Provo Canyon

We decided to get dinner from Hogi Yogi and take it to the park in Provo to eat and then go for a little hike for our Family Home Evening tonight.
There are some fires burning in Utah and it made the sky really smoky. The sunset was AMAZING!! I wish I had a better camera so I could have captured all the beauty but these are the best I could get!!!
There are trails all over the place and so we just picked the closest one and started going. Max was loving it.
I just couldn't stop looking at the sky. Every few minutes it would just get prettier. I really enjoyed being on the mountain and having such a great view!
We found these rocks and the first thing the kids did is jump up on them and started to pose. Max needed help getting up of course and he is not quite as experienced but he will get the hang of it. Rich was even a good sport and posed with me once!
Just as the sun was finally setting...it was incredible!
As we were making our way back down the trail Alex noticed this Tarantula right off the trail. It was SO BIG. Rich thought it was pretty cool and he is the one taking the pictures because I didn't want to get that close. It was so creepy watching it walk up the hillside. I would die if I ever found one of those babies in my house!!
Here are the kids with the Provo Temple in the background (yeah I know you can barely tell, but it is there, I promise)! We had a good time and I think it is fun to be able to do different things as a family. I love hiking and I think everyone had a good time!

Homemade IS Better!!

I am not going to narrate every picture below but it just follows the whole process of making homemade pasta. I need to buy a pasta roller or I will probably never make this again!!!








It was YUMMY!! Rich really loved it and the noodles were a little fat but really tasty!!! It was quite a lot of work but if it makes my man happy then it is totally worth it!!

Date Night

Rich and I try to go on a weekly date. We usually end up going to dinner and a movie and tonight was no different!!!

 

 

Here we are waiting for a table at Olive Garden, one of our favorites! We usually end up going to the same places, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Bajio and Los Hermanos.
We bought our movie tickets and then went to the mall and Target. We saw "The Time Traveler's Wife." It was OK but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would! We got home really late and all the kids were fast asleep and the house was even picked up!! I am really glad that we are able to do this, it has really help us build a stronger friendship and relationship!

Wind FEST 2009

Me, Rich and the boys went to the Wind Fest in Spanish Fork tonight. Alexa went to the football game with her friends.
Me and the kids went last year and had a really good time so I was excited to take Rich this year. They made a LOT of changes this year!!
Utah Trikes was there letting people test drive some of their products. Alex and Max had a great time on these.

 

Rich got to test out the Segway's. Alex really wanted to but you had to be 16.


They had a Luau this year and so we ate dinner there. It was pretty good. Pulled Pork, BBQ Chicken, Rice and Hawaiian Cake. Rich's parents ate with us and some of his sister's and their families went too.
Max was mad because he couldn't swim and he kept going in the water so we got mad at him. We had fun watching the Hawaiian dancers. They were very good but we should have brought chairs!

 

We went to the playground to wait for the night kite flying! The kids had fun playing on the toys!
They had kites rigged up behind a jet ski and that is what the picture is of above. It didn't take very well but it was pretty cool! I think this is a great event that Spanish Fork does and hopefully it will just keep getting better and better every year.

Cooking 101

Tonight for our Beehive activity we went to the Shearer's home so that Brother Shearer could teach us how to make homemade pasta and meatballs. We had 13 girls show up and 3 leader so it was a BIG cooking class. Brother Shearer was a very patient teacher and he knows his stuff!!
We all started out with a little pile of flour, 1/2 a cup to be exact. Then he gave us all an egg, we made a hole in our flour pile and cracked the egg into it. With a fork or our hands we mixed them together until we had a ball of dough. I was really shocked to hear that flour and egg is all it takes to make homemade pasta!! It needed to sit in the fridge for 30 minutes so while we waited for that we started on the meatballs.
He had the girls help him with the ingredients and mixing and they were all really anxious to help. After we had our big bowl of meat ready to go we cut up pieces of string cheese to put in the middle of the meatballs and got them all ready on a cookie sheet to bake. Then we got the sauce started.
The girls loved rolling out the dough the best I think. We just put our dough through the pasta roller and walked around the counter until everyone had a turn and we did this several times until it was as thin as we needed it. Then he switched the attachment and we cut it all into fettuccine noodles.
Here are all the girls posing with the pans of meatballs. It took about 2 hours to prepare the food and then we all went outside and ate it!! It was so delicious. I have never really had homemade pasta and I couldn't believe the difference.
It was a great activity and one the girls will never forget!!!

The "Res"

It was HOT today!!! Monica ran the Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon this morning and we decided that it would be a great day for the reservoir. Monica has never been swimming here and Amb had a great time last year. We stayed for quite a few hours and enjoyed the sun and the water!

 

Rich came up later with his portable bbq and we roasted hot dogs for dinner. They were yummy as always! We packed up and went home to hit the shower!!