Happenings of our lives

A couple of weeks ago, during REI’s anniversary sale, we bought a new tent.  We are really excited about it.  We’ve already taken it with us on a few trips (posts coming) so be sure to look for pictures of it. We got it for 260$ during the sale which was a good deal.  We like it because you can see the whole sky while laying in it and… you can sit up in it!!!  Our  old sierra designs tent was closer to the ground.  Plus our new tent is 55 square feet which is enormous and it even feels bigger because you can sit up in it.  In fact, we’ve already had four people playing games in it fairly comfortable (post coming).  The link to the tent is below.

http://www.rei.com/product/748588

On April 25th, we went to Little Wild Horse Canyon with Justin and Julie and clan and did some car camping.  We hiked the little slot canyon which was really pretty.  It got really narrow in some places with puddles of dirty water.  It was an adventure helping the little ones over the water which in some cases was not successful and many a boot got wet and dirty.  Our campsite was really dusty and the wind was blowing somewhat hard.  Emily and I had our old tent (post about our new tent coming up) which makes me glad for our new one.  We put the rain fly on for as you can see, we had some threatening clouds although I don’t think it ever rain as well as to block out the endless dust.  On the way home, we stopped in Goblin Valley to look at all the goblin rock formations.  It was a fun weekend.

On my birthday, we went to Coldstone and got a free birthday ice cream.  Emily bought me a Peanut Butter Playground ice cream cake which was really good.  It actually took us like a month to finish it off since it was so rich.  Other than that, nothing too exciting happened.  I became a quarter of a century old.  Life is good.  Pictures apparently of me eating are below…

Justin and Julie got us into making sushi.  We love it.   It’s cheap (as long as you use shrimp or other non expensive seafood) and pretty healthy.  We made some on April 5 (yes, I’m still trying to catch up with all the stuff we did last month but better late then never).  Below are some pictures.

We went backpacking and hiking with Reed and Amber this past weekend and it was a ton of fun. We all really wanted to wear chacos because we wanted to walk in the creek. You can take really fun pictures like this:

However, the first night after backpacking through Pleasant Creek, Jordan’s beloved chaco broke. He was so sad. We took this picture after the second strap in the back broke. Then,right after this picture was taken the main strap broke, and started to come out of the footbed. Needless to say walking back was interesting…

Look how sad Jordan was, looks like someone needs a new pair .

If you know Jordan, you know that he loves candy (I like it a lot too). If you know us you also know that we love to get free things. So, when I heard about free chocolate from Mars, I had to get some. So, every Friday, this website updates and the first 250,000 people get coupons for free chocolate (allow 6 weeks for delivery). Also remember that you have to finish registration in 5 minutes or you forfeit the coupon. Click on the M&M below or https://aws.realchocolate.com/ to get your coupon.

I catered again last night for Culinary Crafts.  We catered a sit down serve plate dinner for the Sutherford Institute, a heavily conservative think tank I believe.  Elder Ballard was a guest there of Lavell Edwards who was getting an award.  I bussed that table along with some Osmond’s table.  It was an ok event; Emily wasn’t there to look her cute self…

On April 2, we had our last primary activity (in this ward at least).  It was about as much fun as they always are (seriously though, our primary presidency actually does a great job of planning them and they do turn out very fun for the kids which is what is important).  We had chocolate pudding cups with worms and crushed oreos (dirt) for a treat.  I helped make them being the dedicated primary teacher that I am (or was for that matter).

We made a really good pizza on the 29th of March.  We made the pizza crust like our last pizza (do a search for pizza and you can find the recipe).  The topping was sausage that we got from some brats we had, as well as some onions, bell pepper and seasonings that we layered thick.  We topped it with mozz cheese.  It was really good.

Our apartment is falling apart.  On March 27, we’re just peacefully sitting down and watching a movie when Emily goes to check something on the computer so she turns the light on.  A big popping noise happens followed by a large gushing of water from the light fixture!  We rush to turn off the water while Emily runs upstairs to stop the upstairs neighbors from doing whatever is was that they were doing.  I move the computer and the other stuff to the bedroom.  Apparently, our landlord was putting a snake through the upstairs neighbor’s bathtub and broke the line so the water gushed down.  We were stuck for several days with a dirty room while he cleaned up.  He spilled paint on our treadmill.  Anyway, no wonder why we have such bad allergies.  Our apartment is probably filled with mold from all the water damage that happens.