Best of Summer 2013

This is the last you will hear of my summer. I promise. 

Indulge me as I give you Best of Summer 2013:

Best Activity with the Big Kids: Hike and tour of Timp Cave:

Best Activity with the Little Guys: Thanksgiving Point Farm:

Best Mommy Daughter Activity: Taylor Swift Concert.  It truly was amazing:

Best Cheap Take-Out Meal: Cheesecake factory Skinny Asian Lettuce Wraps.  These babies are like $6.99 and they give you the yummy bread too.  Add a McD's Diet Coke and you've got a meal.

 

Best Event of the Summer: Ashley and her family moving back to Utah.  Ryan was in boy Heaven with his cousins.

 

Best Summer Date Activity: Alpine Coaster and dinner in Park City

Best Bike Ride: Wildflower Pedalfest in Mountain Green, UT.  Rolling Hills, beautiful scenery, fun friends, great food:

 



 Best Lesson Learned: Yard sales are not worth it.   I made 80 bucks and lost my dignity:

Best Extended Family Outing: Alpine Rodeo with Ashley's family:

Best Reunion: Seeing my favorite guys from my freshman year at BYU.  Already planning another one for the Fall and hoping my girlfriends can make it!

Best Treat: Hokulia shaved ice.  This stuff is as big as my head and totally lived up to the hype.

Best Parenting Moment: Driving home from Café Rio and seeing this homeless looking toddler roaming the neighborhood in a swim diaper.  Sure enough, it was my kid.  Luke was supposed to be babysitting.

Best New Addition: My brand new nephew Wyatt

Best Tradition: Fourth of July Parade as the Patriotic Pirates: It never gets old...at least not for us!

Best Vacation for the Kids: Going to Snow Mass, CO with Sam for five days

Best Vacation for Mama: Kids going to Snow Mass, CO with Sam for five days and I stayed home
No pics.  Just lots of trashy tv, dinners out with friends, and roaming the mall by myself. 

Best Shopping Find of the Summer: Slip Extenders.  These are a life saver for us tall girls. I bought one in every color.

Best Bang for your buck: Seven Peaks with the Pass of All Passes.  There are a lot of haters out there but it will always be my very favorite Summer activity.  I love this picture of my bff Susan doing the rope swing in Provo with Y mountain in the background.  Our boys make us do it every time we go.

Best Free Adventure: Alpine Sliding rock: I felt like a hero for actually going down it with the kids.

That's it folks.  Put a fork in me.  Until Next Summer...I'm done!

Am a Fan

My friend Marta has an amazing blog. A reoccurring post she does on her blog is called "Am a Fan" and she lists her latest loves. I am copying her today.

Am a fan of Bath and Body Works holiday scent soaps. Especially Citrus Garland.

Am a fan of McDonald's holiday mint Mcflurry. Delicious. Egg nog...not so much.

Am a fan of my new black and white skirt from Ann Taylor.  I even got it on sale.  Someday I will wear something besides black and white to church!

Am a fan of Zurchers coming to Draper! (11400 South and State)

Am a fan of my new Conair curling wand. What on earth was I doing trying to do beachy waves with the old clamp style curling iron. This is 1000x easier.

Am a fan of SequinsandStilettos, a fashion blog. I think she has great real-life affordable outfits for moms.

Am a fan of Chili's again! When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. And I was wrong about Chili's. Have you had their chips and salsa? And Quesadilla Explosion salad?  And Molten Chocolate Cake? I went on a date there and I am sold!!

Am a fan of selling toys on KSL. I have made about 150 bucks selling old toys from my basement. Super easy. Now I need to learn to sell on Ebay.

Am a fan of Expressionary.com. I ordered my mom a stamp for her birthday and she was thrilled..You can get 35% off right now by using code "VLEX12".  This is a great gift idea for that person who has everything. (Linda Warner I am looking at you!)

Am a fan of blogging! I just hit my four year blogiversary. Don't send gifts. That would just be weird. Remember my first post!

Leaping Leaners and Lowtops

I know you are totally confused by that title. Sam and I went to a fundraiser tonight called Leaping Leaners and Lowtops at Energy Solutions Arena--it was for Larry H. Miller Charities.

Sam told me about the thing a few days ago and casually mentioned that it was dressy but you had to wear sneakers. To be honest, I was not thrilled with the idea--polygamist anyone? But all it took was walking to the arena from our car and I was a believer.

The whole event turned out to be really fun. (It wouldn't really matter where we were going--an evening away from the kids and DINNER...I'm in!)

The Jazz players were wandering around and giving autographs and signing stuff. I told Sam I only wanted a picture with Mehmet Okur:


He is a hottie and I told Sam if given the chance, I might leave him for Mehmet. Sam didn't look too concerned. Here is a photo of Mehmet's wife:


It was a buffet dinner and usually at buffets, I start to get antsy. I worry that I'm not going to get my fair share. I always feel like I have to rush to get my food. I noticed pretty quickly though, this was a classy event. No need to rush--the food wasn't going anywhere. Why am I so tacky?

The dinner was delish--this was my second appetizer plate (Notice the huge shrimp!)


Here is my entree (There were three different kinds of meat on that plate!)


The dessert table was totally impressive...chocolate fountain, gelato, key lime tarts, eclairs, cookies, etc. I ate way too much.


There was a silent auction and Sam and I bid on some George Strait/Reba tickets and won. We didn't realize the show is this weekend but I guess we'll be heading out again. Ashley will be jealous because the tickets included dinner at CPK!

When we got back to our car, we were dying at how close this car parked in front of us. Sheesh.


A special thank-you to my mom who babysit three (Yes THREE) different times today. She is out of this world. Thanks also to Cam and Katie for watching the rugs tonight. We owe you!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

My sister Ashley sent me this recipe for Chicken Enchilada Soup. I am sharing it with you because it is delicious and stupid easy. In fact, I regret that Sam watched me open up the 6 cans and dump everything in because I got no props for making dinner. He loved the soup and that is saying something since (like most men) he doesn't like soup. I suggest making this before your husband walks in the door and then acting like you really put yourself out!

Here is the recipe:

1 can of green chili enchilada sauce
1 (15 oz. can, drained) yellow corn
1 large (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 package of taco seasoning
1 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 can of chunk chicken (I bought a rotisserie chicken and pulled the chicken off--much better than the canned stuff.)

Open the cans, pour everything into a large saucepan or stock pot. Simmer over medium heat until chicken is heated through.

Serve w/ shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado,fresh tomatoes, & tortilla chips, etc

This would be good with my cornbread recipe found here.

Enjoy!

Kryptonite

I have two friends who make scotch-a-roos. If you don't know what scotch-a-roos are, your thighs are thanking you. They are absolutely delicious rice krispie treats with a layer of peanut butter and chocolate on top. Sam and I call them Kryptonite because they are our diet downfall. Consider these my Christmas present to you:

1 c. sugar
1 c. Karo syrup
1 c. peanut butter
6 c. rice krispies
1 pkg chocolate chips
1 pkg butterscotch chips

Melt sugar and syrup until bubbly. Remove from heat, stir in peanut butter. Mix mixture with rice krispies. Melt chips and layer on top. Cut into squares and proceed to eat the whole pan.

Serves 2--Sam and Brooke

Our latest food obsession is 7-layer Dip. At our house, it is called Mex-Tex dip. Sam and I are addicted to the stuff.

1 can refried beans
1 can Frito lay bean dip
2 medium very ripe avocados
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 to 1 full pkg taco seasoning
3 tomatoes cored and chopped
1 can chopped pitted black olives
chopped green chilis
grated Monterrey jack cheese

First Layer: Mix two cans of beans together and spread over bottom of pan.

Second Layer: Peel and pit avocados and mash with fork. Add salt and pepper to taste

Third Layer: Mix together mayo, sour cream and taco seasoning

Toppings (fourth through seventh layers) tomatoes, olives, green chilis and grated cheese. Refrigerate.

Dip tortilla chips. Enjoy!

My New Addiction

It's Monday night and I'm suffering from post-Bachelor withdrawal. I'm pretty sure that is a real condition. In order to make myself feel better, I'm whipping up a batch of my favorite cookie dough. I guess you could actually make the cookies as well (and they are delish) but my family eats so much dough, there is hardly anything left for cookies--we're disgusting people. The oatmeal almost makes them taste healthy (don't worry--the chocolate chips make up for it!)

If you want to indulge, here is the recipe:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter flavored Crisco
2 cups brown sugar
Mix well.

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Mix.

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
mix again.

3 cups quick oats
1 cup chocolate chips
Mix.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes

Good Friends + Good Food=My Favorite Combination

Remember when I posted about our friend Amy Bagley, who set me and Sam up on our first date? Well, Amy (We call her "Bagley") and her husband Nate (who just so happens to be Sam's best friend growing up) were in town from Vermont and we got to spend some time with them.

We have known Amy and Nate forever. They feel like family to me. Bagley is pregnant and due about 5 weeks after me and doesn't even look pregnant. I'm trying to forgive her for that. I love Amy and Nate because they understand when I have to ask a second stranger to take a picture of the four of us because in the first picture, I looked as big as the side of a house.


We ate a Settabello pizzeria downtown. If you haven't been to Settabello, you really must go. They have great authentic Italian pizza that you tear with your hands. The Caprese salad is to die for.


We then headed out to the Jazz game where we enjoyed a mother-daughter duo directly in front of us who were shaking their moneymakers for the entire game. I must be getting old because I was just annoyed the whole time at how loud the game was. I had to yell to talk to Bagley.

Finally, we headed back to Settabello for gelato. The gelato is reason enough to go to Settabello. Delish. I got the peanut butter brownie and Hazelnut combination and I was not disappointed.

Thanks Amy and Nate (Nate is one of the three men who read my blog!) for a very fun evening.

What I Learned From My Trip to Visit Ashley

1. A good book is always better than another Redbook magazine with all the same tired articles. Thanks to my blogging friend Jill's virtual bookshelf--I found this book, which I absolutely loved. I laughed so hard at times that the people on the plane around me kept staring.

2. Any meal without children is an absolute delight. There was so much good food, I can't possibly talk about all of it. For more in depth reporting on what we ate, see Ashley's blog. The only problem is that when I'm pregnant I'm always ravenous. But as soon as I start eating, I get full quickly. An hour later, I'm ravenous again. Small frequent meals are the answer but that doesn't gel with the way I roll on vacation. Ashley and I believe in huge binge fest meals (with bread baskets or chips and salsa!) between shopping and being pampered. This did not do good things for my stomach.




3. The Mostess knows food. I met the Mostess through blogging and she is a riot. I thoroughly enjoyed our meal together at Tamarine--a tasty upscale Vietnamese place. I felt a tiny bit of guilt that as I was enjoying the delicious shrimp puffs on Sam's birthday, he was at home on with the kids eating McDonald's. The guilt passed though.




4. I can no longer trust Pottery Barn Kids for name ideas. At first, I was thrilled to see this name on the wall since it is one we are considering for our new baby:


All three of my kids' names are in the current catalog so I assumed that PBK and I were on the same page when it came to taste in names. Then I stumbled onto this name (what the?) and I realized one of us is horribly out of touch. Please tell me it's them:


5. I love artsy movies. Ashley and I both really enjoyed An Education. We saw it at an old theatre by Stanford, where you have to valet park to see a movie. Crazy. Don't you think the main character, David, looks exactly like Sam?


6. I appreciate fine malls and outdoor shopping areas more than musuems or sightseeing. Just a sad fact about me folks. I ain't proud of it.


7. The TJ Maxx and More in the Bay Area has way more selection and better stuff than ours. I ended up having to borrow a suitcase from Ashley just to get all my wares home. Aren't those cake plates cute? And I love my new pillows!




8. The only time I missed my kids was when I went into a really cool Lego store that Luke would love. The minute we left, I was glad I didn't have my kids again.


9. The first rule for massage therapists should be to shut your yapper. Mine talked the ENTIRE hour. It was the worst. And I had to beg her to push harder. I like massages to almost hurt so I know they are doing something.


10. Pedicures are God's gift to women. I could get one every day. The bad news is I came home with an ingrown toenail as a result of the lady cutting my toenail too short.


11. Turns out I am too good for Chili's. Our food was cold, bland and disgusting. It was our only bad meal of the trip. There's a reason I hadn't been there in four years. For good chain food, I'm sticking to Chevy's and CPK.

That's it. I've already decided to come down next summer as well. It was just too fun, too relaxing and too hard to come back to real life. Thanks to the husbands for making it all possible!