Double Dutch: summer list

I haven't double dutched since 2nd grade, and that is not a lie. And I maybe only did it once then. So I was a little nervous when I saw Whitney go first and rock as you will see below. But after a couple tries I got it down and even did a nice little spin mid double dutching. Brought back the good old days with this summer activity.

 

Whitney rocked the double dutch her first time of course. Then she one upped all of us by double dutching while holding mia. Impressive.

 

It got crazy.

 

The Aftermath of jumping rope!!!!

yea yea!

A massive fake Headache!

 

nicole



Camping, Fishing, Tinfoil Dinners, S'Mores - OH MY!

Last week we went up camping for six days. My father in law purchased a toy hauler trailer this year so we stayed in that...which pretty much felt like a hotel compared to your regular "camping" experience. How do you even go back to normal camping? I don't think you can! Mia had a blast running around exploring all around her and finding sticks and rocks to play with. I enjoyed my time being "unplugged" from the world and had some time to read a book in between exploratory walks with Mia. 

Mia talking a walk with "boo-ma"

 

 Seriously breathtaking scenery

 

"Mama, a stick"

BFF's

Buh Bye

We did a little fishing and Mia caught a fish. She was pretty excited and even touched it. Then it started flopping around and she got a little scared.But if you ask her if she caught a fishy she says "uh hu!"

We had some camping olympics which consisted of Bolo Toss and Horseshoes

More time fishing...

 

 Our little family
{Me without make up- it was a nice little break from getting ready everyday}

We made some tinfoil dinners which was my favorite meal that week. We waited until the last night to make them too...delicious.

And of course camping isn't camping without a fire and some toasted marshmallows & S'Mores. My hubby got a little carried away and started making "gourmet smores". He just might start a food truck...be on the look out!

 I love the serenity of the mountains. We are truly blessed to have such beautiful surroundings. We had such a great time I really can't wait for next year.

XOXO,
Whitney

Happy Labor Day

For Labor Day I hiked up to Elephant Rock a Classic trail around here. It was a really good time lots of laughs were shared. Plenty of wildlife was heard and seen, which made for us being scared. By the time we hiked up to the rock (3 miles) we realized it would be dark if we didn't pick up the pace (3 miles back down) so we headed back with a nice pace of  jogging. It was good. We topped off the night with some friendly tennis. Great Labor Day! Not to mention another summer list cross off.
Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day!

nicole

Farmers Market- Summer List

Whitney and Mia had a sleepover Friday night, one because she was a hunters widow and two because we decided we wanted cross off yet another summer activity before time was up. So off we headed to the Salt Lake Farmers Market! I wasn't sure what to expect but once we got there I was in love with it all as you will be able to see in our photos.

 

 

The ladies trying Hummus. Jenna and her hummus.

 

 

And me trying the raw pure honey. It's amazing and I'm sold on it.

 

 

 

Lets just get one thing straight. I hate chocolate. So when we walked up to the Chocolate Conspiracy I had no intentions of even trying it. Then everyone was raving about it and they mentioned it had coconut so I was sold on giving it a try. Sure glad I did cause it was AMAZING! I'm not saying I could eat any more that a sample of it but boy was that sample to die for. And guess what it's vegan. Cool.

 

 

Plenty of entertainment as you shop the markets.

 

 

Whitney sampling. Yes we did a lot of this while at the farmers market, we had to try everything we were on a tight budget.

 

 

Mia Loved the Watermelon.....

 

 

......As did we.

 

 

Golden raspberries... tried them for the first time at the farmers market and was instantly in love with them. Don't let the color deceive or scare you, they are well worth it.

 

 

Bottom left corner of this photo you will notice a white tub. It is honey coconut butter as stated on the label, I could eat this stuff by the tub full. So dang delicious! If I had one reason to go back it would be to load up on that stuff for the winter until next farmers market

 

 

We loved the downtown farmers market!

 

 

And finally one last photo, a group shot of all us girls on our girls day, summer list, farmers market adventure!

 

 

nicole



Sushi & Birthdays

Sometimes late night sushi with the best of friends is just what you need, along with an all day pinning session of weddings.

Darn you Wisconsin.

On another note Happy Birthday to the sweetest 2 year old I know! Could you maybe just stay like this forever?? Happy Birthday Mia!

nicole



One Sweet Slice

We included in our Summer list to "Find The Best". I took that upon myself to find the best cupcake (in my opinion) in the Salt Lake Valley. I have already visited The Sweet Tooth Fairy, twice. Their cupcakes are outstanding, delicious, super moist, etc. etc. etc. I can definitely see how they have won Cupcake Wars. Anyway, on Friday I was getting Mia's 2 year pictures taken and I wanted some cupcakes for her photos. Perfect Opportunity for me to try out a new cupcake shoppe! I decided on One Sweet Slice because they are fairly close to my home and I was going for convenience. I walked into their store and was amazed and how gorgeous it was, very chic! I gazed at their assortment of cupcakes and was pleasantly surprised with how many different cupcake flavors they had to offer. I wasn't counting, but there were at least 15 different types of cupcakes, if not more. How is a girl to decide??

 via

via

After about 20 minutes of drooling contemplating, I finally made up my mind. I went with Vanilla, Princess, Samoa, Chocolate Fleur De Sal, Raspberry Swirl and Strawberry Margherita. They were all decorated beautifully and I thought it would be great to way to thank my Sister in Law for taking Mia's pictures. I wanted to try them all but I chose the Chocolate Fleur De Sal for me to indulge in. D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. Perfectly moist, amazing.

And the best part? I got a punch card so you know I will definitely be back! 

XOXO,
Whitney

Summer list: Boating

Boating twice in one week. this is unheard of for me. I went for a quick boating trip wednesday night at Utah lake but quickly got off the lake due to bad weather and green water. ew. I was a little bummed I haven't wakeboarded since last year and I wanted to get out on the water at least once this year but that green water scared me away. Thanks goodness my work had our summer work party up at Jordanelle and we boating! We headed up to the lake early this morning and had to take shifts riding the boat cause of our exceeding amount of people. I got on the boat after lunch and wakeboarded. I feel that my summer is now complete. I can add another check mark onto our summer list.

nicole

Six Flags

Last full day in Georgia was spent at Six Flags. Oh my goodness was it a scorcher of a day. I was sweating like it was my day jobs. My favorite ride was definitely Superman the line was long but well worth the wait. Six Flags definitely wore us out.



nicole

Fresh White Peach Icecream {Drizzled with Homemade Raspberry Jam}

I have a confession to make. I used to hate peaches. Yes, hate, almost as much as I hate bacon. {Which I think is the most disgusting food ever} But that all changed last year on our trip to Kauai. We bought some fresh ripe white peaches at the Costco there. They looked delicious and juicy so I decided to try one. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I am so glad I tried them and was bummed that I had been missing out on something so delicious. To make up for lost time I look for peaches every time I go to Costco and if they have some I usually buy them, I just can't help it. My little family loves  them. I bought some last week and after eating a few I decided to make some homemade Peach icecream with the remaining peaches... it is Summer after all! The easy thing about this was that I just used my Fresh Strawberry Ice cream recipe and substituted with white peaches. The same day that I made this icecream I had also made some Fresh Raspberry freezer jam so I decided to top my icecream with that. I love the combination of peaches and raspberries, it screams summertime!

Happy Summer!

XOXO,
Whitney

RECIPE

Fresh White Peach Ice-Cream Recipe

3 cups fresh ripe white peaches, peeled and sliced
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 C sugar, divided
1 1/2 C whole milk
1/2 C lowfat milk
2 C heavy cream
3/4 C half & half
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine the peaches with the lemon juice and 1/2 C of sugar. Stir gently. Place in the refrigerator for about 2 hours to allow the peaches to make juices. Then, strain the peaches reserving the juice. In a food processor, pulse 1/2 of the peaches and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on medium speed and combine milk with the remaining sugar. Mix until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cream, half & half, vanilla, peache juices & pulsed peaches. Pour mixture into your ice cream machine for the amount of time suggested per the manufacturer.  (Mine takes about 25 minutes)  5 minutes before mixture is done mixing add in the remaining sliced peaches.

Place in a freezer safe bowl and freeze to harden just slightly... or eat right away if you like your ice cream really soft!

Top with Fresh Raspberry Jam!!!

Summerland

Chastain Park in Atlanta supplied us with some hot summerland hits of the 90's tonight. Our ears may still be ringing but we sure did have a good time, listening to Marcy Playground, Lit, Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, and Everclear. This is another addition to the Summer list, its called going to a summer outdoor concert in the pouring rain with my mom and my dad. Cool I know. Despite what you may think we all had a great time singing, fist pumping, clapping and jumping up and down. It's what summer is all about. We even made a few friends.... wait our family has friends? Yep, They said me and mom look like twins, even though we don't. Then they even told my dad he was like way cool for taking me to concert instead of just buying me the tickets and letting me go.... wait a second? I thought it was cool to go to concerts without your parents? Words of Wisdom from friends is what I call that. Anyways this was a great addition to the summer list, we had a great time singing in the rain with these bands. It was an Awesome Friday night with the parentals.

nicole

Summer List: Puzzle

I know everyone hears the word puzzle and goes to sleep. But here is the thing I associate puzzles with smart people, I mean lets be honest they are normally the ones you see doing them. With that being said I always seem to think that if I start doing puzzles I will be smart. It's an obvious outcome. So on the list I put puzzles and puzzles is what we did over the last week in Deer Valley. A few of the other family members and I did about a gazillion (9) puzzles and we just couldn't ever stop. Once someone started a knew one it was all we could think about especially the difficult ones, we just couldn't let them defeat us. So here you have a two of the ones we did.....

A 3D puzzle of the Eiffel tower on the left and 101 dalmatians on the right. I know most of you are thinking wow that 3D must have really been a doozy. Well you are right it was... but the 101 dalmations, yeah that was even more of a doozy. Every puzzle piece was the same shape which made it all about matching little dots and colors together. It was almost the death of us and we had to take shifts working on it, but us cousins pulled through and finished one difficult puzzle. It was our obsession in a season (week) of no internet and tv. Now I can go cross off puzzle from my summer list.
Stay tuned for lots more to come about our deer valley trip. It was jammed packed with fun.

nicole

Summer List: Day at the Zoo

Crossing another Summer Bucket List item off of the chalkboard! Today we woke up early and went to Utah's Hogle Zoo.  Nicole and I met up with some of my friends for some animal watchin'!

The first animals you see at the zoo are of course the monkeys. There are so many different species of monkeys, this guy was my favorite. He had full on sideburns...loved it!

After we saw the monkeys we went and looked at the elephants, tigers, gorillas, birds, reptiles, etc. My camera battery ended up dying after only a few pictures. Bummer! My friend had her camera and was able to snap a few pictures of Mia that she will hopefully send to me! After watching the polar bear swim on his back the little kiddos saw the carousel and just had to ride on it. Mia's face just lit up the whole entire ride.

 When we saw the Tiger he was outside and being pretty vocal. Mia got scared and was holding on for dear life begging "Chair,Chair,Chair". {She wanted to get back in the stroller} Then we went and saw the gorillas. The gorilla started banging on the wall and then ran past the windows and banged on all the windows really fast. It was pretty scary and she got freaked out and now is scared every time she sees a gorilla. Hopefully she isn't traumatized!

We also rode on the train and played on the playland. We decided it was time to head home and grab some lunch. On the way home we passed The Sweet Tooth Fairy and decided to get some cupcakes and cake bites for our little treat and since we are searching for the best cupcake in Salt Lake it worked out perfect! Can I just say YUMMY. So moist and delicious but more on those later.Such a fun day at the zoo. Mia was so worn out she was begging to take a nap. Now time for me to relax a little!

XOXO,
Whitney

Its the weekend

Inevitably this weekend I have come to find there are way more things I wanted to do this summer that I didn't write down on the summer list. Well there was no stopping me from doing those things so I am adding them right now by blogging to you about such happenings.

The newest addition to the summer list.... Movies and Swimming. Madagascar three came out it was about time I saw it. I headed to the theater at the time that was most convenient from us girls and well it just so happened to be the 3D version. I wasn't jumping out of my seat when i saw it on the screen as we picked our seats but I just decided that Madagascar 3 was worth it. (If you must know I have an addiction to Madagascar movies. Anyways we went in got our glasses took some supah sicky sick pics, as shown above. And the movie began. I loved it! I even enjoyed the 3D aspect. It was hilarious with witty humor, and hidden humor you know the kind you have to watch the movie three times to pick on. Love that. About the 3D It was great and I thought it wasn't trying to hard to be 3d and I didn't get a headache, but the thing is if you all have a choice just go with regular. My 3D happened by accident so I was happy but if I had the choice, I'd go regular.

Next activity to cross off that happened thus far this weekend. Swimming with some of our close family friends for a birthday party. It was a great time as expected. You can't go wrong with these family friends, a bbq, swimming and then chatting by the fire to get warm once the sun went down as pictured above. Such a good time and I hope there is more to come like last night.

Now I'm off to one of my closest childhood friends wedding reception tonight. I can't wait! ( I mean come on its a wedding and we all know I love those!)

It's been a good weekend!

nicole

Splashpad: Check

First thing to cross off my Summer List for 2012:

SPLASHPAD

Yesterday was so warm, in the 90's. So I decided to start my summer off right by heading to the splashpad. Where I live there are so many parks, literally one on every corner. I love it. There is also a splashpad right down the street practically. Last year I took my baby girl and some of her cousins but she wasn't quite walking yet so she wasn't able to really enjoy it. I would say that she enjoyed herself yesterday! Glad we went too because today is cold and windy. Typical Utah weather!

I have a feeling we will be spending many of our summer days here at the splashpad. We took lunch with us and had a little picnic. I love free entertainment! Let summer begin!

XOXO,
Whitney