there's just something about it.

I love the Fourth of July. Like, overly much. A celebration of the greatest country? Check. Delicious grilled meats, patriotic treats, and controlled explosives to aid in said celebration? Check, triple check, and frak yeah check.

I think it might have something to do with it being the epitome of summer. Alls I know is, I'm like

Total bliss. ALL DAY LONG.

top ten tuesday: recipes.

It's no secret that I love to cook and bake. I feel like half my life is spent looking through cookbooks finding new things to try. Enter the invention of the Internet and the subsequent zillions of recipes at my fingertips. Chyeah!

Here are the top ten recipes I'm currently dying to try. And then eat.

Top Ten Tuesday: Recipes to cook up.

1. Chocolate Hazelnut Baklava
2. Bacon Lover's Mac 'n Cheese
3. Apricot Almond Torte
4. Brioche
5. Roasted Peppers with Capers and Mozzarella
6. Lemon Risotto
7. Sweet Corn Chowder with Toasted Tortillas
8. Chicken with Herbed Goat Cheese
9. Barbecue Chopped Salad
10. Key Lime Bars

it's a bad habit, i know.

But he's just so darn adorable.

And of course I'm all like,

Anyway.

top ten tuesday: summer.

Happy first day of summer! Although the weather here has yet to get the memo regarding the situation, I'm still excited for the season. I'm not one to enjoy sweating, but Utah's good about giving us all four seasons, and I like it. While by no means comprehensive, here is my top ten list of favorite things about summer.

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer.

1. Buying fruit from the farmer's market by my house.
2. Long drives, windows down, music turned up, while wearing sunglasses.
3. Baseball.
4. Obnoxiously bright toenails.
5. Swimming all day, and the accompanying exhaustion leading to the best nap of your life.
6. Camping, hiking, and boating my little heart out.
7. How it stays light outside until 9 pm.
8. Delicious grilled food, i.e. meats.
9. More acceptability to wear casual clothes to church and work. Just being able to wear less clothes in general.
10. No taking your life into your hands by driving in snow or ice.

book review: black hawk down.

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Having not seen the movie, I went into this book with only a dim outline of what it was about.

I thought this book was extremely well written and researched. And the research only serves to reinforce the feeling of being mentally wrenched between emotions. When you first begin, it's easy to read this book as a story; it's when you take a step back and realize these events really happened--and that you can't stop thinking, "I can't believe this is happening"--that you start to take it more seriously.

Maybe I was a little biased in my reading since my brother wants to be a Marine officer, but it was still a little hard to read at times, especially the accounts of how some of the men die.

The reality of war is something I can take only in small doses, and this book was an effective tool for helping me realize just how much I take for granted.


View all my reviews

two rules of dieting.

1. Don't have extra Reese's peanut butter cups from your free day lounging around in your pantry.
2. Don't diet.

Giving it a try: Food blog.

I've decided to do my take on a food blog, so we'll see how it goes. It's still a young buck in the development process,

but I have high hopes. Don't be the one to crush them.

Check it out!

first vacation of the summer.

For the past week my family and I have been in central Oregon and northern California. We had the greatest time ever, like always, and I'm kind of in post-vacation shock right now. It feels weird to be in my house, driving my car, going to work (even if I did only go in for a half day.) Reality sucks. But my time away from it was a good one. From the trip overall, I learned I need to do the following three things:

1. Kayak more.
2. Move out of Utah.
3. Buy an old-school Schwinn and combine all three.

Here is a quick rundown of the things we saw, did, and ate.

Sunday, June 5.

Derek, Dad, Clara and I left early in the morning for Boise. Mom was already there since she had some properties to visit for work. The drive was relatively uneventful (I know this is shocking to you, since it's western Idaho) EXCEPT that we stopped at Shoshone Falls (the "Niagara of the West," apparently), saw the Twin Falls Temple, and stopped at a gas station that had some crazy alpacas. Yeah, Idk on that last one. Here are some photos from that drive:























































































We arrived in Boise that evening and just chilled in our hotel rooms. I guess you can't beat both a Sister Wives and a Hunt for Sasquatch marathon when you've been trapped in the car all day.

Monday, June 6.

The next morning we geared up for the drive to Oregon. Nothing much to say there...lots of sleeping and a random pit stop--the details of which will remain a family secret til the end of days.


We arrived in Bend, Oregon, in the early evening and stopped at the grocery store to get some food for the week. Derek and I were in charge of dinner the first night (grilled hamburgers, relish tray, watermelon, chips, oh yeah). We got our stuff together and headed to our cabin in Sunriver. I was really surprised to find that the cabin was actually part of a resort, which turned out to be awesome. For some reason I had imagined it as being isolated on some mountainside. Meh.

We arrived at the cabin and immediately everyone was involved in unpacking the truck and completing recon missions to scope out the best room and sleeping area to throw down their stuff.



That night we ate dinner, mom and dad and I went to the small country store to get some necessary caramel popcorn supplies (indeed I did make homemade caramel on a foreign, electric stove. Beat that!), and we watched a couple movies. We were pretty beat after the long drive so we all went to bed.











Tuesday, June 7.

After breakfast, Cara, Mom, Clarence and I went to the community's swimming pool. It was pretty warm in the afternoon, even though the breeze was chilly. It was kind of trippy to be swimming in a pool in the mountains, but trippy can also be synonymous with awesome, such as in this case.



We all got pretty burned, as we found out later that night. We played gin rummy as a family, at which I sucked so bad I might as well have been playing with Go Fish cards. Don't worry, I redeemed myself the next night with an overall score of 140. Yup.

Wednesday, June 8.

Wednesday we had a five-mile hike to Benham Falls. The weather was perfect and the best part was there weren't any crowds, so we were able to enjoy the scenery. That night Derek and I went on an epic bike journey in search of the path to the store. Apparently the family needed ice cream RIGHT NOW so Derek and I threw on our adventure packs and totally came through. 'Cause we do that.




Thursday, June 9.

Our last day in Sunriver we went kayaking on the Deschutes River. It was my first time and I loved it! Derek's already looking into kayaks for us to buy here so we can go on our own. It was fairly easy going, no Class 6 for us at this time, but I think it's only a matter of time...



That night we went to dinner at the lodge restaurant--super fancy and delicious. We walked back to our cabin and had the final round of the week-long rummy tournament. Mom won it all, of course, but that's only because she (a) keeps track through the entire game of who's going for what and everything they discard and (b) has a hidden contraption in her sleeve that allows her to get the card she needs at the last minute. It's easy I guess if you have no qualms victory dancing in your children's faces. Jk mom...you know I'm kidding!

Friday, June 10.

On Friday we packed up and headed out for Crescent City, California. We stopped in Union Creek at Beckie's for lunch and YES you have to stop there if you happen to pass by someday. It was so good. The drive got even more beautiful the farther along we went, getting closer to the coast and redwoods country. I love that area so much. It makes more sense to me than desert-y things do.



We got to Crescent City, checked into our hotel and set out in search of dinner. We landed at the Chart Room, right on the pier, and had a great view of the sun setting over the ocean. The coast is always beautiful.



Saturday, June 11.

Saturday we had a lot of driving and adventuring ahead of us so we got an early start. We drove through Redwoods National Park, which was awe-inspiring, even if it does conjure images of velociraptors jumping out of the trees at any moment to devour your family. Still beautiful. And just...enormous. One of the pictures below is of Clarence standing on the roots of a fallen tree. That's just THE ROOTS, people. We saw so much that day I have a hard time remembering it all, but at some point we ended up at Cafe Nooner in Eureka, California, which was freaking off the charts delicious, before heading over the Willow Creek, home of Bigfoot (over 10,000 sightings in this area alone). After checking out the museum at Willow Creek, we headed to Redding, over to Sacramento, through Tahoe, and sometime around midnight-ish ended up at the Grand Sierra in Nevada. Our hotel room was the nicest I've ever been in and it wasn't long before we were trying to figure out how we could get the beds back home.









Sunday, June 12.

It's a long way home from Reno to Salt Lake when you've already been driving for the better part of two days. Especially that desert, nothing drive where every time you come around a bend, you're pretty sure you've been on that stretch of road. Twice. For hours. Luckily I had my Sherlock Holmes to read. But eventually we made it home late last night. It was a great trip and I only wish I had time to upload all of the pictures we took between all of our cameras. On to the next!

Did I mention my family is the greatest?

Enter this giveaway and have your life changed forever.

My friend Natalie is giving away one free running session. If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to run with a professional marathoner, now is your chance to ask questions, get tips for better technique, and improve your overall running game. Go here to get details and enter. Good luck!

thanks, debbie downeress.

On Memorial Day I went with my parents to see Source Code. Mostly because (1) my life is insanely wild and crazy and we just do things like that, and also mostly because (hint: the real reason) (2) I don't feel comfortable turning down the opportunity to see a movie that has the camera trained on Jake Gyllenhaal for 99% of the movie. Ya just don't.

So we had gotten our tix and were making our way to the viewing station. I gave my ticket to the ticket-taking slave and he says, "Source Code--it was good until the last ten minutes."

He just looked at me and backed away just then since I was all
















Who. Even. Says. That.

top ten thursday: my brother.

Yeah yeah, you hear about him a lot. Deal with it.

Top Ten Thursday: Reasons Why I Love My Brother/He is Awesome.

1. He can always make me laugh and has the best sense of humor.
2. He is extremely smart and knows what he wants in life; we used to call him The Professor because he was always saying, "Did you know...?" And 9/10 times, we didn't.
3. He takes the time to listen to me and talks to me about books, ideas, funny things, the military, and how we would survive the zombie apocalypse.
4. He has awesome ambitions. (Marine officer, JAG lawyer, etc.)
5. He is himself and doesn't let other people influence him.
6. He is strong in the Church and does what is right because it's part of him.
7. He makes me a better person for knowing him and is a great example.
8. He is positive and doesn't let dumb things get in his way.
9. He is thoughtful, insightful, and loving.
10. He is my best friend.

(photo collage to come...I know you can't wait)

the graduate.

Today was Derek's big day: He graduated from high school AND got his mission call within hours of each other. This membrane doth be insane, ya'll. Graduation was fun though with everyone. It brought back so many memories of my own graduation just six years ago, and how I got to "walk down the aisle" during the processional/recessional with my middle/high school crush, a Mr. C. Anderson. Yup. It was completely random and everything, how we lined up to walk in. When we linked arms to walk down together he was all, Hey Rach, and I was all, "Hey." How I was inside: afjnasdufadjfnjk!!knsafdkn!. Or some approximation. He was so handsome.

Anyway. Back to Derek. I am tired so here are just a few pics from graduation. I'll post mission-call-opening ones later.

























































































1. Me, Derek, Cara, Clarence, Grandma and Grandpa Spohn.
2. Derek and cutest Abby.
3. Me and Cub.
4. Me and Bud.
5. Derek, Dad, and Mom.
6. We went to P.F. Chang's afterward, and this was my mini Great Wall of Chocolate dessert. Yum!