At the evo '11 Bush's Beans sponsored dinner, they served pinto bean pie for dessert.  After making black bean brownies, I was eager to try another bean dessert.  It was delicious!  It tasted just like pecan pie.  I looked up the recipe on the Bush's Beans recipe site and made a pie.  It did not disappoint!  If you like pecan pie, you'll love this.  And why not get a little more protein in your dessert?

Jeremy and I both have a strong value of community and relationship.  As we've traveled the world, we've made friends all over the place!  This trip I felt so rich as we were able to see friends that we hadn't seen in years. 



I still feel overwhelmed with the richness of relationships we have all over the world.  It truly is a gift and something to be treasured.

Well, technically there were way more than four clowns at the circus, but Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center in section 116 there was a family of four (clowns?) watching The Greatest Show On Earth.


Growing up, I remember going to the circus a handful of times.  I was always mesmerized by animals doing tricks and trapeze artists flying through the air with such grace, making it look so easy.  The kid in me the other night felt the same wonderment that I did some 25 years ago.  Looking over at my kids during the show, I knew they felt it, too.

I love trying to experience events like this through the eyes of my children, especially when it's a first time.  Having lived in Africa, they were used to seeing big cats and elephant (thankfully no African elephant were a part of the show...whew!), but they had no idea what to expect going to the circus. 


The kids loved meeting some of the performers pre-show and getting autographs.  Joshua didn't want to ask them what they did, because he wanted to be surprised.  Surprised he was when two of the performers he met were in his favorite part of the show...The Globe of Steel!  Motorcycles zooming around in a globe was seriously nothing short of spectacular.


Emma G posed for a photo pre-show with two dancers.  It didn't surprise me, when I asked her to tell me her favorite part, that she responded, "The dancers."


The Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey circus is a great place to take the kids.  It's fun and entertaining and will, without a doubt, bring smiles and laughter to men and women, children of all ages (not to mention provide a great place to escape the hot summer heat).  Barnum 200 - Barnum's FUNundrum, Ringling Bros. biggest show yet, will be in Dallas until August 7th and Ft. Worth August 10-14.  Tickets include admittance to the all access pre-show one hour before the show starts.   The pre-show includes autograph signing, trying on costumes, meeting the performers up close, and much more!


Buy your tickets here and prepare to be amazed by the FUNundrum that crosses geographic borders! 

interview with the ringmaster

Disclosure : I received free tickets to the Ringling Bros. circus in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.  Special thanks to Kathy for arranging our time!

This trip was my first time to Utah, and I must say that Park City was absolutely beautiful!  Nestled in the mountains, this resort town was the perfect escape from hot Texas.  While I was "working" and attending evo '11, Jeremy and the kids enjoyed our room, swimming in the pool, and visiting the kid friendly sponsor suites.  One of my favorite things about evo was that the evenings were totally family friendly!

When I told Jeremy that the Friday and Saturday dinners were family style and that they could go for no extra charge, his response was less than enthusiastic.  "I don't want to be the only guy among lots of mommy bloggers," was his response.  The last night he was thanking Rachael of Today's Mama for making it so family friendly.


The Friday night dinner was sponsored by Bush's Beans at Park City Mountain Resort.  The spread was so yummy.  All of us had a blast tubing down the big slides.  The kids really loved the trampoline, although they quickly realized that doing a back flip is harder than it looks!


Saturday night's dinner was on top of the mountain at The Canyons Resort which required a 12 minute gondola ride up.  Riding a gondola up the mountain is not for the faint at heart.  I'm usually ok with these kind of things, but a certain little girl in our family decided to throw a fit right as we were leaving for the gondola.  When this happens I always feel like there's a choice we have to make as parents.  Not giving in to what she wanted, we decided that we would all walk to the gondola just knowing that she would calm down at some point.  She didn't.  We boarded the gondola with a screaming little girl who rocked us all the way up...over steep valleys.  It was nerve wracking, to say the least.  Wouldn't you know that she calmed down once we got the top while the rest of us were tense from the agony.  Thankfully, the ride down went much better.


The dinner was sponsored by Together Counts.  I had a lovely chat with these ladies the day before.  I love their mission of trying to get more families to eat meals together as well as be more active as a family, all promoting healthy living.  The whole evening was full of great food and family games.  We loved playing horse shoes and participating in the GPS scavenger hunt.  Joshua wanted to run so that we would have the best time thus winning the Sports Authority gift card.  However, little miss informed us that she was much too delicate for that.



This was just the beginning of our 18 day adventure.  Little did we know how much more awaited us...

You can read all my evo '11 highlights here.  Be sure to visit Together Counts and take their pledge to live more healthy as a family!

I'm guest posting over at (in)courage today. Won't you grab your coffee and join me there?

Perhaps the session that most intrigued / educated me at evo '11 was the one I attended on SEO.  By the way, SEO stands for search engine optimization.  In case anyone is still learning lingo...like me. :)  Dennis from The Next Corner did an excellent job of sharing how to improve SEO for your website. 


These were the points that stood out to me...

• What's above the fold in newspapers?  Be mindful of this in constructing the layout of your posts. 

• Editorial links are like gold.  Write excellent content for guest posts, do interviews.  Linking within the content of your post is much more valuable than sidebar linking.

• The URL structure of your permalink is important.  The URL should include your post name.  Take out common words to make it more user friendly and take out the date.  If a URL has a date to it, the older posts often get pushed to the back of search engine results.

• Set up a Google Alert in your Google Reader.  This allows you to see who is linking to your content.

• Don't buy or sell links on your site.  This was really helpful for me because right before the conference I received an email regarding paying me to embed a relevant link within a post.  Doing this can cause your site to be flagged as spam thus damaging your optimization.

• Construct your post title well.  Don't have too long a title that it will get truncated.  I will be talking more about writing a good title or headline in another post.

• Solve a problem that people are looking for on the internet.

• Take advantage of image optimization.  Use the right keywords in your filename.  Avoid putting the actual place in your description because this can be flagged as spam.  Instead just describe the picture.

• Beware of no follow links.  Although it's great for a big website to link to your site, if it's a no follow link, then you won't get the impression credit for it which helps your optimization.  You have to decide what you're willing to compromise.

These are a few snippets of a great session.  He mentioned Google Webmaster Tools as a great resource for SEO.  Also, all of his notes are on his website for easy reference.