Andrew Visits

This past weekend Matt's brother Andrew came to visit. It was great because we didn't get to see him a couple of weeks ago with the rest of Matt's family. Matt was busy working so I got to spend a couple of days with Andrew!

After I picked him up I took him to In-N-Out. He said if that was all we did the whole time his trip was most than worth it! So either I had set up some big expectations or my job was already done with him being there in the first 30 minutes. After lunch we took a trip over to Mesa Riverview Park. It was SUPER hot, but we still did some climbing.

That night we took him up to Rustler's Rooste for a great view of the city accompanied by some excellent food. I had the BEST prime rib!

Friday morning Matt took Andrew golfing before he headed to work. It sounds like they need a little work on their game, but had a good time either way. Then I took Andrew to the Phoenix Park 'n Swap. I had heard great things about this place, and this was the first time I could get there. It totally lived up to its expectations. I will definitely be back! It is basically a huge garage sale, and we know how much I love those! ;)

Then I took him over to Papago Park to see the Hole in the Rock. It was very hot!

Andrew decided to chase the biggest swan I've ever seen.

Saturday we took Andrew up to Sedona to take him hiking and cliff jumping. 

Matt took him to his "rock throwin' spot" to throw rocks down to the creek at the bottom.

After an hour or so of hiking in 100*+ weather, we got to the "pool". It is so pretty.

Then the boys did some cliff jumping.

Love the photobomber in the back!

They started getting brave and decided to go for the big jump.

Check out the next Phil Dunphy in the making-my husband!

Matt was taking tips from a pro up on the higher rock. 

This guy was not with us, but he was pretty talented. So I went ahead and took pictures of him doing a backflip!

Pretty cool right? And then it was Matt's turn.

They jumped from all different angles. 

After we made it back to the car (again, HOT!!!) we headed into Sedona and took Andrew to the Chapel of the Holy Cross for the view. 

No matter how many times I go there I will still be in awe of the beauty.

We went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Troia's, and I must say they were the nicest people ever! We were still in our hiking clothes and just wanted some pizza. This was a pretty nice white tablecloth restaurant. We felt really guilty, but they were so nice. I feel like most people would be rude to us, but the hostess and server treated us so well!!! If you are ever in Sedona we totally recommend it! The food was amazing, too!!!

We hope Andrew had a good time while he was here. It was just about as hot as it could get while he was here, but hopefully it was a nice trip before he goes back to school. I'll be back tomorrow for another Tasty Tuesday. See you then!!

School Days

Happy Friday! TEACHERS: This is for you!!!
I have been wanting to blog about this for a long time. My sisters started school today so it seemed appropriate. The company Matt works for, Vanguard, has created a program, My Classroom Economy.

It is designed to help students learn financial literacy. I think it is pretty awesome so I wanted to share it with all of my teacher readers. You can go check it out here. They have lots of videos and things to explain how the program works, MUCH better than I could. They say it takes a couple weeks to implement it, but once it is it looks pretty fun. I would have LOVED doing this! They have a different curriculum for every grade so it can be used throughout the whole entire school from elementary to senior year! Pretty awesome, right?!
If it seems like something up your alley and you have any questions let me know. Matt is an ambassador for it so he can help you out with whatever you need! Oh yeah, and I know teachers don't get a huge budget every year so what is really cool about this...it's free. Not, a 30 day free trial, not you get the starter kit but the best stuff costs money. Everything is absolutely free-FOREVER!!!!  Let me know what you think!

Also as I was reading my Daily Guideposts this morning I ran across James 3 and thought it would go perfectly along with this. It talks about how not everyone is fit to be a teacher. I totally agree! So thank you to all those people out there who have discovered they can be good teachers. Hope you all have a great weekend! I'll be back next week with more fun! :)

Honey Sesame Chicken

Hello friends! Another Tasty Tuesday coming your way. I found this recipe and it sounded really good. I adapted it, and this is what I came up with. It is basically another spin-off on my crockpot chicken recipes. If you would like to see the original recipe click HERE. It looked very tasty also!

Here's what you need:
~1 lb frozen chicken
1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. ketchup
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. vinegar
2 T. soy sauce
sesame seeds to garnish
Optional: green onions for garnish
*Tip: I also made another batch of sauce to pour over the chicken just before serving. Use the following measurements for every two servings:
3 T. honey
2 T. ketchup
2 T. sugar
1 T. vinegar
1 T. soy sauce

Here's what you do:

Place chicken in crockpot on low setting. Mix together all other ingredients except the sesame seeds and green onion. Pour over chicken.

Let cook 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 on high. Apply extra sauce and garnish when ready to eat! I served mine with rice and green beans. WHAT!?!?! I know. I know. I know. I have ALWAYS hated green beans, but not if they are straight out the the garden which these were or looked like they were. So that is good enough for me! The chicken had a really good flavor and made awesome leftovers for wraps and such.

In addition... 

HOLY MOLY!!!! I found this recipe again from my new favorite blogger mix and match mama. She calls them cinnamon rolls with 2 frostings. I call them heaven! 

They were SSOOO easy, and they taste like they came from a bakery. We enjoyed them for a Sunday breakfast, but I am sure they would be amazing any time of day. They also made great leftovers slightly warmed in the microwave. Enjoy, friends! 

Weekly Reminisce

 Happy Friday Friends!! I thought I would fill you in on what has been happening here the past couple weeks. Nothing too exciting, just some fun little things.

We bought a new board game-Monopoly Empire. It goes much faster than the original Monopoly game (or so I'm told, I don't think I've ever played it)! I was really having fun with it, but now Matt beats me really bad so we quit playing...

We spent a Sunday afternoon golfing.

It was REALLY hot!!!!

Matt played 18 holes. I played the 9 holes I wanted to.

Matt has also been brewing some homemade wine. I don't think I have showed many pictures of that so I thought I should include some this time.

That is his apple cider I requested. It should be ready for fall!

He started some watermelon wine last week. Again, it won't be ready until fall. We had his strawberry wine a few weeks ago, and it wasn't too bad. Hopefully he keeps getting better! ;)

There was also a huge sale on raspberries at Sprouts last week. Matt LOVES raspberries. We bought three cartons on Sunday. By Tuesday they were gone. So we had to go back and get enough to last him the rest of the week.....EIGHT! And this was the week we left Friday morning to head to Denver. And yes they were all gone by Thursday night.

Yesterday after our workout we headed over to Jamba Juice for some free juice! It was very yummy!

I felt like this post was mostly all pictures of Matt having fun. Well this is what I have been doing that past few weeks....Study, study, study!!!! (Sorry I cannot get the picture to rotate, but you get the idea!) Only a little bit longer, and I will be done studying FOREVER!!!! Cannot wait for that day to get here!

Enjoy your weekend! Check back next week to see what else we have been up to and another Tasty Tuesday recipe!

Whirlwind Weekend

Hi friends! As many of you know, our weekend was jam packed!

Here was the itinerary:
Friday:
4 AM-Wake up!
4:45 AM-Arrive at airport
6:25 AM-Take off for Denver
9:20 AM-Arrive in Denver
Collect bags and wait in airport
2 PM-Leave airport
8 PM-Arrive at the lake
11 PM-Head home to get some sleep
Saturday:
7 AM-Head to grandma's to collect some things to bring back
7:40 AM-Drive to the lake
8 AM-Bike ride
12:30 PM-Leave for Colorado
5 PM-Arrive at family reunion
Sunday:
7:30 AM-Wake up to enjoy the day
3:30 PM-Head for Denver
8:40 PM-Fly back to Phoenix
9:30 PM-Arrive in Phoenix
10:45 PM-Arrive home after collecting bags and car
11 PM-Go to bed!

So that was what we did, and we drained about every minute from each hour. Even though we had a few hours to sleep each day, it doesn't mean that got done. But let me start from the beginning.
We woke up very early Friday morning and headed to the airport. We were planning on taking the light rail, but we were too early for it. We got to the airport and boarded our plane without any hassle. We got to Denver on time and were able to pick up our bags. We looked at renting a car, but the price did not seem worth it. Luckily for us, my dad had a friend driving through Denver heading to the lake. We waited and headed back to Nebraska with them! We made it safely and pretty quiet for having 5 little boys with us. It was a fun experience for both of us! We enjoyed supper with my family and one set of grandparents. It was so great to enjoy the time with them while we could.
We woke up early the next morning and headed to my other grandparents to go through some things we are getting from them. We loaded up our suitcases to take back with us on our favorite moving company, Southwest Airlines. Then we headed back up to the lake for a bike ride my mom was putting on to raise money and awareness for Lewy Body Dementia. We took pictures of the riders and then took our ride around the lake after everyone else finished.

It didn't really cross my mind to take a family picture or have someone take a picture of Matt and me. But I did get lots of separate pictures of multiple family members! I guess that's what happens when you have a major time limit.

It was so great to see so many aunts, uncles, and cousins for a few minutes. Then I took off on my 2nd (and probably final)jet ski ride of the season :(. The water was perfect-just a little choppy!



We ate lunch and were off with Matt's family for a family reunion at another lake in Colorado. It was good to see so many people from his family because we do not get to see them much. We enjoyed the lake with boat rides, tubing, wakeboarding, and wakesurfing. We got to camp again for the 3rd time in a month. I think I am set with camping for the next two years (or so).

Again, I forgot to bring my camera with me except for this one boat ride...

Sunday afternoon we headed back towards Denver. When we checked into our flight I was nervous we would not get to sit next to each other because we got into the C boarding position. As we were going through security, we noticed a soccer team with Valley sponsors all over their shirts so we assumed they would be heading back on our plane with us. I was hoping there would be a chance Matt and I could still sit together then. We were right. Not only did we get to sit together, we were in the exit row. It was the closest I have sat to the front in a long time, and we had TONS of extra leg room! I was so comfortable I was even able to get a few minutes of shut-eye which NEVER happens when I'm flying or riding in a car. We made it back safely and were home before 11.
It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but that's kind of how we do things. Remember when we went to Kansas City for my graduation? Same type of thing. Maybe someday we will be able to head back to the Midwest and not be so rushed to see everything and everyone. Until then, we will keep up our fast paced lives and love every second of it! Check back later this week to see what else we have been up to since we have gotten back from our road trip vacation. 

Super Potatoes

Hi friends! We had a busy weekend, and I spent most of yesterday getting things back on track. I created this recipe when we had some leftovers to use up. Our potatoes were almost done for so I decided we needed to use a lot of them, fast! 

Here's what you need:

4 potatoes

~3 T. olive oil

seasoned salt

~1 c. shredded chicken (or whatever leftover meat you have, pork works well too! I bet ground beef would also be good.)

~2 cups cheese

Here's what you do:

Preheat oven to 425°. Grease 9 x 13 pan or cookie sheet. I put aluminum foil down and spray it with Pam-it makes clean up a breeze! Slice potatoes thinly into chips.The thinner you slice them, the faster they will cook. Arrange potatoes onto pan. Drizzle olive oil onto potatoes. Cover potatoes with seasoned salt as desired. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes begin to feel soft and are easily cut. Remove from oven and add shredded chicken. Cover with cheese. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until cheese melts. 

Enjoy as a meal on its own or pair it with another fruit or veggie! Another super simple Tasty Tuesday recipe for you. We love it for an easy weekend meal. Join me tomorrow as I tell you all about our whirlwind weekend! See you then :)