My new favorite hobby

Since we've moved to Kaysville, I've been trying to get to familiar with our new home. I never really ventured into Kaysville and Layton area growing up, so now I'm doing some catching up. There are a lot of hikes and trails against the mountains near our house.

About a month ago McKay and I hiked up Adams Canyon, at the end there is a 40 ft waterfall. Being exhausted and tired of hiking up steep terrain, I wanted the hike to be over! So instead of walking back, McKay and I decided to run back! This sounds kind of funny because we were so tired, but we found some energy to do it. We made it back to our car within 15 minutes and it took us a hour and a half to climb up to the top. We had so much fun running down the trail because we felt like we were Pocahontas running through the forest.

Anyway, we had so much fun I've been going out of my way to go on hikes, which I used to dread, because I love running down them. Any of you want to join me, I'm currently in the market to find a buddy to go with me. Let me know if any of you are interested.

Don't Take A Full One

A couple nights ago McKay had a hard time falling asleep, so he decided to take a sleeping pill. For some reason he didn't fall asleep right after, a few minutes later he started to hallucinate and did so for 45 minutes. I stayed up with him until he stopped because I didn't want him to get hurt. He talked about marsupials from Australia, skeletons, helicopters, bubble wrap, and how he wanted to "create" worlds and learn. Poor McKay. Lesson learned, don't take a full one.

The End.

The Holiday

McKay, myself, and the Killpack clan spent the weekend at the compound in east Park City. It was fun. We did a lot of the following:

Movie watching

Laying around and relaxing

On Sunday we went to church at the Wanship ward. Because it was 4th of July weekend there were a lot of visitors there like us. It was fast and testimony meeting and I won't forget one testimony in particular. A 30 year old pregnant woman got up and started to tell everyone about how her husband got gotten a vasectomy when they thought they were done having children. She continues by saying she had a feeling they needed to have more children, so her husband had to get a reversal on his vasectomy. She closes by quoting the lyrics to the Salt N' Pepa song "Whatta Man" by saying "What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man" her husband is by going through his vasectomy and reversing it. Talk about an interesting fast and testimony meeting.

I found this on the internet and thought it was blog worthy

July 4th morning Monday , I had to go into work. Work was throwing candy and frisbees at the Clearfield and Kaysville Parades. I've been in charge of decorating and organizing the parade float this year and it went well. No one got ran over. The Kaysville parade was crazy, there was a sea of children on both sides of our float. I had to gently shove children aside so they wouldn't be overtaken by the float.

After the parade we went home, McKay took a 4 hour nap, I worked on tracing the shape of my upholstered headboard I've been trying to make.

We went over to the Craig's for a BBQ and a dip in the pool

Best Restaurant Experience

Instead of going to the chain restaurants that we always tend to do with the family, I wanted to do something a little different. I did some research on Urbanspoon of some unfamiliar restaurants in the Bountiful area. I came across this restaurant/cooking school called Thyme and Seasons Market Place. It had really good reviews, so I thought we’ll give it a try.

I walk in with my 92 year old grandparents, parents, brother, aunt, and McKay. We met Chef Hai who told us to sit at the chef's table. The chef's table is a long table where he does his cooking, serving, and other duties. He tells us there's no menu and then asks us what type of food we like to eat. My Grandpa said he likes seafood, I said I've always wanted to try Vietnamese food, and my Aunt said she loves pasta. He told us he was going to make something special for us. To the right is a glass wall that overlooks his kitchen so people can watch his culinary skills. I got out of my seat and started to watch him to see if I could learn any new tricks. He then tells me to come on in and he'll show me how to cook our dishes. I couldn't believe it! He gave me some instructions and I made this sweet and sour chicken and vegetable Vietnamese dish.

Chef Hai showing me how to taste the sauce

The Vietnamese Chicken dish was so delicious. He makes us two more dishes: A seafood pasta medley in a tomato cream sauce and a catfish dish. All of the dishes were delicious! My little brother is really picky about food, so Chef Hai asked him what he likes to eat. Cameron responded by saying he likes meat and bread. Chef Hai pulls out some sirloin steak and teaches Cameron how to make his own Philly Cheesteak. I think this was the first thing he's cooked for himself.

After we ate I was kind of worried of how much this was going to cost us because there were no prices and menu. For 7 of us it totaled to $80! This is one of the most fun experiences I've ever had at a restaurant; the food was amazing, I was able to learn, and for what we got it‘s a great value. Chef Hai told me he teaches cooking classes twice and if I wanted to learn how to cook something in particular he'll teach it at one of his cooking classes.

Lovely Sprummer

I'm calling the season right now sprummer, because it's not hot enough to be called summer. Here is what our sprummer is looking like at the moment.

It's kind of hard to see but these are baby finches we found in our Fuchsia basket that is hanging on our front porch. They hatched about a week and a half ago and we're enjoying looking at them and seeing how much they've grown.

I purchased some plastic chairs for our backyard, it's become one of our favorite places where we eat dinner, have lengthy conversations, and play on the swing set with the neighbor kids.

I bought these two chairs at the DI for $20! They're currently resting on our front porch.

We had this bush in our front yard and we didn't know what type of plant it was until it was blooming with these. We soon found this bush were peonies. We're in love with them and have them all around our house. They're so fragrant and remind me of pom poms.