Golly Tasting – Butterscotch vs. Caramel Smack-down

It all started three years back when ordering a butterscotch shake during a lunch break at a softball tournament.  Some of the guys couldn’t believe butterscotch would ever be chosen over caramel.  My personal view was the opposite.  This sparked a minor debate ending with me exclaiming “let’s find out what’s better!”  About a month later Jen and I hosted a blind “bring your favorite butterscotch/caramel tasting”.  A total of six people actually showed . :-)

There were two butterscotch, three caramel, and one butterscotch/caramel toppings to taste.  Each was presented in a ramekin with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.  If memory serves, we only rated taste.  In the end neither butterscotch nor caramel dominated.  It was the ingenious combination of the two, Mrs. Richardson's Butterscotch Caramel Dessert Topping, that won by a wide margin.  There aren’t any pictures from this 2007 event, but we did require a secret handshake to get into the house.  One of which was caught on hidden camera.

Sorry Scribner’s.  Time to change that secret butt slap up now that the secret’s out.  :-)

Since this 2007 event, we’ve had three other fun tastings; cheddar cheeses, ketchup, and most recently, root beer.  We don’t have pictures from the cheese tasting, but Cougar Gold and Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp took home first and second respectively.

The ketchup and root beer tastings were documented more thoroughly.  Details coming soon.

Why Wyatt *Justin* Gollehon?

I’m going through a bunch of old boxes tossing some things and scanning keepers for posterity. One of the cooler items found is a journal from a 10th grade writing class. Determining why an entry contains certain content is difficult. Some seem assigned. Others seem random. They ALL have poor handwriting. :-) A particularly emotional entry is found on Tuesday September 27th, 1993.

JUSTIN

I’ll never forget August 26th, 1988.
The day you were born
so wonderful and great.
Friends, relatives, and some acquaintances too,
all went to see the beautiful you.
The day you came home
I and my sister were there.
Like a second set of parents,
we truly loved and cared.
The first few weeks you woke me out of bed.
All that crying
wanting to be changed and fed.
Mommy would satisfy all your milky needs
though it surely was a pain.
And each day we couldn’t believe
all the weight that you would gain.
You were always happy wherever you were or went.
What a great gift to us God has sent.

That’s the hardest part of it to get through.
I would understand more if you had a disease
or were sick with the flu.
You were sound asleep on Sunday night,
but Monday morning things didn’t seem right.
And ever since that morningful morning they haven’t.

November 7th, 1998, God took my baby brother.
For what reason, I do not know.
I will miss you forever,
my beautiful and only
little bro.

It's pretty amazing Wyatt was born August 26, 2008. Wyatt JUSTIN Gollehon.

Memorial Weekend Camping 2009

Memorial Day Weekend.  A time for remembrance.  A time for reflection.  A time for braving the crowded roads.  This year we loaded up the Escape for a camping trip to Nason Creek, 20 minutes north of everyone’s favorite faux German town, Leavenworth. As all maiden voyages with Wyatt go, we racked our craniums deciding what to bring.  Jer, Jen, Wyatt, Chucky and Lulu...our little hybrid is bulging before we pack any gear!  What do you take when you don’t know what to bring?  EVERYTHING.  Packed to the rafters and only 75% complete we weren’t exactly sure how we were going to pull this off.  Luckily our neighborly neighbors noticed the struggle and offered up their rooftop carrier for the weekend....still, we barely fit.   To the highway! We arrived at our site and were excited to see it was next to the creek –though it was pretty high, so kind of more like a river.  It was an awesome spot.  Time to set up camp… Over the years The Gollys have been the butt of many tent jokes for our conservative use of camping ground (we had a tiny two man tent).   This year, we upgraded to a giant… two room…  eight person palace!  Space was plentiful.   Air mattress, check (thanks Marshes).  Pack-and-play for Wyatt, check.  Separate entry way room to take off shoes, house luggage, prepare for the day and dance a jig, check.  Wyatt loved it, crawling around to his heart’s content.  We had room to spread out and by morning time, both nights, all 5 of us were on the queen sized mattress!  Apparently the dogs were 'cold' and needed to be where the blankets were...sissies.  We were lucky to join a group of five other camping families, the Millers (the ones in charge), Rogels, Marshs, DaCorsis, and Casey and Dan.  Having tons of kids and parents around for our first trip with Wyatt was fun and educational. From amazing Rogel breakfasts to trail hiking, river rock throwing, lake fishing, marshmallow roasting, and simply sitting around talking… we had the best time.  Next year can’t come to soon! View The Full Memorial Day Camping Album

Christmas Bunco 2008

Every year we host the greatest party known to party goers everywhere. Yes. That’s right.

BUNCO! This year we welcomed a new couple into the Inner Sanctum. Mac and Joanne Rogel. While Joanne was the high scorer of the night Mac was the low scorer. That left them lingering in the middle of the pack when the trophies were handed out. Hopefully they had some fun (like me, I know Mac despises losing) as we’d love to have them back next year! The rest of the competition was grueling. Our 2007 winners, the Hadley/McCarthy’s, had an early lead, but the pressure to repeat was overwhelming. By the end they had collapsed leaving the top three spots wide open. Steph and Jay had a respectable showing coming in 3rd while the Robert’s gave it their best shot missing 1st place by a measly 1 point. **Congrats. Year six of Christmas Bunco and our first with Wyatt. As we and our friends grow older and build our families the partying gets harder. But, we do our best! As always Jen’s sleigh ride punch barely had time to cool. She also made some tasty appetizers that were a big hit. Thank you to those who pitched in and brought food, drinks, fun, and friendship. The night was a great success. See you in 2009!

**Oh, by the way, for the first time in 6 years we finally announced “THE GOLLYS WIN 1ST PLACE!”
View the full Christmas Bunco 2008 photo album.


P.S. – We’d like to have the best Christmas music mix possible ready for next year and now is the best time to buy Christmas music at a discount. If you were at the party please post a comment in this blog post with your favorite Christmas artist and/or album and/or song. We’ll be sure to get them into the playlist for next year.

hello world

Hello World... Our first post is to catch up on some photo gallery action.

In case you missed it we put up a gallery entitled Wyatt's Birthweek.
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It was a fun week that seems like forever ago. In actuality it's only been 9 weeks. Here's what the little guy looks like as of Halloween day.

Check out the sparse collection of our other Halloween pictures.


We also uploaded some pictures from my sister Denise and her new hubby Chris's wedding. Check 'em out.


That's it for now. We hope you all had a Happy Hallween and a safe day of setting back the clocks!