Loaf Love

I recently purchased this:

so I could get some more foods in the rotation for Clark. Aside from the frosting I made for his birthday cupcakes, my first recipe attempt was the Potato Bread. It took a lot of preparation, time, and dishes, but it turned out great! errr...ignoring the scorched top, but that won't happen next time. Clark won't eat potatoes in anything else I've tried but he WILL eat this bread. In fact, he says "ooooo!" every time I give him some. Steve and I also like it.

As I was making this loaf, looking at all the strange ingredients on my counter, preparing my egg-replacer slurry, making sure all the right things were at the right temperatures, it reminded me of my days in Organic Chemistry Lab. If I've ever had any practical application for that class, despite working as a Chemical Engineer for 5+ years, this would be it. 

August End

The rest of our Utah weekend at the end of August included:

sports

 visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house in progress

 learning to drive a digger

coveting my brother's enormous garden

 playing with toys, toys, and more toys

 making cheesy faces for pictures and spending time with cousins

Between all his cousins and their toys Clark was in heaven all weekend.

I Love to See Brigham City

and the new temple there! We went to the open house with my parents back in August. Clark got to go too, which meant I saw a lot of the flooring in the temple because 1) I couldn't stop looking at how cute those tiny feet looked in booties and 2) those tiny bootied feet were pretty active and I had to make sure they weren't getting too far away!  

We walked around a bit of the temple grounds afterward where we met the friendliest little bird that let even a curious little boy touch it.

While in Brigham City we indulged in burgers at Maddox where Grandpa taught Clark how to use his shirt as a napkin. Grandpa...

Steve also picked up a bag of food souvenirs in the form of peaches. Between the three of us we ate the whole bag--except 3 or 4--during our weekend trip.

High School Reunion

I went to my first high school class reunion a few weeks ago. It was a casual get-together at North Canyon Park in Bountiful. It was fun to catch up with everyone that was there and meet their cute families, though I wish more people had been able to attend. 

After the reunion we swung over to Nielsen's for some frozen custard. I've had a gift certificate for a free cone there since graduation (thanks Megan's mom!) that I've forgotten to use for the past 11 years so it was totally fitting that I finally redeemed it on reunion day.  so much high school nostalgia...

FAAN Walk 2012

Last night as I was cleaning out the pantry and came across some sample packs of Sunbutter I had the thought to find out when the Houston FAAN (Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) Walk would be held this year. Turns out, it was today! I found out in the nick of time. Instead of our usual walk at the park I took Clark downtown this morning to attend the allergy walk. Steve couldn't make it since, ironically, he was working at the Houston Food Bank.

We each got a ribbon when we registered: blue for food-allergic and green for no allergies. Our walk was kicked off and led by local news anchor Dominique Sachse on the back of a Toyota Tundra. (This is Texas, so no surprise with the truck.)

Clark entertained himself on our 2-mile, sunny and way-too-hot walk with a fan, not to be confused with FAAN. hee, hee...

We visited all the vendor booths before and after the walk. We even got to say hello to Clark's allergist. Clark was fascinated with all the blow-up toys but wouldn't set foot in the bounce house or obstacle courses. If you look real close, you can see a tiny picture of my belly below:

We came home with t-shirts, and samples and coupons (yess!!) a-plenty. It's my once-a-year price break on "Top 8-Free" foods. 

Although I don't necessarily celebrate food allergies, I think it's great to celebrate the kids that have them. Hooray for FAAN and that they hold events like these.