Happenings of our lives

Ugh, before I left for PA my kitchenaid broke. It was really frustrating because last year it broke about the same time but it was still under warranty, so we didn’t have to pay for it. This time I wasn’t going to pay to get it fixed because last time it was about 100 dollars. So, I took it apart to see if it was something I could fix. When I took it apart  I could see that it needed new gears the teeth on the gears were ground down and metal shavings were in the grease.

So I looked up what parts I needed and tried to find a tutorial, but couldn’t. I really wanted to fix it before the YW sleepover but one of the parts was backordered. It came the day of the sleepover so I fixed it that day. It was really frustrating trying to fix it because I couldn’t get the clip off, but eventually Jordan got home and helped me get it off we put the new gears on and it works just fine now. So next time I will probably spend the money to buy the pliers that get the clip off instead of trying all the ways I did to get it off.

Happy Mother’s Day Moms in our lives! Hope you have a Fabulous Day!

My Grandma, and Great Grandma:

My Mom and Sisters:

Jordan’s Mom:

So it’s May and I still haven’t finished talking about my trip to PA (oops…) I’ll try and cram the rest in a  marathon post.

The 7th Day I was in PA we hung out with Justin and Julie a lot. There was a big storm and it snowed 14 inches, which ended up making my return flight canceled on Sunday.

One really fun thing we did on the 5th was go to Wegman’s and get candy with the kids. They thought that was the best part of the store. The coolest part about it was that you got to weigh it out yourself, Ilana and Forrester liked that. Aspen was kind of being a pill because she couldn’t have her candy and then Ronan was being a pill too. They kept saying, “My uncle Jordan gave me that candy” oops. I did tell them Jordan said that we were buying them some candy. So everyone got candy and when we bought it they were all happy.

They also had live lobsters, which Forrester promptly told me he would never eat.

We hung out with Justin and Julie more the next day and Ilana and I made wheat thins, she was great at doing it. I hung out with the kids while Nicole, Nate, Justin and Julie went and saw Avatar. I spent the night at Justin and Julie’s house and then we all went to church the next morning. You can see how much it snowed in the pictures with Aspen and Ronan. I made some flower clips (also in the pictures) for Ilana and Aspen’s birthdays. That night everyone came over to Nicole and Nate’s house and we got to play wii. Ronan really liked the old pacman game (so did Justin).

The last day I was there (Monday), I got to hang out with Nicole. We got to go shopping and got some cute clothes for Katie. There was a really funny school named Boogersburg school.

My flight was relatively uneventful, except it was snowing really hard when I got back. Jordan left work early and drove 3.5 hours to pick me up. Only to drive 1/2 hour out of the way to pick up my ring that hadn’t been replated like it was suppose to . (I forgot to bring the warranty and then we found out there is a mall 20 minutes away from us that would honor the warranty, oops). We then drove 4 hours home, poor Jordan was so tired and his contacts were bothering him. We finally got home at about midnight.

So, I haven’t written a lot about my visit in PA. It was so nice to see family. We’ve really missed them, and we still do.

I was so happy to see my sister, and we got to hang out a lot. The third day I was there we just hung out. One funny thing that we did was put a cabbage leaf on Katie’s head. I don’t think she really liked it, but it was funny.

We hung out with Justin and Julie the next day and it was so cute to see their kids with Katie. Aspen wanted to see the baby, and Ronan kept asking if he could feed her, it was so cute. It was so cute to see Forrester with her too, he’s such a good big brother and he was so good with Katie. Katie even pet Indy when Nicole was dressing her.

Wednesday was a great day. It was the first day I saw Katie smile. She was sitting in her car seat and Nicole was tickling her and laughing and she got a huge smile, it was adorable. We stopped at the Penn State creamery and got some ice cream, I’m a little bias to BYU, but it was pretty good.

Thursday was lots of fun. I decided that with all the milk Katie drinks, she needs some cookies, I really like mint oreos, so I gave her one.

Then she decided that she’d rather have milk, so she tried it on my arm…

That wasn’t what she wanted, so after she got fed she slept like a little angel. Isn’t she so cute?

On Feb 20, 2010, we went hiking in the Busiek State Forest. It is only about 15 minutes south of where we live. There are tons of loop trails that makes for a close source of fun hiking. We did the Red Loop this day.

	#	Distance	Time	Movingtime	Speed	Max Speed	Climb Up	Climb Down
	1	0.000 mi	0s	0s	-	-	-	-
	2	1.002 mi	27m 32s	26m 53s	2.18 mph	5.25 mph	269 ft	318 ft
	3	2.002 mi	59m 56s	59m 05s	2.00 mph	5.86 mph	666 ft	587 ft
	4	3.004 mi	1h 29m 50s	1h 27m 52s	2.01 mph	7.04 mph	912 ft	896 ft
	5	3.574 mi	1h 48m 26s	1h 46m 13s	1.98 mph	7.04 mph	1020 ft	1115 ft
Summary		3.574 mi	1h 48m 26s	1h 46m 13s

Busiek State Forest

Wow, sorry it has been so long since we posted last.  We’ve really slacked off.  Tons has happened.  Both of use are going to try to catch up on everything.

Well, on Feb 15, 2010, we bought a new car!  Emily has had a really long commute because she has had to drop me off at work, go to work, go home (because she works half days), then come pick me up at the end of the day.  So it’s nice to have two cars.  We got a 2010 Toyota Corolla, it had 6 miles on it when we test drove it.  Now that it’s the end of March, we still love the car (and have already put 2300+ miles on it).

I decided that this post needs to be split in half. At the beginning of February (end of January) I got to go visit my sister, Nicole and her husband, Nate and their baby, Katie. I also got to see Justin and Julie. I keep telling people that I killed two birds with one stone, but I’m not sure that’s the right phrase to use…

Anyway, Jordan and I drove to St Louis Friday night. There was a snow storm that came in that night, and it was really coming down hard, so hard in fact that Jordan got out of work early. So, it took us a while to get to St. Louis. Here’s a picture of the snow when I was driving to pick Jordan up:

Try not to think too hard about how I got that picture. So, it started snowing even harder when we were driving, but we eventually made it. We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel. Can you believe Jordan had never eaten there!?! That is pretty much a crime in my family. My dad loves Cracker Barrel, when we go on trips, he pulls out the Cracker Barrel map and we try and go there.

After we ate dinner we drove the rest of the way to our hotel. We spent the night and Jordan dropped me off at the airport the next morning. Surprisingly, my flight from St Louis to Philadelphia was not  delayed. The flight was pretty uneventful, but there are pictures. I’ve flown a lot, but I’m always amazed by it. I love breaking through the clouds and being above them, it’s amazing. I got some pretty cool pictures of the main part of Philadelphia. My flight to State College was delayed because all the lights on the airplane were broken, I guess that’s a bad thing. Apparently when that happens they have to replace all the batteries that power the lights on the plane, which takes over an hour. So I eventually got to State College and Nicole and Nate picked me up.

I can’t really describe it, but somehow when I haven’t seen family or good friends for a long time, I forget that time apart when I see them . I mean, the last time I saw Nicole she was pregnant, but now she had a baby, but it felt like I had just seen her. Does that make sense to anyone?

It was so fun to meet my newest niece, I just had to take lots of pictures…

Click on the picture to go to the gallery.

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.