Happenings of our lives

Emily and I on the 16th of January, after camping, went driving on the Glade Top Trail. It was a surprise to me. I hadn’t heard of it before but Emily found it. We only went on part of it and it was so incredibly foggy the whole time, we couldn’t see much but the fog itself made for some really pretty sights and pictures. We’ll have to go back soon and take more pictures when the fog isn’t bad. Emily really wanted to find the watershed divide but because of the fog we couldn’t find it.  It didn’t take us very long.  We’d recommend it to anyone.  The whole road was a dirt road but our ‘97 Mercury Mystique handled it just fine. The map below shows the loop we did; the actual “trail” starts on the east side a bit higher than where we actually started and ends on the south side of the loop on highway 125.

Click on the picture to go to the gallery.

	#	Distance	Time	Movingtime	Speed	Max Speed	Climb Up	Climb Down
	1	0.000 mi	0s	0s	-	-	-	-
	2	1.027 mi	1m 15s	1m 15s	49.31 mph	56.00 mph	154 ft	56 ft
	3	2.088 mi	2m 31s	2m 31s	49.78 mph	56.00 mph	210 ft	151 ft
	4	3.002 mi	3m 37s	3m 37s	49.81 mph	56.00 mph	413 ft	151 ft
	5	4.005 mi	4m 45s	4m 45s	50.59 mph	67.96 mph	505 ft	207 ft
	6	5.011 mi	5m 47s	5m 47s	51.98 mph	67.96 mph	551 ft	443 ft
	7	6.026 mi	7m 21s	7m 21s	49.20 mph	67.96 mph	623 ft	541 ft
	8	7.022 mi	8m 50s	8m 50s	47.69 mph	67.96 mph	876 ft	541 ft
	9	8.039 mi	10m 11s	10m 11s	47.36 mph	67.96 mph	965 ft	610 ft
	10	9.033 mi	11m 35s	11m 35s	46.79 mph	67.96 mph	1060 ft	722 ft
	11	10.002 mi	13m 44s	13m 44s	43.70 mph	67.96 mph	1257 ft	866 ft
	12	11.002 mi	17m 06s	17m 06s	38.60 mph	67.96 mph	1565 ft	896 ft
	13	12.003 mi	20m 32s	20m 09s	35.07 mph	67.96 mph	1683 ft	1043 ft
	14	13.006 mi	34m 01s	32m 57s	22.94 mph	67.96 mph	1955 ft	1371 ft
	15	14.007 mi	37m 53s	36m 48s	22.18 mph	67.96 mph	2103 ft	1470 ft
	16	15.007 mi	41m 40s	40m 31s	21.61 mph	67.96 mph	2228 ft	1565 ft
	17	16.015 mi	49m 28s	47m 16s	19.42 mph	67.96 mph	2474 ft	1919 ft
	18	17.029 mi	1h 02m 10s	57m 49s	16.44 mph	67.96 mph	3022 ft	2474 ft
	19	18.003 mi	1h 06m 28s	1h 01m 40s	16.25 mph	67.96 mph	3212 ft	2733 ft
	20	19.006 mi	1h 10m 01s	1h 05m 13s	16.29 mph	67.96 mph	3343 ft	2835 ft
	21	20.034 mi	1h 12m 45s	1h 07m 57s	16.52 mph	67.96 mph	3465 ft	2917 ft
	22	21.045 mi	1h 16m 06s	1h 11m 18s	16.59 mph	67.96 mph	3593 ft	3028 ft
	23	22.000 mi	1h 23m 38s	1h 17m 56s	15.78 mph	67.96 mph	3766 ft	3212 ft
	24	23.001 mi	1h 27m 23s	1h 21m 41s	15.79 mph	67.96 mph	3914 ft	3346 ft
	25	24.060 mi	1h 30m 21s	1h 24m 39s	15.98 mph	67.96 mph	3990 ft	3504 ft
	26	25.021 mi	1h 35m 24s	1h 28m 53s	15.74 mph	67.96 mph	4154 ft	3632 ft
	27	26.012 mi	1h 39m 16s	1h 32m 45s	15.72 mph	67.96 mph	4239 ft	3766 ft
	28	27.009 mi	1h 43m 00s	1h 36m 22s	15.73 mph	67.96 mph	4423 ft	3891 ft
	29	28.003 mi	1h 49m 12s	1h 42m 34s	15.39 mph	67.96 mph	4573 ft	4009 ft
	30	29.020 mi	1h 50m 43s	1h 44m 05s	15.73 mph	67.96 mph	4633 ft	4081 ft
	31	30.003 mi	1h 52m 12s	1h 45m 34s	16.04 mph	67.96 mph	4731 ft	4199 ft
	32	31.006 mi	1h 53m 37s	1h 46m 59s	16.37 mph	67.96 mph	4747 ft	4426 ft
	33	32.010 mi	1h 54m 57s	1h 48m 19s	16.71 mph	67.96 mph	4754 ft	4678 ft
	34	33.004 mi	1h 56m 21s	1h 49m 43s	17.02 mph	67.96 mph	4803 ft	4734 ft
	35	34.006 mi	1h 57m 43s	1h 51m 05s	17.33 mph	67.96 mph	4915 ft	4820 ft
	36	35.047 mi	1h 59m 13s	1h 52m 35s	17.64 mph	67.96 mph	5118 ft	4836 ft
	37	36.011 mi	2h 00m 37s	1h 53m 59s	17.91 mph	67.96 mph	5262 ft	4918 ft
	38	37.096 mi	2h 01m 54s	1h 55m 16s	18.26 mph	67.96 mph	5305 ft	4990 ft
	39	38.010 mi	2h 03m 05s	1h 56m 27s	18.53 mph	67.96 mph	5318 ft	5200 ft
	40	38.453 mi	2h 03m 53s	1h 57m 15s	18.62 mph	67.96 mph	5325 ft	5312 ft
Summary		38.453 mi	2h 03m 53s	1h 57m 15s

Glade Top Trail

Well, we’re really bad at remembering what we do when we don’t take pictures, oops. Anyway, we’ve been hanging out a lot with some friends from our ward Casadee and John. They love playing games as much as we do, and they’re really fun to play with.  On January 2, we played the new game that my parents gave us for Christmas called Say Anything. It was a really fun game, it would be even more fun with more people.

We also played their game called Scene It: Squabble, the girls won, and so we played again, and then we won again.

We also hung out with them on Jan 16 and played a new game we bought for ourselves for Christmas called Blokus. It’s  kind of like tetris with 4 people. I really like it, but Jordan doesn’t so much. Although it did agree that playing with 4 people is a lot more fun than playing with two. After we played that we played Mexican Train with Dominoes, I’d never played it before, and it was a lot of fun, but it took a really long time.

Thanks guys for hanging out with us and playing games with us. We look forward to playing more games in the future.

Sun Dried Tomato and Basil
2 packages of cream cheese
2 c of cheddar cheese crumbles (just buy a block and pulse them in the food processor a bit)
1-1.5 c grated hard italian cheese (Parmesan, Romano, Asiago)
6-8 ounces sun dried tomatoes (I bought oil packed and drained them)
8-12 basil leaves or a 1 T of dried basil

Blend together the cream cheese, cheddar, and Parmesan. Use a food processor (we just have a little one, and it’s perfect for this) to chop the sun dried tomatoes, tear the basil leaves and drop in the food processor, pulse until desired size. (If using dried basil, add directly to cheese mixture). Add to cheese mixture, add additional Parmesan until desired consistency. Line a round bowl with plastic wrap and press mixture into the plastic wrap, this will make the ball round. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Emily surprised me when I came home from work on Friday January 15th.  She had everything packed to go camping and wouldn’t tell me where we were going or what we were going to eat.  Well, we ended up camping at the Swan Creek area like we’ve done before.  It was really muddy but we found a spot to put up our tent.  Then Emily set up the stove and warmed up some delicious homemade french bread with spaghetti sauce, breaded chicken and aged New Zealand cheddar cheese I got from work.  It was delicious.  Then we played some games.  Then Emily brought out some creme brulee she had made previously (post on that to come).  Then to top it all off, we had smores.  It was fun.  We slept really well and woke up to the sound of rain on our tent.  That would have been fine under ordinary circumstances; however, the dirt road we drove on to get to the site was really muddy and we actually almost got stuck the night before so we quickly packed everything up and shoved it in the car and drove away.  We then went to Glade Top Trail (which was Emily’s surprise) but I’ll write a separate post about that.

Click on the picture to go to the gallery.

Jordan loves creme brulee and I just like the custard part. One day when I was driving home from work I heard an advertisement for something and it said creme brulee, so I decided to go home and make some.

I cut the recipe in half because we have small ramekins, but it was still more than enough to fill them.

Here’s the recipe:

Jordan’s favorite part of making creme brulee is torching them (honestly who doesn’t like this part?). We ate them and they were pretty tasty. We even at some that weekend when we went camping. Stay tuned for more on our camping trip.

Click on the picture above to see the gallery

So we spent New Years Eve with Ryan and Heidi and then on New Years Day we spent it with them again. Ryan’s brother was moving, so Jordan went to help. On the bright side, we got to go to Ryan’s Parents house and got to see lots of cows.

I was so excited I took lots of pictures (we probably deleted half of them). The cows were so cute, and they loved the food. There were also horses and a pony that was pretty funny looking. I told Jordan that I need a pet cow, too bad they eats lots of food and smell bad.

The other really cool thing was that we saw a eagle in a tree while we were driving there. We even turned around so we could get a picture of it.

Click on the picture to go to the gallery.

So, in order to redeem myself for the ill fated Christmas Eve trip, Jordan and I went hiking in New Year’s Eve. We got a comment on our smugmug gallery about a specific waterfall that we had been too before. The guy wanted to know the latitude and longitude of the waterfall. We hadn’t been back to Pee’s Holler since Jordan got his new GPS, so we decided to go back so we could tell the guy about it. It is also nice because Jordan wants to put things like that on his new website.

So we drove to Hercules Glade and started hiking. You’ll notice that pretty much ever picture with Jordan has him looking at his GPS and setting a waypoint.

I really like going to places during different seasons. The last time we hiked Pee’s Holler, it was late summer and the leaves were all still on the trees. This time we went and the trees were mostly bare. It felt like a totally different place. Anyway, we had fun hiking and came back home and spent New Year’s Eve with Heidi and Ryan.

Click on the picture to go to the gallery.

	#	Distance	Time	Movingtime	Speed	Max Speed	Climb Up	Climb Down
	1	0.000 mi	0s	0s	-	-	-	-
	2	1.006 mi	35m 41s	34m 59s	1.69 mph	5.02 mph	190 ft	482 ft
	3	2.001 mi	1h 11m 13s	1h 09m 30s	1.69 mph	7.16 mph	486 ft	942 ft
	4	3.002 mi	1h 47m 50s	1h 45m 22s	1.67 mph	7.16 mph	787 ft	1266 ft
	5	4.006 mi	2h 12m 24s	2h 09m 33s	1.82 mph	7.16 mph	1053 ft	1444 ft
	6	5.007 mi	2h 37m 15s	2h 33m 44s	1.91 mph	7.16 mph	1407 ft	1634 ft
	7	6.000 mi	3h 07m 35s	3h 03m 31s	1.92 mph	7.62 mph	1765 ft	1847 ft
	8	6.064 mi	3h 09m 24s	3h 05m 18s	1.92 mph	7.62 mph	1808 ft	1850 ft
Summary		6.064 mi	3h 09m 24s	3h 05m 18s

Pees Holler

This Christmas was our first Christmas without our families. We were kind of sad thinking about it, but we’re glad that we got to spend it together.

We woke up on Christmas morning and it had snowed! It hadn’t snowed before Christmas, so we were pretty excited about it. We were talking about how we could hardly believe Christmas was almost here because it didn’t look like winter. So we woke up and ate cinnamon rolls and then opened presents.

If you look at the pictures, ignore the crazy hair and faces, I was pretty excited about the things Jordan got me. Jordan was excited too, even though he doesn’t look that excited in the pictures. Jordan got me a bunch of stuff for my Cricut and I got Jordan some movies and a digital picture frame for his desk at work.

We spent most of the day playing with our new presents. I made a bunch of cards with my Cricut and Jordan played his game. For dinner we had a ham that my work gave to us and some other holiday foods. We ate leftovers for a lot time afterward (we still have some ham that’s frozen) because there’s just the two of us.

Click on the picture to go to the gallery.

So, Jordan already posted about our hiking trip on Christmas Eve. I’ll talk about when we got home. So we decided to come home because it was cold, and raining, and I really don’t like hiking in the rain.

When we got home, we got warm and decided that we wanted to open one of each of our presents (actually Jordan decided this). Jordan knew what my sister had gotten me for Christmas and he wanted to watch it, so we did. I wanted to watch it too, but I could have waited a day.

So we watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, it was our second time seeing it, and I think it’s a pretty good movie. Maybe ask me again when I’ve read the book again.

So Jordan got Assassin’s Creed II, and while he played it I took pictures of our trees. Now on to Christmas…

Click on the picture to go to the gallery.

Here’s a super easy fudge recipe, it’s great because, depending on how long you let it boil, you will get pourable fudge, or fudge that you can cut and eat in pieces.