Food and Photos

One of the things I love to do the most is cook! I also love to try new things! Here are some of my recent favorites! 

Shrimp tacos- I've had them before but recently have perfected my recipe! I could eat these every single week! 

I found my new favorite cookie recipe! It's secret ingredient is a package of dry pudding! They are even better when you turn them into ice cream sandwiches with birthday cake ice cream! 

These are Japanese Onigiri (rice balls). One is fired and crispy on the outside and the others are filled with suchi ingredients. Next time, I think I will combine the two and put the filling in the fried Yaki Onigiri.  

Here is a honey oat loaf. It made really good turkey sandwiches! 

Recently my mother has been working on some family history. To help her preserve some of the images, I have been digitally restoring them. Here are some examples:

This is my great grandma Mable Victoria Lewis when she was three (taken in 1902). 

This is my Grandpa Cluff's (the blond in the middle back) basketball team in 1946.

It has been a lot of fun getting the chance to hear about my ancestors and seeing their faces. When I was working on the image of my grandma, I could feel the spirit and knew that she was happy that someone cared to learn about her and to take away all the scratches off her face so that later generations could know her. It has been a great blessing to me.

In my free time during the afternoon, I love to read. Just last week I was outside reading under the shade of a tree and I heard this squirrel running up and down the branches. It took me a while to notice why he was acting so weird when I saw the owl sitting up a few branches! 

I walked up to the tree and the owl just sat there and looked at me. As you can tell from all the down feathers he is not very old. After doing some research on the internet (thank you, Google), I discovered that he is a young Great Horned Owl. 

It is hard to tell from the pictures but he is over a foot tall and his fingers are at least as wide as mine with talons more than a inch long (and he is just a baby!). Later that night, I saw him silently fly over to another tree and his wingspan must have been over a yard. He is one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen in the wild. 

I was lucky to see him for three days in a row and I often can hear him at night. I also thought that it was pretty cool that I was reading Harry Potter when we first met. 

Three Years!!!

I can't believe that Logan and me have been married for three years! It definitely has been the best and happiest years of my life! As we have talked about it and reflected on them, we can't remember what life was like before we were together because we are so happy now. It just seems so natural. 

I loved the last General Conference when Elder Clayton said "Marriage is a gift from God to us. The quality of our marriage is a gift from us to Him." I couldn't agree more and feel that the relationship that I have with my husband is one of the things that I cherish most in this world. 

Just the other week at church, Logan was teasing me so I was holding his tie and laughing and one of the brothers walked by and was like "how long have you been married?". Silly example but I think it helps show that we are still just as much in love as the day we walked out of the temple. 

Life with Logan is better then I ever thought marriage could be. When we leave this life there is only a few things that we get to take with us and I am so grateful that I get to always be sealed and married to my best friend! 

I mustache you a question...

So for March Logan grew out his mustache. He almost won two of the categories on base too but it is okay that he didn't...the prizes were some kind of alcohol. The best part I think about him having a mustache was when he shaved it off!! 

Logan really didn't look that bad with it and it was pretty funny that it was way more red then his regular hair but we were both happy to see it go. He says it will never happen again but I'm proud of him for trying it out once.

For General Conference this weekend, I finally made the Japanese Cheesecake that I meant to do for Easter. I found out it was harder to make then I thought! What made it difficult was that you make the batter in three separate bowls and then combine them. I ended up using almost every utensil and bowl in the kitchen but four hours later (and sitting in the fridge all night) it was finally ready to eat!

Just out of the oven! 

For the topping I made a Mango Miroir Glaze (mostly just pureed mango) and made a fancy little decoration with some leftover mango. 

All the work was worth it in the end! It was one of the best cheesecakes I have ever had because it is much lighter and less sweet then regular cheesecake. Even Logan who doesn't love cheesecake that much to begin with said it was one of the best he has ever had and liked it a lot! I LOVE all cheesecake and agreed with him - honestly I could eat this all day! 

Logan watching General Conference and eating his dessert! Look, no mustache! 

After the afternoon session of General Conference on Saturday, Logan and me went on a little date! We got burritos at Free Bird World Burritos and then went to the River Walk to eat them. Look how big Logan's burrito is! He was so happy! 

This was our first trip to the River Walk here in San Angelo and it was really beautiful. Very different from the one in San Antonio but still nice. We found a nice bench and watched the ducks and turtles. 

Then Logan had to go home to change for Priesthood session. Before he left though, he let me take a few pictures. 

He is so handsome! 

I love General Conference weekend and am so happy that we still have another day to get to listen to our modern day prophets speak to us. 

Spring!

Spring has come and we have had the best weather here in Texas! The grass is turning green and there are wild flowers and butterflies. All the trees and bushes around our apartment complex have been leafing out and blooming too! Doesn't it just look beautiful?!

WRONG! This bush is evil because whatever it is has made me a sneeze, snot ball for the last few days! I really do love how beautiful everything looks but my allergies have been killing me! Can't have the good without the bad, I guess. 

One of the nice things that Logan and me get to do together now that he is on the evening shift is workout together. 

Here we are in the little gym at out apartment complex. I took this picture because I never really sweat but you can see a little spot on my shirt! That's how you know I was working out really hard that day! See Logan in the background. His shirt started out a lighter green.... haha! (I'm not kidding!) He was working out hard too!

Happy Easter!

This is the first official Easter that Logan and me have had on our own! Before, we were with family at home or celebrated with Relatives in Utah (Last year I was in Kansas City and Logan was at IFS). So this year was the first time I got to make all the food by myself. 

We were invited to an Easter potluck with Logan's class on Sunday afternoon so I made rolls to take to that. I made two pans of them and I think they turned out really well! People were really impressed that they were homemade. 

One of the two sheets of rolls, ready to go in the oven!

For our Easter dinner, Logan helped me make the twice baked potatoes while I put together the other things. I saved out some of the homemade rolls to go with everything else and it turned out to be a great dinner!  

All of Easter dinner! 

I was going to make a Japanese Cheesecake with a mango mirior glaze for dessert but we ended up being at the class potluck longer then expected (they are a fun group of kids). That's okay, it will be a great dessert to make next week during General Conference (Note to self: read your recipes before hand so you give yourself long enough for them to cook and cool off - Japanese Cheesecake takes nearly two hours to cook alone and then has to cool down and be chilled all the way. Good to remember). We ate the little bit of Easter candy that I bought instead and it all turned out just fine!

The Sonora Caverns and Logan's Birthday

For Logan's birthday this year, I decided to take him to see the Sonora Caverns. They are about an hour and a half hour drive from here and were so worth it! It is said to be one of the most decorated caves and there really were just the most amazing sights everywhere you looked. I wish I had a better camera because everything turned out looking the same color. It was so much more impressive in person. 

PS. March is also known as Mustache March in the Air Force and that is why Logan has one in all these pictures. He has promised that as soon as April comes it is gone! The amazing thing is that this is only 9 days of growing one and he by far has the best one of all the other boys in his class. So, even though we are both not a fan, it is a good bonding experience with the other guys in his class and that's a good thing. Go Logan! 

Waiting to go on the tour! 

The pic on the Left is what geodes look like when they form and the left pic is an example of what they call cave popcorn. 

The ones on the left are called clubs. 

This was called the Christmas Room. It was beautiful! I think that this was both Logan and my favorite. 

On the right the thing hanging from the ceiling are called straws because they are long a hallow. The longest one is 8 feet! 

There was not a lot of water in the cave but I thought that this was just beautiful!

Examples of what they call fish tales.

Some really big formations and some people in our tour.

More cool formations. 

I was pretty impressed with how beautiful the world is that Heavenly Father made for us. And just like us, it is beautiful inside and out :)

For Logan's birthday I made him ribs and mashed potatoes for dinner. I also made him a special cake this year. Usually, we do a strawberry ice cream cake for him but I decided to surprise him with something a little different this year.

 I made him a Snickers Ice cream cake with a peanut butter brownie crust! Let me just assure you, it was really, really yummy! Logan liked it a lot too! 

For his presents Logan got some new running shoes (that he loves), some camping stuff, a book and a big bag of peanut M&Ms but I think my favorite thing that I got him was his belt buckle! Now that we are Texans I thought it was appropriate. And doesn't he look good in it! I love that whenever he is not in his uniform, he wears it now. 

I'm getting caught up on posts!

I've posted several new posts and am so happy to be getting caught up! If you want to read them from oldest to new, the links are below or you can just start reading from here.

• Osteology Museum

• Halloween 

• Voting 

• Target Shooting

• Thanksgiving in Kansas

• My Birthday

• Christmas and New Years

• Moving to San Angelo, TX 

• San Antonio, TX and Valentines Day 

San Antonio, TX and Valentines Day

For Valentines day and to take a little Vacation before training started, Logan and me headed to San Antonio for a weekend trip! We left after work on Wednesday and got there that evening picked up dinner at Panda Express and watched a movie before heading back to Lackland AFB where we stayed at one of the hotels. 

Thursday 14

On our first morning there, I was getting ready and so Logan said he was going to go fill up the car on base while I finished up. When he got back, he had gassed up the car but also gotten me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and chocolates! He is so good to me!

Valentines day was spent in downtown San Antonio. We went on a boat tour, toured the Alamo, walked around the mall and walked the river walk. It is a beautiful location. It is green and has some really interesting history. I was impressed at how well they have up-kept all the old buildings - some were even several hundred years old! 

I have to admit that before going, I really didn't know much about what happened at the Alamo. It was interesting learning about it and the people who died there. For instance, did you know that Davy Crockett was killed there - I didn't!  

Walking around the grounds it was so beautiful and I really loved all the old trees. 

Some more pictures taken at the Alamo.

For dinner that nigh,t Logan surprised meagain by taking me out to dinner at one of the restaurants on the river walk. When we walked in for our reservation, I was sure they would put us inside in a little corner but then they walked us to a table right on the water side!! I was so impressed with Logan, yet again! He is so romantic!

I love this man so much!

Friday 15
The next day we went to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. It is one of the unique places I have even been! You drive your car (slowly) though the reserve and get to feed the animals out of your car window! 

We found out that the animals were really used to people and some would walk in front of your car so you had to stop and then come to your window to get fed. The one below, next to Logan, would have had its whole head in the car were it not for it's horns! I thought the Zebras were cool because they would come up and open their moths really wide so you could trow food in. 

After seeing all the animals we got Chipotle and went up north a little bit to a place that had TWO outlet malls! I couldn't believe that they were right next to each other and they both had a Banana Republic Outlet. It was my lucky day! Logan got some shoes but I don't think he was as excited about it.

Saturday 16

By now I couldn't imagine that our trip could get any more fun but then we went to SeaWorld!! Once every year they let military members and their families in for free. We met up with another couple from San Angelo at the park and got to see all the amazing animals!

One of the first things we did was go to the dolphin exhibit. It is open so you can reach in a pet them! We were there for a while and all the sudden one swam right up to me and I got to be the first of our group to touch one. By the time we left, we all had had a chance.

After that, we walked over to the aquarium because it was feeding time for them. Inside, they had several tanks and then two large ones with stingrays and sharks. We watched a scuba diver feeding the stingrays and then walked over to the Shark tank.

One of the workers asked if I had any questions and I didn't, so I asked him what is favorite shark was. He took me over and showed me one called a zebra shark - it was one he was personally in charge of feeding and taking care of.

I don't know why but after we were talking he asked if the four of us would like to go up to the top of the tanks. Uh, YES!! So he took us through a door that lead to the back and gave us a private tour! He showed us the huge water filters and then took us to the "kitchen"  were they prepare all the animal's food everyday.

Then he led us up a staircase that went to the top of the stingray and shark tanks. They must do this every once in a while because he had a tub that had examples of sting ray teeth, the fake coral and a empty shark egg. About that time the scuba diver girl was getting out of the water and we got to chat with her a little too. 

Then we went over to the shark tanks. It was so cool when the sharks would come to the top and you could see their fin above the water. Our tour guide gave us food to fed the fish that live in the shark tank. Another one of the workers came over and said if you threw it in front of the shark, sometimes the fish would swim in front and the sharks would eat them! I asked how often the sharks actually ate the fish and the guy was like "it happened just yesterday".  So of course we all tried but didn't get to see that. 

Another super cool thing about or private tour was seeing some animals that were not displayed to the public like this guy called a Wobbegong or a carpet shark. I guess she is super old for her species. I love the stars pattern in her skin! 

After our tour, we road two of the roller coasters and saw some shows. We ended our day with the killer whale show. We sat two rows into the splash zone thinking that we wouldn't get wet because we were really close to the top. WE WERE SO WRONG! haha. With the first well placed splash, Logan and me were drenched. Oh, well. That's just part of the SeaWorld experience!

When we got back to the car, we were lucky we had extra clothes. So we changed, got dinner on our way out of town and headed back home that night. I have to say it was the most amazing trip! Just what we needed. We were so lucky that the weather was perfect everyday we were there and we had some amazing experiences. We decided that we really like San Antonio and Lackland, AFB and we would be happy to live there someday.