224 steps to seven falls

We spent an extra day in CO after Paul's wedding to do a little more vacationing. We ended up at Seven Falls in Colorado Springs. It's a serious of seven mini falls and you can walk all the way to the top if you are willing to climb all 224 steps.

I had to google how many steps there were b/c I forgot to take note while we were actually climbing them and I expected my search to come back with a more substantial number... maybe 983 would have been good? Instead I feell a little wimpy saying I was dizzy and out of breath just climbing 224 steps, but in my defense they were straight up in a higher altitude than I'm used to :)

I know, excuses excuses.

Here's the boys at the first lookout looking out over the other lookouts - did I mention this was a tourist trap spot?!

Me & Kevin before we were too winded. haha!

One of the seven mini falls

Going down was soo much easier than going up!

Kevin apperently didn't have the same childhood trama which led to my hatred of doing stairs for exercise purposes so he wasn't really winded and was always waiting for us to catch up at the next lookout.

It sure was a beautiful day!

The clouds were just spectacular!

We even saw several dear, this one was right ouside my car window!

it smells like christmas

Last week while exploring in Colorado I jumped out of the car to snap a couple of pictures while the guys (Kevin, Mark, & Bryant) rolled their eyes and waited. When I came back to the car I said "it smells nice outside, like clean and fresh". Of course, the guys looked at me like I was crazy, but then it started snowing not 5 minutes later! I have always been able to smell snow coming and I'm overly proud of that fact!

Sooo, since we're talking about smells...

I found this Christmas Stovetop Potpourri on pinterest recently and had a chance to try it out this past weekend. It smelled great! Not overpowering, but definately a nice addition to the house during the Christmas season. If you come over between now and Christmas you'll probably even get to smell it for yourself!

picture from Make It Do, found here

The origional instuctions & pictures are great so I didn't bother taking any new ones.

Again, in case you missed it, go here for the how-to-do-it-yourself instructions.

garden of the gods - CO

While all the Rogers where getting ready for the wedding this past weekend I had some time to do a little bumming around. Here's some of my favorite pics from Garden of the Gods:

and they lived happily ever after

Paul (Kevin's younger bro) & Krysten got married this past weekend!!!

They are both in the air force and the ceremony was in a beautiful chapel on the base!

The wedding party all ready for the bride

Krysten looked perfect!

Awww

Mr & Mrs Rogers

or Captn & Captn Rogers!

The Rogers with the newest member of the family

Me & my Mr.

Sydney & Kevin

Cute family picture :)

Proud parents

Claire is sooo cute!

So is her Momma!

Congrats Paul & Krysten! We're so happy for you two!

halloween themed cake balls

Here's the low down on the cake balls I made for Halloween, first seen here.

First you make a cake (I just used a box mix)

Let the cake cool, and crumble into a bowl.

Add enough icing to form ball shapes

(I used 3/4 can prepared milk chocolate icing)

Roll into 48 1" balls

Refrigerate for an hour or freeze for about 10 minutes.

Prepare candy coating

Melt candy coating in microwave (do 30 seconds at a time).

Push popsicle sticks 1/2 way through cake balls working with a couple at a time

and leaving the rest in the refrigerator.

Dip cake balls into melted candy coating and let excess drip off

(I tapped the stick to the sides of the bowl).

For the "slime balls" I used the extra candy coating, a frosting bag and #2 tip to drizzle on the "slime"

For the Jack O' Lanterns I used white melted candy coating colored black to draw the faces

and colored green to add the stems (still using a frosting bag and #2 tip).

These keep in the refrigerator really well. I even made them a week ahead of time.

The basic cake ball was much easier to make that I first thought it would be. The time consuming part was adding the details, but I love how they turned out! Definately worth the effort!

spiderweb cookies

As I previously mentioned here, I made these spiderweb suger cookies for a Halloween party

I actually took a few pictures during the process so I'll give the recipe and then break it down

a little with the pictures I took.

Suger {Butter} Cookies

1 cup butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream Shortening. Add Sugar, eggs & vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Roll out dough to desired thickness, cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. Let Cool

Frosting

2 Tablespoons butter

3 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered sugar (about 3-4 cups)

Heat together butter, milk & vanilla. Add powdered sugar till thick enough to spread.

Chocolate Cookies

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add in addition to rest of cookie ingredients.

And here's the process with pictures:

After dough has been mixed and refrigerated; roll out and cut

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes

Let cool before frosting

To ice the cookies I pretty much followed these instructions, but instead of doing

a spiderweb shape, i just did a circle and let the web "techniqe" speak for itself

(give me a break, it was easier and have you seen how good her stuff looks?!)

Here's the finished cookies!