THE CATCH UP!

You might have forgotten all about us...or you might not have. Either way, we are here and ready to share what we have been up to since November! NOVEMBER!!! Seriously? Has it really been that long? My apologies, truly. Nonetheless, welcome back to our blog and be prepared for sensory overload!


November-December:
Sweets and I trekked across the globe to the U.A.E. to visit our dear friends Richard and Catherine. Words cannot explain just how amazing they are for taking us all around and showing us the best time. Abu Dhabi and Dubai were incredible! We had an awesome time and completely fell in with the people, the smells, the bright colors, the yummy food, and all the adventures.
We saw and did: the grand mosque, ski Dubai, Palm island, desert safari, world market, shopping, a camel ride, Emirates Palace, Burg Kahlifa, National Day and much much more!

December:

A few days after our globe trot Sweets and I headed to Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. We love going every year and seeing all the cowboys and cowgirls calf rope, steer wrestle, bareback, bull ride, and barrel race! We were lucky enough to sit on the front row again and it truly was awesome.  

December:

Sweets and I spent our Holiday season with our annual cheese and chocolate fondue party, Hire's and the lights at Temple Square, the Arnell Christmas party in the theme of "Santa Claus" the movie, and opening gifts with the puppies and visiting both families. It was very relaxing and quite enjoyable. Usually Christmas is hectic, but not this year. I loved the fact that it fell on a Sunday. It forced us to slow down and truly remember what the special day was all about!

December-January:

For New Years, Sweets and I headed up to Sun Valley with part of my family. We go there every year and it is always a good time! The snow wasn't that great this year, so we didn't go skiing or snowmobiling, but we did plenty of hiking, hot tubbing, dinners, games and shopping. Sun Valley is beautiful and we love spending time up there!

January:

A few days after the New Year we traveled to Maui Hawaii for some R&R! It was so fun to hang out with my whole family and no kids for a week. The weather couldn't have been better and it honestly was such a fun trip. We all hiked the Bamboo trail, went on early morning walks/jogs, boggie boarded with the abnormally huge waves, and watched lots of football games. Maui is so pretty and we are still laughing from all the funny things that happened...  

So, in a nutshell, this is what we have been up to for the past few months! We are so lucky to have been able to have these experiences and we look forward to more in 2012. Speaking of 2012, because of some new craziness that Sweets and I are embarking in, we are going to go private. We would love all of you to keep following us and are appreciative of those who have taken interest in our lives. Leave your email in the comment space below and we'll send you a link and keep ya posted on what's coming next!

ROCKTOBER

It started off with a beautiful scenic hike up Rocky Mouth Canyon to a waterfall with my brother Matthew and 2 of his children. The waterfall was really pretty and the kids loved hiking through the vibrant leaves! This fall was probably one of the all time prettiest that I have seen. 

Next it was an all day event making Apple Butter for the Holiday's. I have never made it before but I found a really yummy recipe and had to try it. We devoured our jar in 2 days and my home was left with the most incredible aroma!!!

Sweets and I took a gander up to Midway for an evening and brought the pups along. We hadn't been up there for awhile so we thought we would take a little night getaway. Tahoe and Telly ran all around the fields and were in heaven! I can't believe how big and fast Telly is getting. They are so funny when they play together.

Next, we headed down to SG and LV for a weekend trip with some friends to see Jimmy Buffet! This was incredible. First thing first, we had to race the go-cart around the 1/4 mile loop and my Sweets took first. It was so fun. We then drove down to Vegas to hit up the Pawnshop, Traders Joes, do a little shopping, and of course party at the "street party" before the concert. It seriously was a blast! The concert was the MGM and we sang and danced all night to the best island music. It was Sweets first concert so he was a little shy getting involved but he came around when Jimmy sang "fins". Afterwards, we headed to Mesquite for a little money "donation" until 5 am. It was quite the late night and quite a trip!

We rounded out the month with our tradition of Thriller at Kingsbury Hall. We go every year, and each time does not disappoint us. We are still in awe and shock and laugh just as hard as the first time we saw it many, many years ago together.

FALL BACK INTO FALL!

This is just a little somethin' somethin' to keep you occupied while I finish downloading, uploading, tweaking, writing, and posting the rest of the "catch up" stuff! Until then...

LET'S PLAY THE GAME ...

CATCH UP!
Oh geez ... I am such a slacker! My apologies!
Here is my first of a few catch up posts. Maybe one day soon i'll be all caught up with this blog (but don't hold your breath).

Sweets has been doing a lot of Mountain biking with different groups of peeps. They usually bike the Crest up Big Cottonwood and they usually bike it at night with their nifty cool lights. However, this ride was on a Saturday morning and he went with his good friend Cody (pictured) and Kevin (not pictured). Although they somehow got split up from each other, they still had a great time!

Sweets and I are apart of Young Leaders of United Way and they had a charity golf tournament at Old Mill that we participated in. It was fun to get out and play a round as well as mingle and make connections with other people our age in the community. Our team (consisting of Sweets' two friends Jarum and Travis and us) ended up taking 4th overall and I ended up winning "longest putt" and snagged some really awesome goodies to take home! 

I still have been doing a lot of cooking and loving it. I promise soon I'll share some of my latest recipes but until then here is a teaser. While peaches were the thing a month ago, I couldn't resist and grabbed a bunch and made this super yummy salsa and incorporated it into dinner! 

Recipe:

1 large peach, peel and diced small (or 2 medium peaches)
1 large avocado, diced small (or 2 small avocados)
1/2 red onion, diced small
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 of a yellow pepper, chopped
place all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir.  (add the avocados last so they won’t get mushy)
serve over salmon or chicken or as a salsa for chips!
I paired mine with salmon and pea couscous. (Normally I like my couscous with cinnamon but I thought it would be too many flavors).


I headed here:

for some R&R for a few days. It was fabulous and just what I needed. I flew down with my sis and my Parentals and left my three favorite boys home to fend for themselves...but something told me they were ok without me. We soaked up some "vitamin D", went shopping everyday, hit up daily trips to Trader's Joes, Holiday decor-ed our homes from Rogers Gardens, toured the island of Balboa, went to dinner and movies, and goofed around with each other. 

Thanks for the fab trip!


Lastly, I have been trying to get my home ready for Fall (the BEST and my MOST favorite season)! I made a wreath out of striped burlap for my front door, but it's not hung because it somehow ended up at my mother's house. I'm making a new one though for my door. I did fix up our entry way with some mirrors and branches and set out my Fall subway art. I just love how the leaves are starting to change and the temperatures are cooling down. It makes for a peaceful and pleasant existence. 

Stay tuned for more of the game CATCH UP!

CHEERS...TO THE FREAKIN' WEEKEND!

Over Labor Day weekend, Sweets and I and our friends Dave and Lindsey, decided to take advantage of the long weekend and go on an adventuresome trip! None of us had ever been to Seattle, so we figured that was a good place to go. We left Friday evening and came home Monday night. It was such an incredible, beautiful and fun trip.

SATURDAY:
started off with Pike's Market Place. We absolutely loved it here. We walked all around the market admiring the gorgeous (and inexpensive) flowers, handcrafted jewelry, garden vegetables and fruit, and all the seafood you could think of. It was fun to watch the fishermen throw the fish, but boy was it stinky!




Just behind the Market was the infamous Gum Wall! I have never seen a wall so huge loaded with chewed gum. It was really colorful but kinda of gross if you think about it. Each of us chewed a piece of gum and attached it to the wall. That was our contribution to Seattle.

From there we walked down to the pier for some lunch and took in the scenery of each of the islands across Puget Sound. Then we walked back up and did a little window shopping at all the stores. There was the original Nordstrom, H&M, Nike Town and a lot of other smaller local shops. The streets were flooded with people and cars and beautiful architectural buildings. Downtown itself reminded me a lot of San Francisco with its steep hills.

We then headed over to Seattle Center where we saw the Space Needle, the Science Center and Experience Music Project. Its funny, but we were taken back at how small the space needle was. We totally were thinking it was the largest thing in Seattle and its not even close. However small or big, it was still really neat to see.

Instead of going to the top of the Space Needle we thought it would be fun if we took a sea plane tour instead. I was a little nervous at first taking off and landing in water but I was surprised at how smooth it was and how pretty the whole city is. We were able to do the 30 minute tour and it was awesome! We flew all over Seattle and had the best views of everything. It was definitely a highlight of our trip!
  

SUNDAY:
was filled with even more awesomeness. We first headed to see the Seattle Temple and enjoy some spiritual time. It was a very pretty temple with beautiful statues surrounding it and a tiered pool of water in the front. We couldn't have asked for a better morning than to walk the grounds in the beautiful weather.

From there we drove up to Snoqualmie Falls. WOWZA! The falls were so big and loud...I loved it. The view of the falls and the mountains surrounding it were incredible. We definitely were in awe. I love the mist that surrounds waterfalls. There is something so peaceful about it. 

We then made our way over to the island Bremerton for some lunch. There happened to be a festival on the pier so we just had to check it out. The boys ate delicious corn on the cob and we all sat there people watching (our fav thing) and listening to a local band sing some Country music (also our fav). We decided to take the ferry back to Seattle which was such a fun experience. I had never been on a car ferry before and was totally amazed at how fast the thing moves with all that weight! The movie Deja Vu did cross my mind a few times...ha!

Once we arrived we thought we would check out the old part of Seattle and ran into the Underground Tour Center. It looked way cool so we signed up and did it. Apparently, there is a whole other city below Seattle that was the original city before a fire in 1889 wiped it out. We were in shock at the saloons, banks, and other buildings intact (for the most part) below the Seattle streets. It was really neat to take this tour and we are so glad we did it!

MONDAY:
was bittersweet. We headed over to Kirkland for some beach action and hit up the kayaks. We went out on Lake Washington and seriously loved it. The water was surprisingly warm and calm. The homes that we passed by were so beautiful and each had their own dock. We did learn that there are boats for every 5 people in Seattle. Amazing! After kayaking we ate a great lunch at a Beach Cafe and soaked up the last few hours before we had to head to the airport.

On our way to the airport, we made a pit stop at Cow Chips. I ordered the cow-plop and it was truly D-lish! It was just the dough, my favorite part about cookies. Sweets picked up some chiplets and we all chowed down on those. Everything was centered around cows which was really neat. You could order a calf, a cow, a herd, and even a bull chip. Who would have thought?

Thanks Dave and Lindsey for joining us on this fabulous trip and making so much fun! We had an absolute blast and look forward to our next trip with you!
As for you Seattle...we will be back again soon!