End of Summer Post!

Okay, so I'll admit that I'm just destined to be a blogging slacker no matter how busy (or not) I am.

Regardless, here is a post about our end of summer rah-rah-shish-boom-bah!!! We went camping up American Fork Canyon by Tibble Fork Reservoir. Camping equipment courtesy of my parents (circa 1984). It was BEAUtiful and a perfect place for a lil over night camping trip. We roasted hot dogs, made s'mores, and gazed at the myriad of sparkling stars. We even busted out the camp stove in the morning and made pancakes and sausage for our late morning breakfast. (Can you believe I slept in till 11????) Our plans for a refreshing swim in the reservoir were foiled when the water turned out to be snow in disguise. Soooo cold!! But all in all, in was a marvelous trip.

Next we took a relaxing trip to St. George. Like always, Devin was so excited to play with his friend Poco (my parents maltoodle). We chillaxed like there was no tomorrow in between games of tennis, hanging out with the chickens, being fed delicious food and tromping around the Washington County Fair. Thanks Mom and Dad! We even got to hang out with our good friends the Blakes, which is always a delight (especially when we get to play Pirates of the Caribbean Life while watching Despicable Me at the same time!). Sadly, I did not take a single picture of this fun filled weekend. Sorry bout that.

Up next we continued south (and mostly west) to California! Newbury Park to be exact. We beached, played tennis again, touristed in LA, and beached some more. It was wonderful.

I call this: Devin Eats Marshmallow Prior to Picture. First Beach Day at Deer Creek.

Devin did a bit of body surfing while I played photographer. Not great quality, but I'm proud of myself for even catching him in the act!

The next day we went to LA and touristed all around that town! First we stopped off at the Griffith Park Observatory to see a show at the planetarium and sneak a peek at the telescope.

After the observatory, we scooted on down to the LA Farmer's Market to find some exciting food. And exciting food we found! There was every type of food from every part of the world. We wandered around the circuit once to scope out the options and couldn't resist the tantalizing smells of the Brazilian BBQ. (Please excuse our funny faces. he he)

Next come the La Brea Tar Pits. We just had to so we could say we did.

I'm getting blogged out, can you tell?? Our tourist day ended with an interesting trip to people watch at Venice Beach. There are crazy things (and people) in the world. But the beach was nice and I really enjoyed watching the skateboarders at the skate park. There's something for everyone at Venice Beach including hand ball, paddle tennis, a full-out weightlifting area, and of course, the board walk.

The next day we went to Zuma for some more beach action. We picnicked, played in the waves, fended off hungry seagulls and skimboarded. Then we hiked around Point Dume on a fruitless search for sea lions lounging on the rocks. Once we arrived safely to the shore, we disturbed a group of sand crabs, analyzed the surfers, and checked out a beached boat. Once again there are no pictures. But you get the idea.

On our final day in Cali, we went on a tour of the Nethercutt Collection. Basically a really rich guy (owner of Merle Norman cosmetics) decided to collect things and built a museum to put them all in. They called it a collection of functioning art. There were over 150 perfectly restored classic cars (some in a replicate car show room from the 20s), hundreds of hood ornaments, antique furniture, figurines, a cabinet full of miniature porcelain pianos, and the best part . . . a whole room full of mechanical musical instruments that play themselves and a theater organ from 1918 (3rd largest in the world). My favorite was a player piano that also had three violins that played an accompanied trio, all without any human intervention. It was awesome. You should look it up on Youtube.

We had a definite blast this summer and hope to squeeze in one more camping trip before school starts. Especially because we got the bargain of all bargains at a garage sale in St. George: a like-new tent, air mattress, two lanterns, camp stove, and camp dishes for $150. We were pretty stinking excited to stumble across that gold mine.

Adios! And no promises when the next blog will be, so lower your expectations! ha ha

School's Out for Summer!!!

Can I just say . . . WAHOOOOO! So much freedom! And a blog update, a very voluptuous blog update. Let us begin with weekend #1. Four splendid days that we call Memorial Day weekend. Not only did this weekend include a fort, two containers of Homemade Turtle Sundae Ice Cream, and shopping, but we also got to visit Grandpa Dee (one of my namesakes) at the Provo Cemetery and share some butterscotch candies with him.

Weekend #2 started with residuals from our Indian Market visit during weekend #1: Chicken Tikka Masala. We decided to get brave and make our own Indian food, complete with homemade Naan!

The next day, we had a marathon Salt Lake date. It started with a gift card shopping trip to Walmart, a lamp purchase at Ikea, and ring cleanings and inspections (It's so shiny!!). Then . . . we went to Moochie's: a sandwich shop in Salt Lake that was featured on Guy Fieri's Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives. I got a meatball sub and Devin had the Authentic Philly Cheese Stake.

Next, after a quick visit to The Cathedral of the Madeleine we headed to Judge Memorial High School to watch the Utah Blitz, our very own women's tackle football team! Our cousin Soothie is one of the captains and we thoroughly enjoyed the game!

During the following week I found the easiest, most delicious cookie recipe:

Cake Mix Cookies

1 pkg. cake mix, any flavor
1/2 c. margarine, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Shape into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 13 minutes.

Welcome to weekend #3! Our friends Kayla and Dave got married on Saturday and we were invited to their sealing. It was so fun to go to someone else's sealing. Especially since our one year anniversary is on SUNDAY! We had fun traipsing around the temple grounds and took a tour of the conference center. The day was completed with Cafe Rio (yummm) and a trip to Bountiful for the reception. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. DaCosta!

Finally . . . a Winter Semester Update!

Welcome to the Winter semester update blog! We still live in Provo and we're still attending BYU. We just finished an intense Winter semester and started up again for Spring. We're both taking classes and working in research labs. Devin got his very own office and Lyndee is working to publish a paper. Since Lyndee has finished her first semester (of 2!) of Clinical Lab Science classes she finally has time to give you an update! First on the docket . . . we went to Zion National Park over Christmas break. The snow covered hills were beeeeeautiful!

We also hiked to some Petroglyphs in Ivins. Devin and Poco had fun traversing the boulders and locating the designs.

For Easter we got to take a weekend trip to St. George. The weather was awesome and we even got to dye eggs! Devin may not look very enthusiastic but he really did end up having fun.

The rest of the semester was spent almost entirely either in class or sitting on our couch studying late into the evening. Here's to hoping that Spring and Summer will bring more blogs than you're used to!!

Update!

Since I've been a blog slacker, I decided to put some photos up so you know that we're still alive!

First football game of the season

Boat races for FHE

Picturesque view of the bell tower

Lyndee before locks of love . . .

during . . .

and after!

We went adventuring!

On Saturday we decided to go on an adventure. We packed PB&J sandwiches and Chewys and headed off into the wild blue yonder. Our first adventure was to try and find the road that goes around the lake. . . Utah Lake. We started at the entrance and drove around the border taking every plausible turn and we couldn't find it! It was a grand adventure though. We saw lots of cows, some giant horses, and cool fields with corn, melons, sunflowers etc. We also found a cool picnic place on the beach that doesn't cost to go to. And while we were checking it out, we saw some kite surfers! It was quite entertaining to watch. After the kite surfers, we walked down the road a bit and found a pond/marsh with a kajillion birds flying through the air. We decided that our cool beach spot was a sufficient lake outing for the day and started off on our next adventure. We found the park by Walmart that we'd always wanted to check out. And it turned out to be an awesome park! It's called Nielson's Grove and was the perfect setting for a round of Skip-bo.

View from the windshield

The "Will It Blend" Factory!

It was stinking windy!

Devin's inner little boy came out. Notice I caught the rock in the picture!

Sweet and Sour Champion

Lately, since I've had a considerable amount of time on my hands, I have been trying out lots of new recipes. During this time, I've been craving some legit Chinese restaurant style sweet and sour chicken. I've looked at and tried a few recipes but none lived up to my expectations until last Tuesday. I've found the champion! Thanks to Jamie Wood in my outdated copy of the Green Valley 4th Ward Cookbook . . .

Sweet and Sour Chicken

2 eggs, beaten
1 c. flour
4 chicken breasts, cut up
1 green pepper
1 can pineapple chunks

Sauce:
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. pineapple juice
1 T. ketchup

Cover chicken with egg and flour and brown in pan. Add diced green pepper and can of pineapple when chicken is done. Simmer sauce until thick and then pour over chicken. Simmer 3 minutes.

We had this with Devin's Famous Fried Rice and it was a delicious cultural experience! The only thing it was missing was the red food coloring. ha ha Bon appetit!

Legit Sherman Family Picnic

Last weekend, Lyndee's parents were in town, so we had a legit family picnic and outing. We got the childhood memory tour around Spanish Fork, Payson, Salem, and Spring Lake, courtesy of my mom, and settled at Memorial Park for a picnic. Our trusty disposable BBQ grill ($7 dollars at Walmart) cooked our hot dogs to perfection and our new bocce set was the perfect picnic game. We even took a refreshing "dip" in the "pond". Couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend with the fam.