Creamy Lime Avocado Dip

I'm not a traditional guacamole fan, but I love avocado. This tasty recipe really hits the spot. Yes, I'm a nerd and take pictures of my food. It's been a silly obsession since 2005. You can view my collection here.
Creamy Avocado Lime Dip Recipe #167766
An interesting change from guacamole, served directly on tortilla chips or crackers. Add more hot pepper sauce for a bigger kick if you want! You can leave it plain or add one of the suggested toppings below. From Food and Drink Magazine.
by ~Leslie~

10 min | 10 min prep

SERVES 10 -12

* 1 ripe avocado
* 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
* 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
* 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
* salt & freshly ground black pepper

Optional Toppings

* cooked shrimp
* sliced chile
* halved cherry tomatoes
* coriander sprig

1. Peel, dice and de-pit avocado and place in a food processor.
2. Add lime juice, hot pepper sauce and garlic.
3. Process until smooth and then season with salt and pepper.
4. Transfer to a bowl and cover by placing plastic wrap DIRECTLY onto the surface of avocado mixture.
5. Refrigerate until serving.
6. To serve, you can serve it as is or add some of the optional toppings and serve with tortilla chips or crackers.

Only in Texas

We saw this bumper sticker at a stop light right after viewing a friend's post on facebook featuring pictures of women in Israel casually walking around with M-16s strapped to their backs. Her post was titled "Only in Israel." I'm stealing her tagline to serve my own purposes. SO SO SO Texas!

Why we love Dada...

Tickles Remi's ham hocks.
Roach killer, even if it is grudgingly...
Makes us all laugh.
He puts on quite the show.
Nighttime hi jinks.
He changes diapers AND cleans up dog vomit!
Best chauffeur I know.
Handiest handyman around, I can't even begin to calculate the thousands he has saved us.
Passion for politics.
The mural! Need I say more?
Kindness.
Protector.
Generosity.
Smart AND witty.
Hilarity ensues whenever he is around.
Not afraid to show love towards his family.

I'm so excited for Keith to teach our children everything he knows. He is my role model and I can't wait for him to be theirs.

His roommate once overheard Remi and Keith in the middle of a diaper change. They were jabbering at each other and carrying on as if no one else around. His roommate asked, "Who's the baby in there?" I love that Keith is so unabashedly in love with his son. It melts my heart.

We love you, dadadada!

Happy Father's Day!

Utah, Utah, Utah!

Thanks to Daddy, Remi and I were able to have a fun-filled vacation in Utah. Even though it was freezing, we loved seeing everyone. Here are a few highlights:
After a delightful dinner at Cisero's (thanks, Dad!)
Park City on the hill. Do you believe it had been hailing only hours before?Gigi's fantastic abode...on the steepest hill that ever was!

Although you can't tell, this is a triple rainbowTiff trying to convince that the kids like each other...

What would a trip to Utah be without a huge bowl of Thai Siam's Massaman Tofu???Taco Time chef. Yum.
G-ma Bonnie and G-pa Don with the boy.
The family just relaxing. This wasn't a pose...they actually sit on the couch together like this.
Buddy, Remi, and their Papa.
Remi loved the Candice rose bush.
Hanging with Great G-pa Clawson and G-ma Beth in Provo.
Remi the astronaut at HAFB during the awesome airshow.
Callie, me and South Dakota's own Marian!

Rems room at night

The best thing about being above the clouds is the view of the stars.

I ordered some glow in the dark paint from GloNation. It is amazing. The pictures really do not do it justice. Candice and I will lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling. It is so cool. Sorry for the blurry close up, night pictures are tough. There are millions of tiny stars that don't show up in the pics. I like the gas clouds. My friend Chris Grundy (Rem's cultural Godfather) put like 30 of the popular constellations up, it will be fun to pick them out when the kids are older. Easy to do, cost less than 50 bucks.

Get your head in the clouds.

While Candice and Remo were out of town I was a busy lad. I have been wanting to do a mural in Rems room since before he was born. It would have been nearly impossible to do with Candice here. We would have fought over the color of the sky for months, let alone types and positions of clouds and aircraft. (We are both rather stubborn) I wanted to do an "above the clouds" theme. I thought it would be cool to do an evolution of aviation.
Here are some distance shots.





The first wall has Da Vinci's sketch of a helicopter, or helical air screw, drawn in 1490. Next to that is the Montgolfier Brothers balloon that was used in the fist manned ascent in France, 1783. Next to that is the first Zeppelin flight.

Otto Lilienthal was a brave man, or just plain crazy. He invented hang gliders in the late 1800's. Next to his gliders is the famous Wright Brothers first powered manned flight at Kitty Hawk.

Here is the infamous Red Barron in a dogfight.

Spirit of St. Louis and the first modern helicopter built by Igor Sikorsky.

German Messerschmitt BF 109s about to get whooped by P51s escorting B17 Flying Fortresses on a bombing run. The P51's are painted in the colors of the Tuskeegee Airmen.

A P38 Lightning in a fight with Japanese Zeros

The Saturn V Rocket taking the Apollo astronauts into space.

Astronauts returning to Earth. An F14 Tomcat chasing a Mig 15. UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) helicopter.

Just for fun.

F-117 Stealth


R44, Universal Helicopters colors. This is one of the helicopters I flew in training.

F22 Raptor, the Air Forces latest and greatest.

The new Tilt Rotor V-22 Osprey, a helicopter and airplane. Very cool.

In honor of our friend Brian Bankhead. An ERJ-145xr that he flew for Continental Express.

Here is the aircraft I fly. A bell 407 painted just like mine.


This has been a fun project. It took me a solid week, probably 50 hours or so. I pulled two all-nighters and discovered energy drinks. I have never really painted anything before. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do more murals when we have more kids. I encourage everyone to give it a try. I just bought a set of acrylic paints and some brushes. It cost less than 100 bucks for everything. If you don't like the way it turns out, oh well, just paint over it and try again. I did one other thing in his room, I will post about that tonight.

A puppy life