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Monday, June 29, 2009

Here's what we've been up to!

The next 3 posts is some of what we've been up to in the last week or two!

So... IT'S OFFICIAL! I have signed up to take cake decorating classes. I've been wanting to find something that I can do that includes creativity, imagination and working with my hands. I've finally found what i want to do! I won't be quitting my day job, I'll mostly just do cakes as a side. But I have signed up for Wilton Cake Decorating classes at Michael's. Me and a few girls at work will be starting the classes this Friday. There are 3 courses. Each course is every Tuesday night (with the exception of the very first one since I'll be in Arizona.) for one month. So I'll complete the first course in July, the second in August and the third in September. I'll be learning skills such icing cakes, baking and forming cake. I'll also learn lots of techniques like boarders, flowers, writing, tiered cakes, fondant, basket weave and wedding cake assembly.
I'm really really excited! I think this is going to be something that I'll love! So this weekend I did a practice run. Our friend Ryan came home from his mission in Spain. So i took advantage of the occasion and decided to make him a cake. I can make cakes from the box... that's easy. But this weekend i decided to make a cake from scratch. So on Friday I made a white cake and then on Saturday i made butter cream icing. At 8:30 on Saturday i sat down at my kitchen table to begin icing a cake. Next thing i know, I'm done with the cake and it is 11:45 pm! It took me forever!

I'll admit, I'm a perfectionist. I like things to look nice and be done right. My mom came over for moral support and finally had to tell me "Emily, you will not be able to make cakes if you can't live with some imperfections." So i started to deal with them and just tried to do the best that i knew how. I think it turned out pretty good for being my very 1st cake.
Before...

During... Right here you can see a paper towel covering the other third of the cake. I did this to create straight lines. I just took toothpicks and pinned the paper towel down and then when i lifted it up it formed a perfectly straight line!

Here is the icing all put on! I tucked wax paper under the edges of the cake so that i wouldn't get frosting all over the board.
Here's the finished product! For some reason i couldn't get this picture turned the other way, SORRY!
Here's the edging that i put around the cake. I totally winged that one, i didn't know what i was doing but it turned out pretty good!
In the end, here are all the dishes it took me to make one cake! Haha, Except for the strainer, and pot, I used those for macaroni and cheese. I'll keep everyone updated on the cakes to come!!

Batting Cages

Last Monday for "Family Night" :) Me, Justin, Lindsay & Justin and Steve all went to the batting cages. We all had fun, and we were practicing cause we might put together a softball team. I thought we all did exceptionally well!

Justin, Steve & Lindsay
Justin waiting for his turn
Steve-O
Ready for action!
Action Shot!
Hopefully we'll make a good team :)

Yuba Lake

On June 20th - 21st me, Justin and my little brother Kyle went down to Yuba lake with Justin's boss' family, The Hanson's. We had so much fun camping and boating but we did get A LOT of rain. But when it wasn't raining, we were out on the lake. Here are some pictures of all the fun:

Dean & Tamie's (Justin's boss & wife) truck & boat. Tom & Sherri's (Tamie's Mom & Dad) motor home.

The Crew!

Dean & Chad cooking breakfast!Yum, Ky... :0)

Charlie & Austin (2 of Dean's kids)

Dawson (Dean's youngest)

Kyle & Dawson playing Lacross

Kyle & Holden getting ready for boating!

Justin hanging out in the cuddy of the boat

"Aunt" Sherri (Tamie's Mom)Sherri & Mercedes (Tracy & Roy's daughter)

Roy attempting to wake board.

Tracy, Mercedes & Lucas

Tracy & Roy

Dean jumping the wake!

Hayden (Dean's son). This is his first time water skiing! He did so good, he got up on his first time and stayed above the water but he skid his bum across the water the whole time. He didn't really understand that he needed to stand up but still keep his legs a little bent. :0)

My hott husband jumping the wake :)

Me getting ready to water ski!

We had such a great time! We love spending time with the Hanson's. This is our second trip with them this year, I'm sure more will come! Thanks Hanson's for letting us join in!

Me & Charlie

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Brets Cabin

This last weekend we went to Bret's cabin for Bret & Lindsay's birthday! We had tons of fun! This is how it went:

Friday Night started with this:
Then This:
This is the loft up in the attic (AKA: Narnia or Burmuda's Triangle)
After that we had pillow talk...
...and Justin wanted his hair braided.
Then we went on a night time four-wheeler ride: On Saturday we got up and went on a 40 mile ride out to Lyman Lake. We fished but didn't catch anything and I didn't get any pictures :( We had tons of fun but we also had some troubles. We were riding along and all the sudden bret gets something stuck in his tire. So we stopped and a huge bolt about 1/2 inch around was stuck in the tire with some kind of handle thing attached. We still had at least 15 miles to get back home so he kept driving on it cause the tire wasn't losing air. After about a mile, the bolt fell out. It was at least 6 inches long! We were shocked! But the hole kind of plugged itself and we were able to make it back.
Fixing the lure on the fishing pole.
Then we made cheesecake for the birthday kids:

Bret enjoyed it a little too much...
Doing the dishes, Steve being such a good helper!
Sunday morning was really rainy. We didn't do much except for pack up and played some horse shoes...

Justin Norton got a ringer...


Waiting to leave

We had some extra cheesecake left over from the celebration and i was about to throw it away and all the boys came over and said "NO WAIT!" They bombarded me for the last piece and ended up getting into a little bit of a fight:

Haha! It got finished, that's for sure!

So the trip ended well, and we had a good time! Thanks bret for letting us enjoy a fun filled weekend at your cabin!