May 2021

 

May was full of family and fun and FOOD. Mother's Day, Memorial Day, birthdays and graduations. There has still been basketball, card games, and 9-Square in the Air. As for school, many of the cousins are already done. Our boys still have a couple days in June ... technically. Kate graduated from the U and had her 22nd birthday. Lots of family and fun ... and have I mentioned FOOD?

• Family dinner out at Tepanyaki - which we still like, event though Gray makes great steak and fried rice himself. He was trying to pick up tips from our chef, who was the most entertaining chef we'd ever had. Missing Cal & Kate who were in Moab.
• SO much sourdough! Lots and lots of loaves, which I've been eating, giving away to friends. Tried sourdough pancakes and waffles, pizza crust, and even donuts. Mmmmm, dough-nuts!
• Peculiar Popcorn ... called "mushroom" popcorn. Gray found it at Orson Gygis. It pops up textured, and big, and super light-weight (although the scale the next morning begs to differ). 
• Cookies and Cool Whip ... I made "Swig" cookies, and too many batches of "Cool Whip Dessert" to count!
• Big Breakfasts on Saturday and/or Sunday are a Blackham thing. Pictured above was Mother's Day breakfast, but bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, waffles, pancakes, french toast ... they make regular appearances in the Blackham kitchen (and Blackham stomachs).
• Belated Christmas Crepes ... we'd planned on crepes for Christmas Day, but then Gray was under the weather and with Covid concerns, our married kids didn't dare come over. So we finally had our crepes, in May ;)
• Personal Pizzas ... my sourdough recipe can be converted into a pizza crust. I'd tried it a couple of times in the oven. Then Gray got on board and bought a "pizza oven" attachment for his Komodo Joe, and we had a big "build your own buffet" with a variety of sauces, cheeses, toppings. Gray is now looking at ANOTHER pizza oven (this one would be smaller, portable even) and so I see that being an option for a family gathering. It works really well for our vegetarians, I just need to perfect some gluten-free options ;)  
• Deluxe Dinners: Brisket, steak, bacon-wrapped chicken, crab legs ... just a few of the other dinners. We had the folks out for brisket. Keaton has been requesting fajitas, so I attempted making that for him. Gray has been making homemade beef jerky on the smoker, and the boys love it. Gray tried some rotisserie chicken (pictured above).
• Burger BBQ ... Landon made homemade buns, meat burgers, veggie burgers, tons of toppings. Clever-cut hot dogs and some marinated chicken too. 

I did NOT lose weight in May. Mayday, Mayday ... food and fasting were under attack! Other May moments included ...

• Microwave: Our microwave (only three years old) gave out. Repair would take a while, as the needed part was backordered. Gray just grabbed an inexpensive replacement and Keaton put it in. We use our microwave a lot ... it's inconvenient to be without it! First world problems!
• Pantry Planning: Gray built a nice divider for pans and cutting boards and such for the pantry. It looks good and led to additional organization.
• Basketball: Colton finished up his Spring season with Wolves and Showtime. He will be continuing on with his Wolves during the Summer and Fall, they have several tournaments planned, but most are out of Jen's driving zone (Utah County, downtown, Vegas) so I won't be watching many (if any). West Jordan High promoted the previous assistant coach to head coach rather than bringing in someone new (as our head coach took a new job in St. George). I've been working on my video backlog, and hit highlights from Colton's Sophomore games, JV games, and some of the recent Spring set (here's one game from May 8th, where Colton got the winning shot). I was pretty happy when the mask mandate was lifted and we could watch without wearing masks!
• Tax Day: We were glad that the government pushed the tax date again this year. We hadn't thought ahead enough on getting taxes done for Pammy's estate, and that had to be done before any of the siblings could do their own taxes. We did NOT get a refund (but Keaton got a nice chunk of change, and Coop hadn't earned enough to have to do his). 
• Haircut Housecall: We were lucky enough to get Aunt Olivia over to give everyone haircuts ... Landon makes sure he comes over on the nights she is here too. Keaton has been letting his hair grown out a bit though ... his front is floppy!
• QUIET! The kid crew (Landon&Sol, Cal&Kate, Keaton, Coop) went to see "A Quiet Place 2" (Colton was gone to a basketball game). Coop hadn't seen the first one fully, so when he had to pick a movie for his final Film Studies assignment, he watched the first installment so he was ready for the sequel. 
• Nine-Square: We've seen ads for the "9-Square in the Air" game and it looked SO fun. The sets cost $750 and up if you purchase them. Keaton took the challenge of building his own. It is really just PVC pipe and connectors. Those connectors still add up quickly, so the cost was still $250. We've played it as a family a couple of times and it's a great group game. I took some video and posted it (just basic play ... Blackham 9-Square). 

Landon and Sol got a new kitten, Miko. Cal and Kate have spent a ton of time and money on their yard, and it looks great (added a fence, sod, pavers, gravel). Keaton went to "sky school" (a one day training class) and is looking into more sky diving. 

Well ... I think that's about it for Blackham activities. In addition to food and fasting, my fitness has taken a slight hit, even with adding in Friday Zumba classes again (so now Mon/Wed/Fri). Coop and I still play ping pong most days, and Coop has been staying super active! 30k days fairly often. Grayson got an Apple Watch (and I made him sync up with my StrideKick app, which lets me be "friends" with different fitness devices). We'll see how things go with the summer schedule!