March Happenings.

A few fun happenings in the Cook Household:


-We have fallen head over heels in love with roasted broccoli.  Yes, Mrs. Cynthia I said Broccoli :).  (I use to not be the biggest fan of plain broccoli-but things have been changing!).  Mince up some garlic and throw it in with the broccoli, pour olive oil, salt and pepper over it and roast it on about 350 for a bit.  Then once you pull it out squeeze some lemon juice over it and sprinkle some parm. cheese.  Man oh man you will be having a party in your mouth.  Since we've discovered this dish we've made it about seven times (in about a 2 week period).  It is delightful.


-My little brother will soon be graduating from COLLEGE :)!  I am a very proud big sis and so very excited for him.  He went the fifth year route and very much enjoyed his first few years of college-wink wink :)-but he will soon obtain a diploma from Lander and make his way into the Big People World!  He graduates in April and we would LOVE to make it back to see him receive his diploma with the rest of our family, but unfortunately we won't get to do that.  I expect lots of photos from my family and text messages!  Love you 'Lil E' :) and am Very Proud of you!

My brother graduating from High School.


-That man of mine will soon be having his wisdom teeth taken out.  He actually chose Friday the 13th of April for his surgery.  He said when he picked that day the scheduler woman stated, 'Really?  You want to have your surgery on Friday the 13th?'.  The poor fella actually thinks I'm going to let him go back into work/writing the evening after his surgery.  He also thinks he is going to be able to jump up and get some work done during that weekend.  I have very sternly pulled my wife card (only on certain occasions does this wife card trump the hubby card-but this is definitely one of them) and told him that for once in our marriage He will relax, recover, and let me take care of him-He isn't very happy about all this though.

Seth on a cold evening after drying a set of our flannel sheets we pull them out of the dryer and he wraps himself up in it.


-I'm getting fluffy.  It is a fluffy that can't be overlooked anymore.  I've decided that I'm not even attracted to myself, so I would hate for Seth to figure out what is going on :).  I've also come to the conclusion that something has to be done about the situation, so I've joined a local gym and so far have been working out pretty regularly.  Haven't been able to tell a difference yet, but Seth has tried to be sweet and tell me that I have lost a bunch of weight already :)--We all know he is fibbing a bit, but I'm okay with the motivation.


-As of today and the way our Utah Winter has been working out I will be able to wear a DRESS on EASTER :)!  I am beyond excited about this and expect to be looking around for a new Easter dress soon-if I'm unable to find the perfect one I will totally wear one that I already own and sooooo act like it is brand spanking new!  Last year I tried and tried to wear a dress but it was 1. Very chilly for the dresses that I owned and 2. Seth turned his nose up at several of the dresses I tried to wear and informed me that we were going to a church service and they didn't look good at all :).


-Lastly, and definitely the MOST important and exciting!  Seth and I purchased tickets to South Carolina to go to the beach with my family in July!  We originally had planned to not go because we had no idea what would be going on in the Cook household at that time.  Recently, I've been somewhat homesick and so missing both of our families.  No expected visitors anytime soon and a cancellation of visitors only added to this homesickness and I began looking at different flights for different months and I came across some Deal breaking tickets!  I notified Seth and he was floored and began to consider the idea of going home in July.  Finally after a bit of deliberation and prayer we purchased our cheap flights to South Carolina.  I've never missed a family beach trip in all my 24 years and I am so grateful that I don't have to start this year!  Whoop :).


Also, here are a few of our future plans to be looking forward too:


-Backpacking trip in April
-Seth turns 24 in May-we will be the same age for a few months!
-Seth will be completing his Masters Program in June and even though he has enjoyed this educational phase in his life, he will very much be looking forward to his career phase!
-Traveling to Colorado in June with some friends for adventure and a concert at the Red Rock amphitheater.
-July-traveling to SC for Beach Trip!
-Seth and I will celebrate our very wonderful Two Years of Marriage in August!


Thanks for reading about the Cook Household Updates :)-Hope you all have a very wonderful week-Enjoy it!

The Cook's :).

Spring Break Trip.

Unfortunately, our much wanted trip to San Antonio to visit Trevor and Emily just didn't span out.  Tickets were out of our price range and the one day they fell in it, we couldn't purchase seats together.  The many who know me-know this wouldn't have worked out.  I need Seth beside me while I am up in an airplane at this stage in my life.  Even though he can't do anything for me during those airplane rides, just knowing that I can tap on him to wake him up, question him about the plane, and have him hold my obnoxiously sweaty hands is something that I don't want to do without.  So, we simply decided that we would just work over spring break.  


After mulling things over in this head of mine, I decided that I wanted to treat my man and get him away from Logan for a bit.  He works to hard in my opinion and doesn't appear to be able to apply the breaks anytime soon, so I began planning a trip to Southern Utah. 

What I wanted to plan out as a surprise couldn't stay that way for anytime.  I am the worst at keeping surprises.  Especially when it comes to surprising Seth.  I'll buy him a gift and will just Blurt out what I've done the minute I see him.  So, of course I told him I wanted to take him somewhere and explained my Southern Utah idea.  We ended up in the Eastern part of Utah, visiting Goblin Valley and Arches National Park.

We left early Saturday morning and landed in Goblin Valley around lunchtime to play around and camp.

Seth on some Goblin seat

How neat were these things.

Seth and I mossied around Goblin and picked out some of the rocks determining what they looked like.  We saw a duck, a turtle, swan, seats, alligators, and plenty more.

Seth kept telling me to look at the sky, mountains, and people walking around and it feels like Earth, but when walking through these little goblin like rock things he was convinced we left Earth and were on a different planet.  Seth went into his kid mode and LOVED it :).

Seth at the Goblin overlook.

Roughing it.

Our campsite was located in a pretty nifty little area.  It was weird rock/sand type things behind and around us and just wide open area in front of us.

Seth definitely looks better roughing it than I do!

Waking up Sunday in Goblin Valley.

Seth beyond enjoys camping and all that it entails, whereas I enjoy some things about it.  I enjoy sitting by a fire, roasting and eating hot dogs, marshmellows, and smores.  That sums it up for me :).  I do not enjoy being cold and having to throw layers over layers over layers.  I don't particularly like waking up multiple times in the middle of the night to random weird noises, and I always hope that I won't have to wake up in the middle of the cold night needing to use the restroom. 

Of course we all know I'm exaggerated a bit.  I had such a wonderful time watching Seth and seeing him thrilled at being outdoors.  He took such wonderful care of me while camping that I literally didn't have to do a thing but roast my hot dog and marshmellows and eat them.  After the sun went down and the stars came out it was stunning.  I have never seen so many stars-it was like the sky had disappeared and been replaced with billions of stars.  The moon was full and there was nothing more beautiful.  Seth has requested to camp out more and I am willing myself to do it and enjoy it.  I did request a camper and he compromised with a pop-up one.  

In April we are going backpacking for a weekend with friends.  I've never been backpacking before, but I'm sure it will be a wonderful time.  I'm sure I'll have stories for you when we get back from that trip.  Seth has informed me that I will have to wear the same clothes for two and a half days, so that will be a bit tough to figure out what outfit I want to be in for two and a half days :).  

Moving along with our trip now.  We did another little hike in Goblin that some friends suggested-Little Wild Horse Canyon.  It is a narrow canyon that you can walk through, but are advised to not be near when it rains.  Seth and I made our trek in and once we entered the canyon my Daddy's worrysome ways took over my mind.  I was trying to be a trooper for Seth, because once again he was just LOVING it.  I finally couldn't handle it anymore and told Seth I'm sorry but we just had to turn around and leave.  He pleaded for three more bends and I obliged and we then began our exit out of this narrow canyon.  We came to the conclusion that I must have a bit of claustrophobia going on in my life.

Moving along to Arches National Park.  We spent Sunday and Monday touring and hiking around Arches.  The weather was just perfect for us.


Our first hike was to Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch.  It was a huge arch!  I wasn't expecting it to be so massive.

Seth under the Arch.

Seth standing in another arch.

I thought these were pretty neat.  

The 'landscape' arch.

Hiking on a rock fin type thing and I was a little apprehensive about the situation, so of course we had to get a picture.

Such a pretty view from this arch.

Fiery Furnace.

The view from the Lodge we stayed at while in Moab/Arches Park.

We had a such a wonderful trip and it so nice to be able to just refresh our batteries!

Hope ya'll enjoyed hearing and seeing about our little trip.  Have a good rest of your week folks!

The Cook's :).