Dog Sitting

While my family travels all over Europe Dave and I get to watch their dog. I would be really bitter and jealous if little Dieter wasn't so dang cute. We love having him at our house and so do all of the neighboor kids. We are constantly answering the phone and door and being asked, "Can Dieter play with us?" And I can't blame them he is so much fun. Our friends little girl, Trina (also adorable) was over at our house the other and decided that Dieter needed to join in on the all The Dark Night rage. Which by the way is really good.

Don't let my size fool you.

Errr, watch out Joker I'm coming for you

Sometime instead of lying on his bed he likes to crawl under it. He's one hot dog!

Don't worry Preston, we are taking good care of your dog.

Brent and Andrea

Last week Dave and I traveled to Utah for Dave's brother's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and so nice to get out of the heat. Brent married the cutest girl, Andrea. I'm so happy to have another sister-in-law and can't wait to get to know her over the years.

They were married in the Timpanogos Temple

The cute couple.

Awww

The cuter couple...j/k

While in Utah we stayed with my Grandma and she took us to Brighton Ski Resort it was beautiful

And there was still snow there!

Like any other trip, our trip to Utah left me wishing that we lived somewhere else. Somewhere where you can actually go outside during the summer time.

Chef Raquel

On Tuesday, I decided to venture out of my comfort zone of baking and try my luck at cooking. As I contemplated what to do in order to avoid boredom for the next 4 hours I thumbed through an old pasta cookbook given to me by my mom. Feeling brave, I rushed out to the grocery store and returned home armed and ready to make my first homemade pasta (we were out of eggs so I had to go get some). As I started kneading the dough I was a bit nervous, but after awhile my confidence was building. Turns out making pasta is quite easy. It is just extremely time consuming, especially if you don't own a pasta roller.

Cutting the pasta. I had to unroll each noodle individually.

Drying the pasta.

Voila!

Scott you would have been proud.

OHIO

This past week my sister and favorite brother-in-law paid us a visit from Ohio. It was so great to see them and have all of the family back together, with the exception of my brother serving a mission. Last Saturday we spent the whole day together doing "family" things. We are all big Food Network fans and enjoy watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. In one episode Mike's Big Breakfast, a little resturant in Phoenix, was featured. So we decided to brace the heat and hour wait to see what all the rave was about. It ended up being quite worth the wait. MMM.. homemade maple syrup, doesn't get much better than that. Plus with the Phoenix Farmers Market just across the street, waiting turned out to be quite entertaining, and Dave and I came home with some great cinamonroll bread and a free Jamba Juice bag.

Waiting to be seated.

It was hot, but well worth the wait.

Yumm. Pancakes and Waffles.

The plan for the rest of the day was to float down the Salt River. After viewing the line at the loading station we opted for the pool in my parents' backyard. Which turned out to be an excellent choice. Swimming was followed by a trip to the movies to see Walle and a BBQ with homemade ice cream at my parents. We all had a great time and decided that even thought the 4th of July was a week away today might have well have been the 4th.