesn't happen too often.  Haha! 

Poor Leslie even tried to help dig it out.

When we got stuck you couldn't even open the passenger doors without getting them stuck in the tundra.  Lucky for us there was a guy with a jeep that helped pull us out and gave us a shovel to dig  out.  By us I mean Gabe and Jackson.  I didn't dig but Leslie dug with a stick while the boys tried to find someone to help us out.  

We (the boys) had to fill the hole with rocks to try and give the tire some traction.  The whole ordeal lasted less than two hours but with a cranky two year old that wanted to help Daddy it felt like a whole lot longer.  Can I just say I tried to tell the hubby he wouldn't make it?!?  I'm smart that way!   The hubby loved it though. I'm pretty sure Jackson had fun too. This is where Gabe seems to be the happiest.  Just getting out into nature and seeing what happens.  I like to get into nature too but I don't like to get stuck.  

After this experience I learned that Alaska is a big and different place.   The ground is so much different than it is back in MS or TN.  It is a gorgeous place, I mean gorgeous, but you can get in a tight spot in an instant, as we found out!  

The rocks.

Thank goodness it wasn't raining or too cold but it was windy so the girls are glad we had on long underwear!

Hope you all had a good weekend exploring nature and maybe even getting stuck!

P.S.  We rented a fish eye lens and played around with it.  It can take some pretty interesting photos.  More on that later.

Anniversary Picnic

Eight years of marriage goes by surprisingly fast, especially when you spend almost half that time apart.  It's been a crazy eight years.  We have lived in five states and survived two year long deployments.  I wouldn't trade the past eight years for anything.  We have found out how strong our marriage really is.  I learned Gabe will stand by me through it all and I with him.  I am in love with him more now than when we first fell in love.  He still gives me butterflies when he kisses me.  I'm a lucky girl!

Anyway, enough with the sweet stuff!  For our anniversary we went on a picnic to the botanical gardens! It was such a beautiful day we didn't want to be stuck inside.   I packed a bag of munchies and we were off!  A good friend of ours watched the little man for us so we could have us time.  I made homemade pesto and strawberry-jalapeno jam, and beer bread.  

Gabe being silly!

Doesn't that look great!

YUM!

The rest of the snacks I bought.  We have summer sausage and cheese, olives and habenero- pickled garlic (you really need to try it!)   Simple but good food was the theme of the night.  We are pretty low maintenance when it comes to food.  

After we ate, Gabe sent me on a scavenger hunt for my present!  This is how he always gives me a present.  It's become a tradition and I love it!

Fist clue

Do you see the clue?

Last one

My present!

This was probably the best anniversary date we have had.  I really love this man and our life together.

Hope y'all have a good week!  

   

Sensory Play!

Since I am now a stay-at-home Mom, I have decided I need to make playtime learning time.  Yesterday we decided to play with water beads.

 I just put little sea creatures I found at Joanne's in a plastic bin with the water beads and let him play.  The floor did get really messy but it was just water.  That's easy to clean.

Let me tell you I love then and so does the little guy.

Hope y'all have a good weekend!

WEIO

The hubby and I decided to check out WEIO one night when it was going on.  We had a really good time.  WEIO stands for World Eskimo-Indian Olympics.  Native Americans compete in traditional activities, such as ear pull, blanket toss and high kick.  Check out their website and you can learn all about it.  It was every interesting.  Here are a few pictures of the night we went.  We got to see the baby parade and high kick.  The little G-man loved it!

We also got to watch traditional dancing.

This is one of the young ladies competing in the Miss WEIO competition.

This was a Native American from Arizona who came up to watch.

The Baby March!

The High Kick

I decided to video the dancing.  This is an elder in the tribe.

Seward, AK for Gabe's birthday and Father's Day!

Let me start out by saying Seward, Alaska is a beautiful place.  The snow-capped mountains set against the ocean is AMAZING!  We got to take a six hour wildlife viewing cruise that was pretty spectacular.  Humpback whales, seals, sea lions, porpoises are just a few of the animals we got to see.   Not to mention the glaciers!  When I look at nature up here I can't help but be in awe of God.  You can't look around this state and not see it.

I'm not going to write a lot about it.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  They aren't the best pictures but they will always help me remember the good times spent in Alaska. 

Car ride down

Don't really know what this was but it looked really cool.

Potty training meant the ride was longer but it also meant we could get good pictures to embarrass him when he is older!

 These pictures we took while we driving.  The scenery was incredible.

Helping Daddy set up the tent

Campfire food!

Wasn't ready for how cold it got at night

The sun never sets.  It's 11pm and still light as the middle of the day!

Gabe is the cook when we go camping.

Such a cool dude.

I don't understand having a sail boat when its so cold.

Sea otters

Told you the scenery was beautiful.

Puffins!

Bald eagle.  I should have cropped it.

Somebody was sleepy!

Harbor seal

Grayson loved it when the ice fell from the glacier.

The blue color of the glacier was so pretty!  I wish we had had better lighting.

Porpoises that loved to race beside the boat.

The map may have been his favorite part.

Humpback what tail!

Such a tired baby.  Camping wore him out!