Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini

Our vegetable garden consisted of three plants this year: a tomato, a zucchini, and a crookneck squash (sadly, our pumpkin plant died because I think I planted it too early). Our small garden has been very prolific. Jared doesn't like either squash or zucchini, but we make him eat three "Jared-sized" pieces every night with his dinner. He now gobbles them up without complaint.

Last night with our dinner we had zucchini in three forms: cooked zucchini with butter, zucchini bread, and zucchini in our spaghetti sauce. The spaghetti sauce is actually a chicken spaghetti sauce, and was delicious! I thought I'd share the recipe for all of you out there that are trying to use up your zucchini like I am.

Chicken Italian Sauce

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 small can mushrooms (yuck, I left those out)
• 1 small green pepper, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped
  
• 1 26-oz jar spaghetti sauce

Put everything in a crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Yum! Serve over linguini or spaghetti.

Anniversary Party

A couple of months ago my siblings and I threw my parents a surprise anniversary party at a church to celebrate a milestone anniversary for them. It was a lot of work, especially to keep it secret, but it was well worth it! We sent out tons of invitations and had about 150 people show up. Alan and my other brothers strung countless Christmas lights and Japanese lanterns across the ceiling, and my sisters decorated with tea lights, roses, ribbons, and pictures that we stole from my parents' house.







There was a also a beautiful video with songs and pictures from my parents' courtship, delicious eclairs and cheesecakes for treats, and even a fancy wedding cake with chocolate-covered strawberries that I had Alan's cousin make.





We love you, Mom and Dad! We hope the night was magical and that you felt loved.

Still Alive

I've had a couple comments from friends that I haven't blogged much lately. We are still here. Right now we have 2 very slow computers and are trying to figure out what to do: wipe our 6-year-old laptop clean (after saving everything on an external hard drive) and try reloading everything in hopes that it will be faster, or just buying a new computer. It has been really frustrating. Sometimes I get on the computer to send an important email and then I get off of the computer 45 minutes later without having been successful at sending it (rebooting the computer and just waiting and waiting for pages to load up or for programs to end....) It is ridiculous.

Anyway, I have so much to blog about but no patience to do it. We went on a couple of fun vacations in July (one with Alan's whole fam and one with mine), Jared had a birthday, and we did lots of other fun things. Maybe someday I will share it with you.

Summer Fun

It seems like we have been going somewhere fun almost every day. We've spent a few evenings swimming at my parents' pool, we've gone to Thanksgiving Point, and we've spent several afternoons at the TWO splash parks close to my house (I just found out about the 2nd one last week). We also recently spent a Saturday at This is the Place Park, where we got in for half price.

Jared loved being able to pet the farm animals, going on the pony ride, and riding the "train." He also loved learning about chamber pots in the pioneer houses, which of course goes right along with his obsession with potties (still, even 15 months after potty training began).

Pioneer School

Navajo hogan

He's been deciding how to wear his hat lately. He's such a funny kid.

Corn

What we've been eating a lot of lately: corn.

This was Maggie's first taste of corn on the cob, but she has long since been able to eat a half of an ear all by herself (without me holding it).


As a side note, this is the first year since we've been married that we've planted a garden. Although it is small (one pumpkin plant that I think died in the late frost, one tomato plant, one zucchini, and one squash), I can't wait to eat the yummy veggies on it!

High School Friends

Some of the friends--plus Katie's son Ashton. Ha ha!

Last week my friend Ryan organized a gathering of some of my high school friends. We actually hosted it here in our backyard. It was such a blast to see people and catch up!

Happy 4th!

I haven't posted in over a month (I think a record for me. Not a good record, I guess). I have some catching up to do, but I'll start with our 4th of July.

We went with my sister and her family and my parents up to the Uintah Mountains. We tried to go to Mirror Lake, but it was still blocked off with snow, but we had a lovely KFC picnic at an alternative spot.






Then we had a fun dinner picnic with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We were planning on keeping Jared up to see the neighborhood fireworks, but he was being such a tired stinker after dinner that we just had him go to bed. I guess he still doesn't know what he's missing out on. Maybe Pioneer Day, right?