Rabbit Food

Lately I have been having so much fun learning what I can about cooking. Maybe once people get to the point where they are amenable to marriage some sort of nesting instinct kicks in. Or maybe I'm just competitive and fully realize that it's going to take a lot of practice time for me to get to the epicurean level that MJ is at. Anyway, I am pretty much starting out with zero previous experience. It was in no way my mom's fault that I never learned - I was just never interested before now. At the rate I'm going I will probably end up (dare I say it?) begging her to teach me to sew next year.
If anyone has some recipes they would like to share I would be very interested in trying them. I just found one on-line for turnips. I’ve never even considered cooking them before, I've always thought of them as a vegetable that showed up in Beatrix Potters’ books – sought after by wayward rabbits looking for a free meal.

This weekend:

yurt -
noun

a circular domed dwelling that is portable and self-supporting; originally used by nomadic Mongol and Turkic people of central Asia but now used as inexpensive alternative or temporary housing .

Also - a great place to ski to with friends in Idaho for those that are in need of a sunny break from cold, grey, wet, polluted Boise.

Yurt Fever...

From left to right the clearly delirious "yurters" - Josh, Cori, Robyn, Jason, MJ, and me

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
-Albert Camus

Loving Life, Family, Friends & the New Year

I keep promising pictures and not delivering. My apologizes… I have now come to realize that I don’t have any pictures from Christmas. I wasn’t thinking about capturing the moments, I was too busy reveling in them. I have only my words to describe the events.

A few days before Christmas I was able to meet a few more members of MJ’s family at an early Christmas party with his aunt, uncle and cousins on his mom’s side. It was interesting to meet them all after hearing so much about them from MJ’s uncle Mike and Peggy. Watching their excitement at being together and planning another reunion in the mountains at the wedding this summer was a highlight of the season. There were so many kids running around that I lost count and track of which child belonged to whom. They were all so high on the excitement of Christmas and having so many playmates to share the excitement with – they whipped themselves into a frenzy running back and forth between new toys and their parents and aunts and uncles. I was honored that evening to receive my “something old” from my future mother-in-law – a vintage heart shaped locket that she had gotten from her mother. Tears ensued as always when she and I spend any amount of time together talking about anything not completely devoid of emotion. I definitely inherited this perplexing ability to tear up on cue from my own mother. Peggy was able to be in Boise for over a week. We spent as much time as we could with her and Jennifer and “Uncle” as they call Peggy’s brother Mike.

Scott & Angie and Kathy & Joe got in Christmas Eve week from Eugene and Indianapolis respectively and were here until New Years Eve. After spending a really cozy Christmas in town with Grandma and Granddad we headed for the Headrick Cabin in Garden Valley. We skied a couple times, but had to concede that the snow was melting faster than it was falling. There were a few midnight sledding sessions after partaking in a few too many glasses of wine, there was the annual Headrick Family Men vs. Women Shuffleboard Tournament, there was a family band night jam session (shorter this year than in years past), there was a lot of “really good Pinnacle” played, and there was some fabulous food as a new tradition took root. Mom decided since we have all taken an interest in cooking that this year each couple should have a night to cook. It turned out to be the highlight of the week. I think I gained about 5 pounds, but can truly say that it was worth all the extra running I am going to have to do this month to burn it off.

After everyone left we went to the MPC Computer’s Bowl to watch Miami scrape one by Nevada. It was a close game, but it was so cold that we spent most of in my company’s tent in the end zone. They had food and drinks along with the essential heater and television. We then went on a journey of downtown with our good friends Celinda and Isaac celebrating the New Year as we made our way back home. The next day we experienced the greatest college football bowl game ever played as we watched completely stunned as our beloved Broncos beat my Grandma’s home state Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. It was the perfect bookend to an amazing couple of weeks.

Tomorrow morning we will embark on another adventure. We are skiing into a back country yurt around Banner Ridge. I won’t promise that I will post pictures… but I’ll promise to revel in the experience and share it here in words if not in pictures.

I hope you are living life to its fullest and enjoying every drop.

Wedding Plans

Hello Friends and Family,

We hope that everyone had a peaceful, healthy and happy holiday season. It was fabulous to get to spend time with everyone that came to Boise and Garden Valley to visit. We even got a bit of skiing in between rain showers. It was also pretty great to watch the boys from Boise State introduce Cinderella to Lady Liberty in Arizona on Monday (sorry for those of you in Norway, Australia and India - I'll explain later).

There has been a lot of confusion as to our wedding plans, so we thought we should clarify for you all exactly what will be taking place. Our ceremony will be near Stanley at Petit Lake on Wednesday, July 18 at 4pm. It is not our intention to exclude anyone from attending. If you would like to be there please join us. We do, however, want to make sure that everyone understands that this will be a very short informal event at a mountain lake with little to no amenities. In other words, there will be no formal “after party." The bride and groom may just decide to disappear into the Sawtooths for a quick hike into solitude after the ceremony. When the invitations go out in the spring they will be for the reception and not for the wedding. We will try to have someone record the event for posterity and those of you that would like to be there but are unable to attend.

Our reception will be at Terrace Lakes on Saturday, July 21 at 6pm. Terrace Lakes is in Garden Valley just outside of Crouch, Idaho and is roughly 1 hour north of Boise and 2 hours west of Stanley. Terrace Lakes has an RV Park, a few small cabins and motel rooms for rent – www.terracelakes.com (208)463-3250. There is a motel in Garden Valley which is about 15 minutes from Terrace Lakes– www.gardenvalleymotel.com. There is plenty of camping available in the surrounding Boise National Forest - www.fs.fed.us/r4/boise/. There are also a lot of cabins available for rent – www.idahovacationcabins.com. Links to other lodging options and more information about the Crouch/Garden Valley area at the website www.gardenvalleyidaho.net.

All of this information is available on our wedding website – www.headrickandjohnston.weddings.com. We hope that this will put an end to all of the confusion and that we see you all this summer (hopefully sooner).

Take care, Michael & Michelle

In Ian We Trust...

I promise to write about the holidays and post pictures soon, But first things, first. I just became a huge Florida fan for the next week. Because I am still hoarse from last night’s game, and have no words left of my own... I'll borrow from Pat Forde, the only sports writer that has written a novel I actually own.

"GLENDALE, Ariz. -- At the end of a game unlike any college football has ever witnessed, two of the great female icons in American culture staged a harmonic, hypnotic, borderline hallucinogenic convergence.

Boise State introduced Cinderella to Lady Liberty.

A head-to-toe, shining-beacon-to-glass-slipper miracle ensued."

Enough said.