End of Summer Blues

Here's a video of Scout dancing away her end-of-summer-blues

Shabu shabu (food cooked in broth and held with chopsticks)

Welcome Home Oka Family!!!!

Our dear friends Maria, Shane, and Baby Brooklyn (Brookie) have arrived home from their summer internship in Japan! Cedric, Scout and I are so happy to have them home. Maria was so kind and brought Scout and I a parasol to block the sun. It is black (my favorite color) with lace around the edge. We love it and feel so chic using it to block the sun. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture yet. The Oka family also brought us the traditional meal of shabu shabu. Shabu Shabu is the equivilant of our "swish swish" sound we use. So, if a person runs by in old school track pants the sound in Japan would be "shabu shabu". The dish is similar to the fondue of Switzerland. A person uses chopsticks to swish thin slices of meat and a variety of vegetables in a pot of boiling broth to quickly cook it. The cooked food is dipped in a citrus soy sauce or sesame sauce (or some other sauce) and enjoyed with rice. It was delicious and was a great way to sit around the table and catch up.



Here is random picture from last week ....
A cool bug on our recycling bag

Two of my favortie things.....well I guess three.

Andy was so kind and took the family to Park City for the Parade of Homes. We saw some of the homes his company built and we saw some of Andy's drawings being used in the actual building process. It was very cool. Cool in two ways! 1. Awsome, Bad and Radical 2. Cool enough for a scarf and jacket. Fall is upon us!

First two favorite things. Scout and Cedric enjoying Park City weather. I love this!


Other favorite thing (this one is just for today)
I made this today. It was amazing! Homemade cream puffs on nice china with fancy extras are definitely a favorite today. Bet you wish you could eat one!

The Biggest Little City in the World and The River City Welcome the Andersons

A few weeks ago, we embarked on our annual Anderson Family vacation. Usually these trips include something grand like bungee jumping from spaceships orbiting Saturn or visiting the world's largest ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas. This year, however, we wanted to show Scout off to as many Scout-spoiling family members as possible. So we boarded a Southwest airplane, against Hannah's advice, and headed for Reno. After a few glorious days in Reno and one extra-glorious day in Lake Tahoe, we drove west to Sacramento, the "River City" and sometimes home of "the Governator", a.k.a. "Kinder-congress Cop". We spent our days swimming in grandma and grandpa Durands' pool and enjoying the fine California weather. Our trip was great and we owe it all to the hospitality of Scout's grandparents on both sides who drove us everywhere and fed and overall spoiled us rotten. Thanks! Here are some pictures-


Scout and dad living it up at Lake Tahoe.



Scout and mom, also living it up.



Scout and grandma- I know it appears that all Scout did was get held by different people, but she also swam and stuff.



The famous albino "Tahoe Gorilla" emerging from the woods.



Jordo, Ruth and Massey... three true Tahoe bums. I think they've been there like 20 times this summer.



Before we left Reno, Scout wanted to know the feeling of being a ruthless high-power attorney, so she sat in Papa's desk over at Anderson, Dorn and Raider, the highest powered law firm in the universe.



Grandma Durand and Scout at the Durand Pool-Party 2008. Huge party.



Here's grandpa Jim in his second home- the pool. I've never seen a man take as great care of a pool as Jim.



Sarah and her sister Holly with Scout and Holly's twins Keith and Ethan.



Sarah with Tony and Holly. Good looking bunch...

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Scout got caught (literally) trying to nab a little snack!

Dahl Reunion/First Time Swimming

We can't possibly do justice to the last couple of weeks by way of writing, so we're going to post some nice photos and call it good (yes, smarty-pants, I am feeling too lazy to write a big paragraph about all our fun times... just enjoy the pictures, OK?).

Scout's 4th of July Address

Every Fourth of July, we celebrate the crossing of George Washington from Spain to a beautiful land named Wyoming. He was originally searching for a passage to Canada where he knew he would find spices and silks more delicious and beautiful than anything ever before tasted or seen. What George Washington found was even better- Firecrackers... Huge warehouses full of firecrackers that one could purchase and ignite for one's own enjoyment. Having never experienced such a place, George Washington wandered aimlessly around the store, filling his basket with only small bottle-rockets, (a beginners mistake) because they were so cheap and looked like fun. He was soon helped, however, by a young Native American named Abraham Lincoln. "Don't fill up on bottle-rockets," said the young Lincoln, "you need a variety... here, check out these water-proof M-80's and some roman candles!" Well, Abraham Lincoln invited George Washington to his Bar-B-Que that night, where there was lots of turkey, mashed potatoes and olives on the tips of everybody's fingers. To commemorate the great Bar-B-Que, which also included guests like the King of France, Thomas Jefferson and the CEO of Wal-Mart, Teddy Rosevelt, a statue was carved out of a mountain by Pablo Piccaso. The rest is History. Happy 4th of July!
By,
Samantha Scout Anderson

A message from Scout

Cute video for Grandma Irene (And grandpa Jim, If he promises not to tell CPS)

Summertime Fun

sometimes we feel so close to heaven. What a fun day...

Summer School!

So, I'm taking a weight-lifting course and Sarah couldn't be happier! I think she assumes that this is going to happen-

Before
After




I only hope I can deliver such results.

Happy Handy Day! June 20th 2008

What's "Handy Day?", you may ask. It's simple- Handy Day is the birthday of two of America's most important figures... No! not Hannibal Lecter and Andy Williams (though that would be a good guess, and not a far shot from the people whom we are celebrating). I'm talking about Hannah Anderson Stevenson and Andy Scozzafava Szafran. Two of Cedric and Sarah's Top Ten Cool People List. Seriously, we want to wish them a Happy Birthday and just write a bit about why they are on our Top Ten List (not to be confused with our Hit List... that's right, Bono, watch your back).
Let's start with Andy-
Andy has been one our most valued friends. Particularly to me, Cedric. Andy has an awesome sense of adventure and is never timid (though he may seem to be) to try new things. The first time we went surfing together, I took him to a spot in Santa Cruz that turned out to be pretty advanced. There were large rocks just two feet below us and the water was rough and cold. Andy hadn't gotten a wet-suit yet and was just wearing board-shorts and a rash guard I lent him. He jumped in anyway. When a local told him he was crazy, I said, "it's OK, he's Polish! He can handle it!" The guy told him he had some real stones. I'm still not sure what that means.







Andy and Ben Miller and I once went Tub-jumping, which is simply jumping hot tub fences at country clubs and enjoying a cool summer evening relaxing in someone else's outdoor community bathtub. We were always on the lookout for the nighttime security guard and on this particular evening, we were especially wary, because there had been two murders recently in the housing community where we were. Security had tightened, you see. Well, we were spotted and the three of us instinctively jumped into the bushes. Andy dove head-first and right into a large boulder. After we got safely away from the security personnel, We noticed a large red spot forming on Andy's hat and blood began to trickle down his forehead. Upon removing the hat, we discovered a huge gash caused by the evasive dive. I seriously thought Andy was in for it, but he was insistent that he would be fine. So, after a nice long, well-earned dip in the hot tub of the Montreaux club house, we took Andy to the hospital where I worked, I stole some medical supplies and we patched him up.



Andy is a selfless friend (even when it comes to watching subtitled ghost movies with me) and an excellent example. Above all, though, he's an awesome uncle to Scout. He loves her so much and never hesitates to baby-sit her or just come hang out with us if Sarah's at work or whatever. What an amazing friend. We really consider Andy to be part of our little family. Happy Birthday, buddy.



Next up is Hannah-
Hannah has always been the family member that I think I can relate to the most. Our personalities are quite similar. There is one thing that divides us, though. She has always been the voice of obedience to myself and others. I have never been as bold as her when it comes to standing up for what's right. I respect her for that, even though sometimes it's cumbersome, ha ha.



She's also always been a great missionary. For example, when Sarah and I were dating for the first time around (when we were seventeen), Sarah was over at our house hanging out. When it was time to go home, she realized that she had locked her keys in her car. this wouldn't have been a big deal, except that Sarah lived about 40 minutes away. After talking to her parents, we all decided that she should just stay the night. She stayed with with Hannah in her room which was fine, as they seemed to get along. Well, the next morning after Sarah left, Hannah informed me that the two of them had been up all night talking about the gospel. I, as a seventeen-year-old would-be-rebel-dork, was mortified! I thought Sarah would never talk to me again. Well, here we are now... Sarah and I got sealed in the temple and Hannah is one of Sarah's closest friends.
We love Hannah and want to thank her for being a great friend, sister, sister-in-law, aunt and overall good example. Happy Birthday, Ham-bone. We love you so much. I have no pictures of Hannah on this computer, so I'll have to steal one I liked from her blog.

Happy Handy Day, guys. We love you lots!

Fathers Day 2008!

First off, Happy Father's Day to all dads out there. Today was a great day. This year was Cedric's first Father's Day and set a precedent for all Father's Day's to come. It started by Scout waking Cedric with a card,and breakfast in bed all while sporting a "Daddy's my favorite" shirt. Cedric's big gift was given to him last week, he wears it almost everyday. Scout and I gave him a custom/handmade leather belt with his name on it (kinda cowboy style). After breakfast it was off to church where Cedric was called as the 2nd counselor to the Sunday School Presidency and then received a gigantic snickers bar from the Relief Society. After we got home it was down to business with the pizza building and eating. Pizza is one of Cedric's favorite foods and making them together was so much fun.

Cedric is a wonderful husband and father, Scout and I couldn't ask for more. Here are the pictures from Father's Day 2008. Enjoy!

Dad and daughter.

A better look at the shirt.

The Pizza.






We love you Cedric. (Sarah and Scout, and Scout's butt!) Happy Father's Day.

Sister Irene and Aunt Debbie Come to Town!

Last weekend was one for the books. Irene, Sarah's lovely mom, arrived on Friday evening and it was time for fun- which is to say that we went to Mimi's Cafe and didn't get our food for over an hour and got our meal for free (that's fun). We all piled into Irene's rental car the next day and picked up Aunt Debbie from the airport. After lunch, we went to temple square and the conference center. The weekend also included a trip to Park City and Sundance (I will include pictures even though I wasn't there!). Thanks Irene and Aunt Debbie! We had a great weekend.
P.S. I forgot to mention that Sarah has been volunteering at the local 4H club as a horse-riding teacher. I threw in a picture of that as well.