Mancos Dude Ranch Family Reunion

About a week ago we got back from a family reunion at Mancos Dude Ranch in Colorado with my mom's side of the family. It was too fun! In the very beginning we each got assigned a horse for the week. My horse was Blitz and he was so good to me! There were about 2 optional rides per day as well as many other activities throughout the week. We did some archery, team penning, one day we went river rafting down the Animas River, we had a Bingo night, went to Mesa Verde one day where we got to see a bunch of old cliff dwellings of the Pueblo people, and had a karaoke night. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures, but here's what I did get!

Meg, Jill, myself, and Jen looking cute in front of me, my parents, and Trent's cabin.

Sisters (except Amber) on our horses.

One of the gorgeous views during a ride. I wish I had gotten more pictures from the rides!

My mom brought a puzzle for us to work on during our downtime :)

Trent on his horse, Crockett, and me on Blitz!

This was during team penning where we were assigned 2 bulls to try and get into the holding pen as fast as possible. You can't tell, but I'd say there were at least 15 bulls we had to work with.

Mom really doesn't like this picture of herself, but I wanted to point out the pen in the background. I am there making sure the bull stayed in there.

This was just a lunch break during a ride.

My love and I :)

After my last ride with Blitz.

I was really unsure going into this reunion how it would be (just with the horses and outdoorsy stuff), but I can honestly say it was a great experience :) I definitely miss it! And of course, it was wonderful, as always, to be with so much family. I love them to death!

Tag, You're It!

My good friend Emily tagged me and I'm finally getting around to answering the questions!

1. What is the color of your toothbrush? Pink & White

2. Name one person who made you smile today. Trent, of course

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Waking up

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Reading friends' blogs (I've done other things since then, promise!)

5. What is your favorite candy bar? Probably the basic Dove milk chocolate bar

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Nope

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? "Okay"

8. What is your favorite ice cream? Probably Rocky Road

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Water

10. Do you like your wallet? Yes, it's a Vera Bradley Zip ID case

11. What was the last thing you ate? A cheesecake brownie - I made them yesterday!

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? I bought my cowboy boots from the dude ranch! They were used, but they were only 20 bucks! What a steal!

13. The last sporting event you watched? The Suns vs. Lakers game..I don't watch too many sporting events!

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Just buttery

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Jen

16. Ever go camping? Yes

17. Do you take vitamins daily? I try to

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? Yes! We just got called as Primary teachers!

19. Do you have a tan? I'm definitely starting to get one now that I live in Arizona!

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? Ooh..it definitely depends on my mood, but I'd say they're pretty even.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? Not usually, but I don't drink much soda.

22. What did your last text message say? “Trent is lying on the couch. He's too tired to do P90X tonight.”

23. What are you doing tomorrow? Working and maybe going to the pool with my sisters. Oh and watching "So You Think You Can Dance"!

Where's number 24?!

25. Look to your left, what do you see? The t.v. and speakers

26. What color is your watch? I haven't worn a watch for years b/c they all need new batteries :/

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia? Hot! and the accents!

Where's number 28?!

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? We rarely get fast food, but when we do I usually like to just go through the drive thru

30. What is your favorite number? 12

31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone? Jen

32. Any plans today? Well it's almost 6:30 so we'll have dinner and then I'll watch "So You Think You Can Dance" from last week. I missed it while we were at the dude ranch.

33. How many states have you lived in? 3 - Virginia, Utah, and now Arizona

34. Biggest annoyance right now? The heat I guess

35. Last song listened to? An EFY song :)

36. can you say the alphabet backwards? I used to be able to! I bet I still could!

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house? Nope. Trent keeps the house cleaner than me though..haha

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? Flip flops for sure, I'm in Arizona after all!

39. Are you jealous of anyone? I don't think so.

40. Is anyone jealous of you? Maybe?

41. Do you love anyone? Oh yes!

42. Do any of your friends have children? Yes, a few

43. What do you usually do during the day? Work and enjoy time with Trent

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? No!

45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? Yes

46. What color is your car? We have a purple Pontiac Bonneville..haha

Where's number 47?!

48. Are you thinking about someone right now? Trent b/c of his car! I sometimes make fun of it but it really is a great car!

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags? Oh many times! I have some great memories from Six Flags!

50. How did you get your worst scar? I had my appendix taken out in first grade, but it was healthy! I don't think that's my worst scar though. Probably the scar behind my elbow from when I had my baby sister (well she was then!) riding on my bike's handlebars. She had her little fingers in the way of my brakes so I couldn't brake and we crashed :/

I won't tag anyone, but feel free to take it if you want to :)

And I'm hoping to put up pictures from the dude ranch soon!

The Arizona Heat

So we've been here 3 weeks now and I've learned 3 things about Arizona, all having to do with the heat.

1) My mom brought us a chocolate bar one of the first days we were here. By the time she left an hour later it had already started to melt on the counter. Now we keep our chocolate in the fridge or eat it as soon as we get it. Back when Trent and I were dating I thought it was so weird that he kept his chocolate chips in the freezer, but now I understand why!

2) I know I've been out in the heat too long when I get sluggish. I start to walk really slow. Trent and I were laughing about this b/c we were thinking, "Wouldn't you want to walk faster to get out of the heat?", but sometimes we just can't do it..haha.

3) When Trent and I are outside together it's usually too hot to hold hands.

Anyway, here are a few random pictures:

These are my new jellies and I just love them! And I got them for $5!

I also got a new cowboy hat in preparation for the dude ranch. We leave Sunday for Colorado for a family reunion this next week. I'll have to write about it when we get back :)

And this is just a cute picture of Haddie baby. She was on our paper towels so I had to get a picture with her :)

Have a great week!

Our New Home!

I thought I'd take you all on a little tour of our new home :) When we moved here we fully intended to move into a one bedroom apartment - we had booked it, finished all of the background checks, signed all of the paperwork, and everything. Once we started moving everything in we realized there was no way we were going to fit everything in! We made a run to the front office and they thankfully had some two-bedrooms available. The switch went very smoothly and we are so grateful we went for it!

Here is the outside. We are on the second floor.

This is what we look out on! A little man-made pond! Trent and I are making a habit of taking a walk around it every night before we go to bed (this picture only shows about half of it).

This is our lovely living room. We really can't stand the pure white walls throughout the apartment (boring!) so we are in the process of brainstorming some ideas of how we can bring some more color in (ideally without painting).

This is another angle. You can see the front door in this picture.

Here is our cute dining room! You can see our balcony in the background.

Obviously this is the kitchen :)

And the other side that looks out to the dining and living rooms.

This is just the hallway.

Our bedroom. After taking this picture we realized just how white our room is. We're hoping to put a cute wall decal up to add color. I'll have to take pictures when we do that :)

Just another angle.

Our bathroom.

The laundry room.

And lastly the guest bathroom. And yes we do have a guest bedroom, but it wasn't cute enough to take a picture of yet :) We would love visitors if anyone is ever down this way. Definitely give us a call!

Hope you enjoyed my little tour! We are loving our place! In an upcoming post I'll have to let you all know what I've learned about the heat since we've been here :)

My Birdies!

So we've been here, Mesa, Arizona, for two weeks now! I promise I'll post pictures of our new place soon (which we love by the way!), but first I wanted to post this!

Before we moved down here there was a bird's nest in the tree in our front yard, which happened to be right below our bedroom balcony.

One afternoon Amy and Andrew were over and I decided it was time to peek in (I don't know why I hadn't earlier) and this is what we found!! So pretty, huh?!

A week later I had my sisters come down from Idaho and I invited my cousins in Provo over for a final get together/sleepover. I was excited to show them the nest, and when we peeked in we found that three of the eggs had hatched!

Trent was worried the fourth egg was dead, but the next day I found it had hatched. This is kind of a dark picture, but you can see all four of them in the nest, all snug as a bug :)

As you can see, at this point they didn't really have feathers yet and their eyes are pretty bulgy.

I would check on them everyday! I think this little birdie was hungry!

In these last two pictures you can really see their feathers coming in! Are they not adorable??

I miss them! I hope they're doing okay and behaving themselves and learning how to fly :)

A Good Laugh :)

So last week Andrew (cousin), Amy (sister), Trent and I were chatting about funny YouTube videos. Amy and I had to show Trent and Andrew this water mattress prank video that we discovered a few years back (I don't know what language they're speaking). Then we kept browsing for funny videos and we found the skunk one below. Watching both of these, Amy and I were laughing so hard we were crying. I hope you get a good laugh out of them :)

I have to admit that I watched this skunk video again before I decided to post it and I was in our bedroom, by myself, laughing so hard (Trent is downstairs watching reruns of Smallville)!! Haha..I just love it!

Scotcheroos

We have a friend, Spenser. My cousin Andrew lives with Spenser in Arlington Place Town Homes (where Trent and I live) and it's been so fun to have them close, especially if we ever need an ingredient, or flashlights when our power randomly goes out..haha. Most recently we needed to borrow Spenser's truck to go pick up our couch that my cousin and her husband were keeping at their place while we've lived here (this place came almost fully furnished). Anyway, I wanted to make Spenser a little treat to let him know we appreciate him, and that we're not just using him, so we decided on Scotcheroos. Well, I got up this morning around 9:15 and Trent had already made them..haha! He is so funny! I love that he truly enjoys baking :)

I made Trent take this picture! Doesn't he look happy?!

After we dived in! So delish!

I thought I would put the recipe up for any of you who don't have it. I actually got this recipe from my cousin Michelle, Andrew's sister :)

1. Pre-measure 6 scant C. (a little under full) of rice krispies

2. Pre-measure 1 C. peanut butter

3. On med-high heat cook 1 C. sugar and 1 C. light karo syrup. As soon as it starts to boil, remove from heat. DO NOT let it come to a rolling boil.

4. Add peanut butter and mix

5. Add rice krispies and mix

6. Pour into 9x13" pammed pan, wet hands to prevent sticking and press into pan

7. Cover with 1 C. butterscotch chips and 1 C. chocolate chips, put in oven at 350, JUST long enough to melt chips (just takes a few minutes for them to get soft enough to spread). Then spread and cool.

Hope you like them :)