Blackberry Raspberry Pie Bars

BLACKBERRY RASPBERRY PIE BARS

Crust and Topping
3 cups flour
1 & 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 & 1/2 cups unsalted butter - cut into cubes

Fruit Filling
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup flour
Pinch salt
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp almond extract
4 cups of a mix of fresh or frozen berries (thaw & drain if using frozen)

Crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees & grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. Combine flour, sugar, salt and then add butter to the flour mixture. Mix until still crumbly but evenly distributed. Reserve 1 & 1/2 cups of the mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake 12-15 minutes. Cool for at least 10 minutes.

Filling: Whisk eggs in a large bowl, then add sugar, sour cream, flour, salt, lemon zest and almond extract. Gently fold in the berries and spoon the mixture over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture evenly over the filling. Bake 45 to 55 minutes.

Cool at least 1 hour before cutting into bars. Tasted better the second day.

Grandpa Whisler's Funeral

Darrel G. Whisler

September 29, 1917 - September 19, 2012

Even though Darrel was actually my Grandma Whisler's third husband, he was the one that I knew during my growing up years as they married in 1969 when I was only 3 years old. When we went out to Elk to visit, he would be sure that the horses were saddled for those wanting to ride - mainly my brother and my sister. I was not much of a fan, but I would go out to the barn when he milked the cows and visit with the other barn animals. During the summer he'd hitch up the horses to the wagon and take us on hay rides and during the winter the horses would be hitched to the sleigh. I have great memories of drinking fresh cows milk before going to bed when we visited. We always popped a couple of ice cubes in the Tupperware cups since the milk was still warm. When we were not visiting them, often Grandma and Grandpa would come "into town" for supplies - just the items they could not grow or produce on their farm. Grandpa always had a stick of gum hidden in his shirt pocket. They would deliver milk to our house in big glass gallon jars & Grandma would give me piano lessons. I have great memories of my Grandpa & Grandma Whisler.

We got to the Riverside Chapel early and visited with family and friends. About 10 minutes before the funeral was to start, the organist had not arrived. I offered to play and was able to fill in until she got to the church. After the church services we headed to the Elk Cemetery for the graveside services. Because the funeral was held on his birthday, everyone sang Happy Birthday after the casket was placed in the ground. I thought it highly appropriate that I could hear a horse whinny during this service. Phil White played the bagpipes to conclude the services.

White was a 19-year-old combat medic based out of Chu Lai, Vietnam, for about five months in 1969, when a grenade exploded near the back of his head. He spent about 14 months recuperating in a naval hospital in San Diego but was left legally blind by the wounds. He learned to play the bagpipes about 15 years ago and now plays during Veteran's events and funerals.

Obituary:

Born to Ralph V. and Maude M. (Adamson) Whisler on September 29, 1917, the third of nine children in Watonga, OK. He passed away on September 19, 2012, at Alderwood Manor in Spokane, WA. He married Viola (Peggy) Bollinger in 1943 and moved to Bellflower, CA in 1948. They had two children, Arlo G., who died soon after birth and Linda R. After Peggy’s death in 1964, he relocated to Spokane, WA. There he met Kathryn Bush, married in 1969 and made their home on the farm in Elk, WA. He was preceded in death by his mother and father; his brothers, Kenneth, Donald, Dale and Ralph Jr.; his sisters, Dorothy Tobler, and M. Jane Carnigie; his infant son, Arlo; and wives Viola and Kathryn and stepdaughter Charlene Young. He is survived by his daughter Linda (Art) Carter, grandson Art IV, great-grandchildren Alexis and Art V; his sister, Joyce Olivier and brother Carrol (Butch) Whisler; sister-in-law Charlene; his stepchildren, Jackie Gramlow, Robert Bush and Patricia (Duane) Blair; many step grand and step great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews. Services will be held Saturday, September 29, 2012, at the Deer Park Ward of the Latter Day Saints on Hwy 2 at 11 a.m., Burial to immediately follow service at Elk cemetery.

Disneyland Day #5

Today was the day we would return home. We got up early, grabbed a little breakfast and then checked out of our hotel. We went to the shuttle stop to wait for our shuttle. Much to our surprise, Heather and her family arrived a short time later. They were on our same shuttle all the way to LAX so we got a chance to visit with them. Here's one of the souvenirs that Cheyenne bought for herself - adorable sweatshirt!

We got to LAX for our Delta 11:33am departure. Going through security was really quick, and then when we got to board - there were extra TSA agents at the boarding gate which was unusual. However, when we got on the plane it all made sense. The shuttle Endeavour was set to land right around the time we were to take off. Because of that our flight was delayed, however, we were able to see this out our plane's window as we waited on the tarmac. The flight attendant was also interested and had been looking out the window too. As soon as the pilot was ready to take off - - he did with no warning. Since he had already called the all-clear before we sat and waited I expect. Our flight attendant was kind of skittering down the aisle in her high heels and skirt. She went for an inside seat, hopping over a gentleman in the aisle seat, and quickly strapped on her seat belt to a round of applause by those watching her gymnastics. It was quick thinking on her part. The remaining flight was uneventful and we arrived home, via Salt Lake City, at about 3:50pm. Fun trip - thanks for going with us Cheyenne!!!!

Endeavour Lands at LAX. Space shuttle Endeavour, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) performs a low flyby at Los Angeles International Airport, Friday, September 21st. Endeavour, built as a replacement for space shuttle Challenger, completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit and orbited Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,993,151 miles. Beginning Oct 30th, the shuttle will be on display in the California Science center's Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, embarking on its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space and educate and inspire future generations of explorers.

Disneyland Day #4

After finding yet another surprise on Cheyenne's bunkbed (those sneaky Disney characters), we headed over to Disneyland to do something we had never done before - a character breakfast. Though there are multiple locations to choose from, we decided on the Plaza Inn Minnie & Friends Breakfast in the park. When we arrived at our reservation time, they first took our picture. Then they escorted us to our table.

Throughout the meal various characters would come over and let us take as many photos as we would like. Of course, this was between going to the breakfast buffet of pastries, waffles, fruits and made to order omelettes.

Cheyenne whispered to me after the breakfast that Captain Hook should have been leaving gifts for Audrey in our hotel room like Mickey and Minnie were leaving for her. I told her she should have said something to him while he was at our table.

Captain Hook noticed that John had not shaved during the trip and offered to give him a shave!!

After getting our fill of breakfast and seeing all the characters, we headed next door to upgrade our photo to a Disney Photo Pass. This is something that would have been great to have the first day. Basically you pay one fee and they take as many pictures as you want keeping them on a digital file for you. This includes the photo rides and all the photographers that are stationed throughout the parks. It basically costs you what you would pay for 3 ride photos, so well worth your money. (And if you buy before you go to the park there are usually promo codes available. We did not know about it, but will use it next time for sure.)

We went and rode all our favorite rides again and caught many of the rides we missed the first two days. Cheyenne really wanted to ride Space Mountain, so that was the first one we rode after breakfast. Then we tried the Matterhorn (it was closed) and rode the dark ride Alice in Wonderland.

We had never done this before either, so rode the trolley pulled by a horse down main street. The name of our horse was Holly - she even had a Cast Member name tag.

Then we grabbed the Disneyland Railroad and rode the train around the park.

Tried to ride Splash Mountain, but it was temporarily closed. We vowed to check back later.

About this time we met up with Susan, Heather and Nancy and went on the Haunted Mansion. It was cute because Cheyenne was encouraging Heather to ride this ride - she did not know what to expect as she had not been on it before. So Cheyenne was letting her know how fun it would be. After that we rode Pirates with Susan and then Big Thunder with Susan. We let Susan hitch back up with Nancy and we then headed over to DCA.

The Cars fastpass was sold out for the day so we decided to do a few different rides. John and Cheyenne did the other Cars Land rides that were not done such as Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi's Flying Tires. In the meantime Audrey and I did Pacific Wharf items such as the Boudin Bakery Tour and checked out the Ghirardelli chocolate shop. We met back up together and did The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure. That was new for all of us.

We went to do a few more rides on Paradise Pier. Cheyenne was willing to go on California Screamin' but was too short (had to be 48" tall). So John and Cheyenne went on Toy Story Mania while Audrey and I went on Screamin'. (I did not trust my tummy on a 3D ride after yesterday...)

We were off the ride and John and Cheyenne were still in line, so Audrey & I started our souvenir shopping and grabbed some snacks to beat the heat. In Car's Land they had these "Cozy Cone" shacks that looked like giant orange road cones. We had ice cream and lemonade. And I got some chocolate ice cream on my white shirt. Whoops!

I don't remember the exact timing, but by this time Audrey had lost her sunglasses too. Now we were down to #1 pair between the four of us - my sunglasses. So Audrey first ran back to the hotel (with our souvenirs) and then went to the Lost and Found to report the # 3 missing sunglasses. The remaining three of us rode Soarin' over California again.

Cheyenne, John and I caught part of the Pixar Play Parade while we were waiting for Audrey to get back. Evidently it took awhile at the Lost & Found, but she was able to get her sunglasses back. Now we were back to #2 sunglasses.

On the way back from a bathroom break, Cheyenne told me that since today we were riding all our favorite rides, "We'd better ride the Tower ride again for Audrey". I questioned her - did she really want to ride it again (since yesterday she had not liked it). She reiterated that we "needed to do it for Audrey". So ALL of us rode the Tower of Terror again. You will have to look extremely close to see Cheyenne's head. She is between John and I on the left side of the picture. John describes it as a "boa constrictor wrapped around your arm". But she was a total trooper and rode Tower twice! When she got off she said "I'm braver than Kota (her brother Dakota)" because she had gone on it twice and when we had gone to Disneyland before with Mariska and Dakota, he had only gone on it once.

For dinner we grabbed different cuisine in the Pacific Wharf area. John and Cheyenne went with Cucina (Mexican) and Audrey and I split something from Lucky Fortune (Oriental).

Then we went and stood in the Radiator Springs Racers line and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves once we were on the ride. Awesome!!

We went back over to Disneyland for our final rides before calling our Disneyland trip over: Splash Mountain and Pirates.

Disneyland Day #3

Today we were going to spend all day at Disney's California Adventure. Again, Cheyenne found a present left by the Disney characters sneaking into our hotel overnight. Fun! Park did not open until 10AM, so we took a leisurely morning getting ready, trying out the free hotel breakfast and allowing Cheyenne to jump from the bed bunks onto Audrey's bed.

If you noticed in many pictures yesterday, Cheyenne was squinting. She had left her glasses at home so before heading to DCA we bought a cheap pair at the mini-mart near the hotel. (There is more to the family sunglass story, just start counting....this is #1 pair). #4 pairs of sunglasses shown below.

We started out at Condor Flats and rode Soarin' Over California. Love this ride! Then we headed over to A Bug's Land and did the 3D It's Tough to be a Bug! And then all the fun attractions - Francis' Ladybug Boogie, Flik's Flyers, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. I love the attention to detail in this area of DCA.

We went from Bug's Land to Hollywood Land and got in the Hollywood Tower of Terror line. This is probably Audrey's favorite ride in DCA. Cheyenne did not know what to expect, but she was not terribly thrilled with us when she got off the ride. This was the one and only time she said she did not like a ride. See picture below where she is attached to John's arm?

As soon as I got off that ride, I was extremely sick. Probably a combination of motion sickness and a little dehydration. Did I mention it was in the 90's while we were here? I was planning on cooler weather so had only packed jeans. I tried laying down on a cement bench while John went to get me something to eat. Unfortunately, what originally sounded good did not when he brought it back. So... Audrey escorted me back to the hotel and John and Cheyenne stayed in the park. (So now, besides feeling like I was going to throw up, now I was feeling guilty that I was making Audrey miss time in the park. She was wonderful though and got me settled in the hotel and then ran to the mini-mart and brought me back saltine crackers. When I was ready to take a nap, she did get a chance to return to the park).

I know that John and Cheyenne spent some time at the Animation Studio area as they brought back artwork to the hotel that night. They had lunch at the Taste Pilot Grill. When Audrey was able to join them, the three of them got to spend time in other areas of Hollywood Land and also Grizzly Peak (and the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail) as I have photo evidence. Sorry to have missed this, but glad that they got to enjoy the park.

Follow up to the sunglasses story. Cheyenne's glasses went missing sometime between the picture above and the picture below. Uncle John lent her his during the day. Down to #3 pairs.

I woke up around 4pm and decided I was feeling well enough to head back. In our effort to keep our luggage to carry-on only, we decided to have only one cell phone - Audrey's. I was going to try calling her cell phone from the hotel, but remembered too many times when I've gotten an incredibly high phone bill at a hotel so my "cheap" kicked in and I figured I could walk around and find them. I got to the entrance of DCA and worked my way around the entire park, ending back where I had started and not having "run into them" at all. This is when I decided my original "cheap" plan was not such a good one. I should have spent a couple bucks and made plans with Audrey prior to leaving the hotel. I decided to look for a phone. First found out that this is not a normal question to customer service, as most people carry cell phones. I walked around and found one set and started making the call. It was one where you put in your credit card and accept the charges right before the call goes through. They wanted $19 for the call so I hung up. Then I walked toward the entrance and found some coin operated phones. Got change from one of the shops nearby and tried plugging in the coins. One phone did not work at all. The next one had coins stuck in so you could not even try to use it. At this point I was getting a little frustrated but saw the guest services area. I went to them and mentioned the issue with the phones not working. At that time the clerk asked if I would just want to use his phone? Bless you! He dialed, but then Audrey did not pick up. I'm sure she was on a ride or in a noisy section at the time. He dialed again, but right then - all 3 of my family members were walking by the guest services window. Yay! (As I was quite nearly in tears at this moment.)

We had heard so much about Cars Land that we knew we had to get in line for the Radiator Springs Racers. The line was HUGE and very slow moving. We were in line for nearly an hour when we realized we would not get to the front and out of the ride before the deadline to pick up our World of Color dinner & tickets. So John and Audrey sacrificed and got out of line while Cheyenne and I continued. By the way - it was beyond AWESOME!!

We had pre-purchased the World of Color Picnic with viewing area ticket. I picked the Taste of Asia (chilled salmon, cucumber/radish slaw, soba noodle salad, mandarin orange cake, beverage); Audrey & John picked the All American (fried chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, apple pie, beverage); and Cheyenne chose the Junior All-American Box (chicken leg, goldfish crackers, apple, vanilla cupcake, beverage). All came with a glow-in-the dark bracelet. Besides being non-refundable (thus the reason for John & Audrey to get out of line), they had specific window of time to pick up tickets/meals and the tickets were only valid for specific show (8:15pm) and a specific area to stand to watch.

We sat down and had our meal and then made our way to the designated viewing area. By the time we found a spot to stand in our section, we actually ended up being quite close to the water. There were all sorts of signs warning us that we would get wet, but we were OK with that. Remember it was in the 90's!

The World of Color is described as "Disney's most innovative and immersive water spectacular combines water, color, fire, music, and animation in a kaleidoscope of fantasy and imagination". Well, all I can tell you was as soon as it was over we just looked at each other and said "WOW". It was amazing! And yes, we did get wet and we did feel the "fire" too. So cool!!

We had just a little time before the park closed to walk around Cars Land and take some pictures. I love the neon lights at night. Again, I'm amazed at all the details they put into the park.

And this is when we noticed that we were down to only #2 sunglasses. John's had gone missing sometime from the end of World of Color to the point we were taking this picture. It was pretty crowded and we think they got knocked onto the ground.

What an adventuresome day at Disney's California Adventure!!

Disneyland Day #2

We woke up this morning to find that some of the Disney characters were sneaking in packages to our hotel room overnight? Cheyenne found some items hidden on the lower bunk bed - coloring books & fruit snacks. Wow, they were certainly quiet!

Today was our FIRST day in Disneyland. Super excited!! Even though it was only September, the park was decked out and ready for Halloween.

Our first stop was Carnation Cafe for breakfast. While waiting for our meal we spotted a nearby patron who had a fun tattoo on her ankle. Obviously a true Disney fan...and perhaps a cupcake connoisseur as well? Cheyenne and Audrey each ordered the Mickey waffles, John ordered Apple Granola pancakes and I ordered the Oscar's Choice breakfast.

We checked out the rides at Fantasyland first ultimately hitting all the traditional dark rides such as Peter Pan, Pinnochio, Snow White and Mr Toad. I love this picture of Cheyenne on the tea cups. Fair warning - taking pictures while going on a spinning ride when you are prone to motion sickness - not a good idea. But the picture was worth it!

Next we went to check out the Billy Hill & the Hillbillies performance - a must for our family each time we go to Disneyland. This year was different as they were located at the Big Thunder Ranch along with a Halloween Carnival theme of various activities. So it was the Billy Hill and the Haunted Hillbillies show instead of the traditional one. They sang "ghost" songs like Ghost Riders in the Sky. It was fun and a nice change, but I still like the original show they do in the Golden Horseshoe. Guess we'll have to go back another time : ) ??

We headed to Frontierland next and rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Cheyenne loved it. Then we rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. It was decked out with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Cheyenne made sure to wave to Sandy Claws (as Jack Skellington calls him). Then we went on Splash Mountain (one of my favorite rides). Zoom in on Cheyenne's face in the official photo below.

After she got off the ride she said "It's like I took a shower!" So even though she got wet, she loved this ride.

We met up with Susan and Nancy and went to the Golden Horseshoe. There was a show with "The Laughing Stock Co." performing. Besides a variety show portion, they had an audience participation skit. The premise was that they were trying to figure out who the bank robber was and was reenacting the event. So they had different audience members play the part of the bank manager, teller & town drunk. They would bring them up one at a time and give them certain lines to say when they were pointed to. John was chosen to be the bank manager. His line was "That Sally Mae is one mighty fine looking filly". Note - Sally Mae was played by a man dressed up as a woman so John had a really though time with this line....

Afterwards we decided to head to the Enchanted Tiki Room, but stopped to get Dole pineapple whips before heading inside. After getting the Tiki Room song stuck in our heads....Nancy & Susan went to meet back up with Heather's family. We had promised Cheyenne all day that we'd ride Dumbo, so we went back over to Fantasyland and did just that! Crazy thing was, we had never ridden it before either.

And then we went on the remaining Fantasyland rides we missed in the morning:

It's a Small World

and The Matterhorn.

We explored Mickey's Toontown and went back over to Adventureland for Tarzan's treehouse. Had a yummy snack at Bengal BBQ and caught just a portion of the parade that day. We went to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain,  which was decked out as Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. Cheyenne got off that ride and LOVED it!! She said "Hey, I didn't even scream".

Before we left the park for the day we did Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln on Main Street. We had gotten some great character photos today - see below. We left the park and had a late meal at Tortilla Joes and then went back to our hotel.

Disneyland Day #1

It had been since February 2011 since our last Disneyland trip, so we were due. This time we got the opportunity to take our 7-year-old niece Cheyenne with us. She had never been to Disneyland nor on an airplane, so we were excited to have her with us. (We had taken her older brother & sister a few years earlier, so she saved up some souvenir money figuring it was her turn to go). We found out about her plan to go with us at her 7th birthday party in July. We were totally on board because it is fun to go with someone who has never been before.

The morning of our trip, Shaune took us to the airport. We flew Delta and had a 6:15am departure so had to get up mighty early. We were all excited - don't you love Uncle John's pink bag?

We switched planes in Salt Lake and arrived around 11:30 am to LAX. We took a shuttle to Anaheim - Disneyland Express Gray Lines - and got to meet a nice set of grand parents on that ride. They were meeting up with their grand kids to go to Disney. In fact, we did run into them another time at the park.

We dropped off our luggage at the hotel, but had arrived too early to check in. They let us store the luggage while we went across the street and explored Downtown Disney, including the huge Disney Store and the Lego Store.

They had lego displays of Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast and Toy Story characters.

Then we went over to the Disneyland Hotel and grounds. They had a display of various Disney toys, dishes, books and games through the years. It was fun to see the history. It was also fun to see how many details are added throughout the area (fun shrubs!). Cheyenne got to take a picture in Goofy's Kitchen, a place where they have character breakfasts in the Disneyland Hotel.

We were ready to relax in our hotel, the Park Vue Inn, which was located directly across from the entrance to Disneyland. We had booked a reservation for 2 queens, but were pleasantly surprised when we got to our room and realized they had upgraded us to the family suite at no additional charge. That meant a queen bed for John/Sam, a queen bed for Audrey and twin beds for Cheyenne. She slept on the top bunk and used the bottom bunk to lay out her suitcases. Pretty cool!

The hotel also had a pool and it was rather warm (upper 80's - low 90's), so Cheyenne checked it out. She even packed her goggles so was prepared.

When we originally picked the time we were going to Disneyland, we had coordinated with John's sisters (Nancy & Susan) who were planning on meeting Nancy's daughter and her family there as well. Since we all had arrived today, we met up at Mimi's Restaurant for dinner. Had a good time catching up with Heather, Shane, 5 year-old Kyle, Nancy & Susan. We finally left when poor Cheyenne was literally sleeping at the table. A very long day!