Fall Comfort

One thing I really enjoy about Fall is getting to cook warm comfort sorts of food to help sooth the cooler days. I also enjoy searching for new recipes and like using ingredients that represent the season. I found the tasty recipe below during a recent search of Allrecipes.com and was not disappointed. I know it sounds strange but it's really very good...not to mention super easy and healthy! I modified it a bit from the original recipe based on the reviews so here's the recipe with a Southwestern twist:

Pumpkin Turkey Chili

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey
2 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
2 tablespoons chili powder

2 to 4 tsp Cumin (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 dash salt
Optional toppings: sour ream and shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and saute the onion, green bell pepper, and garlic until tender. Stir in the turkey, and cook until evenly brown. Drain, and mix in tomatoes, pumpkin, beans and corn. Season with chili powder, cummin, pepper, and salt. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. May serve topped with Cheddar cheese and sour cream. Happy eating!

Ladies Weekend Getaway

Mr. Wagner and the Little Miss enjoyed a "Daddy/Daughter Date Weekend" while Yours Truly and 5 girlfriends headed to the central part of our state for a lovely ladies weekend getaway. Our first stop?....

A rest area of course! Would you expect anything less from a van full of women? While others were using the commode, I had to get a picture of the beautiful Fall view. We had a fun weekend eating out a local breweries, indulging in tasty cupcakes, shopping and most importantly, talking...and talking...and talking! The highlight of our trip was definitely our hour-long massages, a "must-do-again" weekend! Thanks to all the great husbands who stayed back to watch the kiddos. Is it too soon to start planning our 2011 ladies weekend getaway?!

Much Needed R&R

We had a much needed, restful weekend in the Wagner household and it was ohhhh so lovely! What did we do? Not much! We did have one fun family outing where we celebrated a birthday with friends over dinner. Other than that, we ran some errands and mostly just enjoyed being home together.

Sometimes less is more and in this case, our family needed some downtime. The only thing I would have changed about the weekend was the outcome of the Beaver game. That wasn't exactly a "restful" game to watch (35-34 in 2x OT) but I guess you can't have everything!

Opening Season

We really enjoy celebrating Autumn with visits to local pumpkin patches and had a great opening season trip this weekend. The day could not have been more perfect. After a stop by Starbucks and Noah's Bagels (love their pumpkin bagels at this time of year!), we were literally the first to show up at a local farm for the hayride out to pick a pumpkin.

The Little Miss and her good friend Logan were the only kiddos so they each got to take a long turn helping to drive the tractor.The Little Miss always loves driving a John Deere with her daddy! Looking forward to more pumpkin patch visits to come!

Roughing It: Part 2

As you can see from the last post, we "suffered" while on vacation with our friends. In all seriousness, we had a great time, regardless of the weather not fully cooperating. We shopped, talked, played, watched movies and just all around enjoyed each other's company. Of course if you ask the guys, they'll likely say the highlight was watching the Beaver game in the theater room.

Unfortunately we never did get a "group" picture so the best I can do is post pics of 3 of the 4 families that attended (we were missing the Booths on this particular outing but have to give them a special shout out and thanks for finding the beautiful house!).

The Curtis Family

Our annual trips actually started with them; the rest of us enjoyed exploring AK together while we all traveled there for their wedding. They missed out since they were on their honeymoon. Not sure why they chose that over staying with the group?! Now they are joined with sweet Allison, isn't she just too adorable in her "fashionable" outfit?The Bronson Family
They brought the latest addition to the bunch...Baby Zeke is snuggled away in the brown sling. We love this family and our Little Miss sure enjoyed playing with Emma throughout the weekend!


West Coast Wagners

OK, so you know us but we had to post this pic. What you can't see in this is that the Little Miss is soaking wet...she LOVES playing in the waves. We tend to forget what a blessing it is to live so close to the beautiful Pacific ocean!

Roughing It: Part 1

This past week was busy with Mr. Wagner off to Florida right after we returned from our annual vacation with good friends. Thankfully he made it home safe and sound so I'm now getting around to writing about our vacation adventure. Like last year, we really roughed it for the Booth-Bronson-Curtis-Wagner family trip. It would be hard to top how rough we had it this year in fact.

From the tiny 4600 sf cabin on a mere 12 wooded acres...

To the "little" kitchen that tied to an outdoor kitchen/BBQ...

The place only had two whirlpool tubs and just one flat screen TV in most every room...

The roughest part (especially for the guys) was that it only had one movie theater room in the whole place. One...can you believe it?

Rough it was I tell you, oh so very rough. Next year we may need to rent Buckingham Palace to compare.

(In all seriousness, if you are interested in a great place for a group to stay on the Oregon Coast, we highly recommend The Pleasanton in Bandon, OR).

One Cute Fan

I know I'm partial but I'm thinking these pics taken by our dear friend Joani sure do capture one cute Oregon State Beavers fan! This former-cheerleader mommy is honestly hoping our girl chooses soccer or another sport with uniforms that offer more coverage but if she chooses to cheer, I'll support her. Who knows, since she just measured in the 80th percentile in height at her 4 year appointment, she may be a basketball player! Love, love, love this girl.