Eastern Idaho State Fair

On Monday, even though it was raining earlier and a colder than usual day, we decided to go to the Fair for dinner. We had fun as always and the lines were much smaller than usual. My brother Chad came with us and we met up with Melanie (my sister) and Greg. We ate more than any person ever should, but isn't that one of the best parts of the fair!?!

Here is a list of food we enjoyed:
bimbo burger
pronto pup (aka corn dog)
tortatoes
carmel apple
funnel cake
teriyaki chicken bowl
raspberry yogurt
sugar almonds

What is your favorite food at the fair?
After dinner, we went to the hypnotist show. Thank you Justin and Amber for the great parking!

This past weekend we went Huckleberry Picking!


The first time I had ever done this was with Ben’s family and I have loved it ever since. They make the BEST shakes ever and usually one time picking will give us a years worth of GREAT shakes! Ben and I have decided that this is now our tradition to go at least once a year! The week before we went we would tell people that we were going picking on Labor day weekend and everyone told us we were too late and nothing was left, but little do they know that we have a secret (sacred to us) spot that always has huckleberries waiting just for us! YUM, YUM, YUM!!!

In the past we have always made it a day trip, but this year we decided it would be fun to camp overnight. The Horsley’s joined us and we ended up leaving 2 hours later than we had planned, but decided to go anyway and it was still fun. We arrived at camp in the dark and had to set up camp and cook dinner. The Horsley’s brought their Bellagio Hotel (aka tent the size of our garage- if only I had a picture!) and we set up our little tent. We ate Dutch Oven Pizza at midnight !

The next morning we had some breakfast, Chad, Lesa, and family joined us, and we started picking, or everyone else started picking. Bees have infested the mountain this year and were everywhere and really liked me for some reason. I ended up getting stung TWO times and I have never been stung before in my life. Needless to say, I wasn’t a very productive picker for a little while. (the only thing I can figure out is that they like baby wipe smell which I had washed my hands with or else they like the smell of bacon that I had cooked for breakfast) Meisha also got stung in the mouth trying to catch them like she does other bugs.

Eli didn’t like picking at first because we were on a hill and it was hard for him to get around, but he like the huckleberries so we just kept feeding them to him, then about half way through picking he figured out what we were doing and I could sit him next to a bush full of them and he would sit their picking them off and eating them. With each berry he got into his mouth we would hear him say “Mmmmm.”

We left early afternoon to get home for the BYU game that night.
Eli loved helping me unpack so that he could get into the suitcase! He gets to be more and more fun to have around as his personality shines through.

Eli’s Birthday Pictures; August 17, 2008! We had a fun day and a big family party. (I had forgotten just how big both sides of the family are until they are all together.) Eli totally scored when it came to presents! I think my nephew Koy said it just right when he said, “Eli, you are sooo Lucky. ” Thanks everyone for coming and for the presents! Eli with Cake Blowing out the candles or watching us blow them out for him… Baseball Cake Cupcakes Eli- the clean eater. He ate his cupcake like a pro and only got messy when we gave him the ice-cream. Eli all messy Matching Cousins (Eli and Ty) All the boy cousins helping open presents. My parents were serving at the visitors center the night of Eli's Birthday so we had his Birthday dinner on Monday with Grandma and Grandpa Murdock. How lucky- 2 days of Birthday!

August is now past and here I am trying to catch up once again. I have been a slacker in the blogging world, so I have a lot of posting to make up.

The first three weeks of August was one reunion after another. It was fun, but also nice to have things back to normal (if that is really possible). I already posted about the first reunion, so here are the 2nd and 3rd.
The Gregg Manwaring Family Reunion
This started out with a temple session at the Idaho Falls temple. This was great! It is always fun to go to the temple with family. (Although as a side note I wouldn’t suggest the 6:00pm session on a Friday night! It was packed, plus I think I heard 11 weddings the next day- everyone wanted 8/08/08 to be their wedding anniversary!)
The next day we headed to Heise and enjoyed a day of Swimming. The boys went golfing. Eli went down the water slide 3 times and didn’t even cry! He loved it as long as we kept his head out of the water at the end!
The Boys Golfing Swimming Good food the whole weekend! Fun games!
Great Job planning the reunion Brandon & Emily! It was a lot of fun! Can’t wait to see what Natalie plans next year!

The Frank Murdock Reunion (our third weekend in August)
It was fun to get all my family together. It has been a whole year since we last had everyone together! We had a talent show one morning. Here are a few of the acts. I know I missed a few pictures- oops!
Puppet Show Singing Skits Star wars action scene Hula Hoop Jokes Magic Tricks Touching your nose with your tongue
That night we had a Drive-In- Movie Theatre(thanks to Daren’s projector and sound equip). Mom set up the play house to be the concession stand where we all loaded up on treats, drinks, and popcorn and then the kids went and sat in their “cars” (Boxes) that they had decorated earlier that day. We all loved it! The next night we had Uncle Don & Aunt Kathy come and show us their pictures and fun clothes they have from their trip to the Holy Land recently. And last… we can’t forget the fun we had with the bubbles and the lollipop tree! The lollipop Fairy is a tradition that my mom remembers having as a little girl. The Fairy only comes on the last day of a get together and only if the children are good. Then if the kids are good they go as a group singing the “Lollipop Song” and search to see if the Fairy left lollipops on the tree. She always leaves them in a different place. The kids really love it!

Try-It-Tuesday (If you have a recipe and would like to share, post it and link it to Elena's Blog)

Basic Pound Cake from Mix

1 pkg plain yellow cake mis (18oz)
Small Box Instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup whole milk(I used 2% and it worked great)
1 cup oil
4 large eggs

325, center rack, grease and flour pan. Mix ingredients low speed for 1 min, scrape, then med speed for 2 min. Cook time varries, go by the yellow cake mix box.
This make a really moist cake and it is really easy!

SCION Computers - Front page news in the River City Weekly A week ago Benjamin was interviewed and last Thursday they published the article and it was front page!! Go Ben!