A look back and a recipe...

Yep- it's been awhile.  A looong while.  You probably thought I was done blogging.  I thought I was. But then I got a little bit sentimental yesterday looking back at our kiddos' first days of school and thought- oh hey, why not post a picture and a recipe.  It's fun and I have missed it!  So here goes...

Today was the first day back at school.

They are HUGE right?  How did this happen?  We have a Sophomore, an 8th and a 5th grader.

Look how little they used to be ::

First day of 2013,
2012,
2011,
2010,
2009,
2008 ,
and 2007.  We are so proud of them!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, I will move on to a recipe- so I don't have to think about how Luke will be graduating from high school in 3 very short years...

There is a reason I have been craving granola.  This summer we went to Cyprus, and found the most delicious granola Brad and I had ever had.  We found it at Lidl.  So I went searching for it here in Austria, but with no luck.  They have different kinds of granola here, but not the crunchy kind with big chunks of tropical fruit that we fell in love with in Cyprus.

Long story short- I have decided to try to make my own granola, since some friends of mine said it is easy and yummy.

This was the first recipe I tried, but I could never get it crunchy- though it tastes ok.

This recipe had a video, which always draws me in :)  So I tried it and I liked it better, though I still couldn't get it super crunchy!  Is there a secret I am missing?  Help me out!  Now I am on a mission...

(I used pecans and cranberries, because that is what I had on hand)

P.S.  The longer it cooled, the crunchier it got :)