We laugh in the face of Danger!

Ok, maybe not laugh. There was still some mild anxiety attacks had by every adult I think, but we conquered Angel's Landing! I know I mentioned it before but we made it across the crazy land bridge and onto Angel's Landing, with the two boys to boot! Remember how I said the people hiking last time were crazy bring their small children with them? Well, we were those people this time. And guess what? They did better than any one of the adults. No fear! Chad told them that he had done it before, and if he could do it they could do it. They really listened and believed their Uncle Chad, they could do it because Uncle Chad said they could.

While the nursery makes me never, I repeat never, want to have children, spending the week with Kristy and Dylan's kids reminded us that we really do love kids and they will most definitley be in the (far) future ;) I'm really not a baby hater, most of the time. They are lucky they escaped with their little girl, I had every intention of stealing her and keeping her for my own but I was at work when they left. Boo. I've also decided we need to have boys! It was too much fun to watch Chad with them all week. Not to mention the fun that Rukia had with them. Yup, I just said we need to have baby boys to play with my dog. I'm officially that person. And on that note I will end and share some of the awesome views from our journey to Angel's Landing.





On the way back from our hike we crossed over/through a river

Weekends Rock

It is HOT, 112 to be exact. I know it's hot where you live too, because I'm pretty sure it's HOT everywhere. At least we don't have the humidity adding to the sweat fest :) We ventured out (just a little) this weekend to checkout more of the downtown area. Silly us. We left too late and most of the shops were closed, but we still had a great time. We walked around for a bit and then wised up and headed inside a cafe.

It was a cute little place with lots of cupcakes and a handful of vegetarian options, both of which made us very happy! We had dessert first of course, a chocolate cupcake that tasted just like Debi's brownies, down to the icing she puts on them. They were delicious!

After dinner, and lots of water, we went to the cockroach town center (no cockroaches during the daytime!) and took more pictures. Our date night ended with a big photo shoot. Chad was happy to take pictures and try out his new birthday lenses and I was happy to sit in the shade and not move much!

The rest of our weekend was pretty low key. We hung out in the air conditioned safety of our apartment and enjoyed a couple days of laziness :)  It was perfect.

Hope you all had a rockin' weekend as well!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday {and some 4th of July goodness}

The 4th was rockin'! We went to the celebration put on by the city and I'm excited to tell you that Chad is the new Cross Fit Ninja Warrior Champion! I won the hot dog eating contest and then our duet won us the talent show! What's up?! 4th of July Awesomeness!

No but really, we didn't. The talent show was actually karaoke, the Ninja Warrior course was easier than the obstacle course we did in elementary school and hot dogs are still gross guys (no matter how delicious they taste). 4th of July is kinda anti-climatic for us. We did go to the giant park to check it out the festivities put on by the city because of the claim of a Cross Fit Ninja Warrior course. Ninja Warrior is pure awesomeness and Chad really wants to be able to run the course, this is as close as we may get. Well, we finally got to the park and the course was less than thrilling. In fact it was really less than a course. I was gonna take a picture but Chad said that we didn't need to document it, we just needed to erase it from our minds. It was that good. You did a couple push ups, ran under some caution tape, tapped your foot to a big tire a few times and then ran back through some cones. Not so ninja like, or warrior like. It was crazy stinkin' hot and humid too, which was weird and gross. So we grabbed some frozen yogurt and headed home.

 That's when our 4th got real exciting. We ate a ridiculous amount of delicious nachos with homemade salsa, layed around, and watched more episodes of family fued than I care to admit. We followed that up with brownie sudaes for Chad and chocolate chip cookies for me. At 9 we headed off to see fireworks.

We went up on top of the mountain seperating us from St. George so we could see all the fireworks. They were being sent off from 3 different locations. Sounds awesome enough right? Right on par with our 4th though they were kinda dissapointing really. Instead of 3 awesome shows going on simultaniously there were 3 kinda slow and kinda lame shows going on. They really should have put all the fireworks in one location, it would have made for a much better show. It was however the "Largest Firework Display in Southern Utah". Which, let's be honest, doesn't really mean a whole lot considering there's only 2 cities in southern Utah.

We really did have a fun a day relaxing, eating awesome junk food, taking pictures, playing with our dog, and most importantly: sleeping in :)

Awkward

• Driving around for a half hour trying to find where we are supposed to go to church. They whole time we've been here they've been building a new church building. We were going to be meeting in that new one or another building right behind it. Sweet. So after getting a text Saturday night from someone making sure we knew that they time and location of church had changed (we hadn't) we figured it would be one of those 2 buildings. Wroooong. We resorted to driving down the road and stopping at each building to see if it was it. We finally found it hidden in a neighborhood at 9:30. By then I was done and we went and got cinnamon crunch bagels instead. Chad went and taught his lesson later because he's good like that :)
• My Conditioner has been attacking my face, literally. After a month of strange breakouts the whole ordeal finally culminated with my whole face having these weird little bumps ALL OVER. Every pore I had was clogged. Even my neck was having issues. We finally figured out that it was my conditioner. So after a conditioner free week my face is back to (almost) normal. phew.
• Realizing that we actually do need to have an evacuation plan just in case St. George decides to burst into flames along with the rest of the West. I thought Chad was overreacting just a bit until I started having dreams and the office manager at work was telling me all about there's. I'm not used to having an emergency that would require me to evacuate but now we've got to get a plan together.

Awesome:

• Not having to work on the 4th. Any day off from work is pure awesome in my book.
• This website: http://pintester.com/ I was laughing my butt off at her attempts to recreate pinterest pins. She kinda swears like a sailor (but it's kinda the most funny thing ever). Consider yourself warned if you don't dig that kind of stuff. Otherwise head over there right now and get ready for a good time.
• Coconut Shrimp Tacos from Cafe Rio. We are officially Cafe Rio addicts! And unless the Sagebrush Cantina decides to head out to St. George we will happily stay that way.
• Apparently most of the races here are downhill... Hmmm... very interesting. I'm a freaking champ at running downhill! Another half marathon was sounding appealing and now that I've learned that it's all downhill....

Attack of the Roaches and Meatless Monday: Salt and Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas

On Friday we had a date night! After being in scrubs for work and then dressing like a scrub afterwards due to the heat it was nice to dress up and go out! We headed out to The Pizza Factory and got calzones, pizza (of course!), and the best bread sticks ever! Seriously good stuff. After dinner we went to see Brave, which was really cute. Then the fun really began...

We went down to the tabernacle in the historic section of downtown St. George so that Chad could take some pictures. It's a really cute area that we somehow have never been to. They have a lot of water features, the dreaded carousel, and a RIDICULOUS amount of cockroaches. I've never really seen cockroaches until we moved here - lovely right? And even then it's been one that Penny has been playing with or one that's dead in the kitchen or something. The most we've had is out on our patio but that was a quick fix (thank you Raid).

They... were.... everywhere. Crawling on everything. I would follow behind Chad as he "paved the way" down the sidewalk but quickly learned this was a horrible idea since as soon as he alerted them they would scatter and run around all crazy like. Hard to avoid crazy, scattering bugs. At one point we were taking pictures next to a tree when Chad told me to move to the left. Well I moved to late and one landed on me. GIANT FREAKOUT. I ran back screaming and flailing flashing all the hobos in the process. When a cockroach attacks your face you don't really care about acting like a lady in your pretty little skirt. No sir.

It was a lot of fun, regardless of the roach situation, since we did a lot of late night wandering/talking/making out ;) around Provo when we were first dating.

If stories of roaches don't make you hungry I don't know what will :)

I thought that I'd share one of my favorite new snacks with you. I LOVE potato chips. Salty, crunchy, addictive! We never had them in my house growing up so they were always considered a treat! Now I don't keep them in my house either because if I did they would be gone, and fast, with no help from Chad! I'm sure a lot of you have seen the roasted chickpea thing floating around the internet for a while now. You season up your beans and then roast them in the oven. They get all nice and crispy crunchy, satisfying any potato chip craving. You can do any kind of seasonings that you want but this one is my favorite!

Salt and Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients:

• 2 cups canned chickpeas (or homemade)
• 3-4 cups white vinegar
• Coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan place the chickpeas and vinegar. Add a dash of salt. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat and let it sit for 30 - 45 minutes. I let mine sit for about 45 minutes and the vinegar taste was much stronger than the last time I made them - a good thing!

2. Preheat your oven to 425. Drain the chickpeas and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle the oilive oil over them along with a good sprinkling of the sea salt. Stir everything up so that all of the chickpeas are well coated. Roast them for 40 - 45 minutes, shaking them up halfway through. Keep an eye on them for the last 10 minutes so that they don't burn!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

While the rest of the family stayed behind Chad and I ran back further on the trail where we weren't supposed to be. They were teaching their kids to be responsible and obey signs and such, I was also following what my dad taught me to do - sneak behind closed signs, go under red ropes and explore where I'm generally not supposed to be :)

 Awkward:

• We ran out of cat food and the cats had to go a whole 24 hours without food. You would think that they hadn't eaten in years the way they were acting. Sunny resorted to eating trash out of our bathroom. All of Tuesday morning he just ran around beside me meowing/screaming at me. He then decided to scale our pantry in search of food. Dude, chill. It was 24 hours. If something happens to Chad and I and we somehow die in our house, Sunny would immediatley start eating us.
• Our house is SOOOOO quiet now after everyone is gone. It's sad and we don't like it.  
• Even more sad now that everyone is gone is poor Rukia. The first few days she searched the house, sniffing everywhere trying to find her friends to play with. Now she's just sad and depressed and sleeps all day. We should probably get another puppy :)
• Some strange kid came barging in our house 2 nights ago. If your kid doesn't know where you live maybe you shouldn't let him play outside by himself. Just sayin'.
• Some door-to-door salesman came to our house last night and when we told him we were eating dinner he said he would just come back. Awesome. So he came back and we ignored him. Then he came back again. And then... again! Serioulsy guy? Four times? Then he tried to sell us study guides for our kids. Ha. We definitley weren't worth coming to see 4 times.
• When I asked this very, very old lady at the nursing home what her name was she responded by mouthing "shut up" to me, v-e-r-y slowly and v-e-r-y clearly. What a doll. Luckily a nurse was there to tell me her name because I was not going to ask again for fear of a worse response. I had flashbacks to a former Michigan patient when another old nursing home guy tried to kick me in the face for taking off his socks. Boooo old people.

Awesome:

• Debi was a cleaning rockstar when she was here. Not only did we get to hang out with all our awesome family but then Debi cleaned my house! Not just picked up, but cleaned! It was fantastic! Our house stayed suprisingly picked up the whole time and when they left the sink was empty and the floors and bathrooms scrubbed. Awesome.
• Dylan helped us to discover that the shaved ice huts in the parking lots aren't creepy and weird but amazingly awesome. Super cheap, super delicious. Chad gets sour spray on his and I get Dragon's Blood. Yup, I am a 12 year old boy.
• The Doctor is back from Europe which means I have to work again (sad day) but it also means that I now have a drawer full of european chocolate (yum). Soooo good.
• Box from the parents full of dog goodies from the Doctor and food! Among the goodies a giant container of JIF peanut butter :)  It really doesn't get any better than that.

Glowing Crafts

I thought I would brag again about my awesome husband. This is one of my favorite projects that he has made so far. It was very easy, cheap, and we plan on making more in the future. He made this in our last apartment, and it now hangs over our bed. It casts a really nice glow and you could use any kind of string to suit your style. He used regular ol' twine which gives a nice eathy and natural feel, but you could use any color of string! I've seen pictures where people have used yarn as well - lots of color possibilities with that route!

So what's the supplies list?

• Big store bought bouncy ball - gives a much better shape than just a balloon.
• Twine, or any other string of your choice
• Glue. Chad used a wood glue. Other places say you need fabric starch or tapioca starch. Nope. Nothing fancy here people.
• Vaseline
• Marker
• Lamp kit
• Container to dump all the glue in

How's it done?

• First mark your opening for the lamp kit on the top of your big ball. Chad also chose to leave an opening on the bottom.
• Rub vaseline all over the ball so that it can be removed easy once dry
• Get to work! Dip your twine/string/yarn/whatever into the glue, making sure to coat it well and then start drapping it all over the ball. Do as much or as little as you want for your desired effect! Make sure all the string has glue on it so that every part of it will harden. Chad went back when he was done and put more glue on certain areas.
• Let it dry for 24 hours. I don't think we waited this long, we are not patient people, especially when it comes to projects! Makes sure it is dry and hard though becore you remove the ball. Now you can either deflate you ball like normal people (then re-inflate if you want) or stab it dramatically like the crazies we are. Peel it away and wa-la!

*Pro Tip: DO NOT dump all the string/twine/whatev into a big container of glue thinking this will speed things up. This will result in a giant messy glob of stinginess that is not going to untangle for you... ever. Luckily we didn't have to learn this lesson the hard way!

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!