Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving and The Muppets

I was gone in Tucson (see here and here) for a week and a half before Thanksgiving. When I finally got back home to Cedar City, the fridge was FULLY stocked with Thanksgiving food.

[The 10 Pound Turkey]

[The Food to Prepare]

[Josh Getting the Turkey Ready]

[The Finished Turkey]

[Josh Carving]

[The Feast: Stuffing, Gravy, Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Rolls, and Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Pie]

We spent the day eating our feast and watching football. The food turned out great! For our first Thanksgiving together I think we did a great job!

I informed Josh that my family has a tradition of going to the movies on Thanksgiving. We were too involved in the games to pull ourselves away so we decided to go to a movie on Friday instead.

When I was a kid I was in love with The Muppets. I would watch The Muppet Show and Muppet Babies almost everyday. Can you guess what movie I dragged Josh to see?!

That's right!!


And it was well worth seeing. There were a lot of inside jokes from the previous Muppet Movies and The Muppet Show BUT even if you didn't grow up with the Muppets like I did you will still enjoy it. Just keep in mind that it's super cheesy and embrace it!

Well, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving like I did! I am so thankful for my family, my friends, my job, my country, and, of course, my man who makes me smile every day!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Everyone told me that I have to visit the Desert Museum while in Tucson. Apparently it's a "must see!"

So we went. And it was fascinating!

This zoo, or wild animal park or whatever you want to call it, is one of a kind. They built the museum IN the desert. So most of the animals are in their natural habitat.

We were welcomed to the museum by this beautiful falcon.

And this barn owl.

From the entrance we had to make our way through the desert to our first stop, the Bird of Prey Show.

[Me with a giant Saguaro]

[Sam in the desert]

The Birds of Prey Show

[Hawk]
[Owl]
[Falcon]
[Raven]

After getting dive-bombed by raptors, we decided to continue our journey through the park.

[Bat ears!]

[Me and a snake]

[All of the turtles and tortoises were hibernating so we had to improvise]

Later in the day we went to the Live Animal Reptile Show

[Western Diamondback Rattlesnake]
[Gila Monster]
The show was very informative. We got to see and learn all about these two venomous creatures. Pretty much we learned that most of snake bites happen to men and most of those happen because guys are stupid and like to poke at the snakes instead of just walking away. 90 something percent of all snake bites that happen to men are on their arms and hands. 90 percent of all snake bites that happen to women are on their legs and feet. See a pattern here?

Later we saw the Prairie dogs! They are so cute and super social!

[Me trying to make a new friend]



[Sam with the crew]

The rest of the day we spent walking around seeing the other animals.

[Wolf]

[Black bear]

[Cougar]

[Coyote]

[Me climbing through the rocks]

[Fox]

[Adorable owl]

[Ocelot]

[Javelina! These things run wild in Tucson. We were greeted by a group of them our first night in town]

[Sam loves the Saguaro]

We spent about 7 hours at the museum and it was one of the coolest wild animal experiences I have ever had!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Mission San Xavier del Bac

My coworker Sam and I were invite to come to our company's corporate office in Tucson for 10 days. I won't bore you with details of work, don't worry.

I've never been to Tucson so over the weekend Sam and I did the touristy thing and went to a couple of the sites.

Our first stop was the Mission San Xavier del Bac. This church was built in the late 1700s and is still in use today.



[Sam inside]

[Snake door handle]

[Narrow hallways]



*All photos taken on my Droid

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Pizza and tartlets

Everyone gains weights when they're dating. It just happens. No biggie.

Josh and I decided that we should try and eat healthier and eat in more. Safe money and maybe lose a little weight.

I got a couple Weight Watchers cook books (we aren't doing WW, just trying to find some good healthy recipes) and I've been trying out new recipes every night.


Last weekend Josh and I decided to try a stuffed sausage pizza recipe for dinner. It calls for 3 kinds of low fat cheese, chicken sausage, onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Neither one of us like mushrooms so we substituted the fungus for cilantro and black olives : )

I can't even tell you how amazing this pizza was! And it was low fat! Plus we homemade the crust!

[The finished product]

[Amazing!]

And then for dessert I made tartlets. They were so cute and also delicious!


Eating healthy cost more money and takes more time but it's worth it!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Future Packers Fan?!

Looks like Josh converted one of us!



Chargers, Packers, and the Family

I'm a Chargers fan, Josh loves the Packers. As soon as the NFL schedule came out and we saw that the Packers were playing the Chargers in San Diego (yes that matters!) we decided that we had to go.

I called my dad and with all of his connections he was able to get us some tickets to the game!

Not only were we all excited for the game but this was going to be the first time that my family got to meet Josh.

Josh and I flew in from Vegas while my family drove down from LA.

They picked us up at the airport and then we headed over to Wahoo's Fish Tacos for lunch. They have the BEST fish tacos and I really wanted Josh to enjoy a good, California, fish taco : )

After lunch we headed over to Old Town to walk around. There were Packer fans EVERYWHERE!

[Me and Brady... I missed him so badly]

[Me and Josh having fun in Old Town]


After seeing Old Town, we headed down to the beach. Josh has only seen the California beach once before so he took a lot of pictures.





[Every time Josh and I tried to get a cute picture the wind was blowing and the sun was in our eyes. We still tried]


Next, we headed up to the Old Point Loma to see the view and to visit the Lighthouse.


After seeing San Diego we went back to the beautiful Westgate Hotel to take naps and then went out to the Gaslamp District to get some dinner.

The next day was Game Day! We got up early and headed to the store to buy some tailgating food. Then we went to the stadium and got a great parking spot.

It was a cold day but we made it work!

[Missy]

[Dad and Josh getting the grill goin']

[Dad and Ryan waiting for Brats!]

[Me and my mom]

[Ryan and Missy]

[Ryan and Missy... and the sleeping Brady]

[Enjoying the brats]


[Ok this is the CUTEST thing ever! If you get close behind Brady he will place his hand on your face. It is so sweet!]

[Almost time to go in!]

THE GAME!

[Qualcomm Stadium]

[View from our seats. It rained the ENTIRE game but we were lucky enough to be in the Club Section underneath a nice roof]

[Josh and me]

[The Packers]

[Aaron Rodgers]

[The Chargers]

[Game on!]



[After the Packers went up by 3 touchdowns... oh the shame]

[But wait! The Chargers scored 2 touchdowns and came within 7!]

[Our hope was lifted a little, but in the end we lost to the amazing Packers]

Overall it was a great weekend. I'm bummed my team lost, but Josh's team won and he was so happy and that's all that matters to me. Josh and my family got a long great! Thanks for the tickets mom and dad!