Caramel Bars

This is a delicious and oh so rich dessert! Great to bring to a party or to freeze and save for later!

Caramel Bars
(From Melissa Moore)

Ingredients
2 cups bisquick
2 cups oatmeal
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
chocolate chips, butterscotch chips (or whatever chips you like), to sight (1/2 to 1 cup of each)
1 cup caramel (the caramel dip found in the vegetable section is good--it comes in a tub)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9X13 pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, mix the oatmeal, bisquick, brown sugar and butter until combined. Evenly spread 3/4 of this mixture in the pan, then bake for 10 minutes. Microwave the caramel (according to package directions) and spread it over the baked oatmeal layer. Sprinkle the chips over the caramel layer (to sight). Crumble the remaining oatmeal mix over the top of the caramel layer, and bake for another 20-25 minutes. Cool and refridgerate. Cut into bars and serve. (Can be frozen).

Portrait

Travis and I recently commissioned an old friend of mine from college to paint our portrait (before he goes to grad school and starts charging the big bucks!), and we love the finished product. So, what do you think? Does it look like us? =)

Maple Sugaring

Today we went to a Maple Sugaring Demonstration at the Rocky Ridge Reservation (a Cleveland Metropark) with Rachel and Brandon's family, and our friends Danny and Crystal, and their son Jace. The demonstration included a guided tour through the woods to learn how maple sugar has been and is currently collected, and a sample of the maple syrup. It was a great excuse to be outdoors, enjoying the sunshine and the crisp winter air!

We were told that our current NE Ohio conditions--of cold nights and warmer days (45 degrees)--is actually ideal for maple sugar collecting (because the pressure that the temperature difference creates within the trees pushes the sugar out).

(Sinzibukwud is the Native American name for the maple tree.)

Here we are taking our guided tour through the woods:

And here, our tour guide (a park ranger) is telling us about how they tap the trees to retrieve the sugar:

She told us that they use these buckets to collect the maple sugar (which they have to switch out 2-3 times a day during prime sugaring season in February and March). Although that seems like a lot, maple sugar actually consists of over 90% water, so 40 of these buckets of maple sugar boils down to only 1 bucket's worth of maple syrup! And since the park doesn't make enough syrup to sell, they give it all out as samples to people like us who come for the demonstrations! Isn't that neat?

Here's an example of how the Native American's collected the maple sugar...

...which, because it is mostly water, is clear...

...and how they would have boiled it down to make maple syrup.

Today, the rangers use this contraption to boil the maple sugar and make syrup (they dump the sugar into the metal bin at the top left, it then drains down the tube and into the steaming boiler in the middle, and out the faucet through a paper strainer into the metal bin in the bottom left as the finished product).

At the end of the tour, some volunteers handed out mini pancakes to sample the maple syrup on. Yum!

It was so interesting to learn how this process worked, and such a treat to be doing something outdoors as a family.
Maybe we'll have to start our own maple sugaring tradition!

And just for fun, here's a recent picture of Grace. She loves to play with the curtains and point at all the things outside!

Copy Cat

I know I just shared a video of Grace, but this clip I got of her today was too funny not to share. So, Travis had been doing that thing to Grace--you know, where you drum your mouth with your hand while humming?--and all of a sudden, Grace did it too (in her own, funny way)!

Hope that tickled your funny bone! =)

Zoo Day

This week is Travis' spring break, and to make the most of it, we've been trying to get some things done around the house, as well as do some fun things out of the house as a family. Today was a family fun day, so we headed to the Zoo. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has a wonderful Rainforest exhibit, filled with plants and animals from Africa, South America and Asia. It also happens to be nice and warm, so it was perfect for a cold Ohio day!

Travis and Grace at the RainForest entrance:


There's a beautiful simulated waterfall right when you walk in the doors, which, combined with the vibrant rainforest plants, makes you feel like you really are in a rainforest!


(Notice Grace reaching out to touch the plants =) )


One of our favorite exhibits was the turtle and gharial (a crocodile-like animal) exhibit. It was SO neat to see the turtles from an underwater view (and so close!), just lazily swimming about and playfully interacting with each other.

Here's Grace and Travis looking at a fish exhibit. I think Grace especially liked the water exhibits because they reminded her of a bath (which she loves!). =)

After looking at the frogs, snakes, turtles, lizards, and fish downstairs, we headed upstairs to see the monkeys, orangutans, otters, and birds.

A couple of the little monkeys scurried down the branch to say hello to Grace:

Our other favorite exhibit was the orangutans. I've always had a soft spot for orangutans since seeing them at the Zoo with my dad when I was a kid, but this experience was extra special because we got to see a baby orangutan and learn some interesting things about them from the zoo keeper (like how female orangutans have 1 baby at a time, 5-8 years apart (so only 4 or so per lifetime); or how orangutan's grow at a rate similar to humans; or how they have about a 40 year lifespan).

Here is the Bornean orangutan mom and her (4 year old) baby (her 3rd):

And the orangutan dad (back facing) next to his (9 year old) daughter (in the foreground), and the mom (in the background).

These orangutans are especially interesting because, unlike typical groups of orangutans (where the male mates indiscriminately and the females raise the babies), this group lives in a family-like unit. Knowing this made seeing the baby oranguatan eat from his father's hand or wrestle and climb on his dad such a unique and special experience. (Sadly, these beautiful creatures are extremely endangered.)

We were so grateful, not only for the chance to be together, but for the incredible opportunity we had to see these animals that we never would have had the chance to in the wild, and to appreciate God's amazing creations.

Now on to more family fun!

Peek-a-boo!

Here's a video from last Friday of Grace playing her new favorite game: Peek-a-boo! (She's loved this game for a while now, but it wasn't until last week that she started doing the hiding, and actually started instigating it!) I love to hear her giggle when we play this, and to really interact with her. She usually likes to do it with us when she's in bed (with her blanket) or when she's eating (with her bib), but this is a video of her doing it in the living room with Travis.

I hope this video has brightened your day like it does ours whenever we watch it!