HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCAS

My best friend turned 28 today! We were too excited to wait so he opened his last night! Sadly he figured it out before but I did better than Christmas. I am horrible at keeping secrets or surprise from him so with this gift I had to wait to go buy it and instead of telling him what it was I told all of our friends so I wouldn't go crazy. But it drove him crazy, since all of our friends knew what he was getting they could all tease him and he started to go nuts trying to figure it out! But what gave it away was when we were driving down to the in-laws we saw a helicopter and Lucas pointed it out. I had to turn away so I wouldn’t give it away with my facial expressions.
So Happy Birthday Baby! Enjoy your flight lesson and have fun!

The training is an hour long the first half hour is ground training and rest will be in the air and he will fly the helicopter!! Great deal from Mountain Ridge Helicopters

Finally enjoying the snow

Logan winters are normally bitter cold with feet upon feet of crusted snow and lasts until the end of Spring semester. They are ruthless and this year has been different. We have yet to have a normal winter snow storm the skies open and we get a few inches in the valley and a few more in the mountains but that's it. I remember one year the snow was so heavy that stores and home owners were on top of their roofs shoveling off snow so there roofs wouldn’t fall threw. With such little snow we had yet to go snowshoeing but finally the heavens opened and we were able to go!

                Snowshoes have been one of my greatest investments. I use to have such a bitter attitude toward the miserable cold but now I have something to look forward too! Being outside with friends and having fun. It’s all about getting the right snow gear to keep you warm a decent pair of snowshoes oh and a good pair of boot is a must! Cold feet make everyone miserable.

        

So for all those snow birds out there to help change your attitude find a snow hobby and it will be medication to your cabin fever in the winter.

Three Day Weekends

Starting the first day of my last semester has been wonderfully blissful. I am excited to finally be done a chapter of my life. One will be finally be down a huge one on my list, graduating from college!

After starting school this week a three day weekend was met with much rejoicing. Lucas was able to get Monday off of work so we headed down to Tooele to visit with the Garcia’s. We were met with hugs, good company and yummy food! We went out to Stockton Miners and that’s what it is food for miners. Rich mashed potatoes, white gravy and Texas French toast and my first chicken fried steak.
After all the calories we ate we needed to burn off some calories and wanted to play the wii fit. They have some of the funniest games some of our favorites were the balancing games, the hula hops was what I did best at. I tried to do the sky jump but I kept jumping on the wii fit pad which you’re not supposed to do and it tells you.

Monday we will see what we do… sleeping in is first on the agenda!

ONE YEAR

What a wonderful weekend! We started off with celebrating our one year by visiting Hardware Ranch. If you have never been there I would recommend that you should. First the drive is wonderful the roads are immaculate, which is very comforting in traveling in the winter canyons in Logan. Hardware Ranch is a public owned land with hundreds of elk and you can get an up close view of these elf from your sleigh. The sleighs can hold around twenty and the horses that pull these sleighs are massive. Once you get there you can see the herd of elk from the road and when your sleigh takes off they head right for the herd. They pull you right through the middle of the herd. If they didn’t run off when the sleigh closed in on them it would be a petting zoo.

After are sleigh ride we went off the Texas Roadhouse a favorite in our house. Since it was a special day we went all out! We enjoyed a baby blossom which wasn’t so baby it was huge! They said it was perfect for two but I would have to say it was perfect for four people. Lucas got a full rack of ribs, half of which is in the fridge leftovers are so wonderful. I had a 10 oz prime rib and I happily ate the rest for breakfast.

Sunday we enjoyed sleeping and yummy food! Lucas made the pot roast and I made double stuffed potatoes, corn and a chocolate cake! In our process of making the chocolate we realized that we didn’t have enough white sugar so we made our first brown sugar cake. It really tastes like brown sugar!

The recipe calls for shortening we are big fans oF butter flavored!

We were sad to not have a true chocolate cake like our wedding cake but once we found a Paula Dean recipe we were very happy. We are big fans of her and my father in law has a big crush on Paula Dean he admits this openly! So anytime we make food to take over my in-laws I try to cook Paula’s recipes in hope to help my father in law label me as his favorite daughter in law.

Cookies

Snicker Doodles were a tradition in the Garcia home and so in tradition of the white Mexicans tonight we feast on sicker doodles! When I was little I remember making these and but the cookies in the cinnamon. Sadly enough in my because of my impatience I have already burned the first batch (and know Lucas is in charge of taking them the cookies out).

Often when making cookies the question is do I use butter, margin or shortening? We are fans of butter flavored shortening.