a whole week filled of fun

This past week has been filled of lots of fun things. We had pioneer day on Wednesday that we celebrated for the first time ever (its a Utah thing and we had never been here for it), we went to Salt Lake City Friday night and watched a free outdoor movie at the State capital as well as had Chipotle for dinner (WOOT!), Saturday we hiked Donut Falls and then that evening went to a comedy show at Desert Star with our cousin Derek and his wife Eliza, and then spent the night in Provo where we attended our cousin Heather's farewell and hung out with family all day! It was busy and so much fun, and here are some pictures! :)

 Pioneer Day

Chipotle and movie at the State Capital

Donut Falls (the haze in some of the pictures is because it rained almost our entire hike)

the water was SO cold i thought my feet might fall off...

it was difficult to get a good picture of  the top of the falls because it was very steep and slippery

 Desert Star's "the Lone Stranger"
It was a spoof on the Lone Ranger (which none of us had previously seen) mixed with some Utah humor. It was a pretty funny play!

this past weekend camping

This past weekend we went camping with Josh's cousin Jeff and his wife Brittney (aka, some of our really great friends). We were in the mountains past Sundance resort and we went in search of a perfect spot to put up our tents and make a fire to cook our dinner. After some searching and going down some rough roads with our little cars and having to turn around, we found a great spot! It felt so good to get out of the city for a bit and hang out with some awesome people. Believe it or not it was mine and Josh's FIRST time ever camping together. I cannot even tell you the last time I went camping (I think it was girl's camp when I was like 15??). It was obvious that we didn't do it often because we forgot some pretty essential camping things (like chairs and pillows). I must admit that I freaked out a little having to pee in the wilderness. I was pretty pathetic when it came to that aspect of the camping, making Josh help me scout out a safe place to pee and to be my look out! If we camp more, I am hoping I will get a little better at this haha.

Well, enough talk. I know you guys just look at the pictures anyway. Here is what we got before our camera died (another point of unpreparedness on my part).

one of the points that we had to very carefully turn around.

the drive

Josh found us some camp fire wood! or a whole tree.

Jeff joining in the manliness

Look how gorgeous this girl is! She is pretty darn amazing!

How he decided to try and break up the wood... it was not safe.

Cooking the food. Thanks to J and B for making these for us!!

Jeff even set up the center piece of our dinner with all the essentials. I thought it was pretty awesome!

Such a fun time! :)

And this was just awesome... what a stud!

I think some more camping trips are in order! :)

noodles and veggies with Thai curry sauce

Last night I made a recipe that I found to be a success! I found it on the website ourbestbites.com, which has a large variety of great recipes! Well, I thought I would share for those who are looking for a new thing to cook. The only thing I would really change is to add more veggies. We wanted a more equal ratio of veggies to noodles, but not everyone will agree so you can adjust to what you like. It was quick and easy and the recipe made enough for lots of left overs which is a must for us :) Well, here it is! I hope you enjoy it as well.

Veggies and Noodles with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce {aka Kate’s Noodles & Company Bangkok Curry Semi-Knockoff}

Inspired by  The Colorado Connection

Ingredients:

1 lb. linguine or rice noodles (if using rice noodles, soak in hot water for about 1/2 hour and then drain and rinse)

1 12-oz. package of frozen stir fry vegetables or 6 oz. frozen broccoli and 6 oz. frozen julienned carrots

1/2 c. green onions

1 medium red, orange, or yellow pepper, thinly sliced

1 c. sliced mushrooms (about 6-8 small mushrooms)

1 Tbsp. fresh, minced ginger

1 Tbsp. fresh, minced garlic

1 Tbsp. curry paste

Juice of 1 lime, plus more limes for garnish

2-3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 13.5 ounce can of lite coconut milk

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

4 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce (available at Asian markets)

kosher salt and black pepper

Black or white sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions:

Cook pasta according to the package directions. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, curry paste, and lime juice. While the pasta is cooking, microwave the frozen vegetables according to the package directions, but only cook them for 1/2 the time–you still want them to be quite crunchy. If you’re using fresh veggies, blanch them in boiling water for 1-2 minutes or until they’re tender-crisp.

In a large non-stick skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the green onions, mushrooms, ginger, garlic and red peppers and cook until the mushrooms are tender and the garlic is fragrant, about 3 minutes. Be sure to continue stirring constantly to prevent the garlic from burning.

Add the the half-cooked (formerly frozen) vegetables. Stir fry for about 1 minute and then add the coconut milk mixture and cook until it begins to boil. Remove from heat and add the cooked noodles. Toss to combine and then allow the mixture to stand for 5 minutes. Toss again, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and 2 lime wedges per person (squeeze the lime juice over the noodles before eating). Serves 8 very generously, so if you can find an extra use for the other half of that can of coconut milk, I say go for it…

Arizona Adventure

Hello to all!  This may come as a surprise to all who read this blog, including Emily (she doesn’t know I am writing this) because today’s post is coming from the one and only Joshua Kurt Peterson.  For all of you who have been losing sleep over trying to guess my middle name, you can now rest peacefully.  Now I know you might think that it’s been a long time since I have done anything for this blog but that is quite false…who do you think takes the majority of the pictures on this blog?  Me J  I don’t really have a say in it though…Emily is obviously a lot better looking than me which by default makes me the one who has to stand behind the camera rather than in front of it. 

This past week was a fun new experience for me as I was able to learn more about the sales side of Nutraceutical (the company I am interning for).  When I expressed my desire to my boss to possibly pursue sales after college, he gave me the opportunity to spend some time in Phoenix at a couple of retail stores and also shadow a Sales Rep for two days out in the field.

One of the nights I wanted to get out so I decided to go to an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game by myself.  I had only previously been to a Colorado Rockies game so I figured it would be fun, not to mention I love baseball.  I ended up buying a ticket from a guy on the road for $10 which as you can imagine put me up in the “nose bleed” section.  After watching one inning in that seat I decided I would attempt to move down to the middle level of the stadium.   This only kept me content for about two innings until I decided I would try to move closer.  As I made the daring move to the ground level seats I was lucky enough to time my entrance just right when the ticket checker briefly walked away.  I had great seats and was enjoying the game, yes even by myself.  It wasn’t long after that I began to think about how cool it would be to sit front row.  After spotting an open seat I watched for a couple innings to see if anyone would be coming back to reclaim their spot.  To my surprise it remained open the entire time.  At the end of the sixth inning I made my move…success!! I realized that not only was I sitting front row but I was sitting in a special padded seat section.  I soon became friends with those around me and enjoyed the rest of the game from my padded front row seat.

I had never seen an indoor stadium...it was really cool

I sat right next to this seat valued at $140