And hiking

This is the first hike I've ever done without Jeebs. I was nervous. I was writing the news story in my head as we walked up to find the trailhead. But, guess what? We made it! We lived to tell the tale.

It was a beautiful waterfall- what movie?

The view was pretty awesome too. Oh and Cagey got his wolf. Way to go Ragin' Cagin'. Next we need to try to earn a pinning belt loop. He dropped the pin back down my shirt and I had to dig for it in front of the whole pack, fun times.

I love this scarf! In June!

This is what I wore yesterday, June 17th. But, I was still cold. It was 43 degrees and raining all day. The mountains are covered in snow. It is weird and a little annoying. The rain, we needed it badly, but the cold, not so much. I did enjoy wearing my scarf though. It's polka dots in case you can't tell. I'm really writing that for myself, but I will probably have the scarf for years and years and years to come so I don't know why.

Jeebs had 2 interviews yesterday and this is what he wore to the 2nd one. This was his Ben Stein look, minus the hat. He was also ecstatic to have his picture taken.

Mookie takes about 20 of these random pictures every morning with my phone while she waits for me to get my lazy bum out of bed. Somehow after she's awake though sleep doesn't seem quite as fulfilling...

And last, but not least, well it is pretty pathetic...my Garden Dot. My parents have a garden spot so I have a dot. That's all I can manage right now. It's so happy after a full day of rain. I just need some chicken poo to put on it or some other organic (poo) fertilizer.

This is summer so far. That and dentist appointments. I have an appointment to get 5 fillings done tomorrow. 5! It's like being a kid again. If only I got a barbie afterwards, or anything for that matter.

Snickerdoodles to change your life...

I've never been a fan of snickerdoodles for a couple reasons...

1. They don't have chocolate.
2. They seem to always be crunchy or crispy. (momma don't eat no crunchy cookie!)

But, they are Jeebs' favorite cookie, so for Father's day I knew one of his treats would be Snickerdoodles. I searched specifically for SOFT snickerdoodles and found a recipe that looked promising. I found this recipe and thought I'd grive it a try, but I knew I wanted to tweak it a bit. Soooooo this is exactly what I did. (I thought Jeebs liked crunchy snickerdoodles, but it's my treat day on Sunday too so he would just have to give up something. I already said he needed an award.)

Life Changing Snickerdoodle Recipe

1 stick butter
1/2 C butter flavored shortening
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
3 C flour

Method to my madness:
Preheat oven to 425. Cream butter, shortening, and sugars together until well combined. Add vanilla and eggs and mix. Mix together flour, spices and soda. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until combined. Roll into balls (I made pretty big balls, maybe 2 inches?) and then roll in cinnamon, sugar and a little nutmeg. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 7 minutes. Take them out and let them cool a bit. I drizzled on white chocolate, but that is probably gilding the lily. Then when  you eat them your teeth will just sink in and boom! you'll eat three. (if you like soft cookies)

They aren't like "make your kids sleep in past 7" kind of life changing, more like the "I'm gonna have to let out my pants" life changing, but you get the idea. (Mooks is awake erry morning at 7 in our bed, watching shows on netflix on my phone or taking random pics of me while I try, unsuccessfully, to sleep just a little longer.)

Bridal veil - it was delicious

The weather was absolutely perfect today! So we took full advantage and headed to Bridal Veil Falls. 

Dodgeball and Indians

Tonight we were playing with the kids in the yard and Jeebs was explaining to them what they could and could not do on the new grass. He told them he didn't want then playing set me up on the grass which is a variation of dodgeball. Apparently there are dozens of variations of dodgeball and tag etc. I commented that I thought Utahans must have thought up every kind of game imaginable as long as it was good clean fun. Jeebs agreed with me and commented that nothing included alcohol or strip anything. I chuckled and blurted out "strip dodgeball"! Cagey wondered what the heck that was and when I explained to him the rules he came back with, "I hope no Indians play that!"

I can actually navigate with my phone

I have no sense of direction. None. Zip. Zero. I'm pretty sure I get it from my brother. It took him 3 passes to find the turn into a Burger King. True story. Anyway, I have no room to make fun even though I do because at every pass I was yelling and pointing directly at said turn in spot. I digress. Today I wanted to get Taylor a haircut. It's summer, she hates fixing her hair and will probably spend most of her time with a wet head. So, off we went to super cuts. We pulled in and parked and only then did I notice the lack of signage on the super cuts building with a tapes hand written note in the front door. Closed down. So I quickly googled haircuts in American fork on my phone hoping something would pop up and jog my memory. One of the hits was Fantastic Sam's and I immediately remembered (or thought I did) where it was located. I headed in that direction and turned where I thought it was, some weird American fork intersection, and immediately figured out it too was not where I thought. So, I immediately turned to Siri and even though I knew I could at least get a place pulled up its always very iffy to actually follow directions on my phone and actually reach my desired location. I tapped on the place I thought I had seen and would work for a haircut for Taylor and followed the little blue pulsing ball that was my car to the red stationary ball that was my destination. Granted I kind of had an idea where it was, but regardless I made it. It's really one small step for normal human beings and one giant leap for this weirdo. Thank you Siri. I wonder if she could tell me where to get a backbone.

My kids follow blindly...good thing it's a paved trail to follow.

This is Jeebs

He married me and he deserves a reward. 

SInging and Dancing in the...

Bedroom

Living room

Competing with AJ

and sleeping on the floor.

and again.

This little bit is crazy. She loves to sing and dance. It is hilarious to me. I could watch her  do her "ballet" all day. She is by far the loudest singer in sacrament meeting and Sunday night she and AJ had to see who would win the loudness award. Mooks apparently likes to sleep on the floor too. Two mornings in a row I've found her like this. 

On an unrelated note...school is out!!! Holy Manoli I am excited. I am so sick of making the drive to school, getting up, dealing with homework and yada yada. We will now commence with living again. First on the list though is to bankrupt us and go to the dentist. I have cavities and hopefully they're just cavities. My kids need braces and hopefully we can put that off a little while longer.