Pioneer Day

In Utah, we have another "holiday" besides the 4th of July.  The 24th of July is knows as Pioneer Day and it is to take time to really remember everything that the pioneers have done when they came and settled in Utah (which is why no other states really celebrate it).  Some business' close and a lot of people don't have to work.  

I started out the day by making some S'mores cookies.  The recipe I used called for mixing chocolate chips and mini marshmallows into the batter, but I didn't have any chocolate chips.  While Scott and I were cleaning out our old apartment, I found some Hershey's bars, so I used those instead.  They flattened out a lot more than I thought they would, but they are still chewy and I think they're delicious.  Here is the recipe.

Later in the evening, Scott had to work and I went to have dinner with Aaron, Brianna, Kyle and mom.  We had a picnic up in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  We found out that squirrels like Oreos (especially the blue kind).  After eating, we went on a hike to Donut Falls.  This was a much nicer hike than the one to Lake Blanche.  All these pictures are courtesy of Aaron since I forgot my camera.

 We had to hike across the water and climb the rocks to get to the top.

Up close view on why it's called Donut Falls.

Kyle concluded that the water was indeed very cold.

Apparently the water was very high.  I guess when mom and Aaron have gone before, there wasn't any water and you could walk around the cave.  Kyle was the only one brave enough to go in.

Kyle and Aaron hiked higher up and there was this rope that was there to help you hike back down.

After hiking, we went back to grandma's and set off some fireworks that mom had from previous years.  It was fun to relax and hang out with family.

You've Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

Scott's birthday was the 19th of July and he turned 28!  We weren't doing a big party or anything (I'll save that for the big 3-0), but I still wanted to make sure that he felt special on his birthday (even though he said he didn't need anything big).  The morning started out with me getting up early and setting up the Happy Birthday banner.  I forgot to buy balloons this time, but I'm sure Maddie would have just popped them anyway.

I made this birthday sign for Scott's birthday last year and it took FOREVER to make, so I am keeping this to use for birthdays until it dies.

 I made a special place setting for the birthday boy for breakfast.

 Birthday breakfast of waffles, hash browns and eggs (with ham)!

Scott was nice to smile for me, even though he had just woken up about 5 minutes before this picture was taken.

We headed to the new City Creek mall downtown since we hadn't been there yet since it opened.  It is pretty nice and larger than I thought it would be.  It was the perfect day to walk around too since it was overcast, so it wasn't so hot outside.

They have fun fountains throughout and it is right across the street from the Salt Lake Temple.  We then went to eat at The Cheesecake Factory (Scott's choice).

Scott got the chicken alfredo.

Scott was trying to get a picture of his food as well, but it turned out too bright.

 My delicious SBLT sandwich.  Shrimp (bottom layer), Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato.

Of course I told our waiter that it was Scott's birthday and they brought out his cheesecake with a candle in it and sang happy birthday.  Scott got the key lime cheesecake.

My delicious chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake.

After dinner, we headed to the theater and we went and saw The Amazing Spider-man.  We both really enjoyed this movie despite it being remade so quickly after the other spider-man movies.

Anyways, I would say it was a successful birthday and I will continue spoiling Scott for his birthday because he deserves it.

Olympic Park

Scott's brother Andrew came out for a week to help us move and while he was here, we did some fun things after we had moved.  We went and saw The Avengers, went out to eat, got Madeline and hung out with Brita & Lane.  Another fun thing we did was go to the Olympic Park in Park City.  Nobody had been there before, so we decided it would be something new and different for all of us to do.

Since it's Park City, everything to do there is a little bit pricey.  We only did one activity and that was the alpine slide.  It was fun, but definitely a one time thing.  We even got to see some people practicing aerial skiing into a pool.  I don't know if they were Olympic athletes, but it was fun to see them do flips and land into the pool.

That's a person flipping in the air in the red circle.

These bubbles would pop up before a person would land in the water.  We concluded that it probably softened the blow when they hit the water.

Official ski jumps from when the Olympics were in Utah.

Riding the ski lifts to the top to ride the alpine slide down.

Andrew chilling behind us.

Andrew ready to go down the alpine slide!

Future Olympic bobsledders.

After we went to the park, we went shopping at the outlet mall and bought a few shirts for Scott for this birthday.  Again, it was fun to do it, but there's not much to do if you don't have any money to pay to do anything.  I know Rebecca told me that they have a ski lift that takes you to a restaurant at the top of a mountain, so that would be fun to try when it's open during the winter.

Bee's Game

As I mentioned before in the house signing and moving day post, we went to see a Bee's game after cleaning the house the day before we moved.  It was fun to get out and relax before the stress of moving the next day.  It was also a day where they had fireworks afterwards, which made it fine that I missed seeing some on the 4th of July.  Oh!  So, we parked on a side street and as we were walking toward the stadium, a guy in a car slows down and asks us if we'd like 4 free tickets!  We said sure and took them with nothing asked for in return.  It was awesome!  They were great seats, however Lane & Brita were already there, so luckily they weren't checking tickets to see that you're in the right section. (I went one time where they were very strict about you not moving to another section)

Now, the Bee's stadium is no where near the awesomeness of the Royal's stadium, but it was fun to go to a baseball game this summer.

Right after there was a home-run!

I found out my camera has an awesome firework feature and it was so much fun to use during the firework show!  I love the pictures that came out of it.

House Signing & Moving Day!

This is a random post, but I wanted to put up pictures of when we signed our house and about the moving day.

Our real estate agent and the people we bought the house from were so great to work with.  We really wanted to move in on a Saturday so that we could have as much family available for help.  When we moved from Scott's aunt and uncle's house to the apartment in Lindon, we didn't tell anyone we were moving and moved all by ourselves.  The only help we had was convincing some neighbor guys across the street to help move the piano into the truck.  Since it was only us two, we didn't get to the apartment until 10:00 at night.  Luckily, we had help from the neighbors whose basement we were living in, so moving into our apartment was much quicker and we got done about 11:30pm.  As much fun as that was (:sarcasm:), I didn't want a repeat of that.

Our agent, Mary Tam, was able to let us sign on July 3rd, so that all the paperwork would be done on the 5th and we could move in on the 7th.  You'd think that with how much I had to sign my name, my signature would just improve, but I'm pretty sure it got worse towards the end.  The people at the title company were really nice though and had a bowl of candy out and water for us.  They definitely made things feel less intimidating and scary.

Mary said we looked too happy to be signing our life away. Haha.

At the end of signing, Mary gave us this awesome Great Harvest Bread gift basket with our house key attached!  She said that it is pretty unusual for us to have gotten our house key then, but the previous owners just asked her if we were honest people, she said yes and they gave the key to her.  It made things much more exciting and real and just another example of how everything so smoothly fell into place.  We are grateful that the house buying process worked out so well for us.

Gift basket with key attached!

Saturday was our scheduled day to move, however we needed to go and clean the house before we moved in. Scott's brother Andrew flew into town Thursday afternoon to help us move, so he was there to clean.  Friday afternoon Scott, Andrew, Kyle and I all went up to the house to clean as much as we could.  It was so nice to have help from family.  We then left to go to a Bee's game (post for that soon) and my mom was so nice to clean the carpets while we were gone.  Thank you mom for staying late and cleaning some of the house.  Scott and I are very grateful for you and your help.

Anyways, Saturday came and we got up at around 7:30am.  We realized that we still needed to pick up our washer from the people's apartment we bought it from.  So, we called my brother Andrew to help move it into the moving truck.  Scott and both Andrew's went out to get the washer and some doughnuts.  People started arriving around 8:30-9:00 and moving went so quickly!  I was so happy to have help this time.  It was so cute to see the nieces and nephews so excited to help move things.  Family is great.

I was worried though because the moving truck we had was quite smaller than a normal moving truck.  We were talking to some neighbors our last Sunday at church and they mentioned that they had a BYU truck that we could borrow for free.  We immediately heard free and took them up on their offer.  Once we saw how small it was though, I was worried we would have to take 2 or 3 trips with all of our stuff.  Things worked out and we fit all the big furniture items in the truck and then stuffed everybody's cars full of boxes and other things and we only had to make one trip. 

Moving things into the house went well and Scott and I really appreciate the help from family.  It is so great to know that they will be there to help us out.

4th of July

This 4th of July, we decided to start out the day with a hike.  We went with my mom, Aaron, Brianna and Kyle.  We let mom choose the hike and it was one nobody had done, so nobody knew what to expect.  We started about 8:30 and went up big cottonwood canyon to hike to Lake Blanche.  The hike started out really well and everybody was feeling fine.  It had said on a sign that the hike was 3 miles there and 3 miles back.  I don't know if it was the heat or the fact that most of us hadn't been on a hike all summer, but that hike did not feel like it was 6 miles total.  It felt more like 8, which when you're hot and tired, 2 miles makes a difference.

Brianna threw up a little on the way up, I didn't wear the best shoes so my feet and ankles were hurting and it was getting hot, so we started complaining.  I did feel bad that the hike wasn't as fun as it was meant to be though.  I guess we were just expecting a leisurely hike or something.  I'm not sure, but either way, we were tired and exhausted afterwards, which made for a more relaxed 4th of July.

Scott was craving a bbq, so we did make sure to have a bbq lunch at grandma's and then we mostly sat around either watching t.v. or playing on the wii.  Scott had to work that night, so he left and the rest of us just sat around deciding whether or not we wanted to go see fireworks.  I was hitching a ride back with Brianna and Kyle and since it doesn't get dark until about 10:00pm and there was a 45 minute drive back home, we decided to leave early and just go home.

At first, I was a little sad that I wouldn't get to see fireworks for the second year in a row, but I was fine with it once I got home and realized how exhausted I was from that hike (not exercising since the marathon really put me out of shape or something).

Like I said, it was a very relaxed 4th which is good to have every once in a while.