Jeff Comes to Visit

Will teaching Jeff in the fine art of pizza dough making. PS I love this series of pictures - they're too cute together!

Hard at work, putting the toppings on. Check out Jeff's smile...he is single ladies - let us know if you're interested and we'll put in a good word. :)

The delicious finished project.

A couple of weekends ago, Jeff (one of Will's best friends from Kaysville) came down to visit for the weekend. He met me at work and drove me home - which was great as it was snowing a bit and I get a little nervous in the snow. The first night he was here the boys made homemade pizza and we watched The Soloist - good movie, but definitely a serious one. Sunday morning we hung out - it was fast Sunday so we had to forgo our normally delicious Sunday breakfast. Jeff came to church with us - our married student ward was a bit of a shock to him..."I'm the only single person here..." he kept thinking. That night Will made his delicious brownies - the ones that made me fall for him in the first place and we had fun playing games with some upstairs neighbors. All in all it was a great weekend. Thanks for coming down Jeff.

Thanksgiving

Mmm... my mouth still waters when I think about that Pumpkin Streusel Pie we made. Best. Pie. Ever.

What started out as a simple meal for 4 (Myself, Sara and her parents) quickly turned into 7 as Lance found out the missionaries had no place to eat and Ramona found a young couple in the ward that the husband had to work and Jane, the wife, was going to "figure something out" for Thanksgiving.

Sara was put in charge and I took up the position of Sous Chef. She ruled the kitchen with an iron fist and I was to do her every bidding. It seemed that the only person who could walk in and do what they pleased was Lance. He's a Mashed Potato Culinary Master and you do not get in his way.
As usual the first thing to work on was the turkey. Since there was going to be 7 of us (8 if you count the plate going home to Jane's husband) it meant that there was actually going to be a turkey instead of a rotisserie chicken. We used our collective brains and figured out how to cook the bird. It was relatively simple especially because we were going to have dressing instead of stuffing. (Dressing is the best part of Thanksgiving).

After that it was just a matter of time management to get the dressing, sweet potatoes, rolls, and cranberry salad finished and on the table at the same time. It was a great holiday weekend that went by too fast and we find ourselves reflecting on that pie time after time...

4H

Okay, so I realize that's it's been over 2 months since I've lasted put up a post here and that all it I did was a cryptic post about how I have a 4H group so here's my explanation.

Back in September a friend of ours, Megan, got a job as the 4H coordinator for an Elementary School in Orem. She knew that I did theatre in high school so she asked me if I wanted to be the group leader for a club. I thought it sounded pretty fun so I said sure.

So I found myself in charge of 13 kids between 4th and 6th grade. We had good times as we learned about Upstage Left and Down Center Stage. I (kind of) taught them how to project their voices. We even did a few improv games. Then came the time to decide what we were going to do for our Parent Showcase. Well it made sense to have them put on a play but the tough part was figuring out what play. It could only be about 10 minutes because all of the other clubs were doing something for their parents too. So I decided to bring out the Shakespeare in me and write a play. It's called the 3 Wolves. It's the stories of the 3 Little Pigs mixed with Little Red Riding Hood and the Boy Who Cried Wolf. We'll see how it goes since 2 of the kids have moved, another told the other kids that I was "stupid" and quit coming and another just stopped showing up. I've combined as many parts as I could but if on Dec. 2nd a kid doesn't show up I just might have to make an appearance on stage... let's hope they all show!

So that's my story. It's been a lot of fun but a little stressful as well so I don't think that I'll be able to do it again next semester.

Baby Blanket

Our good friends the Tidwells just had their little girl - Ada Elaine. I couldn't make it to the baby shower last month, but I still wanted to get them something. Last night when I delivered the blanket I got to meet her. She's beautiful!

I found the pattern for this blanket on another blog, but it was really easy to make. I worked on it while Will and I watched a movie last night. You just get a yard of both flannels. Wash and dry the fabric, square the pieces and sew them right sides together, turn it right sides out and sew a 1/4th an inch seam around the whole blanket. It was easy and I think the final project turned out looking great!

Curry and Homemade Naan

This post is really just shameless bragging about my husband. I work from 12 to 5 on Fridays, so I don't get home until 6:15ish. The last two Fridays I've come home to delicious homemade meals. Last week he made homemade chicken curry and garlic naan (delicious indian flatbread) Pictured above. I don't know what I did to deserve him, but what a treat! And this past Friday he made homemade meatballs to go with our spaghetti. Like I said, he's amazing! Thanks Will!

Halloween

Will and I had a great Halloweeen this year. We started our celebration on Friday night. Will carved his pumpkin and we watched Arsenic and Old Lace ( I don't watch scary movies). Arsenic and Old Lace is one of my favorite old movies - I recommend it to anyone who hasn't watched it yet! Will was an extra dead body in the BYU production his freshman year, but had never seen the movie. He carved a pretty sweet pumpkim - a startrek com. I loved his idea! And think his pumpkin turned out great. (Notice the number of knifes it took to carve that pumpkin!)




Then on Saturday we had a ton of friends over for the Passey Pumpkin Potluck! Everyone brought delicious food - not all of it pumpkin, but still delicious! We make mac and cheese and served it out of a hollowed out pumpkin as pumpkin brains. We also make a peperoni
pizza and a barbecue chicken pizza, along with a pumpkin cheese cake - a little disappointing - it tasted so much like pumpkin pie. Our friends brought yummy treats: chocolate cups, pumpkin whoopies, cinnamon bread, soup, and lots of other treats. Below you can see pictures. Will and I dressed as Newies. My friends Sloane and Miranda were Peter Pan and Tigerlily. Carson and Jordan were Mulder and Sculley from X-files - yep their the friends we keep borrowing Bob's X-files DVDs for - they're really into them right now! :) Another favorite costume was Merrill as Quail Man from Doug. It was a really nice night we had fun hanging out with friends!

Monday In San Francisco

It's finally time to wrap up the trip to the Bay Area. I guess since Allie and Lee made a post on theirs that I just didn't think to finish ours.

We were flying out Monday night so we decided that we needed one last adventure before we left. Instead of going back into the city we took off in the other direction to see the Jelly Belly Factory.If you get the chance to see the factory I highly recommend it. We got to see the whole process from start to finish. You walk along the catwalks and look down at the workers as the are "expertly adding just the right amount of sugar to the polish machines" and you get to taste the little beans at each stage of the process.


At the end you get to go to the store and have a few more samples and purchase insane amounts of BellyFlops (ones that are too big or too small or stuck together). Zach was perfect throughout the entire tour. Near the end he just fell asleep, loud machine noises can do that to you I guess.


Later that evening we went to the airport and flew home. Completely exhausted for the week ahead of us but we had an absolute blast! Thanks again Allie, Lee and Zach!

Birthday Adventure

Yesterday was my 23rd Birthday and Will made it a great day! First he surprised me Tuesday night with my favorite cereal - Malt O'Meal Golden Grahams - so I could have a delicious birthday breakfast and two pumpkins! Earlier in the week Will told me that we had plans on Wednesday after I got out of class at 3pm. All week I wondered what my birthday surprise was going to be...I love surprises. I got home from class and Will presented me with the beautiful yellow daisies - see above photo. Then I opened my birthday package from my mom. She got me a cute new scripture bag and stuffed it with tons of fun surprises - Oh Chocolates, post it notes, soup mixes, a new notebook, and marshmallow pumpkins! Thanks mom! Then Will handed me my birthday presents - also featured in the picture above - he got me Huger Games and Catching Fire both by Suzanne Collins. I'm really excited! I was on the waiting list at the library for catching fire, but it would have been months and months before I got to read it. After opening presents Will told me what my birthday adventure would be...a visit to the Kennecott Copper Bingham Canyon Mine. Now that might sound like a strange birthday adventure to some of you - but two years ago I saw a video about the mine in a chemistry class and I've been wanting to visit it ever since - which Will knows. So we went. It was awesome!

These first two pictures are what you see from the lookout platform at the visitors center. The Mine is HUGE! It has produced 18.1 million tons of cooper - more than any mine in history. The mine is 2 and 3/4 miles across the time and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine. The second picture of of the haul trucks. These trucks carry from 255 to 320 tons of material in a single trip. They are roughly the size of a house - there's a picture later on of me next to one of the tires - it gives you a better idea of how big the trucks are.




After gazing into the giant hole we went into the visitor's center to see a video that follows the entire process of mining and refining the copper. It's pretty sweet - there are underground tunnels and all sorts of things involved. I would highly recommend a visit to the mine to anyone. It was really fun! We finished off the night with dinner at Olive Garden and ice cream at Marble Slab. I have the sweetest husband! He really made my birthday special! Thanks Will!

P.S. You can see Uncle David's campaign sign in the back of that first picture - it's in our window at Wymount. Bob did a great job designing it! Vote Acheson for council!

Saturday In San Francisco

On Saturday there was more sleeping in (I have no idea what I time I got up but it was a lot later than everyone else) and we got ready to head back into the city. We started out by heading to Golden Gate Park which is a big park in the middle of the city. We had a great time eating lunch by the pond with the ducks. We walked around the pond and found a pretty cool bridge.


After the park we headed around to the other side of the bridge to get a different view. Saturday was pretty cloudy. So cloudy that the Blue Angles had to cancel their show but we weren't planning on seeing it (the jet engines would be too loud for Zack, he got a little freaked out on Friday when they were practicing).

(We think we take the best pictures on the beach)

As we were trying to get to Pier 39 we ran into some traffic on the renovated military base so we decided to just park and hang out for a while. We found that they have a Walt Disney Family Museum. It's a museum of Walt Disney and his life. We didn't go through because it was $20 a person but we did see the lobby which had his Academy Awards of which he won over 2 dozen. The best was the one for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a normal Oscar with 7 smaller ones next to it.

(After the museum I decided to spend some time in a tree before we drove again)

Lee and Allie just dropped us off at Pier 39 and we made our way to the end to get a nice picture of Alcatraz and experience the wonderful scents of the sea lions. We continued on check out Ghirardelli Square where they have two shops where just for walking in you get a square of free chocolate. We enjoyed a Peanut Butter and a Caramel square.

(I wish I could lay out all day and randomly push other people in the water)

We called Allie and Lee and they came and picked us up but they experienced a little problem, their driver's seat got stuck laying almost all the way down. Allie drove all the way back to San Ramon with the seat back and it took us over an hour just to get onto the bridge! It was fun to experience the traffic and see what it's like to be in bumper to bumper city traffic but we decided that next time we'll come during the summer and go the cabin.

We did finish night with a trip to Top This Frozen Yogurt. Delicious.

Friday In San Francisco

We flew into the Bay Area late Thursday night and went to bed exhausted. We slept in and headed headed into San Francisco. Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a nice clear day and it also happened to be the day before the Fleet Week Airshow so the Blue Angles were out practicing. They were only there from 3-4pm and we got there at 3. We had no idea that they were going to be there but it was pretty cool.

(We were standing on the bridge here)

(Even the workers took an hour break to watch the show)

After the bridge Allie then drove us over to Lombard St, along the way she pointed out the parking meters that Monk touches in the beginning of the show (Sara's never seen Monk so she had no idea). As we drove down it I was surprised at how narrow the street was.


After that we decided to just drive around until 5:30 so that we could enter the Wicked Lottery. Wicked was in town and for every show they have some tickets in the Orchestra seating that are limited view that they put in a lottery. You show up at the Box Office two and a half hours before the show and enter your name with how many tickets you want (1 or 2) and then two hours before they spin the container and start pulling names. If your name is called you can purchase those tickets for $25 a piece. We both put our names and Allie did too. Lee showed up at 5:57 to get his in too. They started calling names and about 7 names in mine was called! Then as I was purchasing the tickets Allie's name was called and she said she didn't need them (but Lee was considering it, he could drop Zach off at his parent's and be back before the show started, Allie said no). Sara's name was called at the end as well, but we passed again.

(Us with the Lottery Man)

We enjoyed the show. It was limited view but the people next to us didn't show so we moved over to make it a little less limited view. I can't wait to see it again with a more proper view and a little better sound (it's not as good as close to the front). It was a crazy and busy day. Saturday was a little slower but just as fun.

Pumpkin Chocaolate Chip Pancakes

Before we get the trip to San Fransisco I figured I should post about our breakfast today.

(You know you want some)

Just You Wait

So this past weekend we had an adventure in the Bay Area but before we can update you on what happened there we need to catch up to what we missed here (ie: I have an Econ test that I have to take on Thursday before we venture up to Bountiful to go the the Temple with Ann on Friday).

Shakepeare Superstars

That's the name of the 4H club that I'm in charge of. I have 12 kids and in 10 weeks we get to put on a 10 minute play for their parents. Makiesha is amazing and taking direction and is just fantastic. Judah needs to learn to take direction and keep his behind on the ground. The other kids, only time will tell.

Respectful Rioting

After BYU's win on Saturday night University Avenue was full of students screaming and jumping in the crosswalk, but only during red lights. They wouldn't want to impede traffic at all.

Pizza Time

Allie and Lee gave us a gift that we were super excited to use. It was a pizza making set complete with Pizza Stone, Peel, Rack and Cutter. Saturday night we decided to take it for a test run.

We began with the sauce, a nice blend of oregano, basil, red pepper flakes and some minced garlic and stirred together in crushed tomatoes. It turned out just a little sweet so we think that next time we make it we'll use 1/2 TBS instead of a full one.

Next came the dough, this was my first attempt at hand tossing the dough. It didn't go too bad, in the end I used a rolling pin to get it into a better (but not perfect) circle.


Once it was into shape we laid some corn meal out on the peel and pinched up the edges to create a nice crust.


As I was working with the dough Sara was chopping up Green Peppers and Onions for our toppings. We took this shot because we wanted to show off one of our favorite gifts. The Humbles in Kaysville gave us spoons that Bro. Humble made himself from Cherry Wood. They are amazing spoons. He did give us instructions that if they ever start to become dry that we are to add a little cooking oil to them. Who knew you had to take care of wooden spoons, but we are more than happy to.


Along with Green Peppers and Onions we added some Hot and Spicy Pepperoni.


The whole time we were getting the crust and toppings ready we had the pizza stone in the oven warming up so that the bottom of the crust would be nice and crisp and it was. The top came out looking pretty darn good too!


There wasn't much left. It'll be a nice snack for later!

Little Richard's House Of Donuts

Let's be honest, Westport doesn't have too much to offer but we found the place to go when you want something sweet. Little Richard's House of Donuts. It's nicely located between Floats 12 and 14 at the Westport docks. We went there Monday morning looking for a simple donut and when we asked the cashier what she would recommend she said the White Chocolate Raspberry Fritter so we got one, it was amazing! It was still warm and soft and we were sad that we had to split it with each other. When we left the shop we decided then and there that we were coming back the next morning for more and that we were going to document the experience.

Why the name of the place is Little Richard's we don't know, it seemed like they called they guy in charge Tommy or some name that wasn't Richard.

They had quite a variety for us to choose from, it's a good thing we asked what they would recommend or else we might have never come across the goodness that was White Chocolate Raspberry Fritters.

When we came back Tuesday morning they actually hadn't started the fritters, they told us to come back in an hour and they would have some ready for us.

Along with the fritters we decided to try out the Blueberry Sugar Cake Donut. It was good to but could not compare to the WCR Fritter (it's so good it's now has an acronym).

Mmm.... I can taste the warm gooey goodness right now.
(Notice the hand model and her nicely manicured nails)

Westport

After the reception at Daniel's we went to the Behnke's on Mercer Island and finished loading the car (minus all the food from the reception, we felt dumb after asking Ramona a dozen times about the cake and then accidentally leaving it in the Prius) and took off for Westport.

When telling some of the people in Seattle that we were going to Westport we got lukewarm reactions and when we got to our reservation on the beach we could see why.

Not quite room for two.

When staying in a tepee always keep a good club on hand.

We decided to take off down the beach in search of a better residence for the weekend. It was a cold and blustery day with a continual spray of mist hitting our faces which made for a dangerous journey. We still found time to enjoy ourselves.

To Fall Off Meant Sudden Death

Nothing Like Throwing Sticks Into The Ocean

After making our way down the beach we climbed up a sand dune and as we crossed the threshold we saw what we considered to be a pretty decent place to spend a few nights.

As luck would have it there happened to be a room that we knew the combination to unlock the door, it looked decent enough so we decided to stay.

It's Livable... I Guess

After A Long Journey There Are Few Things That Make You More At Home