Lindsey

 (Living Through Laughter, Lindsey's motto)

My dear friend Lindsey, who has fought hard against cancer and tumors for the last eleven years, passed away last Wednesday.  We've been friends since she moved into our neighborhood the summer before 4th grade.  I can't imagine a person more wonderful, full of light, and perfect in the world.  I'm not very good at putting feelings down into words, so I'm not really going to try, aside from saying this:  I love her very much and I will miss her. 

The funeral was this afternoon and later her family and Josh's family invited us down to Utah Lake to release some floating candles in honor of her. 

 

We arrived at the lake right as the sun went down behind the mountains across the lake and we waited for it to be dark enough to light the lanterns.  As we waited we were feasted upon by mosquitoes.  

Those little white spots are NOT stars.  They are the millions of bugs swarming all over us. 

There were forty lanterns in all and Eric and I, with Nitasha, Aaron, and her mom, Christine, attempted to light one.

Unfortunately, ours had a hole at the top and was unable to float away, but we will be patching the hole and trying again another night.

Here are a few pictures of some of the lanterns floating away.  They didn't all rise together like I had envisioned, probably from watching Tangled, but they were beautiful and each one was a beacon of hope as it flew up towards the heavens.  

Overall, the day was beautiful.  Painful, but beautiful. 

I also took a picture of a photo shoot we interrupted when we arrived at the beach, because Lindsey would have thought it was hilarious. It's rather blurry because I had too zoom up from pretty far away to capture it as surreptitiously as I could.

Ruins, Canyons, Arches, and Balloons

This is a very picture heavy post, so be warned.

 This weekend we went to three national parks.  It was great. We went to Mesa Verde first.  The thunderstorm that I was hoping for showed up on Saturday in the afternoon when we were almost done hiking but it was a nice way to cool off.  We visited Cliff Palace first, which is the biggest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde.

After Cliff Palace we went to Balcony House, which was definitely the best place to visit.  We climbed up a 30 foot ladder, got to look inside the buildings, and explore.  We were shown a hand print that had been left on the wall.  Its very faint but I hope you can see it. 

At the end of the tour of Balcony House we had to crawl through a tunnel to leave. It was a pretty tight squeeze but it was really fun.

One of the best parts of the whole trip was seeing TWO small herds of wild horses. I was obsessed with seeing wild horses when I was very little so seeing two different herds in one day was a pretty big deal.

 That night we went on a walk around a lake that was near the campsite.  As we were walking around a balloon floated down from the sky right in front of us.  We could see that something was written on it so we ran to grab it before it blew away again. 

One side said "No worries, we'll take care of Gramps.  XXOO"

And on the other, "See ya in a bit...Chicken Spit!"

It was an interesting thing to find.  I've never found a lost balloon before, let alone with something so intriguing written on it.  







The next day we drove out to Canyonlands and saw Newspaper Rock.  It was so amazing!  I've never seen pictographs before and it was really cool to see.   I wish I knew what all of the drawings were and what it all meant.

We then stopped at Arches and saw the beautiful rock formations there. 

It was a fabulous trip and we packed as much as possible into a two day trip.  We had a great time.

Last Hurrah

This weekend is my last hurrah before work starts next week.  I'm not very excited for school this year; there are many changes that I'm not too happy about.  We'll see if I feel better about work after the first few weeks.  My  mom, Sarah and Carolina Debiasi, and I are going down to Mesa Verde this weekend.  Mesa Verde is one of my all time favorite places to visit.  It is so interesting and beautiful and I am very excited to see it.  I'm not so excited about the heat that we get to endure and I'm crossing my fingers for clouds and wind.  Maybe not rain, even though I love it, because rain might make it hard to hike around.

Here is a picture of one of the ruins I get to go see!

Thai Sticky Rice with Mangoes

Well, after months of not posting anything I have decided that now is a good time to come out of the little shell I've been living in.  I just have not felt any desire to say anything but at the request of my aunt I am going to be posting a recipe for Thai Sticky Rice with Mango.  We love this dessert and I think it is just as good as what you can get at a Thai restaurant. 


Thai Sticky Rice with Mango

1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon tapioca starch
3 mangoes, peeled and sliced 


          Combine the rice and water in a saucepan; bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until water is absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes.  While the rice cooks, mix together 1 1/2 cups coconut milk, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil; remove from heat and set aside. Stir the cooked rice into the coconut milk mixture; cover. Allow to cool for 1 hour.  Make a sauce by mixing together 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and the tapioca starch in a saucepan; bring to a boil.  Place the sticky rice on a serving dish. Arrange the mangoes on top of the rice. Pour the sauce over the mangoes and rice. 

We made this with real sticky rice the last time and it was very good but buying real sticky rice can get expensive so if you are on a tight budget I would just stick to regular rice.  But if you really want a treat and have the money, get the sticky rice.


We have also made this using bananas and it is pretty tasty. It reminds me of breakfast.  A really good breakfast.  I think berries would be really good too.