Tag Archives: food

Hughes Family: October 26th 2012 – October 28th 2012

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This past week we had an outdoor pack meeting for Scouts. Mike had fulfilled all the requirements to get his Wolf and we were all going to attend.  Fran offered to provide the hot chocolate, but after mixing the one can we had bought she realized that it wasn’t going to be enough. We were already a bit late and there was no time to get more. Fran suggested we mix Ovaltine with hot water and condensed milk. It was actually really good.
Once we got on our way it was apparent we were in for a “treat”. Snow was falling.

And as it fell, the snow began to blow. And it blew harder and harder until they called off the award presentation portion of the meeting. Everyone stuck around and drank hot chocolate (we had made just enough). It was cold!

A few days later we all got ready to hit the Sabin’s Halloween party. Mike and Gabe were Ninjas, Claire was Cleopatra, Fran dressed as a leaf, Chloe was a lady bug (Fran and Chloe were a pair) and I dressed as a rapper…. or something. I don’t even know if people realized I dressed up.

The Sabin’s party was delightful, as always. Spooky decorations, crazy costumes, festive food, a Halloween pinata, and tons of crafts and games for the kids! Fran and Chloe won the “Most Creative” award this year and scored a sweet Halloween movie.  Many thank to the Sabins for their exceptional parties.

Here are a few quick pictures of some of the outrageous Halloween decor. You’ll get to see a lot more on Rachel’s blog once she puts up her party post.

And then it was time to carve pumpkins! The cool thing about these pumpkins is that they were all grown in Fran’s garden! And some of the kids even did their own carving this year, which was nice.

From left to right: Gabe, Cam, Claire, Chloe, Fran and Mike. These are the pumpkins in the light…

…and in the dark. How positively terrifying!

Next week is Halloween and the kids are already hard at work building a candy immunity. Will they survive? Stay tuned!

Hughes Family: October 8th 2012 – October 14th 2012

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We had a pretty laid back week.  Work is taking up more of my time these days, but hopefully things level out.  Well, come to think of it with the Holidays almost here they will only get more hectic. Ah well…

Chloe took her first steps this past week! Fran had a gut feeling it might happen and so she actually captured it!

Claire lost her second tooth this past week (and the tooth fairy remembered to come this time). More and more often basement access is blocked by giant piled of couch cushions, pillows and blankets. Cam used to do this kind of stuff when he was a kid and this appears to be the much referred to “karma” that his Mom warned him about. Speaking of messes- something things get so bad that we use a snow shovel to scoop up all the crap on the floor (the carpeted portion of the floor) and have “throw away” parties. Yes, this is for real.

Fran picked Saigon Cafe for this week’s meal. Saigon is a little Chinese / Vietnamese restaurant down in Provo. We used to go there each week when we lived by it, but only make it down there every few months or so now. Good food.

Fran and the kids made some pies. It’s hard to figure out how helpful the kids are this point. When Gabe turned on the mixer is was definitely not helpful. The Apple pie is made with apples from our very own tree. Fun!

On Sunday we went to Cam’s parent’s house for dinner. Mom made delicious pulled pork, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and we at the pumpkin pie Fran made. Grandpa & Grandma gave Chloe a cute bear while Claire quickly adopted (as mentioned in another post Chloe doesn’t quite get stuffed animals yet).

Hughes Family: September 24th – October 7th 2012

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Where does the time go? A question that millions of people ask each day. And yet there continues to be no answer. What can be done? Capture as many fleeting moments as possible, I guess.

Claire lost her first tooth (left central incisor)! Michael spent a long time tying floss to her tooth, but it kept slipping off. Ultimately it just wiggled free. Claire put the tooth under her pillow and – don’t judge us – the tooth fairy forgot to come. Claire wrote her a hilarious (albeit nasty) note. Luckily the tooth fairy came the next night.
Gabe is a funny kid- his attention span is incredible. The other day he came home from school and, without taking his backpack off, spent about an hour coloring a picture which he then folded up into a “robot.” He has also been building “forts” next to his bed (out of cardboard boxes) and sleeping in them.

Recently we implemented a new policy at our house: Whoever does dishes each week gets to pick where we eat on Saturday. Unsurprisingly, Fran has picked for the last few weeks. So far she has taken us to Sweet Tomatoes, Juice Press and Chuck O’Rama. The pictures above are from our trip to Juice Press. They offer smoothies and sandwiches- it’s worth checking out if you’re into “health food.”

Fran was called as the Den Mother of the Wolf Den (Michael is in that group). This past week they made tool boxes (and a mess). 
On September 20, 2012 the  Brigham City LDS temple was dedicated. Since Michael was old enough he got to attend the dedication ceremony (he would have rather gone over Niagara falls in a barrel).

Chloe turned one this past week! Given that nearly 80% of kids don’t make it to their first birthday we’re pretty proud of ourselves.

Few things are as enjoyable as watching a one year old open presents. Chloe had no idea what was going on but she was delighted. She scored some sweet lute like a drawing board, and some stuffed animals from her siblings.

Cam is working on a super secret project. We were able to capture this image of him…doing something. To be honest, it looks like he’s stealing furniture from work. But Cam wouldn’t do that… would he? I’m certain more information will be forthcoming.
Speaking of Cam-  with four days of his Onstar six month trial left Cam decided to activate the Onstar iPhone app (having never used any of the Onstar services) . You can monitor all your car’s vitals, and lock and unlock your car from your iPhone. Of course this only works if you don’t mind waiting. And waiting (slow app). Unimpressed Cam called to end his Onstar service and they gave him the “If you deactivate this service we can’t help you even if you’re in a crash and are burning to death” scare tactic. Cam has no fear. Goodbye Onstar.

The new store at work is coming along. This past week the drywall was put up. The build-out is over a month behind schedule at this point so setting up the storefront will have to wait until next year.

So ends another couple weeks in the life of the Hughes Family. I don’t know how many more blog posts there will this month. I have a lot of irons in the fire right now (work expansion, car project, secret project, working my way through Breaking Bad, etc).

Hughes Family: September 16th – September 23rd

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The kids enjoyed their school fair. You get your hair painted, play games, win prizes, eat junk food and party till you drop. Mike had so much fun Fran couldn’t even get a picture of him. 

Claire turned seven! We had a family party during the week (on her birthday). Fran made clam vermicelli (Claire’s requested birthday dinner) and a coconut cake. Claire got a bunch f Playmobile set that mom and dad had a “great” time putting together. 

On Saturday Claire had a party with her friends. The theme was “slumber party.” The table and cake were even decorated like beds. 

After working to clean and speed up the family’s old computer for a few hours Cam gave up and went and got a new one. It’s sort of amazing what you can get now for a few hundred dollars compared to what you got a few years ago. Sadly, the new computer wasn’t as upgradeable as Cam had hoped and he couldn’t put in a better video card. Everyone point at the “motherboard” and laugh. 

Another incredible week at the Hughes house.

Hughes Family: August 27th – September 3rd

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Gabe had his first day of Kindergarten. He was so excited to go to school! When he got home he said that it was “awesome.”  Probably won’t be long before he’s jaded like the others.

At Cam’s work they secured PowerTri’s old space (a moment of silence for a fallen friend). The space is being subdivided into a new store, more office space and a sound stage. Cool!  Remodeling can be stressful, but there’s going to be a lot of it in the Hughes family’s future (you can infer what you like from that). 

Cam and Fran went out on a date and ate at La Hacienda in Draper (Mexican Food, in case there’s some way you can’t tell). Fran really liked it and Cam thought it was okay. After dinner Cam and Fran decided to bust out  Race for the Galaxy (thank you Sabins!). You have to be a rocket scientist to plow your way through the instructions. By the time we were ready to play our date was over. Next time! 

Waffles on Sunday! Claire helped make them. It started off oddly, but in the end there were waffles. 

That evening we ate with Cam’s parents. Grandma always makes really good meals and the kids love to play with her and Grandpa. Cam and Mike played Battleship (Mike won). 

On Labor Day Fran wanted the family to Hike Stewart Falls. We started off with a meal at Wallabys and then headed into Provo Canyon. 

The weather was excellent, but the trail was very crowded (the whole canyon was packed because of the holiday). The kids had fun at first, but soon started to “get tired.” 

Nevertheless we made it to the falls. The kids played for a bit and everyone had a snack, You can tell from this picture that Mike had reached his patience threshold. Fran carried Chloe and Cam felt like a girly-man (to be fair he did carry Gabe for a good part of the trip up and down- possibly motivated by guilt or the need to seem strong). 

One we made it back to our car we decided to drive though the Alpine Loop. That took us out the American Fork canyon so we stopped at Pizza Pie Cafe. Normally their pizza is okay, but Monday was an exception (pretty dry…). And so ends another Hughes Family adventure. But there will be more. Sigh. 

Hughes Family: August 20th – 26th

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School started this past week. One in kindergarten, one in second grade and one in third. Not too bad! On Sunday Fran said “Ahhhh! I wish they could go to school every day!” (we can say this stuff since our kids don’t read the blog). These are a few pics and a video from the kids’ first trip to school. Cam is taking them most days- helps him get his butt out of bed.

We’re trying a new parenting method. We used to give the kids beads each time they did their chores. Beads could them be redeemed for money. However, this past week we switched to the “fear of loss” method. Each month the kids start out with a glass filled with quarters. We remove quarters when they don’t do do chores. Effectiveness is TBA. And some sad news: The other day Mike rode Claire’s bike off a ramp. Didn’t go well. Mike landed badly (on his face). He made it home but with some gaps in his memory. “What happened to me?” He had no recollection of the crash. Fran popped him in bed and he would periodically wake up and ask where he was. Poor kid. Except for the fact that he has forgotten how to stay clean he’s doing fine now.

The Scouts have a lot of fun activities like racing vegetables down a water filled ditch (this fulfills part of the “Nutrition” and “Orphan Games” merit badge requirements). Mike used an avocado (technically a fruit, but it was sanctioned by the racing coordinator). While light, the avocado boat didn’t fare well when it took in water. It’s erratic maneuvering patterns lead many to believe the captain of the small vessel was intoxicated. In the end it was a cucumber which proved the most sea worthy.

On Saturday we went out to celebrate Greg’s 27th birthday. Per Greg’s request Mom & Dad took us all to P.F. Chang’s (thank you guys!). This birthday was especially significant because we didn’t know if Greg would make it this long.

Look at all these happy people eating [what some may call] Chinese food!

Fran is trying to help the kids develop some skills in the kitchen. Each week she tries to work with at least one of them. Sometimes it can be trying though. On Sunday they all wanted to help. “How long until dinner is ready?” Cam asked. “Well, now that I have help it will be longer.” It took two hours. But you could totally taste the love.

Hughes Family: August 6th – August 12th

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We’re a little bit behind with the posts. Hopefully we’ll be able to get caught up in the next couple of weeks.


Fran and the kids went to Lagoon and had a lot of fun. With the exception of Chloe the kids can go on almost every ride. Chloe still went on her fair share though.

Lagoon: The Disney Land of Utah. Rides, food and fun. They stayed until the park closed at 11:00pm.

Cam’s is working on some major car modifications (new engine, transmission, drive shaft, differential and maybe bigger turbos and upgraded fuel system). This will probably be a 3-4 week project.

The kids and Grandpa look forward to the Alpine Days parade each year.

After gaining back a good deal of weight Cam is starting his diet and exercise program again. So far so good (except that he is really grumpy).

Sometimes kids do really weird stuff…

Nothing beats the Lindon pool on a hot summer day.

Claire went to her cousin’s birthday party. Gabe stayed home with Dad and they made cookies and watched cartoons (Mike was off with his friends). [The picture from this post was lost in the blog consolidation and, alas, it cannot be found]

Francoise is still trying to make eggplant taste good (this has been an ongoing battle). As it turns out fried eggplant is actually pretty good. On Sunday the family played Richess du Monde (a French game which is similar to Monopoly). Cam thought there may have been some cheating and would like a rematch. [The picture from this post was lost in the blog consolidation and, alas, it cannot be found]

Hughes Family July 23rd – July 29th

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Last meal in France at an amazing buffet. Look how excited the kids are about their food… well, most of them.

Here are a couple of pictures of the aforementioned “amazing buffet.”

Time to head back to the USA. That’s a lot of time in an airport and in planes.

Fran and the kids made it back in time for Pioneer Day. The kids were asleep until around 9:00pm, but woke up in time to light some fireworks.

Chloe was especially captivated by some glowsticks and the fireworks (they are the first ones she’s ever seen!). The neighborhood had aerial fireworks going off all over which were fun to watch.

Fran and Cam celebrated their 11th anniversary! Fran lost her camera while vacationing so Cam got her a new one (lucky girl!). Fran gave Cam a spa treatment (that’s mud, in case you were wondering).

That night Cam and Fran went to eat at Ruth’s Chris for dinner. Cam has been buying fillet minion and cooking it on the stove (he calles it “Skillet Steak”) and said it gave his Ruth’s Chris steak a run for its money. But regardless, both the dinner and company were excellent.

And what weekend would be complete without a fort? The kids liked the fort so much that they played in it all evening and then slept in it! Thank Dad!