Our Super-Duper-Saturday In the Big City

 

Sometimes you just have to forget about what you are "posed" to be doing and just do what you want. Sometimes. Right now is one of those times. So I blog. We had an amazing, exhausting, memorable Saturday. We had the whole crew out the door by 5:45 A.M so we could make it to the starting line on time for our 5K!
Ryan and I both ran the Pleasant View Founder's Day 5K. It was a beautiful course that started on a trail in the foot hills and then gradually worked it's way down through the neighborhoods. Yes, I said down hill! There were some up hills, but mostly it was a beautiful downhill route.
 

We both finished! That was really the goal of this race. It was my first race since having Andrew 6 months ago. I spent about 9 weeks training for this day, and through pain, I finished the race! I thought it was just shin splints, and Ryan helped me massaged, tape and wrap my leg in preparation for the run. My prayer for the race was that I would know when to push myself, and when to not push. I know running is hard and sometimes you have to push yourself to keep going, but I really did not want to injure myself. It was a great experience. I knew when to go hard, and I knew when to ease up. I was happy aT the end of the race and knew that I did the best I needed to do that day.
Big HUGS and thanks to my sister Wendy for watching the kiddos at the finish line so we could both run!!

*side note*
I went in yesterday and had some x-rays done. Turns out I ran that lovely run on a leg with a stress fracture. No wonder it hurt!?! More on that later.

After the race we got our  medals and breakfast and headed to Salt Lake to take the boys to the HOGLE ZOO. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. It was a blast. I was super excited they still had the lion drinking fountain!

Here are the little monkeys with maps in hand ready to go!
 

Danny LOVED the reptile house. He could have spent the entire day in there.

This was the only Snuggle-Saurus we saw that day. 

Josh DID NOT like the smell of the giraffes. Poor Josh. Oh well.

It took the boys a minute, but they found the big cat behind this fence. (I'm so funny I know!)
 

Baby Giraffe!
 

The Three Bears! Does that make me a Mama Bear? I think so. You better not mess with my cubs!

SO glad this picture was not on our camping post a few weeks ago!
 

The Rocky Shores exhibit was so good. We got to see the seals and sea lions. LOVED the Polar Bear! We got to watch him eat lunch!

I had to include this picture Ryan took. So wish it was of him and Josh. But what I really wish is that I could send a copy of it to this family.
 

It's not an official zoo without a gorilla statue.
 

The boys built a LEGO tower around Joshy in the LEGO block yard (which was conveniently located next to the mother's lounge).

It's also not a trip to the zoo without visiting the gift shop! (With the very clear understanding that we will NOT BE BUYING ANYTHING!) It's still fun to look. Or should I say "Funny Looking"!?!
 

Nice Danny. Nice.

After the zoo we visited Ryan's Grandmother and went swimming and ate dinner with her. It is so nice to be near family! Happy, full and exhausted we headed home. It was a long, but good day.
 

One more thing. This weekend Andrew has developed a new skill.
He doesn't have any teeth. He can't sit up on his own.

But he can CRAWL!

Happy Campers!

We did it! We took Andrew on his first camping trip! Joshua went on his first when he was 3 months old, but we didn't really feel like camping with Andrew in early March, so ... we waited until now. It was almost below freezing however. Hmmmm, March would have been much worse!

Lynda, Wendy and Chris drove up to Green Canyon in Logan and met up with us.
It was fun to run with Lynda in the morning through the canyon. We will really enjoy having her around a lot more starting this fall!
 

The boys loved themselves some Auntie time!
 

We cooked up some Tin Foil Dinners and Peach Cobbler. YUM!! The kiddos got to roast hot dogs. Joshy actually roasted chicken nuggets. That was interesting.Oh yes, and we ate S'mores. LOTS. OF. S'MORES.

This happy camper earned his dinner! Great job setting up camp Ryan!
 

I was out of beef so I marinaded some chicken and put together this crazy mash up of a tin foil dinner including, but not limited to: water chestnuts, red peppers pineapple and potatoes.
 

The night was pretty uneventful, except for the chilly weather, (glad Wendy and Chris decided NOT to sleep under the stars!), crawling out of my tent to get to the boys tent in the middle of the night to help a crying 4 year old, oh ya, and the visit from a raccoon. Check out this foot print the boys found in the morning!
(Still not as exciting as my sister Melissa's last camping trip by a long shot!)

Here's my little Nephi with his bow he built to take on the trip with him.
 

If you are going to have a monster child at camp, I recommend the red one! If you are going to have a raccoon visit your camp I recommend the blue one. If you are going to have a tired Mom at camp... well, every Mom that is camping is tired. That's a given.

In the morning we made it up to the cave scratch free!
 

This is what Chris calls a "Make-Melissa-Jealous-Picture". We thought of Melissa a lot on this trip! Glad her family got to go camping that night too. Too bad it was on the other side of the county.

Stole this one of Chris and Wendy. Love this one. Chris is so good to my sister!
 

This is one of our first family pictures with Andrew! Okay, one of the first ones I'm actually willing to share!


We took this one 2 years ago up at the cave. This was right after we moved to Logan.

And here we are now at the same place. Ha! Look Jared is wearing Danny's shirt! maybe in 2 more years Josh can be wearing it!

It was a great camping trip. Exhausting, but great. Glad we could go. Glad we could go straight to the car wash afterwards. Glad I could take my shoes off and get them hosed down at the car wash too. If only you could put your kids through the car wash also!!

The BIG one-one

This week Ryan and I celebrated our GOLDEN anniversary! (Is that a real thing?! Let's just say it is.)
On Tuesday, June 11th we hit 11 years! Wow! What a trip!
 

This is my new favorite tradition; pretending we live at a Bed and Breakfast. LOVE having breakfast outside.  This year we worked on breakfast together. I made this overnight baked french toast from Our Best Bites. It took longer to bake than planned, but that gave us more time to sizzle up some BACON!

Hello Handsome!

 

 I had helped one of my Young Women with a project for Father's Day and in exchange she babysat so me and Ryan could go out. We headed to The Beehive Grill for lunch.

 Next stop Twizzle Berry. Wow. Never been there before. My eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach! Can you believe they let you serve yourself? It was delicious... but you pay by the oz, and I could not finish mine. (I gave it a valiant effort though!)

 

After our date I took Ryan back to work and I headed home to find these beauties waiting for me!!! It's official, I'm spoiled. Loved. And spoiled.

 After work, dinner and Y.W we watched a movie and had MORE dessert! I guess I'm a true believer of the saying "The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach". So I made pie! Frozen Lemonade Pie that is.  I wish I had some right now. :(

 

  These are the cards we made for each other. Without knowing it, we both made cards with metallic vinyl on them. Neither of us has ever put vinyl on a card before. After I finished mine I had wished I had used GOLD vinyl. Ryan did. He designed the gold flower card for our golden anniversary. Mine is the silver 11 or ... pause. (We took a moment to pause and celebrate 11 amazing years.)

That is why I love Ryan more and more. We really are on the same page, it shouldn't surprise me so much. Sure love him.

Make My Own Ice Cream?

Make my own ice cream? Yes, yes I will!

We are now one week into summer and still alive! It has actually been really nice, mostly. Today I couldn't see one of my children (who will remain nameless) without him asking me for something though. "Can we go to the Fun Park? Can we go to the Jump Zone?"...  So, Daddy to the rescue! Out came the Slip 'n Slide and Skim Boards. Hurray! This kept them happy and entertained for quite sometime. What did I do while they played? I made ice cream!! I have been wanting an ice cream maker, but today I found out you can make ice cream without one!

Danny is holding the hose here for Jared. Jared got a turn to hold the hose too... and he sprayed me with it! What a guy!

 This is such an easy recipe! All it requires is 2 main ingredients and any add ins you want. The recipe is called Two Ingredient Ice Cream and you really don't need a machine!

 Just whip up your heavy cream. Took me about 5 minutes to get stiff peaks (after chilling the bowl and beaters for a few minutes while I took care of baby). Then in a separate bowl stir your add-ins into sweetened condensed milk.  Added a splash of Mexican blend vanilla too.

My all time favorite ice cream is Cookie's and Cream. I love it when I learn things like this about me. It's nice to have a favorite. I think it is my favorite because when I was 6 or 7 my parents took us to a children's museum. Afterwards they took us to a park and got us a treat. I got a Cookies and Cream Shake. It blew my mind! I had never had such a thing!! Really, it was a profound day for me. I loved the chunks of cookies in it, A-MA-Zing. Since then, when ever I get Cookies and Cream anything I worry about what kind of condition the cookies will be in. Will they just be crumbs or will they be large chunks of Oreo goodness?!??  Today I was in charge. Bring on the cookie chunks!

I popped it into the freezer several hours. It was just in time for an after dinner dessert!

 I couldn't believe how good it was! Jared said: "It doesn't taste like real ice cream. It tastes better!" He had me scared there for a minute. It was good. Very rich though. It doesn't take to much to do the trick.

Now my brain is churning with all the awesome combinations that are waiting to be tried! I'm thinking of something patriotic for July 4th, but what....

I can't wait to try out this recipe for Cinnamon Bun Ice Cream.

This would also be great with Homemade Magic Shell. It is an easy recipe (and uses up some more of your coconut oil!) I whipped this up with some of our left over s'more chocolate and loved it. I haven't tried it on ice cream yet, but it was GREAT to dip frozen bananas in! My 4 year old got about 3 bites in before he realized he was eating a banana!

The finished product!

A Food Story

I have a new favorite quote. Well, actually, I just have a favorite quote. (Never had a favorite before). Her goes: “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” 

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I remember as a little girl feeling desperate to make something, anything! There were days when I just needed to create. I once made a banjo out of a foil pan and rubber bands. (It didn't turn out too great). Then my Dad helped me make one out of wood and wire. My mom helped me sew my own Raggedy Ann Doll once. Most of my projects were made out of what I could find and I was on my own to put it together. (Like my pet hard boiled egg that lived in a cardboard box, wonder what happened to that!?!)

As it turns out, I still feel desperate to CREATE! It is a great outlet for me. Maybe because, unlike beds, crafts don't have to be made over and over again everyday. Sometimes creating puts me on the edge of insanity (or over the edge!) It is so hard to be human. I feel overwhelmed by all the things I would like to do and am so limited by time, resources and ... sanity.

So, in an effort to not let my head explode I am NOT making a food blog. (Though part of me really, really, really wants to!) Instead, I'm going to add to our family blog some of our "food stories". Family and food go hand in hand. And getting my family to eat the food in hand always makes for a good story.

I have found a new passion for the blog OurBestBites. I cannot say enough good things about it. I LOVE their recipes, not only eating them, but making them. (Now how to make my wallet love them too? I'm working on that!) So here are just a few of their recipes I have made recently, and hopefully a story to go along with them.

 *Note* The above photo is NOT food.... however everything in it is edible and it probably wouldn't taste too bad.

This is their Coconut Lime Sugar Scrub. I have already gone through one jar and and have given away several. It is fast and easy to make and gives you something to do with any coconut oil you may have been convinced to purchase. ;) 

While typing this I put Coconut Slime Sugar Scrub. Hmmm, tasty. That is what it will turn to in a few weeks if you don't use it up though!

 These beauties are what we call Snake on a Steak. OK, not really. That's what Jared calls them. OurBestBites calls them: Orange Thai Beef Skewers.

We ate all of them! That is saying something for my family. Part of the reason I decided to dive into cooking lately is because I want to get in the habit of feeding my family. More specifically, a house if BOYS. They are not big eaters now, but when my four boys are a little bigger, our grocery bill is going to get A LOT bigger! I better get in the habit now of making cooking a priority!

Those drinkable beauties are Raspberry-Citrus Slushies. YUM! These are going to be my go to treat this summer. However, I'm working on making them more time friendly. I'm playing around with using Lime Juice concentrate instead of making my own syrup and squeezing my own limes. Not that that isn't fun... I just have SO MANY THINGS I want to do!

 I decided to play around with their recipe and came up with this frozen pink lemonade. Don't laugh at the raspberry jam on the bottom like my sister did! It tasted pretty good!

Here is an easy, yummy one, Lemon-Garlic Herb Rubbed Chicken.  So, I didn't use fresh rosmary, but that's OK. They were still good and I got to use my grill. Until this spring I had no idea how to use it, now Ryan says I'm pretty good. *I just need to remember to turn off the gas when I'm done!*

My kids loved the vegetables. I grew this babies in my garden, sliced them up and put them on the barbie. NOT!! Walmart has a wonderful frozen vegetable section. These came in a bag that said something like "Grilled Vegetables Variety". So easy, and my kids loved them. (I just put them on a skillet on my stove though).

 Oooh, another shot of my coconut lime scrub. I had so much fun with the packaging! Well, enough fun any ways. I don't have time to go to crazy with it. I thought this was cute and good enough though.

Barbeque Bacon Sliders with a frozen lemonade. These were great! I learned how to make shoestring onions too! The garlic-cheese spread on these is amazing!

Okay, so not too many amazing stories this time. I'm just trying to play catch up. I've made so many fun recipes I'm dying to share! Check out their site and ENJOY!