Caramel Brownies

Here's how to make the caramel brownies:

First of all melt 3/4 cup butter in the microwave.

Combine the melted butter, 1/2 cup evaporated milk and a Swiss Chocolate (or German Chocolate) cake mix in your super cool stand mixer until well blended.*

Take half of the cake mixture and press it into a 13x9 inch pan lined with parchment paper.  Bake it at 350º for 6 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven, sprinkle one package of milk chocolate chips on the brownies and place the pan back in the oven for approximately 2 minutes.  Remove from oven and spread the chocolate chips evenly.  

Pour 1 and 1/2 packages caramels (melted either in the microwave or double boiler with 1/3 cup evaporated milk) over the top of the milk chocolate.

Press the remainder of the cake mix between wax paper (or cling wrap).

Until it is a thin layer.

Cover the entire caramel layer with the cake mix.

Bake entire thing for an additional 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let it sit for as long as possible (at the very least 30 minutes).  Because you've used the parchment paper you can lift the entire thing out of the pan and then use a pizza cutter to slice it all up into small squares.  Yum!


*The beater on my blender started to get this grey dust on it.  I couldn't wash it off.  It was almost other worldly.  So I went online and found this great beater replacement that does a MUCH better job of getting to the bottom of the bowl.  I don't have to scrape the bowl half way through the mixing process.  Recommended.

Kiddos

In February Ranee went to Vegas (with a quick stop @ Tyson and Kendra's) and then on to LA for a quick visit @ Tara and Jon's.

Molly likes her rocking horse she got from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Bill.  Next to the horse is a little kitchen toy that plays music.  Molly likes to sing along to the music it plays.  She also likes to sing along to Tyson's ring tone.  

Here she's playing patty cake with Daddy.  They had previously played Ring Around the Rosie and then Tyson helped Molly dress up like Cinderella.  He's a good Dad to his daughters.

Kendra and Molly were playing with the camera on my phone.  :)

And Evie?  Evie slept pretty much the entire time I visited.  Cute little baby.  I can't wait to see her again.

On to a quick trip to LA.  Ethan, as always, played with the luggage.  Here he is using it as a landing pad for his airplanes.  He and Corryn were climbing on it and he dragged my carry on through the entire apartment several times.  He loves things with wheels.

Corryn using a hammer...ish.

Ethan's first visit to the ice cream truck.  He did it all himself.  

Hooray for Popsicle!

While Ethan was purchasing the frozen treat, Corryn was swinging and swinging and swinging.  

Tara and I went out for an early birthday dinner to the Depot in Old Torrance. It was super yummy.  Happy Birthday Tara!

Uncle Bobby

Tausha loves Uncle Bobby.

We all do.  

Silly Kids

The kids in our family sure are silly.  For example:

Collin blinding himself with his new mouse.

Hunter bowing.

Hunter trying to do a pull up (and Debbie giving him a boost).

Tausha spinning and spinning under the Christmas tree at the Capitol building to make herself dizzy.

Corryn and Ethan exploring Grandpa Bob and Grandma Katherine's house.

Ethan found a treasure box.  He then put the PT Cruiser toy car that Grandpa Bob gave him in the "treasures" box.

Hunter explaining the rules of Settlers of Catan.

And finally, Ethan insisting on being tossed around in a laundry basket until Dad was tired, then he asked Mom and when Mom was tired he asked Nay Nay and when Ranee was tired he asked Grandpa Bob. And when Grandpa Bob declined, Ethan wanted to take the laundry basket home to Nana's, cause she wouldn't be too tired for sure.

Madrid or Bust

Tuesday morning, October 25th, Ranee and I headed to the airport for our much anticipated trip to Madrid, right in the heart of Spain.  We left from Seattle and flew to Philadelphia.  There we had a brief layover and boarded a long flight (almost 7 hours) from Philly to Madrid.  

The flight from Philly to Madrid was nearly empty, by the way, so we were able to spread out and catch a bit of sleep.  We left Tuesday morning from Seattle and we arrived Wednesday morning in Madrid.  Madrid is 8 hours ahead of Boise time.

65!

Happy

Birthday

Mom!

We

Love

 YOU!

You'd think something as BIG as the Atlantic Ocean...

...would be MUCH easier to find.  

It took us what seemed like HOURS to find the Atlantic Ocean.  The TomTom kept telling us it was just around the bend, but TomTom lied.  We finally found the ocean at Laite Beach in Camden, ME on our way to Nova Scotia.  We had all flown into Boston (thanks SWA for the free Rapid Rewards flights), stayed the night in Rockport then hit the road for Canada in the morning.  We (Ranee) decided to take the scenic route.  Which added a bit of time to our already long car ride.  Good thing she got the hook up for a sweet road trip ride.  Leather seats, spacious, horrible gas mileage...you know the drill.

I love that Collin took his backpack with him the short distance from the car to the beach.  I'm not exactly sure WHY it happened, it just makes me smile that it happened.  Collin found a bunch of shells.  One of them was occupied - but not for long.  Collin decided to evict it.

Hunter, however, did NOT bring his backpack with him to the beach.  

In just a year we've been to the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  Three down...four more to go!  The Indian Ocean (my vote is for the Seychelles), the Arctic Ocean (you're on your own there), the Caribbean Sea (I vote Cuba or Puerto Rico), and the Gulf of Mexico (Matt says New Orleans is one of his favorite places in the US...so we HAVE to go there).