Picture Time!

Today I'm just going to post a series of pictures about what we've been blogging about:
Our day activities for Uncle Dave's birthday (tennis and biking):
Uncle Dave's Birthday Presents:
Me holding the ear wax candle in Aunt Cindy's ear:Ryan and me with Uncle Dave's Bonny Butter cake and Ice Cream:
The Parente's (Aunt Cindy, Uncle Dave and Alex):
Our Iron Chef Competition:
The judging of our Iron Chef Dinner:

The 2nd Leg of the Road Trip

I'm the lucky one to tell you all about our car travels, so here we go for the 2nd long day.

The trip was from Denver to Provo, lasting approximately 7 hours. We decided to take the scenic view by going on I-70 through the mountains, Grand Junction, Price, and finally Provo. The mountains were quite an amazing site to see. As I expected, our car was very slow in the mountains, especially caring a few boxes and suitcases with my stuff for the past 4 months and Erin's stuff she brought down. Nevertheless, we were able to successfully go through them without any car problems and are very happy for that.

So, you might be wondering from the 1st leg of the road trip where we would stop to splurge on the 2nd leg. We always make it a point to stop in Grand Junction; however, the fast food joint we thought we were going to was no where to be found at the exit. Luckily, we kept on driving down the road a little ways to come across what "I" had been wanting......Chick-fil-a. It was very delicious and a nice short break.

Erin picked up driving the rest of the road trip and I faithfully fell asleep for some of her driving. I'm not good in the passenger seat with staying awake, or for that matter, from when I was in high school, not good at staying awake in the driver's seat. We did make it safely up to Provo around 5. It was good to be back at our home together, except that it was freezing cold. We almost just turned around and headed back to Dallas.

Tomorrow you get to learn how Erin's graduation went. Stay tuned.

Our day in Denver

I totally forgot to continue the blogging last night, so here's a quick one...We decided to chill in Denver for a day before finishing our journey to Utah. We met up with my older sister Robin and went for a hike up to some old houses. One of the houses was supposed to be a summer home for the US president, but I don't think it was ever finished. It really would have not been fun to be the person building that house b/c it was just stuck into the side of the mountain and there were no real roads up to it. It was a nice relaxing hike and Shawn, our nephew, even got out the backpack and hiked part of it. Ryan and I took turns caring Reese...i think she liked me better...haha. Here is me, Reese and Robin (stolen from Robin blog...thanks.)
After the hike we chilled a little bit at the end. Long enough for Shaun to eat a some more of Robin's muffins that he apparently would die without...they were really good. Here's Ryan making friends with Shaun (also stolen from Robin's blog).
We met up with Jason for dinner and went to a great Mexican place...and if I remember the name of it i would tell you. Anyways, it had great food and huge cups. Ryan asked the manager where to get them from so we could get some for home. They were 32oz clear tumblers...Ryan's perfect cup.

The 1st Leg of the Road Trip

After a fun last weekend down in Dallas, we embarked on the trip back to the state of Utah. Our first leg of the trip was to go from Dallas to Colorado Springs. This was approximately 12 hours. The trip was mostly uneventful, especially going through the barren part of Texas, but Erin and I still had a great time being together finally. Some of the highlights of the trip were finding a Taco Bell in the city of Amarillo and getting the long awaited Dairy Queen Blizzard for Erin after her fiasco with Dairy Queen in Provo.

The Taco Bell stop was exciting because I really wanted Taco Bell on my way down to Dallas, but couldn't find one in the city of Amarillo. With the crazy roads of Texas, once you see what you want it is too late. You have to make a U-turn to actually go back to where you want to go. Nevertheless, with Erin's keen eyesight, we were able to find it without having to do the U-turn experience.

The Dairy Queen visit for the blizzard took a little bit longer than expected, even though every town in Texas that has a stop light is guaranteed to have a Dairy Queen. We stopped at one but the chocolate ice cream was out, so we decided to go to the next little town. In the next town, we came to a realization that Dairy Queen doesn't serve chocolate ice cream anymore, just vanilla. If you want chocolate ice cream, then they give you vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce. We got the desired blizzard and enjoyed as we left Texas.

Nothing much happened in the state of New Mexico. The roads are being worked on, so maybe someday the whole ride will be two lane roads instead of a one lane road. I give it another 15 years. We made it safely to the Koffords, my uncle & aunt's house, in Colorado Springs just in time for dinner. After we talked with the Kofford's, we headed off to bed to prepare for our fun adventures with Erin's sister and my brother the next day in Denver. Stay tuned for tomorrow....

Iron Chef Glover #4

As a finale to Uncle Dave's Birthday, for Sunday dinner Ryan and I had our 4th Iron Chef Competition with Uncle Dave as the judge. We found out on Friday that our secret ingredient would be...COCONUT!

I've heard that coconut is one of those things that you either like or don't like. Luckily, both of us really like coconut. We also decided to somewhat level the playing field by both making main course dishes.

Ryan made Coconut Crusted Salmon...he even skinned the salmon himself. I would go into more detail about it, but it was a pretty straight forward dish.

I made Curry. I had forgotten how much I love curry. I used a recipe off allrecipes.com and made my own alterations. It was the Indian Chicken Curry II. From that recipe, I added 1/4 cup shredded coconut, 2 sweet potatoes (skinned and chopped), and 1 bell pepper. I also toasted some coconut to use as a garnish.

As sides to our coconut dinner (these were not included in the judging) I made coconut rice and some naan bread. I guess those complimented my dish more than Ryan's, but what can I say?

Uncle Dave had a tough time making the decision, but in the end, my cuisine reigned supreme. I am still in possession of the Iron Chef Glover hat and have improved my record to 3-1.

Sunday was our last night in Dallas. We ended the evening with ice cream and a game of Sequence on the Parente's homemade board...and finally, a picture that I do have in my possession:

Uncle Dave's Birthday

Saturday (April 19th) was Uncle Dave's birthday, so the day was dedicated to him. We went for a nice bikeride by the lake and up to the Gaylord Hotel (it's huge). Then went and played tennis doubles...the Parente's v. the Glover's. I think it was actually the most fun I've had playing tennis. It was my first time playing doubles and I found it way more relaxing and enjoyable. Well, we lost, but the birthday boy's team won so something good came out of our loss.

Sidenote: have i mentioned how much I love the weather? It was sunny the whole day so being outside felt great.

Aunt Cindy made Mexican Lasagna for dinner and Bonny Butter Cake as the birthday cake. We also had a choice of 6 different half gallons of Blue Bell ice cream...yeah it was a lot. Aunt Cindy bought 3 at the store, but Uncle Dave wanted the Moooo Tracks so he went to the store and was really excited that they had some in stock that time...only to find out as he was putting it in the freezer that in reality he got Moolicious...totally different. So Ryan and I went to get some. I jumped out of the car to run in and grab it on our way home, however right next to it was a Chocolate Brownie Overload. I LOVE chocolate...so I decided to get that plus Uncle Dave's flavor. Thus the 6 half gallons. We ended the night by Watching the Bee Movie followed by relaxing in the hot tub.

It was one of my favorite day's in Dallas. We loved spending time with the Parente's!

(picture to come...maybe)

Update Part 1 of Many

So we have been horrible bloggers lately. Our plan now is to blog daily with short updates until we are caught up...I know for me when people do the long updates I end up just scrolling through and looking at pictures.

I finished up with classes on the April 15th (yes, that is nearly a month ago). I had two take home finals and one interview. I managed to get one final done before heading down to Dallas on the 16th to visit/drive back with Ryan. I must say that I do love Dallas weather. It hands down beats Utah's snow in April AND May. Ryan's last day of his internship was that Friday, so while he worked I got to sleep-in, got for a nice run, and finish my last final ever...I lead a pretty good life.

After work (he got off around 10am) we went to Broadway pizza and got some garlic knots. These little things are amazing. I love bread and this stuff was great. It reminds me of monkey bread except instead of brown sugar and butter it is garlic an butter. We haven't expereimented with making them at home, but we will have to try it soon. Anyways, we took our garlic knots to go and went to a park where we at on the baseball field.

Friday night we went out with the Parente's (Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy) to Pancho's (a Mexican buffet). Yummy! I love Mexican food. After dinner we played a rousing game of Boggle. I totally cleaned up. Ryan and I recommend that everyone buy it. It is a great for just two player or for a crowd...well, everyone has to see the letters, so I would say a max of like 8 players. We didn't have it, but the Parente's mail us one for my graduation (thanks so much, we love it!).

...more to come....tomorrow....