Go Cougars!!

Just a little something to get all you BYU fans geared up for football season!

Idaho Adventures!

We went to Idaho a couple of weeks ago to visit Wil's brother Tyler and his wife Aimee, plus of course Talli and Danny. They showed us a great time! Ryan got some battle wounds on his arm and legs from mountain biking, went on a regular bike ride, and to the beach/river. Danny has gotten huge and I think that Talli is the most polite two year old that I have ever met. They are both adorable and we had tons of fun visiting with Tyler and Aimee!

Battle Wounds

                                                   

Post battle wounds stupidity

Danny's way to entranced with Dad doing jumps to look at the camera.

Talli's all ready to go

We forgot our camera so that's just a little taste of our adventures in Idaho!

Policeawesomenessridealong

So Saturday night I did something that I've wanted to do since I was like 8 years old.


I went on a ride-along with my Brother-in-law Nick.


It. Was. Awesome.


We saw some drunk people who were WAY over the .08 legal limit (they both blew about a .21), and a third drunk guy who was passed out on the railroad tracks underneath a highway overpass at the end of a Union Pacific train yard. Nobody has any idea how he got there, except maybe to have driven off the highway overpass and down the 60 or 65 degree embankment to the tracks. I didn't get to see exactly where he was but we drove down a weird access road to try to get there and it was pretty close to where he was and we could almost see him and it was CRAZY! Dispatch had to call Union Pacific and get all the trains stopped and everything. He ended up being a 22 yo. Mexican from really close to my mission (Michoacan, where I served in a city for about 5 mos), and Nick translated for the cops at the station when they were reading rights and asking him about the night and taking the Breathalyzer. It was fun cause I got to listen to him speak and got to kind of relive parts of my mission. 


West Valley had a shootout during the night that they borrowed three cops from Murray for. I didn't get to go on that one (which was a bummer cause it would have been like a 100+ mph run down the belt route and arresting a ton of people, but we were at the jail booking a DUI at the time.


I got to see a Salt Lake City drug unit car (it was an unmarked, super undercover, very nice black charger) at the jail. Apparently they refused the inmate because his blood pressure was too high from the drugs he was on.


I also got to hear lots of cool police chatter about the fights and DUIs and everything that were going on.


The coolest thing I got to see were the roadside DUI tests. They were so funny. People were stumbling all over and forgetting instructions and their eyes would NOT follow the stupid pen! They were jumpin all over. One lady was supposed to do the "9-step walk and turn" and she took 11 steps one way and 12 the other and would have kept going probably but she ran into her car. It was great. Both cars, ironically, were brand new, and the owners still had the 30-day tags on.


Anyway, if you want to hear more detailed stories you can ask me next time we talk.

Colorado Trip!

Summer is a great time for us to visit family because we actually have some time and a little extra money to do it with! So on that note we wanted to make sure we visited both of Ryan's brothers this summer and last week we took our first trip of the summer to Colorado to visit Jim and Ang! It was great to see them and the kids, who are as cute as ever. I think Cleo's hair has grown about five inches since I last saw her, it is so pretty. We had tons of fun but pictures speak louder than words so without further ado...

Ryan feeling wide awake after downing his energy drink. We left at three in the morning so that we could make the airshow in Wyoming. Ryan drove while I slept in my little makeshift bed in the back.

 He took some pictures of the sunrise.

Me while Ryan was enjoying the sunrise

We went on a river float/rafting trip down the Colorado river with Jim, Ang, and the kids. It was mostly floating but we did catch some fun, level three rapids!

While we were there Ang did a Duathalon which means that you bike, run, then bike again. We were sad cause we didn't quite make it in time to see her cross the finish line, so I made her take a picture afterward. Yay, Ang!

 Our adorable nieces on our last morning there Mira and AnnaBelle on top, and Cleo on the bottom.

This was Toliver's favorite thing to do during most of the trip.

My Amazing Husband!

So today I was thinking about what an awesome husband I have and I thought I would post some pictures about all the stuff that he does for me, so he knows how much I love him and so everybody else can be jealous that I got such a stud who also happens to be super hott! So without further ado this is some of the stuff that he does for me.

He cooks me breakfast. He also cooks me dinner and treats.

Some of the treats that he cooks for me. Mmmm peach muffins!

He takes me out on dates at least once a week! We really like to go out to dinner so this is us at Los Hermanos.

He gives awesome back/foot massages. He set this up for Valentines Day after we came home from dinner!

He took me to the home show in Utah County which was so fun! We went to see almost all the houses, and got lots of great ideas. I think this might become a tradition!

This is us at the Cheesecake Factory on our Anniversary. Best Year Ever! I love you babe you are the greatest husband in the world.

Apartment Pics!

Our Doorway: Eventually it will have a stairway going down to it but right now it's just a dirt slide. Also notice how the windows are actually not that far in the ground so even though it's a basement apartment there will be lots of light! The window on the right is our family room area and the window on the left is the kitchen.

Future Kitchen Area:The only way that you can tell this is in fact a kitchen at this point is the pipe sticking out of the ground which is going to be our future sink. The part of the doorway you can see on the left leads to the rest of the basement (storage area etc.) and the doorway on the right is to our second bedroom. Yay!

Bathroom: This is the doorway from the kitchen but we can also get into it from our bedroom. The first part is the sink area. There are going to be two sinks which means lots more counter space than we have now! The toilet shower area is separate from the sink area. At the back you can see the pipe for where the toilet will be.

Our Bedroom: Yay big windows! You can't really get a good idea of size from these pictures but both bedrooms are a pretty decent size. Hopefully people will come visit us once we have an extra bedroom for them.

I couldn't find a good picture of the future living room area so I'll post that later but we are just so excited about our future apartment I thought that I would post a few pics!

Emasculation

My work is having me learn a new language and web platform right now, and the book is really heavy, and my ADD brain has a hard time concentrating on it for long, so I have to take breaks. I thought I would write a blog on one of my breaks.

So I decided to write a post about how much I've started to love cooking. I really like to look at recipes on www.allrecipes.com and search for whatever I'm hungry for and then filter by rating. I then look at others comments and custom-modifications and go to town!

I've found quite a few recipes that I love and a few regular staples that Elizabeth and I eat a lot. I also look for quick recipes (mostly), so that we can eat quickly, and I pride myself on getting something done really quickly!

I should say that I also like quite a few recipes in Mom's cookbook, and we have some of those regularly as well. (Alfredo, Stroganoff [I don't care if it's "real stroganoff" or not],  tator-tot casserole [I hope that's in there!!], chicken strips, apple-cinnamon muffins, jellos, etc)

These are the ones I've found and really like:

• Chicken Parmesan (20 minutes)
• Stir Fry (20 minutes, not counting marinade time)
• Fajitas (20 minutes, not counting marinade time)
• Lemon Buttermilk Chicken (my own creation)
• Brown-sugar Peach Muffins
• Orange Muffins

Anyway, so I'd thought I'd ask if anyone has any family favorite meals that they cook often and ask them to post the recipes in the comments, or in a new post on the blog. We would really like some easy good-tasting main dishes to add to it (sides are easy, just some salad and steamed veggies work). Crock pot stuff is good, we don't do much of that. As always, cheap is good too!