Gobble! Gobble!

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the P's family. I was so excited to go home for a few short days and share the Thanksgiving holiday with our families! It was a fun filled weekend. We took Christmas card pictures, went through the temple with Mark (Who is going to Guatemala on his mission), saw the Work and the Glory III, went to Deseret Book and Seagull Book and Tape (I really miss LDS bookstores), and we watched the Cougars kick some Ute booty! We returned home at 3am on Sunday morning so that we wouldn't have to deal with the Las Vegas traffic on Sunday night.

Thanks everyone for a great Thanksgiving!

The Best Tortilla soup EVER!

I have told so many people about this recipe that I thought I better just post it so that everyone can try it! It really is mine and Paul's favorite meal. Enjoy!!!

4 chicken breast halves
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsp. margarine
2 14 1/2-oz. cans chicken broth
2 14 1/2-oz. cans chopped stewed tomatoes
1 cup salsa (mild, medium, or hot, whichever you prefer)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp., or more, ground cumin
8-oz. Monterey Jack cheese, cubed
sour cream
tortilla chips

1. Cook, debone, and shred chicken.
2. Add minced garlic to margarine in slow cooker. saute.
3. Combine all ingredients except cheese, sour cream, and chips.
4. Cover. Cook on low 8-10 hours.
5. Divide cubed cheese among 6 individual soup bowls. Ladle soup over cheese. Sprinkle with chips and top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream. (everything tastes better with a dollop of daisy:)

Event and Program Planning Class

As many of you know I am taking an Event and Program planning class this semester. The following two posts are the big events that we have had. The day at the lake was a class project and the cultural family potluck was a small group project. You'll see the four of us in a picture under the welcome sign at our event. I have learned a lot this semester and have really enjoyed sharing my Recreation management classes with all of the same people.

Event #2: Cultural Family Potluck

Event #1: A day at the Lake for Recreation majors and Alumni

Girls night!

A few weeks ago we held our first event for my "Event and Program Planning" class. I was on the donations committee. Our class did a great job of collecting the money that we needed, as well as some fun raffle prizes. We spent hours the night before the event getting everything ready. Don't worry...we made it fun!

HGTV Weekend

HGTV is, by far, my new favorite channel! After receiving great motivation from watching shows like "Designed to sell" and "Design on a dime", P and I decided to do a few home improvement projects of our own. We finally painted our IKEA kitchen chairs, Hung a new curtain, and planted a "garden":) I'm really excited about my kitchen herbs. Now I just need to learn how to cook dishes that I can actually use them in. . .

CHS Football

P and I decided to take a trip down memory lane and go to what we thought was CHS's Homecoming game. Turns out the Homecoming game was another two weeks away, but we still had a fun time.

One Wonderful Year. . .and many more to come.

P planned a wonderful evening for our one year anniversary... We had dinner in Malibu. The sunset over the ocean was beautiful.
Duke's is a great restaurant. We highly recommend the Shrimp!
P also surprised me with flowers that he picked out and arranged himself. Didn't he do an amazing job?! The card that came with them was really sweet.

On the way Home...

Graduation Day! Yes, P spoke at his graduation and did an EXCELLENT Job!

Family and Friends Graduation Dinner

Graduating Class Rotunda Dinner

Thomas Jefferson's grave

Monticello

We had a great time with P's parents when they came out to Virginia for paul's graduation.

Is this not the most amazing spoon you have every seen?

New York, New York

I had a great time with my cousins in New York City this past weekend. . . Time square was filled with excitement as usual. . .

I went to my first Broadway play. . .It was wonderful!
I took this picture for Paul. Ernst & Young has an awesome office building right in Time Square!
The last time I went to NY was three weeks before September 11th. It was heart breaking to visit Ground Zero and be reminded of the great tragedy that occured.
It is so incredible to drive down the streets of Manhattan and see the LDS temple!

The Lake

We decided that we needed to play on the Fourth of July. It had been a while since I had gone swimming in a lake and it was pretty nasty, but I got over it and we had a really fun day.

This weekend we went out and tubed the river with some of my co-workers. Again, the water was gross, but it was totally worth it!

Washington D.C.

I Love the D.C. Temple!

After going to the temple P and I bought all day passes for the Metro and cruised all over the city. We had an absolute blast! There is so much to see and so little time. We have plans to return before the summer is over.














P was part of the Washington Seminar program two years ago. It was great seeing where he lived etc. We also enjoyed meeting some of the BYU students that are in the program this summer.
We had a delicious sea food dinner on the banks of a stream that runs into the Potomac River.

The Washington Monument . . . I have yet to go to the top, but someday. . . Isn't it beautiful!





The new World War II monument is really well done, as you can see in the top left picture. It was so fun to sit and relax there. Everyone just takes their shoes off and cools down with their feet soaking in the pool.
There was a culture fair down by the monuments. We saw some really cool things there, one of them being this truck! Pretty sweet huh. I also had my first Mango Lassie. Yum! Yum!