Bade’s brother-in-law was so kind to help re-plumb Bade’s entire house, so Bade wanted to help his brother-in-law lay his wood floor. We spent this weekend up at Mike’s house working on the floor. We got a good chunk laid, and it looks so good! I can’t wait to see the completed floor.
So looking through all the pictures I/we/Bade have taken along the way of fixing up his house, I am surprised that we don’t have more of the pictures I want for before and after. Always different angles, some before’s without after’s and some after’s without before’s, but here you have two areas that I was able to scrounge up some pictures for, the kitchen corner, and the living room looking from the kitchen area.
This weekend, our hikes were selected in honor of St Patty’s Day tomorrow. Yesterday we did Leprechaun Canyon, and today is Blarney Canyon. Since we don’t actually have the Blarney Stone in Utah (sad, I know!) we found OUR version of the Blarney Stone, and those of us who wanted luck in the upcoming year kissed the Blarney Stone…while wearing green of course.
Leprechaun Canyon is a very narrow slot canyon with three forks. The left fork (looking up the canyon) is incredibly narrow and difficult. My friend Carrie just did this fork. She is a smaller girl in excellent climbing shape and she was exhausted by the end (plus, had difficulty fitting through a few areas and had to go up and over). The main fork is the longest of the three and is also very narrow. It has one main repel. If you are going to do the main or left forks of Leprechaun Canyon, I would suggest warm clothes, and possible thin elbow and knee pads since you will be on those a lot.
The right fork of Leprechaun Canyon is the one we did. The right fork is suppose to be the prettiest of all three. There is one short repel (about 30 feet) a little more than half way through the canyon. The right fork has a good balance of down climbing, narrow slots, slots to go over, and relaxed walking through a more open slot. This canyon is definitely worth the drive out there. But if I did it again, I would plan on doing 2 of the 3 forks (possibly 2 in one day if you have a smaller group and started early. You will be very tired by the end).
5 miles down the road from Leprechaun Canyon is a hike to a waterfall. The waterfall is tiny, but has a weeping rock around it and a pool at the bottom. To get to the waterfall you hike through a light marsh for a mile or two, but if you aren’t too late in the day (or too cold) you can jump in the pool under the waterfall when you arrive. It is deep with excellent ledges for jumping.
This morning we drove to Goblin Valley State Park to play around and repel into the Goblin’s Lair. We ended up getting to Goblin Valley a little after lunch, setup camp, then played until dark. The repel into the Goblin’s Lair was easy, gorgeous, and pretty big (we used the entire 60m rope for it).
After cooking a chicken and pie dinner (it is pi day …3.14… afterall :) ), we went back to Goblin Valley for night games. I highly recommend playing night games when there is a decent moon. There was barely a sliver of a moon for us, which made night games not only more difficult, but also extremely scary :/.
So I began working on my goal to be able to do a backflip in water today. I was able to easily do a back flip from trampoline into a foam pit, and after about an hour of messing around, I was able to do a backflip on my own on the trampoline and land on the trampoline. Next, a backflip into a foam pit without a trampoline :).
Every Sunday my family gets together, along with some friends, and we have a big dinner, my dad makes cookies, and we play games all evening long. Today the games started with The aMAZEing Labyrinth. I have been wanting to play this game for weeks, and I was sure that we had two copies (my sister has one at her house). Since, in those few weeks, I was unable to find our second copy, I had to purchase a new one. Finally, we got to play it today…and I came in dead last! Granted, I had a stroke of bad luck on my last piece, but I lost :(. I did rock some of the other games that we played this evening. I love Sunday Family Game Night!
Woke up this morning with Bade making be breakfast. Still no wood floors in, so still no appliances in (even though there are now a few appliances just chilling in the garage waiting to be used). So breakfast is once again being made on our handy griddle. Doesn’t it looks delicious?!
After a yummy breakfast, we spent the entire day working. From sun up until way past sun down. I spent the day painting doors, windows, door frames, and the bathroom. Bade spent the day doing everything but painting.
My parents pseudo volunteered to work on Bade’s house with Bade and I today. We made fajitas on a griddle, then painted for hours!
I wanted to spice up zucchini, because it is so good for you and rarely my vegetable of choice. So I mixed 1/3 c Parmesan cheese, 1/3 c bread crumbs, garlic salt and Italian seasoning in a bowl. Then I dipped zucchini wedges (I cut mine in half and in 9ths and let them air dry for an hour) in a mixture of 2 large eggs and a little (about 1/3 c) egg beaters, then rolled the zucchini wedges in my cheese and bread mixture. Then I cooked them in the over at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, turned them over, then another 15 minutes. They were delicious! I ate them with ranch dressing.
Love jalapenos poppers? Want to have a yummy, spicy chicken dinner? Jalapenos popper chicken is the answer. I made these tonight and they were a hit. I modified the recipe from Cassie Craves. Here is what you will need:
4 chicken breasts (I got thin cut ones)
1 8-oz cream cheese
cheddar cheese
bacon
jalapenos
bread crumbs
eggs
So in church today, a newly-wed individual stood up and testified of the importance of temples. He noted that it was such a grace of God to place templates, his houses, here on Earth, so that we could have a space to feel closer to him. Now on the surface, this seems boring, regular, and just spiritual’ish, something that someone just says. However, when I really got thinking about it, I remembered how I felt when I was driving Bade’s truck this week and it made this idea stick out to me.
I had offered to get Bade’s truck an oil change, so we switched cars for the day. Not only did I feel really cool, a hot chick driving a big black truck, but I also had the though cross my mind “This is Bade’s steering wheel he grips on a regular basis” (creepy I know :) ), “and this is ‘his’ space where he spends at least an hour every day, enjoying his music, thinking about projects, etc.” Just having those semi-creepy/stalkerish thoughts about Bade made me feel more connected to him, without being closer to him or even talking with him.
Remembering this thought process made the idea of temples so much more real. God allowed his homes to be built and for us to visit so that we can enjoy his things. We can walk in his hallways and listen to uplifting meetings in rooms where he spends much of his time.
Kevin Bacon, the man who is connected to every other person by a series of small links, is in no way similar to Bade’s fixer upper of a house, which takes over an hour and a half for a simple home depot run. That said, this house IS awesome, or at least WILL BE awesome; the home projects continue.
This week, Bade and I have gone up to his house at least 3 times with paint samples, 2 the first time, 3 the second and 5 the third, in hopes of picking a paint that is unique enough to not be boring, but boring enough to go in 3-4ish rooms in the house. This is no easy task, especially for two very indecisive people. Friday was the 3rd night with paint samples and we planned to stay the night so that we could assess this last round of paint samples in daylight and make a final decision. Saturday morning came, we saw the samples in daylight, and we still hadn’t decided after working in the house for a few hours and decided that we would defer deciding until after lunch. We didn’t end up going to lunch, but straight to Lowe’s. However, we had decided on bone white by Olympic. Yeah, not an exciting color, but a lot could be done with such a versatile choice. We get there, ask the girl there to mix up the color for us, and she says “have you checked the mis-tint section?” No we have not; we chose bone white. But Bade, being his father’s son, cannot pass up an offer of 75% off, so we check the mis-tint section. There is a 5 gallon bucket that one, Bade, could argue is a much darker by slightly akin color to one we had already tried and didn’t hate. So we got it :).
We spent all day filling in holes, sanding walls and doors, taping, edging and painting. Now, the house looks SO much better and we love the color of the mis-tint paint. Goodness, 3 days of deliberation only to be undone by a good deal.
Oh and the final, random pictures from this weekend are below. We made a french toast and bacon breakfast at a house in the middle of no where with absolutely no appliances. We found a dead bird in the backyard in the morning. It really was a gorgeous bird.
Livin' Hard 
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