Birthday Shenanigans in the Mitten

As son as Val, Bill and the gang left we had 2 days to pack and do a little cleaning before heading home. HOME. Wonderful, beautiful, green Michigan filled with tons of family and friends that we miss so dearly. We celebrated Chad's birthday on Saturday along with Jared as well. It' become an amazing tradition that we are all determined to keep alive. In addition to celebrating together matching shirts have also snuck their way in as well. I love it. LOVE it.

I also love that we were able to celebrate not only with my parents, Taylor, Jared (duh), Chad's parents, Nikki, Matt and the gang, Tracy, Lincoln and their whole crew as well. It was so fun to be able to celebrate with so much of our family! Happy Birthday Chad!!! Especially since I was passed out for a while (ok, it was longer than a while) due to some drugas for my whole SI joint issue. Glad to have some birthday support otherwise it wouldn't have been quite so fun with just me!

It was so nice to see everyone, everyone! I slept on the couch (are you sensing a theme) while my mom and the boys made the birthday cake, everyone brought yummy salads and sides while we ate fried chicken. We hung out all afternoon and it was awesome. I couldn't be more thankful for my wonderful family, immediate and extended, they are the absolute best around. And while it is technically "Chared's" birthday, I can't wait to see how we celebrate it all next year :)

In addition to the birthday festivities there was a ridiculous amount of Mexican food consumed, just enough sugar cookies eaten and not enough frozen custard, lol. We were able to stop in at our old ward briefly to basically just say "hi" and harass our old primary class, I stopped by my old work, Chad fit in a little climbing, we managed a double date with Jared and helped pick out a new tv for the parents, and just generally did a lot of hanging out with a lot of the people that we dearly love and miss.  Somehow we were out there for so long but it all went by in a flash.

 

 

(Chad took an actual group photo, and I think some overall better ones in general, imagine that. So as soon as I'm not feeling lazy I'll get some real photos up here to add the amazing amount of selfies that I took all week :) )

That's a Short Uncle

Oh Tony. In your words, I love you but I hate you.

We started P90X this week. I convinced Chad to "start" with the rest day only because Monday is a horrible day to start working out. It's Monday! We talked with Nikki and Matt on facetime instead and ate brownie sundaes in bed. Pretty successful rest day if you ask me.

Then the horror began. Of course I'm mostly talking about Ab Ripper. True to it's name it feels like someone has ripped apart my abs. Chad's however are becoming ripped all ready. Either way you look at it, I guess it's doing it's job... making us want to lay in bed the next day and never move again.

We may be done with the week (yay!), we are only halfway through our workout week. While we normally slack off on the weekends, it's really too hot to do anything but hide inside our house, so might as well work out right? Right. Wish us luck.

Awkard and Awesome Thursday

Chad tried to scoot this little guy back into the bunny nest only to scare the crap out of him and send him running into the neighbors yard. Chad of course then ran after it, thinking the poor bunny would not be able to find his way home and really needed his help now. The bunny then starts crying and "yelling", running in and out of the road. Finally Chad caught him, only because the poor thing was exhausted. But, mission accomplished, he slipped him back into his little bunny nest, only to find all the other ones gone. Apparently they were just old enough to be allowed outside :)

 

Awkward:

• The guy that we pulled up to at a red light on a motorcycle in full on snow gear. I'm talking a coat, hat and gloves in 80 degree weather + humidity.
• I brought one pair of shoes camping that remained wet the whole time. Rather than wear wet shoes around the campsite I channeled my inner Brittney Spears and used the restrooms barefoot the full 3 days. That's how I roll when camping.
• The old woman who got mad at me when I informed her that she was in my seat on the plane. I apologized that she had to move and she proceeded to grumble about how rude I was. Sorry you still don't have a handle on your numbers lady.
• Getting upset with Chad when he lost our SD cards for a hot second. Then I proceeded to loose my glasses after we got home from camping. He of course was super helpful and optimistic about it all. Luckily Nikki and Matt were able to find all of the lost things.

Awesome:

• Spending all last week with friends and family. We are lucky ducks.
• Nikki and Matt had a nest full of baby bunnies right by their front door.
• Death by Chocolate Ice Cream... and Strawberry for Chad.
• Kieli teaching Chad how to do handstands. She was a rockin' teacher and he is a lot better now!

Happy Campers

Clifty Falls! Chad and I love this place and were super stoked to be able to go back with Nikki, Matt and all the kids.

After we got the fire situation under control we were good to go. While we aren't allowed to build fires at home anymore, something about burning the whole west down, the Midwest is just so darn humid and wet that nothing wanted to burn. I'm talking 95% humidity at night, and it wasn't raining. But everything was still wet. The wood, the grass... our pillows. Fun stuff. The second night was a much better fire night.

We had great food the whole time! Nikki had it all planned out and everything was delicious. Much better than the nachos we attempted on our car last time we were camping together :) The kids, Matt and Chad each had a s'more. Then I'm pretty sure Nikki and I ate the rest of them.

We spent 3 awesome days there. I loved all of the trees and water! While the desert has perks, and is definitely majestic and beautiful, I feel at home surrounded by green, trees, lakes and rivers.

We saw our share of wildlife: water snakes "attacked" Kieli, Blake ran into a dead turtle, we found a cool salamander, tons of fish and tadpoles, and Chad picked ticks off of me. Don't be jealous.

We hiked through rivers to the bases of waterfalls, through the woods to the tops of waterfalls, and Chad helped everyone get in some rock climbing. Kieli was a rockstar and tried climbing everything that Chad did. Blake and Greyson were super stars too. They had no fear, and were fast! They were able to get just as high as everyone else!

We can't wait to see where our next annual camping trip will be with Nikki and Matt ;)

Sno in June

All Matt wanted was a sno cone and some Kneaders French toast. While he knew we couldn't bring sno cones all the way to Indiana he knew we could bring some of Kneaders cinnamon bread and whip up the best French toast ever.

Sad day for Matt when we showed up empty handed. I thought he might take us back to the airport and tell us to go home and try again ;)

Then a surprise package showed up on their doorstep just a few days later. Inside was a loaf of the cinnamon bread, Kneaders syrup and two different flavors of sno cone syrup. After a quick trip out we had a sno cone machine to whip them up!

And while they may miss the awesome sno cones and French toast that we have I already miss getting ice cream from Scoops. Somehow St. George is missing a great ice cream place. We more than made up for it though by getting ice cream almost every day. My grandma would be so proud.

Spoiled Rotten

Chad and I spent the last couple days being completely spoiled.

The plane ride junked up my back, surprise surprise, so Debbie took care of me. Love being around Mommas :) There were back rubs, foot rubs, massagers, and tylenol PM, all courtesy of Debbie. She helped my poor back make it through the first day. There's nothing better than having a mom around when you aren't feeling well.

Then we celebrated Chad's birthday. The big 2-6. Not only did we get to spend all day with Nikki, Matt, the babies and his mom, but my parents and brother came down along with our 2 best friends from Michigan.

My parents and Taylor were rockstars and brought us down a ton of mexican food from our very favorite restaurant. They took the whole gang of us out to lunch to celebrate Chad and Jared's birthday! Aside from birthday presents my dad slipped us some "gas money" right before they left.

Will and Jared drove down at 4am just to spend Chad's birthday with him. It's Jared's birthday the day after Chad's and they always celebrate their birthdays together, we were happy we got to keep the tradition alive!

Oh I did I mention that Nikki and Matt flew us out to spend a week with them? We only get to have this awesome vacation because of them. I guess they like us or something.

We've also been getting snuggles galore from the kids who barely let us out of their sight, and we are loving every single minute of it!

Best Week Ever

We made it! We've survived a red eye flight, celebrated birthdays, baked cakes, thrown out backs, devoured chimichangas, ate half a jar of salsa, played games, and spent the whole last day with part of mine and Chad's family and our two very best friends. And we've only been here 2 days. Can't wait for the rest of the week!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awesome: How seriously we took racing through this giant inflatable course at trampoline land. Awkward: Accidentally putting Chad's watermark on this picture like it's something to be proud of.

 
Awkward:

• Going into a man's room at the nursing home and finding a wall full of deer antlers. On the other wall? A dozen calendars full of... boobs. Lots and lots of boobs. Bikini boobs, costume boobs and hunting boobs. It was an impressive collection.
• Trying to confirm a patient's appointment only to get a "message phone". Huh? The woman on the other end just kept saying, over and over, "this is a message phone". Yeah, I don't know what the heck that's suppose to mean. And I don't think anyone else does either.
• Having a random stranger wander into the nursing home, find the activities room we were working in and asking to be seen. Thinking he was a resident of the nursing home we took care of his feet. When we asked the facility for his insurance information they said they had no record of him being there, possibly he was there visiting someone. Creeper...
• Presidential Debates. I don't care who you support, it's awkward.

Awesome:

• Puff Pastry
• Chad taking care of me when my wisdom tooth was yanked out. He was awesome. He made me stay on the couch, waited on me hand and foot, and "made" me take naps. Love him. 
• TCBY yogurt is sold in grocery stores. Why did I only just find out about this?
• Sleeping with the windows open and having it be just cold enough to have to snuggle all night to keep warm. It doesn't help with the getting out of bed in the morning though. 
• Speaking of colder weather, it's getting cold enough outside to start killing off the cockroaches. Leaving our house in the morning we'll often find a few roaches dead, unable to make it through the night. Woot!
• Ash and Pat are coming to visit tonight! Super excited to hang out with them!

 

Your turn!

Meatless Monday: More Muffins

Oh Monday... Why can't you be more like Saturday?

Friday we drove Nikki and Matt back down to Vegas. We walked the strip, looked at things we couldn't afford, gambled away a grand total of $6 between the four of us and then cried all the way home from the airport. Chad and I were hoping we could convince Nikki and Matt to stay forever with all of our sno cone goodness and awesome National Parks. They had three better reasons to go back home :)

Best Picture Ever? I thought so too. Other people take beautiful pictures with their camera phones, I take these.

We got home Saturday around 2am. We slept in and stayed in our pajamas the majority of the day. We used our weekend to relax, grocery shop, do a ton of laundry, watch too much TV, and cook. We were also going through family withdrawal so we called a few people on skype and chatted for a long while. Some days we are bummed we are soooo far away from every one, yesterday was definitely one of those days.

Saturday we also got a Fall Package from my Mom and Dad! Is there anything better than getting surprise boxes in the mail? We put up holiday decorations they sent, ate all of the chocolate, and made Bran Muffins. My mom sent me everything I needed to make these muffins and easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Those are on the list to make tonight! :)

These Bran Muffins are awesome. Not only do they taste great but you can make up the whole recipe and store it in your fridge for up to 6 weeks. Feeling like muffins? Pull out the batter and bake some up! The longer you let it sit the better the batter gets, breaking down all the cereal. I can never wait though and made a half batch on Sunday afternoon with raisins and chocolate chips.

Thanks Mom and Dad! ;)

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

• 5 t baking soda dissolved in 2 c boiling water
• 1qt. buttermilk (if you don't have any add 4T lemon juice or vinegar to milk, walah!)
• 4 beaten eggs
• 2 c sugar
• 5 c wheat flour
• 1 c shortening
• 1 t salt
• 3 c All Bran
• 2 c Bran Flakes

Directions:

1. In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles crumbs.

2. Mix eggs and soda water together and add buttermilk.

3. Stir in the cereals and mix until just moistened.

4. Store in the fridge in a covered container until ready to bake. Will last for 6 weeks.

5. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. 

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?

We're the girls from Beverly Hills, shopping is our greatest thrill!

Friday morning we packed up all our camping gear, food, clothes, and camera gear. We then all stood outside our tiny little ford focus, with our dog, and contemplated how it was all going to fit in there. I was fairly confident that Nikki and Matt didn't want to drive for 5 hours with a giant dog on their laps. Did I mention the A/C in our car bit the dust for real? Yeah.... good times.

It was a loooooong, HOT drive.

Once we got to the Visitor's Center we had to go over the rules for back country camping. My favorites?

• Do not walk on/disturb the dirt. Set your tent up on the large rocks.
• No pets allowed
• Bury your human waste at least 4 inches deep. Better yet?! Carry it out with you!

Chad cheerfully agreed, "Oh yes, of course!". When the lady mentioned carrying out our waste he replied with "Sure, we've brought bags for that". We love sleeping on rocks and carrying around our own poo! If you think I was going to carry my poo out in a plastic grocery bag you've lost you mind. There weren't any garbages in the whole park except the visitors center, so we would have had to drive a half hour with that stuff. Nope. Not going to happen. In fact, let's just be real here, there wasn't going to be any poo-ing outside for any of us. We happily drove to the pit toilets every morning. Too much potty talk? Yeah, I agree.

Friday night we hiked up to Delicate Arch to take some night shots. Not researching anything before hand, we're super prepared like that, we thought it would be more of a walk. Not a strenuous hike up mountains and along mountain ledges with our puppy in the middle of the night. We made it though and were "pooped" (ha) by the time we finished.

Trying to find our tent in the middle of the night was super fun. There was no moon so that was also super helpful. There were however, lots of cactuses. Cacti? Whatever they are technically called there were lots. We basically had to tiptoe through a field of cactuses to make it to our tent. We had little to no faith in Rukia's ability to avoid the cactuses, so I ended up carrying her the last stretch. Overprotective much?

So we were supposed to sleep on the rock. We all know that didn't happen. Rock or sand? What would you choose? Add in to that decision making process the fact that we forgot pillows. Pretty much the easiest choice of our lives.

One of us ::cough::Matt::cough::  might have been afraid that they were going to get eaten in the night. The visitor's center had all kids of pelts and skulls of animals from the area. That didn't really help the situation. Chad might have pointed out animal tracks on the way to our camping area as well. Again, not super helpful. He may or may not have thought that Rukia's breathing was a wild animal waiting outside their tent to eat his face. Once he survived the first night the paranoia seemed to fade a bit. Just a bit.

That morning we were t-i-r-e-d from our midnight hike, so we thought we would do the other most strenuous hike in the park! Woot. It was blazing hot! 4 hours later we had walked 6 miles and seen a handful of arches. The views were amazing!

We weren't about to eat peanut butter and jelly after that afternoon so we went into town and ate pizza until we couldn't eat anymore. We also stopped at a general store to pick up "pillows". Our cheap selves weren't about to buy new pillows so Matt, Chad and I bought packs of napkins to use. Nikki already had her pack of toilet paper, which explained why she slept like a baby compared to the rest of us the night before :)  FYI jeans don't make a good pillow no matter how they're folded.

Sunday morning was chilly! It also looked like it was going to rain, so we packed up fast and took some pictures by "our" arch on the hike out. This was the arch that we camped by. If you look really close you can see Matt and Chad on top of the arch on the right.

We decided to take the scenic route home and hit up Bryce Canyon and Zion's National Park. All we had to do was take one road south. That was it. Just follow the road south. Done. Easy Peasy. After a gas stop we managed to somehow start heading west instead. BAH! We figured this out after driving for 45 minutes. Bryce Canyon was all of a sudden over an hour east. We reluctantly let that dream die and just enjoyed Dixie National Forest. We also were able to stop at Cedar Breaks National Monument.

After a terrifying drive down a horrific mountain we were back on an interstate and back on track. Our car is now in desperate need of new breaks. We decided to save Zion's for another day and instead high tailed it home so we could eat ridiculous amounts of Mexican food. Mmmmm. Cafe Rio, no better way to end a camping trip.

We couldn't quite get the timing down. I've now decided that jumping photos are mandatory. They are fantastic! Even more fantastic when they fail!