Hunting for a Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we left for Kaibab at 6:30 to go and find our perfect Christmas tree.

5 min after unloading from the truck, Bryce found the perfect tree. It took my parents another hour or so to find their's.

Here's Bryce sawing away at the tree.

Here's my "Big Foot" shot. (I mean really... how random.)

Hurray! The tree is standing by itself!
(and not a minute to soon as we had to be to work 5 min later)

Two days later: the tree is finally decorated.

With our meager resources we celebrate the imperfections of our tree. Notice the one strand of lights and how the tree likes to lean...

Thanksgiving Hike

Yea! I'm finally updating - nevermind that it's all on stuff that happened weeks ago :)
On Thanksgiving morning Bryce & I met up with two of my brothers, some cousins and friends to hike the Ivins Red Mt. It's been awhile since I've climbed the mountain but we used to go as a family every year on Thanksgiving morning.

Here we are at the very top - look I actually made it! - overlooking Ivins and St. George in the background.

Some of you might recall that Bryce broke his toes last February... well here he is, returning to the scene of the accident, re-enacting for us exactly how it happened: Wanting to explore and climb up the face of those sandstone boulders, Bryce started to pull himself up, when the rock he was hanging on suddenly broke off and landed hard on his toes, breaking all his toes on one foot but one. :( The rocks you see by his feet are what's left of the rock ledge he was hanging on.

Here's my good-lookin' husband :)

Yes, I needed help down the mountain...



Here's my brother, Mike.
I had a picture of my brother Dallin too but the camera died before I could add it on :( sorry Dallin.



One last close up...

Now it's: Adios... see ya... good-bye... we're going down to eat.

Climbing the Red Mt. was a lot harder than I remembered and my legs felt like jelly by the time we were done. But after our hike, we cleaned up and got to enjoy a yummy, relaxing Thanksgiving dinner; then took a long and much needed nap.
All but the first two pictures were taken by Bryce Hunt, a relative of mine. He was climbing up the mountain and snapping photos of us as we were climbing down. So thanks for the pictures!
One day soon I'll post our "hunting for a Christmas Tree" experience... but as I mentioned before, the camera died - Annoying! - so now I'll have to do it later.

Salsa Saturday

Last Friday Bryce and I went out into the garden to pick tomatoes and by the time we were done we had 4 huge bowls filled and overflowing. What were we to do with so many? We finally decided to make and bottle salsa.
We went to Frei’s Fruit Market and bought some Anaheim peppers, Chili peppers and onions (and granola – not for the salsa but more on that later) then to Walmart to get the bottles.
Saturday morning came early but we got up and began our project by 9:00. Did I mention before that neither of us knew how to bottle? Well, thankfully we had a great teacher. Bryce’s mom, Sandy, was so great to let us come over to her house and to help us along the way.
I wish I had pictures of the process we went through – but at the time our hands were covered in tomato gloop (plus I just forgot).
First we had to shock the tomatoes. I had never seen that done before and was pretty fascinated (I know - this just shows how much I really don’t know when it comes to cooking etc…) and I had tons of fun lobbing the tomatoes from the pot of boiling water into the ice water in the sink (and consequently splashing Bryce all over with icy cold water ha ha).
Next, we peeled off the skins, took out the core and then mushed the tomatoes one by one into a large bowl. (Please imagine if there was a picture for this – it would show me mushing and squeezing tomatoes with a very disgusted look on my face. Yes, it grossed me out but then I hate tomatoes.)
We used the food processor for the peppers and onion, mixed everything together (along with some vinegar, oregano, salt, sugar and cumin) and put it onto boil for about an hour and a half.
Once it was thick enough we poured the salsa into the shiny new bottles and – Voilà! – we were done! We left the bottles to seal and rushed home to shower and get cleaned up for work – which I’m sure the box office is grateful for cause believe me, we reeked of tomatoes. It was not cool.



So now that I’ve already written a novel of an entry – onto the granola I mentioned before. We bought this honey and almond granola at Frei’s and it was so tasty that suddenly I have this strange desire to make my own homemade granola. I’ve been looking up recipes online and trying to figure out the best way to go about it – because once again this is something I’ve never even thought about doing before. So if anyone has any ideas or good recipes let me know.
Well, that’s all for now. I think this entry should count for at least 4 weeks worth, don’t you?

Pumpkins!

I can't believe Halloween is almost here! These past few weeks have been so busy!

We had a very long week of moving and unpacking but we're pretty well settled in now. I'm glad that's done with - it was a lot of work.

This past week was closing week for the shows at Tuacahn. I'm sad but glad for a change of pace at work. Now we're doing Thriller and getting ready for some other fall concerts.

Monday for FHE Bryce and I carved pumpkins and had a lot of fun! The dogs, Fofino & Lacey, loved it too. They kept trying to eat all the pmpkin 'slime' as we were pulling it out.

Here's Brycie and I at Tuacahn as a mummy and frankenstein. The paintings were done by our fellow box office worker, Cynthia and they look so great!

Only 5 more days!

Hey everyone! Better late than never right?
Well, life has been crazy the past few weeks. First Bryce got in a bad bike accident, scraping and bruising his knee, side, hands and arms. The road rash and abrasions are much better but the bruises are still very visible and very sad looking. :(
Since Bryce couldn't do very much the first few days after his accident, we watched The Office Season 5 - finally! We don't have tv so we missed the television airings and have been anxiously awaiting the release of the dvds. So that was a lot of fun.



Right now I am going crazy with worry trying to get organized and packed for the big move in 5 days! My grandparents are going on a mission to Hawaii and we are going to be living in and taking care of their home while they’re gone. They leave on Monday the 28th for the MTC and since we told our landlady we’d be out before October that means we only have 3 days to move and clean the apartment. Oh the joy. (Plus Bryce has school and we both have to work those nights so it should be a very interesting experience…) I hate packing and unpacking – probably because every item has to be in a labeled and organized box – darn perfectionist that I am. (So beware – if I seem to be grumpy or have a frenzied crazed look about me – you know why. Ha ha!)
Anyways… that’s it news wise for us. All in all - life is good. CRAZY! But so good. :)

Kanarraville Hike

We went on a hike in Kanarraville this past Saturday with my parents and two brothers, Michael and Dallin. It took us about 4 hours (driving time and all), we got wet, cold and sore, but all in all we had a fabulous time!

An example of the trail - it was so beautiful up there

You don't have to walk in the water the whole way, there is a trail that follows along the bank that you can use if you don't want to get wet - but where's the fun in that?

Here I am in a slot canyon - it was so awesome

Bryce decided to climb up this waterfall - I took the easy way up and around.

Most of the hiking was in water about 1 to 2 ft deep but occasionally we came across some areas a bit deeper.

Michael & Bryce posing for me in the cold water :)

Mike jumped under one of the waterfalls at one point and both shoes came off but he didn't even notice until someone said something because his feet were so cold and numb.

Bryce & I almost to the end of the hike...

On the way home we made a quick stop at IN-N-OUT for lunch since we had to get to work. We had such a fun time! Who knew something so beautiful was sitting in our own "backyard"? I can't wait to go exploring for some more amazing places close to home.

4th of July Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend was so much fun! It was so nice to just get away and relax for a few days.
We drove up to Cedar Mt on Friday - and our first order of business? Setting up our new hammock! We read Harry Potter to each other while breaking it in :)

Bryce enjoying the hammock

Later we went on a fun adventure hike through the woods, played Uno with the family, had fun riding a zipline and ate lots of yummy food. (None of the food was ours by the way - so thanks for sharing with us fam.)

On Sat we went on a hike to Cascade Falls and got some fun pics:

Bryce exploring above the waterfall

All in all it was a fun weekend!