Bachelorette Party

One of my best buds, Aleta-the-pita-eata :) is getting married in 14 days from yesterday. Naturally we had to throw a bachelorette party for her. We rented a hotel in Park City and stayed the night. I love that when I'm with these ladies I laugh until I cry, over and over. I'm so excited that she's met a great guy and that we could celebrate with her and see how excited she is.

We couldn't let her go through the night without trying to embarrass her a little. I don't know if it worked. We bought her a brides outfit from Wal Mart - it was for a 3+ yr old, but it kinda fit her, the lucky duck :D We ate dinner at Fuego's. The service wasn't too good - they didn't even comment on Aleta's obviously absurd outfit! But the food was good and the company was awesome!

Amber & Aleta

BreAnn & Amber
Amanda & me
She wore the brides outfit over cloths at the restaurant, but stripped down back at the hotel LOL
We went for a late night dip in the hot tub
The next day we did a little window shopping around old town Park City

Here's BreAnn workin' the giant hat

We also enjoyed the art shops

Happy St. Patricks Day!

The annual St. Patty's Day parade was fun as usual.
Back Row/Left to Right: uncle Kurt, me, Skyler, aunt Sari, Grandpa
Front Row/Left to Right: Grandma holding cousin William, cousin Milo, and cousin Dylan

Here's Grandpa and Grandma Muhlestein. Grandpa had everyone cracking up at his costume.

Babysitting the Girls

Skyler and I got to babysit our nieces the other weekend. They are so much fun and so cute - we had a great time.
Here are some shots of Abby. I love some of the pics from the park. The second I pulled out the camera she was pulling all sorts of poses - you'd think her mom took a lot of pictures or something :)

And here's her big sis Alissa

Alissa wrote Skyler and I a play to act out. I suggested that we record it like a real video and she could be the director. Her eyes were huge and she had this enormous grin the whole time.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!.....AND A BOY!!!!

I'm so excited! My sister and her hubby Nick are having twins and just found out today that it's a girl and a boy. They have two adorable girls already and they probably didn't care about the boy/girl thing, but I was SO rootin' for a boy - and my wish came true! (I have to live vicariously through others until we can start having kids).

Here she is - Only 19 wks along Look at that beautiful belly!

Summing Up Random Happenings

This is our dog Chet. He came inside the other day and had this Alfalfa Hair going on so I had to take a pic. I thought it was hilarious.
Skyler and I don't usually eat a lot of popcorn, but I've been trying to find healthier snacks so it has made its way into our diet. I popped some the other day and got SO excited when I remembered that we had these bowls especially for popcorn. Someone gave them to us when we got married and we have never had an opportunity to use them until now - Thanks popcorn bowl givers!
Here we are on Valentines day. Skyler and I took a love letter writing class the week before so that is what we gave each other for Valentines Day - Love Letters we wrote to each other. He's so cute to do stuff like that with me.
I had to make a poster for school with the 6 Rights of Medication Administration on it. One of them is right route and our medication was "oral" so I took a pic of my open mouth. I just thought this pic was funny because it is a picture of my very own mouth, but something just doesn't look quite right...

Since we first moved to Utah I have talked several times to Skyler about this great park and how we have to go there and it's so fun - Copperton Park. I would tell him how I used to go to it when I was little and it had this HUGE pyramid at it and these giant tires you could crawl inside and on and these tunnels you could go through. I remember it being so amazing...Have you ever gone back to something years and years after you had been there and it's hard to believe that you're looking at the same place because it doesn't look anything like you remember it?

Here I am sitting on one of the tunnels. Notice the beautiful art work addition?

And here I am on one of the giant tires. They are pretty big, but considering I used to be able to crawl up inside of them and now I can probably fit my big toe inside - it's just wasn't the same. Behind me is the "HUGE" pyramid. It was slightly taller than my head...I guess for a kid I could still see it being pretty amazing, but I kind of like my memory of it better than the reality at this point. LOL Oh well!

Duchesne Adventures

Let me start out by stating that I think my dad has gone crazy. Okay, maybe crazy isn't the right word, but what do you call someone who is willing to go on a two hour drive to the middle of nowhere, in the winter, in a Ford Focus, and then walk over a mile in snow which reaches at LEAST up to your knees and sometimes up to your thighs while carrying probably 50 lbs worth of tools and supplies to work on a cabin that takes at least 2 hours to heat up with the fireplace? Okay, ya, crazy is the only word I can come up with! lol This was the adventure Skyler and I got to be a part of the other week. My dad has been working on his cabin in Duchesne, UT for a few years now and he is itching to get it done this year - hence the winter crazies. I guess it doesn't help that I despise the cold. Partly because Skyler and I don't own any proper snow equipment. Despite the conditions, we were able to smile and laugh about it...well, it took me until I was un-thawing by the fireplace (okay, I'm a wimp). We did get quite a bit of work done. But Skyler and I haven't gone back since. I promise it's only because we've been so busy :)

Here is Skyler making the final stretch up the 'driveway' to the cabin

And here's my "crazy" dad - Love you dad!

I didn't realize we would be hiking in snow up to my thighs so I wasn't quite prepared wearing jeans and sneakers. I was soaking wet when we got to the cabin (not a good way to start the day). Luckily there were some garbage bags with sheets and towels and I found an extra pair of my dad's socks lying around. I stripped down and strutted my stuff in a bed sheet and grocery bags tied on my feet with towels and washcloths stuffed in them to stay warm while all my things dried.

I'm sure Skyler would do it again, but as for me I think I'll wait until the snow thaws before I head there again - no offense dad!

Happy Birthday Amanda B!

I guess the downside of not being very good at up-keeping my blog is having (or more-so wanting) to back track on events. So even though this and my last few posts have happened over the last couple of months, the events were too fun to pass up.

My BFF :) Amanda B. had a Birthday - Yay for Birthdays! Our little group of 4 got together at Amanda's to celebrate with ice skating and cake and ice cream. I don't think any of us had really ice skated since high school. This meant that 2 out of 4 got to experience falling on the ice - the other 2 got to experience laughing at their friends when they fell ;) One thing I have really been blessed with in my life is a handful of really good friends and when we get together whether it's every few months or once or twice a year, we always have a lot of laughs and carefree fun.

Left to Right: Aleta, Amanda, Me, BreAnn

Aleta and I took on the task of decorating the cake. It said "I 'heart' B-Days & U" and Aleta's addition was the stitches which were holding the cake and frosting together. Every time we tried to spread the frosting it would just pull up giant chunks of the cake. It actually turned out looking pretty darn good compared to it's initial state.

Stromboli Ladder Loaf

The thing about dinners is that I don't like to make the same things over and over. This is only a problem because every time I cook it is more of a production then just making dinner. I'm still learning :) I'm sure once we have kids and I can't convince them (nor will I want them) to eat cereal for every meal when I don't want to cook, this will have to change. The upside to this is that when I do cook I try a lot of new recipes courtesy of the lobby magazines where I work.

This is one of my most recent favorites - the Stromboli Ladder Loaf. It's like a giant homemade Hotpocket -mmmm What's nice about this is that you can fill it with anything you want. I've done the traditional pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni but I've also tried Alfredo sauce with broccoli, spinach and chicken - and the list of options goes on.
It's a pretty quick meal because you don't have to wait long for the dough to *rise and like I said, the list of options for fillings is as long as you are creative.

Prep: 25 min + rising Bake: 20 min

Dough Ingredients

1 1/2 c water (70-80 degrees)
2 Tbs canola oil
1 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbs nonfat dry milk powder
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
4 c bread flour
3 tsp active dry yeast

Filling (as they suggest - I didn't follow any of the measurements because it's more of an add-your-preference type dish. I would suggest adding a lot of sauce if you don't want it dry because the dough soaks up moisture easily)

3/4 c pizza sauce
1 pkg sliced pepperoni
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg white
1 Tbs water

In bread machine (we don't have one so I just mixed by hand) place first 8 ingredients. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 min of mixing; add 1-2 Tbs of water/flour if needed). When cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 15-in x 12-in rectangle. Place on a greased baking sheet.

Spread pizza sauce in a 3-in strip lengthwise down the center of dough to w/in 2-in of short ends. Arrange pepperoni over sauce; sprinkle w/cheeses.

On each long side, cut 1-in-wide strips about 2 1/2 in. into center. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across filling. Pinch ends to seal.

Beat the egg white and water; brush over the dough. Bake at 425 for 20-25 min or until golden brown. Let stand 10 min before cutting.

*I don't make a lot of breads, but to me this recipe doesn't really say how long to let it rise. Honestly I didn't let my dough rise at all, but it turned out fine. It wasn't too thick and it rose a lot when I cooked it so I haven't worried about it. Maybe someone could give me a pointer on this :)

Dinner at Ghidotti's

Skyler and I went to a fancy restaurant up in Park City with my friends Sadie and Jessica (and Jessica's boyfriend Brian). When we first moved to UT I thought an upside for me is that I would be able to see all my friends more often - turns out life is crazy busy for EVERYONE and it doesn't matter if you live one state or 5 miles away from each other; finding/making time to hang out gets hard. Plus Sadie now lives in...Montana I think (those "M" states always jumble up in my mind). My genius buddy is going to pharmacy school :) Anyway, we had a blast. Skyler and I never go to anything more expensive than Texas Road House so it was fun.

Left to Right: Me, Sadie, Jessica

I had to take a picture with the menu. It was so huge I could have changed outfits behind it. I'm glad we got the pic though because it is the only reason I know the name of the place.

I kept wanting to name the restaurant after the chocolate company:

The thing about expensive restaurants is that the more your food costs, the less of it you're going to get. This was Sadie's salad...it was the size of a tunafish can...and it was disgusting...and it was almost $10...

This pic is my favorite. The waiter came around to each of us offering freshly grated Parmesan in our oil and vinegar (for the focaccia bread). When he grated the cheese for Skyler a giant chunk of cheese broke off onto his plate. The waiter just kind of looked at it for a sec, finished grating, and then left. We were all laughing at this giant chunk of cheese on his plate and then realized that the waiter wasn't allowed to take it because he would have been touching Skyler's plate of food and then he couldn't use the cheese now anyway. So when I realized that they were going to just be throwing this chunk of cheese away, I couldn't let that happen. Parmesan cheese is expensive! and so good - so I took that chunk of cheese and stuck it in my purse. That's what this pic is. There was even a perfect little cheese pocket in my purse (I think it was for a cell phone or something). Skyler and I ate 2 spaghetti meals each the next couple of days with freshly grated Parmesan. It was glorious - I have no shame!

Waterfall Canyon

So Kai, Clarissa, and Brinley :) got us this GREAT book for Christmas. I've actually been reading it like it was a novel, marking all of the hikes I want to go to first (there's about 30 hikes I want to go to "first" LOL) Then I got the great idea to do all of them! Not within any certain time frame, but just to do them all and take a picture at the highlight of each one. Then I started thinking "with all these pictures, we might not be able to remember which hike was which. So then I got the idea that in these pictures we would hold up a sign that said the hike name and the date to mark when and where it all took place - cool idea, huh!?

The book is awesome because it breaks down the hikes in several different ways such as: location of the hike (North - Weber County; North - Davis County, etc) , author's picks, hikes of 1-3 mi, hikes of 3-6 mi (etc up to > 9 mi), steep hikes, hikes near streams and rivers, best hikes for children - Anyway, the list goes on. So one of the categories is "best winter hikes." I loved this because Skyler and I haven't really branched out on the winter hiking because we assumed it would involve a lot of snow gear here in UT (a lot of expensive snow gear). But the whole book is about hikes that you don't necessarily need gear for and they are all hikes you could do in a day - especially because they are all within 60 miles of SLC. So the first hike we decided to go on was Waterfall Canyon. It was BEAUTIFUL! and hard...But BEAUTIFUL! lol It was only hard because we didn't really have the proper footwear which is probably the only thing you might want to spend a little money on for hiking in the snow/uphill ice. But we made it and it was all worth it. The waterfall was frozen which I was a little disappointed about at first, but then we got closer and...it was BEAUTIFUL :) So here we are with our sign at the "highlight" of the hike.



Here are a couple of videos that Skyler took. In the first one I take a nose dive and in the second one Skyler almost slides right off the side of the mountain. It doesn't look like we are going very fast, but we were. Once you got going you had to dig your heels in to stop. So much fun. Thanks Kai, Clarissa, and Brinley!

P.S. This book exists for almost every major city so I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a great hiking book.