Homecoming 2011

For homecoming we met Joe Vandal, hung out with the Brownings, went to a parade, cheered at a football game, visited the farmers market and discovered the Red Bento.

Joe Vandal, me, AJ and Jake at the Homecoming parade.

The fan at the football game, Sam worked on rooting for the vandals and Kym and I discover a new noise that we enjoy making. It sounds like some kind of aberijany bong. We got really good at imitating the noise.

The Red Bento is now one of my favorite restaurants. They have delicious sushi, great teriyaki and Sam liked the pot stickers. Confession: we went there two nights in a row... yes it was that good. Above is my caterpillar with a delicious sweet sauce, avocado, crab and eel. The caterpillar was a hit with everyone, but Sam.

Jake and AJ getting ready to root for the Vandals.

I would like to give a shout out to one Sam West. He and I got to hang out Friday morning while AJ, Dad and Kym did the envision Idaho (scouting for freshman). I had a blast hanging with Sam. It was a fun weekend.

The big 24

We celebrated Jake's 24th birthday this August. We had a nice birthday party at home. It was great.

I made a delicious textbook cake. It says "torts" on the side. 

Jake is now the proud owner of a laser pointer that can point at stars and also a fun travel planning game, thanks to Mom and Dad Hutchison

Jake was on office supplies cloud nine with his new cheto pens and pencils and gift card. Thanks Mom and  Dad Browning.

Now Jake can proudly sport his University Swag. He is a legit student now. 

Our abode

Jake and I have a marvelous little two bedroom, two story apartment. It is just right for us.

The living room also has a Harry Potter closet (the brown door on the left side of the picture) that we use for lots of storage.  

We have a very spacious kitchen. I would like to point out how clean it is, this does not happen all the time, but I have proof that it is clean sometimes :)

Yes, our carpet it a golden rod/ diarrhea-ish color. It also has what appears to be a rose pattern in it. The carpet may or may not be older than I am (we are still waiting on the test results), we had to pay extra for the "vintage" look. :)

This is Jake's office. On the right side, just out of the picture are all our books. Jake spends his days studying on campus and his nights studying in here. He is very glad to have mega desk back and recently informed me that we are going to need a larger desk and a second monitor. Thanks to Brian Jake now wants to upgrade to two monitors.

The best part about our apartment is the location.

Google maps tells me that my work is .3 miles away. Jake and I ride our bikes to work and to school everyday. Our house it "B", my work is "A" and Jake's school is "C". Yesterday for lunch I went home to eat, dropped off Jake's headphones and a snack at the law school and made it back to work on time. The location really is the best part. 

All things considered we really like where we live. We have good neighbors, a great location and a low power bill. Yep we like.

Jakob's first day of school

It has finally happened, Jakob has become a law student. Yeah! On Monday he began orientation and they had to dress up. I know in this picture he looks like he might be going to meet up with the missionaries, but  he is actually going to meet lawyers. He rides his bike because the law building is only a 4 minute bike ride from our apartment. He had a good first day of orientation.

They even gave out name tags to all the students. My husband is a student again.

Monday night there was a convocation that the family of the law students were invited to, for all those who were unable to attend I would like to inform you that you can now proudly say: "My son/ son-in-law/ brother/ brother-in law/ friend (etc) is now a law student" 

Thanks to all those who have helped us get here. 

The move

It is official Jakob Browning does not live in South East Idaho for the second time in his life. We are so proud of him :) Our long journey began in Rexburg, Idaho with an over night stay in Coeur d'Alene and ending in Moscow, Idaho. We drove through Montana and spent about 10 hours caravanning.

Dad, Kym, AJ and Sam were awesome! They brought a trailer and helped us pack and move. In an attempt to protect the innocent there are no pictures on this blog of all our stuff, but lets just say that they were wonderful to deal with so much... stuff. We also were surprised to find that Dad came prepared with walki-talkies. Of course we all had code names: Big Dog, Wooden Shoes and Red Apple rode in Hank or whitey-tighty as AJ called it. Legal Begal, Doogie Houser and Vegas Dancer followed in little red. We got Montana trivia and history via the walki-talkies. 

This was the first of many needed breaks we took along the way.

Coeur d'Alene was absolutely beautiful. We took a walk on the docks down by the resorts. 

BMW drive

I almost forgot our BMW drive for team USA. Jake, Brian, Kevin and I went to the BMW dealership and drove some amazing cars. Jake drove a Mercedes and a BMW 6 series convertible. We decided that once we could afford the insurance and speeding tickets than he could buy one. I now understand what people mean when they say that driving a car is fun. These cars were very fun to drive. 

Don't we just fit in front of this convertible :)

This is Jake's face of ecstasy due to driving a car that has been perfectly engineered. He enjoyed speeding up around corners and I only yelped once. He kindly asked me not to ask him to slow down.

Brian was hilarious to drive with. He got so excited when it would speed up. He would make all sorts of excited noises and exclaim how awesome it was. 

I too got behind the wheel of a BMW. I drove the 5 series. It really was fun and Jake decided that this would be a good car for "grocery runs". I plan on doing a lot more than just grocery runs in that car. I'de be ok with owning one of these.   

The float and bloat

The Wacko Family Float and Bloat is a Browning Family tradition. The concept is really quite simple: eat way too much great food until you bloat and then float down a pesticide filled canal. It is a wonderfully disgusting, great time. We would load up in the pack of a pick-up with our flotation devices and get dropped off at the predesignated place where we floated down until we got to Grandma Brownings back yard. The float and bloat is the stuff of family legend and I had been looking forward to it since I was unable to attend the year prior... It was just as wonderful and disgusting as I had hoped. It was a blast to float down the river and watch dad biff it at the one waterfall (if you can call it that). When we weren't floating we were playing games or eating. It was great to get to know Flan and Liz better and eat "toxic", "non-toxic" and "semi-toxic" chicken.

For your viewing pleasure: the Browning Family Float and Bloat.

    

Where our 40 minute journey began.

I request David Jack to take a picture of everyone in the truck, if you look in his aviators you can see us.

The water was a little cold when we first got in, as you can see from AJ's face.

The waterfall that I survived and Jake is attempting to maneuver via his paddle.

Young Samuel jammed in the truck.

Waiting for the pick-up... we're not sure what Liz is waiting for :)

The last weekend in Rexburg

Brenda, Rhett and AJ all came to Rexburg to see us off. Saturday morning we had a delicious breakfast with Brenda, Jake, Rhett, AJ, Brian and myself. It was delicious and it was really fun being all together. I think Rhett had a good time with his brothers and AJ couldn't stop laughing even for the photo.

Rhett was very excited to share his life strength band with his brothers. All three boys now have wrist bands that help them with balance and over all health. 

Chapter 3 of the cooking adventures- Raspberry jam

The challenge this time was turing a large bowl of raspberries into...

This

In case there was any question to why jam is so delicious I have now solved that mystery- sugar, and lots of it. I combined sugar, raspberries and pectin into a large bowl and cooked it over the stove until it boiled up and burned me (it only burned me once). Then grandma and I would fill the bottle, place the lids on to seal and wait. I learned that the greatest invention for canning is the dishwasher- it sterilizes the bottles and keeps them hot until the mixture is ready. One of the many things I learned.

Grandma Bell was a wonderful teacher. She helped me with the first batch and then let me go for the second. It was wonderful to have her there to teach me and also to tell me stories of Grandma and Grandpa Bell, Muir, and Wetherston. We had a wonderful time.

The outcome of two batches of jam was 11 bottles of delicious home made jam. 

This was most definitely a delicious undertaking. 

The Summer Home

The last weeks we were in Rexburg we were able to house sit for an adorable lady while she visited family. 

It was a huge home with a theater, play room, pool table, and my favorite was the ping pong. Jake and I had a lot of fun watching movies and playing ping pong. 

My favorite thing to do at the summer home was sit on the porch for breakfast and dinner and look out at the beautiful there was even a pond. 

While we were at this house I also got to pick raspberry for the first time. It was a wonderful to spend time at this beautiful home. Jake and I were able to read and spend time together prior to moving to Moscow and we are very grateful to Judy for sharing her beautiful home with us.

The Big Guy

This post is dedicated to the Big Guy also known as Grandpa Browning. In a very short period of time he taught me about what is truly important in life. Family. He left an amazing legacy in his wake. It was wonderful to see the lives that he touched. His legacy is a true testament to the power of one voice. We will miss him, but look forward to seeing him one day. Love you Big Guy.

Golfing, what?!?

Brian, Jake and I recently decided to go to the driving range for a little night out. Brian has been taking a golfing class and wanted to share his new found talent with us. 

He was a great teacher and when he wasn't breaking tree limbs he was a great shot too :)

Jakob played when he was a little kid. He did very well and decided that he needed to pick his game back up if he was going to be a respectable attorney. 

I enjoyed putting- short distance, there is a golf clapped afterward- that is my idea of golfing. Up to this point the most I had done was miniature golf, but this course had no plastic alligators or windmills. I decided it might be good for me to learn because I would like to golf in Scotland and I don't know if they will allow amateurs. Plus I am going to be a lawyer's wife I need to learn :)

The Girls!!!!

This was a great night! All the old roommates of Carriage House #4 spent a sweet night talking and laughing. Brionne came over and Alisa came up for the occasion. It was the first time in three years that we had all been under the same roof. It is amazing how wonderful all these girls are. It will be a while before we can all get back together, but we will... eventually.

I am very grateful for the wonderful friends that I have.

Camping Adventures

Over the summer Jake and I went with Brian and AJ and the four of us went on a great adventure.

We had the most beautiful camp sight. There was a little stream behind us that was a luxurious lullaby to fall asleep to. It also was right next to a trail head. We were perfectly situated.

We thought it would be a good idea to drive over an hour to a reservoir, we didn't realize that this reservoir would be the antithesis of our camp sight. It was very dry and dead and a little sketchy to swim in. Also Clark (the black menace in the back ground) decided to pant in my ear and drool on my seat for 3/4 ths of the drive. AJ claims he was excited, my thought can not be published :)

  

We promptly turned around and went back to our camp sight. We hiked around the hills and enjoyed all the greenery. There was a nice little path and we hiked until we were in the mood to head back for some great camp dinners and...

Smores! What camping trip is complete without nights spent around the camp fire with delicious hot smores? Our camping trip was a success! We discovered LT (little tank our PT Cruiser) has a table pull out in the trunk, that came in very handy. Good food, great people and fun memories- that about sums it up.

The next chapter in the cooking adventure

This last few days Jake and I have been watching Sam while Dad and Kym have been in Navoo with Grandma and Grandpa Browning. I decided that this was a good opportunity to try a recipe that I have wanted to experiment with. So for dinner one night I made... (insert suspenseful music here)... cafe rio pulled pork salad.  

It was an adventure that took me somewhere between three and five hours (I kept getting distracted, it felt like forever). I must admit that it was a worth while endeavor. It was not identical to the one I buy at the restaurant, but man it was delicious. I can't say that I will make it again any time soon due to the amount of sugar and mayo and other not-so-healthy ingredients. It is also a little more time than I want to spend on a regular basis, but maybe for Jake's birthday. It was a big hit. Sam even had seconds and AJ came home for lunch the next day. 

I got the recipe from this blog, if anyone wants to try it.

This recipe from: http://www.wondermomenvy.com/2009/06/cafe-rio-pork-salad-copycat-recipe.html 

Welcome Home Brionne

Sister Brionne Porter got home last week from her mission in California. I finally figured out at 5:30 am the morning of her home coming talk that I would be able to make it. I was so glad that I did. She spoke so eloquently. She talked of her mission in a way that made it evident that she had served the Lord to the best of her ability. I was (and am) so proud of her!

(These are some of the best room mates ever and also Sister Ross who is one of my new friends)

Just a few days latter Brionne came to Rexburg and we met at our old spot- Wendy's. It was great just to see my old room mates together. SO much had changed in the last 19 months, but at the same time we are still friends. It would have been perfect with Alisa, but we'll all get together soon. Man did I luck out to get to know these girls.