Reese's Peanut Butter Milkshakes

One night this week I was being nice and decided to make Reese's milkshakes for Sara and Joe. I couldn't find the little plastic insert that covers the hole in the lid (pictured below). I just made the milkshake anyway and covered it with my hand. We had three precious Reese's peanut butter cups left. I whipped up the perfect ratio for a smooth creamy milkshake. Sara and Joe both started digging in saying how delicious it was...then at the same time they said, "Woah did you get a piece of glass or something? What are these chunks??" Horrified, that is when I realized...the missing piece must have been in the blender and I totally chunked it to smithereens in my 'delightful' milkshake. How awful!! I ruined her blender and almost cut their throats up. It was so sad because I'd used up all the Reese's and it really did taste SO good. Fortunately we had some back-up Snickers bars to do it all over again. Now I just need to find her a new insert for her lid! It was horrific and hilarious, but we still love our milkshakes!

Side note: I left this up on the computer screen and left for a minute. When Kaden walked by and saw the picture of the blender, he said, "Hey somebody went to dot-com milkshake!" Kids are SO funny!

It's true, I made it!

Why do I sew? I really despise it because I'm so bad at it, and I have no patience so I get really frustrated. Sally is Sara's mother-in-law, and I'm so lucky that she's adopted me in as one of her own. She's an amazing teacher and very talented seamstress. I learned all about grading, clipping, gathering, tucks, different stitches, decorative seams, etc. etc. Sally is SO wonderful and holds my hand through every sewing project, and once in a while something cute is produced...like my new apron! Sally made the pattern herself. I love it and don't want to wear it in the kitchen because it'll get stains. Maybe I should have made it uglier, haha :) And really, once I'd finished I didn't hate sewing as much! I think it's a great talent to have and it's rewarding to make something useful from scratch.

I didn't keep track exactly, but I know I logged 10+ hours to create this cute apron!

Nanny of Two

Here is Joe speaking at the eXfuze Conference at Caesar's Palace. There were 1000+ in attendance. Joe rocked it!

This past week my job took me to Vegas...and by job I mean two of the cutest kidlets I know! Joe had a convention down in Vegas all week and Sara attended some of the meetings so I came along to take care of Kaden and Sadie. It was lots of fun! I can appreciate how much work moms do everyday. The pictures pretty much sum it up :)

M&M Factory

The tunnel at the M&M Factory

The Coke Factory - we tried 8 different 'coke floats' from around the world.

I love how much Sadie trusts Kaden. They play so well together. They really are such great kids.

The pool and water park...each day, every day...sometimes twice a day. We ♥ H2O!

We went to the Mirage to check out the dolphins and white tigers. It was bloody hot and all the animals were sleeping. But the tunnel underground was fun to watch the dolphins swimming around.

This might have been the best spot at the Mirage...the aquarium behind the front desk. Finding Nemo was the movie of the trip. We watched it at least once a day. Turns out we found Nemo in the Mirage Aquarium. Those silly clown fish!

This is SO adorable. When we saw the lions at the Mirage I asked Sadie what a lion says, and without prompting this was her response. Luckily I caught it on video after we got back to the hotel :)

Some other hi-lites of the trip included:

• Kripsy Kreme Doughnuts...gotta love that hot light!
• Discount Shoe Store...had boxes and boxes of shoes stacked to make aisles with shoe displays all over the place...right at Sadie's level. This might have been Sadie's favorite stop. That girl LOVES shoes.
• The Chocolate Factory...quote of the day, "Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate!" -Charles Schultz

Although it looks like we only had fun, let me tell you this 'motherly' experience. It had been a hot and exhausting day, where nothing seemed to work out just right. Sadie was particularly grumpy and starting to have a break down. It was early evening so I thought we'd wrap up the day by sneaking in some fun. Kaden, Sadie, and I headed down to the lobby store for some microwave popcorn for 'movie night'. Sadie had been really grumpy and whiny so I was holding her in the store when all of a sudden she threw up all over me (hair, shirt, pants, and shoes), herself, and the store. Not just one part of the store either. We spread it across the store trying to get napkins before more came out. Oh joy! The store lady was great and let me use the back room sink, but we were beyond repair so we threw her some money for the popcorn and ran up to the room to strip down and bathe. No permanent damage done.

It really was a fun trip, but it's great to be back in good ol' Cedar City. I love the fresh air and not-so-hot temps.

Canning Salsa

While canning, the children are neglected and tend to go crazy!

A staple for me in college was chips and salsa. Back then I would buy salsa...now that I'm married and mature (haha!) I figured it was time that I start canning it. I've helped out with a lot of different canning projects, but I've always floated in and out, never getting the whole process under my belt. I decided to document this as my first real canning experience. We made 50 quarts exactly. That is a LOT of salsa, mmm! Click for the Canned Salsa recipe.

We loaded up the back of the truck and headed to Aunt Colleen's house for the canning extravaganza-ganza.

Prepping - large pots are a must-have for canning.

This was my station. Don't they look beautiful? I ♥ canning :)

Pretty Alisha at the bell pepper station.

In massive amounts garlic juice is SO sticky. My hands smelled like garlic for 5 days after pressing all this.

Danger zone! Colleen at the jalepeno station...plastic gloves recommended.

Camp chefs are GENIUS for canning. You can do it outside so it doesn't stink up the house and you can do TONS all at once!

Sarita loving the POP noise each jar makes...sealed for satisfaction.

9 hours later we had 50 quarts of canned salsa, blam!

Mt. Nebo and a heart attack

Back in 2007 Lisa, Shena, and I wanted to hike Mt. Nebo, but it was postponed because Mt. Nebo was on fire the weekend we had the hike scheduled. Two years later the stars aligned and we all got together and hiked it the last Saturday of August. We had a fun group including Lisa and her boyfriend Eric; Shena and Smalls (they served in Albania with me); George's old roommate Mike and his bro-in-law Scott, and bringing up the rear George and me (mostly just me!)

The trail head - we had no idea what was ahead of us...maybe that's why we all look so happy :)

L-R Scott, Mike, George, Liz, Shena, Smalls, Lisa, & Eric

Stats on Mt. Nebo (may not be accurate):

• Highest peak in Wasatch Range
• 11,860'
• 3,340' elevation gain from trail head
• 14 miles round trip
• 9 hours

None of us had ever hiked Mt. Nebo before, and all the info we could find online seemed to vary, so we weren't sure what we were getting into. We decided to camp the night before in order to get an early start on Saturday. We found a great (and free) campsite just minutes from the trail head at Cottonwood Campground. This was definitely the most relaxing part of the trip :) On the interstate side of the mountain it looks very barren, but the side we hiked up and camped on has a stream running through with lots of foliage. It's a great place to camp!

At 8 am on Saturday morning we headed up the trail...there was NO warm-up. I was breathing hard 10 steps into the steep trail. I kept pushing on thinking for sure the flat spot would be right up ahead. It never came. Even after we got up on the ridge it didn't seem to get any easier.

The Gals - this was seriously one of the only flat spots on the hike. That is Andrews Ridge behind us. We hiked up there. Mmm hmm!

Don't let Shena's sweet smile fool you, this girl is hard core!

Lisa misbehaving again :P

About 3 miles into the hike I'm pretty sure I started experiencing altitude sickness...headache, nausea, and loss of appetite. George and I ended up only going about 12 miles total and during that whole time I guzzled down water and Gatorade. But I only ate a couple wheat thins and a piece of cheese and a couple grapes. As I was doubled over sucking in Oxygen, I thought of my brother-in-law, Joe. He always asks me why I do these kinds of excursions. And honestly most of this hike I couldn't come up with a good answer for him!

The summit - just out of reach. I'm guessing we were about a mile from the top. This is where I decided I'd gone far enough and opted to take an alpine nap instead. The rest of our group is on the summit in this photo...hard to see, but they are the specs on top. Go team!

Shena and Smalls were hard core and decided to head on to the North Peak, which is the true summit. Apparently it was super sketchy rock climbing/scrambling. Fortunately they met up with a friend from another group and they ended up going down a different trail and getting a ride back to their car.

George's knees were KILLING him on the way back down...the walking stick helped some.

And that was our Mt. Nebo excursion. Although it wasn't the most pleasant hike, it was a fun outing and I'm glad we finally did it! I decided it's probably not the best idea to go from sea level to hiking a mountain over 11,000 feet in less than a week. I'm sure my out-of-shapeness had something to do with my pain as well :) But it really was fun with all the great company and getting up to heights where we could enjoy beautiful views is always pleasant.

One of my life goals is to climb at least one mountain a year: 2009, check!