Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awkward: Sweat Dresses. Although I'm pretty sure it would be perfect to wear in the nursery on Sundays. I'm thinking that a sweat dress would definitely be a step down from scrubs though.

Awkward:

• Trying to send out mail from the office without stamps. Great job genius.
• Changing into my "pajamas" next to our car in the parking lot while camping. I was changing my pants, just chillin' in my underwear when Nikki yelled to me that people were coming back to the parking lot from the trail. Yup, just putting on a show for the hiking teenage boys. Your very welcome. At least I bothered to check when I changed into my sports bra :) What's camping without a little peep show?
• Trying to throw something out of the car window only to discover that the window was rolled up as my hand smashed into it.
• Attempting to cook dinner in a foil pouch on top of the car's engine. Not super effective.
• Peeing outside. Enough said.
• The smell of our car driving back to St. George. 4 dirty campers and a filthy dog. Throw in some wet dog food and you've got yourself a winner!
• Sleeping in a 2 man tent with 2 backpacks and 2 camera bags. Oh, and a giant dog. While she really isn't giant, she is giant in a tiny tent. Little tip? 2 man tent was really only made to accommodate 2 people.

Awesome:

• Arches National Park!
• Watching sheep being herded across a highway. Taking pictures of the "cowboy" herding them and then him asking us to send him the picture! Chad makes friends everywhere he goes!
• Trampoline Land! We almost killed ourselves but we had a ball!
• Not having to workout due to our "sneaky" workouts. Hiking and jumping on a trampoline for an hour definitely count as working out! And they are also major fun.
• Chad was a champ and drove the whole way to Arches and all the way back home.
• Seeing the fall colors in Dixie National Forest. While it's still summer down here, it is most definitely fall at that elevation. The colors were gorgeous!
• Sno Cones and Frozen Yogurt!
• Potato chips from Kneaders. OMG. They are thick, kettle style and are dusted with Parmesan cheese. Holy yumminess. I could eat these forever.

What was Awkward or Awesome about your week?

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!

Spring Break: Trampoline Tuesday

We had a coupon to AntiGravity and decided to try it out today. We both got an hour of jumping for free! As soon as we got there we knew we were gonna be in for an awesome time with all the other 8 year olds that were there to rock out for Spring Break! There was a giant arena that was about 4 trampolines by 8 or 9, with trampolines up on the wall too, as you can see from that awesome picture. We went nuts, bouncing over everything, attempting to bounce off the walls, and lots and lots of flipping.

After a good half an hour or so Chad finally convinced me to try to do a front flip. Once I realized that I was a grown adult with full control over my body, and that if the six year old next to me could do it I could too, I gave it a go. No, I did not smash my face, break my neck or injure myself, I just flipped over, phew. After that it was game on and we really went crazy. Jumping off the walls proved to be pretty difficult though considering that the wall basically just threw you back down and you ended up looking like a spaz with no control over your legs. An awesome spaz though that could jump off walls.

We were pooped after about and hour and a half, and super hot and sweaty. What a workout! It was a rockin' awesome time and we will definitely be back with our coupon stash to release our inner 8 year olds!