We're back kids!

It's been nice to take a little break from writing this past little while. Not that things haven't been exciting, in fact it's been very much the opposite. One of the best parts of the month was getting to spend a week with Val and Bill and all the babies. One of which we had never met and the other spitfire we had only met as just a little baby.

They rushed into our house puking up a storm, isn't that the rule on vacation? Oh and Kinsley was scared to death of us. To death. Of course after Chad offered up some ice cream we had pretty much won her over. While the ice cream my have md us all BFF's it did lead to a puke fest later that night all over poor Penny. Hiding behind toilet wasn't her best move to avoid the vomit. After all of Penny's peeing and puking and general ruining of things though that cat deserved every bit of puke she got. High five Kins!

Everyone in the house managed to make it though the sickness, I was the only lucky one who escaped, work happened to come in handy this vacation :)

Our plans were slowed down quite  bit and although we couldn't fit in everything that we had planned on doing we did quite a dang bit. Our favorite being rock climbing, duh. My personal favorite being Cade rock climbing. That little guy was a freaking champ. He climbed to the top of two different pitches and did so awesome! Bill got in on the action as well even after smashing his finger working on their car, and Val was the climbing superstar surprise of the visit. She kicked serious butt up on those mountains!

We had an absolute blast eating too much Café Rio, staying up way to late every night, visiting Zion's, climbing the narrows at pioneer Park, splashing around at the splash park and Children's museum and eating way too much goodies in general. In was perfect and we wish we didn't have to let them go home.

P.S. Pain pills are real kids, so please excuse any ridiculous spelling errors or grammatical fumblings. So basically just the normal....

Weekend Climbers

I bet you're all shocked that we went rock climbing Friday afternoon.

We grabbed some subs so we could hike, picnic and then climb. It was a great day. So great in fact that we repeated it on Saturday. After the ritual pancake brunch we went back out in the early afternoon, along with everyone else in St. George. The three day weekend led to everyone from the Salt Lake area coming down to good ol' St. George, where the sun is still shining and we are all still playing outside!

Most of the climbs were already being climbed on, but Chad found a ridiculous one to attempt. Everyone was avoiding that climb for a reason, it was a beast. It was nice to watch him struggle a little bit for a change ;) He figured out the moves on his first climb and then soared up it the second time around. What can I say, he's good.

I may not have made it to the top of my climb, but almost. I've got one that I'm working on and I'm getting better and better. I just need my arms to beef up a bit more! After an afternoon of climbing we headed up to Pioneer Park so Chad could boulder a little bit. He likes to follow up his climbing with more climbing. Then we rappelled!

The park has a few stations for it, and I had never done it before. It was horrifying.... at first. It was starting to get dark, so we were basically rappelling into a black hole, super comforting. And from the picture above you can see how jazzed I was to be trying this, not at all. But we kicked off our shoes and did it! Once I wasn't walking down the rock and was just hanging in the air it was even more fun. Whoever is down here visiting us next, get ready, we're doing this! We each went twice before packing up for the night.

After a sleepy Sunday morning we went back out again. When you can climb 5 minutes from your house it's easy to go everyday! I attempted my climb again, I was determined to be able to do it, but my forearms had other ideas. I made it about halfway before my arms refused to even reach out to the rocks.

Chad conquered the climb where he had his first fall while lead climbing. Needless to say we are both a little afraid of it. But he went ahead and lead climbed (led climbed?, oh grammar) it, shaky hands and all. And then when he was done, he did it again.

We followed up all of our climbing with donuts and cider on Friday and more cider and an apple crisp on Sunday. It's required, it's Fall. After devouring dessert last night we both promptly passed out. Also a requirement after 3 days of climbing.

Meatless Monday: Veggie Burger Success!

We had an AMAZING week last week. We played, hiked, and jumped all week long! It was fun to have people out here to show all the fun places we've discovered in St. George! Pioneer Park was one of the favorite places and we went there twice to hike through the narrows and scamper all over the giant red rocks.

We of course had to take everyone to Trampoline Land! The kids had a blast, and so did Chad.

We also made it to Zion's National Park not once, not twice, but 3 times! What can I say, it's just a really cool place. The third time we took Kristy and Dylan and the two oldest boys to hike up Angel's Landing. It was a steep and high climb but we ALL made it! There was a fair amount of panicing and anxiety but we all made it across! The kids were rock stars and did better than most of the adults :)

If I wouldn't have been at work when everyone left I would have stole this cutie and kept her as my own!

Emerald Pools

At the top of Angel's Landing!!!

Ok, onto the meatless potion of this Monday! We made these veggie burgers when Jared was here and I was a little concerned. This is the guy who doesn't like peanut butter for pete's sake. Ashley and I would have lengthy conversations with him as teenagers about all of the food he didn't like, fried ice cream? Come on Jared! So when I made these I was really worried that they were not going to get eaten... by anyone really, let alone Jared.

I was pleasantly surprised when I tried these guys out, they were really good. The texture was great from the seeds and nuts, gave it some crunch, and all the spices really gave it a wonderful flavor. We all finished ours and I threw the leftover "dough?" in the freezer. It made a great lunch 2 weeks later. These are definitley in our dinner rotation now, especially being able to freeze it. I've decided I need to start prepping our dinners better on Sunday so that we (I) don't cave and get take out after work. We also made these when all the family was here last week and they were a big hit again!

You can find the recipe here at OhSheGlows. That's where I stole the picture from because we were soooo hungry that I didn't remember to snap a picture. I wasn't kidding when I said these were good, we inhaled them! I didn't have any black beans on hand the first time so I just substituted white beans. Instead of using the "flax egg" I just used regular ol' eggs. I just added them one and a time until I got the consistency that I wanted. It's great to finally have a good burger substitute for the summertime!

Vacation

 

 We took the kids to Pioneer Park. It's basically the very northern side of St. George, so it's really close and a really fun place.

 The kids had NO fear. None of them! They were little rock climbers and managed to make it up, over and through everything Uncle Chad was!
 

Rukia was very confused as to where she should sit on the ride home. Frustrated she just leaped up onto the boys laps. You can see how happy they were about this. We were all HOT and just a little tired, so sharing seats with a big, hot, panting dog wasn't super exciting for them. 

  
 BFF's. They stopped moving for a hot second so I could snap a picture. They have been running and playing like crazy all week. They are having just as much fun (if not more, really) as all of us!

Penny on the other hand is freaking out. She does not like all the commotion from the animals and kids so she hides all day in our room. Since she's hidden all day in constant fear she's become insanely needy whenever Chad and I are near her. She is usually not very snuggly but as soon as I got on the bed she jumped onto my chest and started purring. Not normal for Pens, but very nice and very cute.

Pioneer Park

As soon as we got our new camera we decided that we needed to go test it out! We found a hiking spot only a few minutes from our house in Pioneer Park. I was expecting something more like a regular park... playground equipment, maybe a disc golf course, and a short trail to hike/stroll down. I was pleasantly surprised!

There were lots of places to rock climb

We found "The Narrows" and after Chad climbed up them we made our way through them. It was a tight fit...

Too tight for me! My boobs wouldn't let me get through! Darn you! I immediately thought of you Ashley and being able to squeeze through the gates to freedom. No such luck for me that day. At least I had another exit strategy though! I backed out and climbed up and over to meet Chad at the top.