Pumpkin Bread recipe and pictures

I told Pat I had a good pumpkin bread recipe and she wanted a copy and Jackie just asked me for the recipe as well - so I am posting it here for all you want it. It is yummy!

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
**Mix all together in a bowl
Add:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
** Mix all together and add chocolate chip ( I use 1 full bag)

Grease two loaf pans and sprinkle generously with sugar. Pour the mixture into the two pans and bake at 325 for 1 hour. Mine have always taken longer than an hour. I start checking them at an hour but the middle is always doughy, so I just keep them in the oven and continue checking on them until the middle comes out clean on a tooth pick.

Here is a cute picture from Trent and Kylie's the other night. It is so cute how much Jordin LOVES these guys. :)

I decorated our 1st artificial Christmas tree all pretty this year. I have the 3 pine trees lit up in the front room with the sentimental/home made ornaments on them.

I have all the Christmas decorations up and we are loving all the lights and sparkle!

Rich stayed home from work on Friday because he lost his voice and has a cold - so he worked on the trim in the dining room all day Friday and Saturday. He is almost done nailing everything up, then I will have to caulk and paint it all. He is really good. I just tell him what I want and he figures out how to do it. It may take a good 8 months :) but it is looking so good.

AHW

What I've been doing:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/dod-army-successfully-tests-top-secret-hypersonic-weapon/story?id=14975275#.TsXMKFYpplJ

Don't watch the video, it has nothing to do with what we did. Most of the press is talking about the DARPA tests that failed twice over the past year. None of us really know why they keep mentioning that, they had no influence on what we did.

The really exciting news is that I get to go home! After just a brief 5 week to the day visit to Kauai I get to return to Albuquerque! I still have Kauai adventures to post about, but not now.

Kauai Part II (Sunday)

So, continuing the weekend adventure. After we got back from the safari we got cleaned up and Adri and I went to "The Beach House" restaurant. It sits right out on the edge of the beach and all the tables are positioned to have a view of the ocean. It was really nice to just sit with my wife alone for a brief moment. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary a bit early. The pictures didn't really turn out. Thank you Adri for making me the happiest man alive for the last 15 years. I look forward to the next 15 years (and the eternities after that). I love you.

The next morning (Sunday) we all got up and drove to Kapa'a to go to church. Since I'd been to church the last 2 weeks in Kalaheo I knew that this week was a Stake Conference with a broadcast from SLC and it was at 10:00, instead of the usual 9. President Eyring and Sister Esplin spoke, along with another General Authority whose name I forget. I remember Sister Esplin because her son is in our ward in Albuquerque. It was a nice service, ending at noon. From there we drove up to the north side of the island to the Napali coast. WE got out, had some strange looks from tourist (we were in white shirts, ties, and dresses), got changed, and started hiking. We made the two mile hike into the first little beach. Here's a picture of us on the way in.
From the beach it's another 2 miles up to the waterfall.
You can hike right up to the base of the waterfall where there is a large pool that you can swim in. Last time I was there I swam right under the waterfall and stood up behind it on a little ledge. Got some nice pictures. This time, however, things were different. The hike up was real nice, but right when we got to the waterfall the weather changed dramatically and incredibly locally. For some reason there was this incredible down draft coming down the falls and then turning and blowing out into the canyon. It was pelting us with water. Plus there was a lot more water coming over the falls than before (due to the recent rain). As a result, only Steve got in a swam for a bit. We were the only ones there. The reason we were the only ones there was because of how late it was in the day. We started to get nervous and started our hike back. This picture didn't really turn out, but here are Adri and I after the beach, as the sun is setting.

It was really nice, but we were still like a mile from the trail head. Because I'd been getting up early to go running, I knew when that sun went down it would be unbelievably dark. We hustled, but it kept getting darker and darker. With maybe 300 yards to go (the distance left was unknown to us at the time) I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Steve commented that he was wondering what it would be like to crawl out of the Napali coast on your hands and knees. Literally when I thought I couldn't go another safe step I came around a little bend and could make out a car's lights in the parking lot. Now we either couldn't see, or were blinded by the lights, but since we knew the end was near we pressed ahead and made it out. It was quite the adventure.

We drove home and made tacos. The next morning I had to go to work. I got home at a reasonable hour (~5), and spent some time with Adri before I had to take her to the airport. We got to the airport at 7, only to be told her 9:30 flight was delayed until 1:30 am. We came back to the condo and slept until 11:30, then I took her back to the airport. It was nice for the fact that there was literally no one in the security line, so i got to see her right until she was in the terminal. She told me she slept all the way home, so it wasn't too bad a trip.

Thank you so much Mom and Dad for watching the kids so Adri could come spend some time with me. This was only the 2nd trip of our married life since Lydia was born that we've gone anywhere without at least one child. It was heavenly.

Since Adri left I have had a couple of adventures that I will post about later. It's off to work again. Nothing like the glorious life of a rocket scientist working graveyard shifts.

Kauai

Kauai, day 28. The first 2 weeks were pretty rough. I was getting up at 5 to be to work by 7. Then getting home around 7 or 8. So not much happened. At the end of the first two weeks, however, Adri showed up. Things got a whole lot better. Her parents also came to spend some time with her (since I was at work all the time). I did, however, got Saturday and Sunday off while she was here.

On Saturday we went on a "Safari". It was a guided tour. We got in a van and drove down to near Kipu falls. For those who have been to Kauai before, Kipu falls (the one with the rope swing) has been closed to the public. Apparently the land owners were getting sued for people who drowned there, so they fenced it off and put up boulder to prevent people from parking. Anyway, we got out near where some river (Forget the name) empties into the sea. It was pouring rain, with some thunder and lightning in the distance. We got paired up in kyaks (more like canoes) and started paddling up the river. After we'd been in the river just a short while the rain let up and the sun came out.We paddled up the river maybe a mile or so. We got out right where they filmed the scene in Indiana Jones and The Raider of the Lost Ark where Indy swings out on the rope swing to swim out to the sea plane to escape the natives in the opening sequence. There was even a rope swing there (not sure if it was the same rope from the movie or not).

We then started a little hike. We hiked through the rain forest (past the meadow where Indy runs from the natives shooting blow darts at him) to a naturally occurring pool with another rope swing. We all got a chance to swing out into the water. The rain had started pouring down again, but it was still ~78 degrees, so we all took a dip. The picture didn't turn out. But the water was the same color as the water in the above picture.

After our little hike we got in a trailer/wagon thing and got pulled by a tractor up the mountain through the cattle ranch. At the end they had lunch waiting for us.After lunch we all got suited up to go zip lining. The gear is incredibly attractive.
After gearing up they send you across this suspension bridge to test your fear of heights. Then we walked up to the first zip line. It was 800m across a little valley. They catch you on the other side, so you don't have to do anything but ride. It was fun. Then you walk up a little farther and do something like a 1600m . You might be able to make it out behind us in the picture below.For this one you start on a tower, then zip line down at about 45 mph and start going back up on the other side. Then you slide back down and eventually stop over a platform where they come and get you down with a 16 foot ladder. This time Adri and I got a little more adventurous and flipped upside down and rode most of the way hanging upside down. It was pretty cool, but it did cause the harness to get all wedged up in uncomfortable ways. As a result, the best part of the whole trip was probably taking off the harness after that ride.

After the ride we hiked down to another pool. I think in the guidebook it is called the blue hole or something. You'll see that when it has been raining a lot the name could probably be changed to something else. They had a zip line that you could fly out on and jump in, and a 20 foot platform to jump off of.

After the pool we hiked back to the river and rode a boat back to the ocean and then back to the condo. This picture was on the hike out. I'll post about our Sunday adventures later (off to work).

Wedding!

Todd's Aunt Maggie is getting married in December!  We are flying to Vegas for the big event :)  I so need to get out of this town.  I can't wait.  Unfortunately, we will get there Friday afternoon, wedding Saturday, then we leave at 6am Monday.  Oh well.
I need to find red dresses for the girls.  I've looked online at the obvious places like Old Navy, Gap, and Children's place, but I haven't found anything.  I know you guys told me about a bunch of cute sites this summer, but I can't remember any of them.  Please help!  :)

RSVP

Pat,
this is our RSVP to Thanksgiving dinner. I will be happy to bring a sweet potato dish.
Thanks - we are excited to come.

Buffy

Halloween

I love that on Halloween we still have green grass and shorts sleeves! It was a beautiful day and the kids didn't have school because of teacher professional day or something. So they played with friends all day and had a fun day. We went trick or treating that night and they got tons of candy - and a lot of full sized candy bars. Rich even intercepted Zack reaching for more M&Ms or skittles and got me a Caramello. :)

Halloweening

For Halloween we went trick-o-treating with Vi and Morgan so M could show Lady the ropes. Vi and J caught on fast and ran from door to door with the Big kids. We learned Brad and Ali's neighborhood has a lot of stair and the girls earned every piece of candy they collected (I think Ali and I did too). Vi kept the prize in mind with every step repeating "Candy, candy", it was too funny.
I only let J eat two pieces of candy last night and thought she'd forget about it. This morning she woke up say "Treat Bag?". Guess I'm not as sneaky as I though I was. But she was satisfied when I gave her some fruit snacks and we called it good.