Theme night menu planning

So we are trying to make some changes in our home.  Just little things here and there to lengthen our lives or lengthen our stride or... well that's all the lengthens I can think of.  Anyway one of our goals is to eat better and to stresss less about meals.  And I am hoping to accomplish that via the Food Nanny.  A really perky lady (she has a show on PBS or one of those channels) that would drive me crazy in real life.   But her cookbook/concept is making me happy in the kitchen.  She suggests having every night be a theme night.  Like mexican, italian, etc.  Then you plan your menu around that theme and do all your shopping for two weeks.  I have tried things like this before.. menu planning or occasional theme nights and I love it when I do it, but I don't follow through, but we've got a system and its happening.

It's nice to know what we are having for dinner and then we can't convince the other that we should just grab a bite to eat.  Plus I can do easy meals on the nights I have YW always.  So far we are loving it, and I think it will save us money as I plan out two weeks and think what ingredients can I use meal to meal.

•  Monday - Mexican
• Tuesday - Italian
• Wednesday - Meatless / Fish
• Thursday - Date Night :)
• Friday - Grill /Soup
• Saturday - Pizza
• Sunday - Family Traditions

Luke and I making dough on our favorite night...pizza night.   We have margherita pizza every week while we still have fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden...delish!

Shannon, my BFF from  college was in town and it was sooo fun to get together Luke and her daughter Jaime are only a month apart so we all had a blast.   It was just like the good old days.  My freshman year I split like 3 pairs of pants right down the behind.  It seems like for awhile everytime I went to the cafeteria I heard RRRIPP and there went another pair.  I guess I did suffer from the freshman 15 at least in my booty.  Anyway there I was hanging out with Shannon and it hits again and I got home and took off my pants to change into a swimsuit and notice a huge rip right in the behind.  Ah memories.  It was so funny to me.   Anyway we had a blast and can't wait till next year.  Shan, let me know if your pictures of us turned out...your eyes were closed :) (Next month that is when you are on the internet)

We were trying to get their "pre-engagement" photos but it just wasn't working out

Luke giving one of many hugs and kisses.

Park City

We have a family reunion on my mom's side of the family every year.  But it has never seemed like a family reunion in the classic sense...in fact we don't even call it a family reunion...we just call it Park City.   It is all about tradition My family has been going there for over 30 years but if you peeked in from year to year you wouldn't know the difference.  This is the recipe for Park City.

• Swimming
• Playing Games
• Feeding the Ducks
• Pinata- or yada as we now refer to it.
• Alpine slide

Now for the picture/video overload.

Luke with his nemisis and cousin Bulikin.    They are 3 month apart and have a love hate relationship.

Luke with Grandma Great headed to the Pinata.

Me and my sister Kimber on the lift up to the Alpine slide.

Me and Bry on the lift up to the Alpine slide.

Luke and I ready to zip down the Alpine slide.  He wanted to go fast, he loved it, it was fun, fun, fun.

These movies are only really fun to watch if you were there or are family.

Puts his pants on one leg at a time..just not quite like everyone else

Luke is becoming a full fledged independent toddler.  He is busy busy busy.  The other day he wanted to but his shorts on by himself...he got really really close to getting it right.  He walked around for a while just holding them up like that.  Then I showed him he had them on upside down.  Such a fun age!

Bryan and I went to Deer Valley Outdoor Symphony to round out his B-day celebration.  He loves rock music with a symphony.  So this was a fun one.    It was the music of Led Zepplin.. so I must admit my favorite part of the concert was watching all of the older ladies relive their youth and dance like they were in their living rooms...hilarious.  It was in the most beautiful setting and we had a little picnic.  The fun thing was that it felt like we were outside of Utah, everyone with their fun alcoholic drinks.  Then we were there with our fun drinks: simply grapefruit and sobe, it is fun to be different, we so rarely get that opportunity here. 

Too efficient.

Well we have been doing quite a bit of camping this summer.  This past week I spent more nights in a sleeping bag than in my own bed.  I got to go to girls camp and youth conference, both really fun, I really love my girls and enjoy being a YW leader.  But they were planned really close together and I have a hard time leaving my little family.  Anyway combine that with our couple of family camping trips in the past month and I've become quite the camper...I know the drill.  I can pack and even unpack in a moments notice.  That is actually what got me in trouble.  Our M.O. is to come home and strip all our stinky clothes off right into the washing machine, so efficient.  This last time we had gone camping with my brother & fam, & sister and they were hanging out at our house after, but I wasn't going to change my routine.   So we all threw our clothes in and started chatting away ( we showered and changed...this isn't a nudist colony mind you)  I went to change the load over and what do I find...my camera that I had left in my hoodie.  Lame.  Luckily I upload pictures pretty frequently, so I only lost that camping trips worth, but I have been without a camera since July 24th arg.  Hopefully it should arrive tomorrow.

But in the meantime I missed some great photo-ops trying to capture these pictures in my mind:

• Luke covered in chocolate laughing hysterically in the back seat, joy!
• Bryan's Beatles B-day
• Bryan didn't want a birthday "cake"  so I make a rice krispy bundt.  Fan-cy