Cook Update Part II.

This Update Part II will mostly involve awesome pictures that were taken with our visitors last week.

During Emily & Trevor's visit-we decided to pack in as much as we could with them to make their trip worthwhile and hopefully enjoyable.  After our eventful morning of running and golfing we headed out to hike a strenuous Naomi's Peak.  It couldn't have been a more beautiful day with gorgeous fall colors.

Trevor & Emily at the TrailHead.

Good hikers here.

Like I've mentioned before-the colors were just so bold and breath-taking.  The sky was big and blue.  The air was crisp-at times chilly-but it kept us from getting to warm.  Just a perfect outing.

As you can see from the above picture Emily was in the lead.  During this hike I considered to Emily often as the 'beast'.  Seth, Trevor, and I would have to stop at times to catch our breath, grab a drink of water, or just to plain stop because our legs were on fire.  Emily would just continue treking up in elevation without any cares in the world, until she realized her followers were lagging pretty far behind.  We finally resulted to asking her if she was even the least bit tired, because she certainly didn't appear that way :).  

A view along the way to the peak.

During the hike we had to stop for a little pick-me-up snack, but decided to save our sandwiches for when we reached the peak.

Naomi's Peak :).

The Cutsinger's Soaking in the Western Range.

My man looking around at the Top.

Trevor & Emily--Troopers!

Seth and I.

Other side View.

Emily & Seth.

After our Naomi's Peak hike, we went over to Bear Lake and on down to Garden City for a raspberry shake.  It's the only thing that motivated us to complete that hike :).

Bear Lake Overlook.

Trevor & Emily.

 After our hike and trip to Bear Lake for a raspberry shake we were whooped.  We came home and made pizza's, hung out for a bit, and hit the sack.

Sunday, we headed to Salt Lake City to see the temple, eat Red Iguana (Seth's all time fav. place), and drop our guests off at their various locations.

So pretty.

Seth enjoying his favorite place--Red Iguana!

Driving through the canyon--So pretty.

We very much enjoyed having Trevor & Emily out to visit and hated to see them leave!  So, that about wraps up our little update here.

Tomorrow, Seth and I will be hiking these bad boys....

 Can I just go ahead and say that I'm beyond nervous about this?  It's 3,000+ elevation change, about 7 1/2 miles long, and about ehhhh 7-8 hours of hiking in there.  The Wellsville range are considered either THE steepest ranges in the US or one of them.  I'm sure we'll get some lovely pictures, but it will surely be a tough one!

Hope you all have a fun weekend!

The Cook's :).

Cook Update Part I

I've got a lot of catching up to do, so I'm going to plow right on into the good stuff and many many photos!  You're able to keep up with us a tad bit better due to the handy dandy smart phone that allows us to take pictures and instantly upload them to facebook.  Unfortunately, this means that I am on my phone a lot taking pictures as well as enjoying all the fun games and accessories this phone provides. 

In September we went down to Brigham City with some friends to tour the Brigham City temple before it was dedicated.  Anyone can go and tour temples before they are dedicated, but upon dedication only LDS members can enter them.

Brigham City Temple

Tom & Megan--Seth & I.

It was a fun experience and a very detailed & beautiful building--inside and out.  After our temple trip we went came back to Logan to eat at Elements for Taco Tuesday-Yumm...

The first weekend in September we went to Paradise (a few towns over) and went apple pickin'.  Apples are probably our favorite fruit to have around these here parts, so we definitely stocked up, and have every intention of returning to Paradise for more this weekend.

Our Apples.

Our next little adventure was my very first 5k :)--Top of Utah.  It was so much fun!  The Top of Utah was decked all out for the Marathoner's, but since Miranda and I ran the 5k we got to benefit from all the extravagant-ness of the marathon.  My time was 31.10 and I was pretty excited about it.

Before our race.

Miranda beat her time by almost six minutes!  Michael ran the Marathon (in 4 hours and 20 minutes I may add), Miranda and I ran the 5k, and Seth watched their three girls :).  

My cute man & I.

Seth has made us a corn hole set for tailgating/watching Clemson and just hanging out (as many of you may already know).  Last weekend we smoked some ribs and had a few neighbors and friends over for tailgating, dinner, and watching the Clemson game.  What a fun day, but obviously we were a little disappointed in our Tigers.

This weekend Seth's sister, Emily, and her husband, Trevor, came out to visit for a quick weekend.  After picking Emily & Trevor up Friday evening we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant in Salt Lake.

Trevor & Emily at The Blue Nile.

A few weeks ago we had an Ethiopian dinner that Jonathan & Marilyn made.  It was the first time Seth and I had ever tried Ethiopian food.  We knew it was yummy and could only assume Jonathan and Marilyn duplicated the dishes well.  After eating at The Blue Nile we decided they were spot on and even more impressed with them :).  The Blue Nile gave us a fun, yummy, and easy to share dinner with this cute couple.

Saturday morning our fellas headed out for a round of golf, while us gals went to Wellsville for a 'Hotter than Haiti-Fun Run' (5k race).

Emily, Miranda, and I before the Run.

Em & I.

Goals:

Emily's goal was to run it in about 26 minutes

My goal was to beat my previous 5k time of 31.10

Upon the start of the race Emily sprints (she has an attractive little prancing run that I probably will never be able to do) out ahead of me and gets to the head of the pack.  After the failed attempt of trying to keep somewhat close behind her (and running my first mile at 9 minutes) I decided it wasn't going to happen and slowed myself to my normal running pace :).

Results:

Emily ran the race in 26.11--Goal Achieved

I beat my previous 5k time by almost one minute 30.13--Goal Achieved

Our post race-goal achieving picture :).

This concludes Part I of our II part update.  We will reconvene within a day or two to complete the Update Series.  Hope you all are very much enjoying the fall weather, colors, and fragrances!  I am very much into this fall season and loving every moment of it :).  Have a great first week of October.

The Cook's :).

Anniversary 2 & Other Fun Things....

With August fading in the backdrop, and September quickly approaching -- we are starting to feel a little fall weather coming upon us.  We've been going to bed and waking up to temperatures in the upper 40's & 50's.  It still gets pretty toasty during the day, but the morning and evenings are definitely cooling off.  I'll enjoy the fall, but I'm not quite sure if I'm ready for another Logan winter full of snow!

Well since our last little visit Seth and I have celebrated Two wonderful years of Marriage---aka Marital Bliss :).  I'll say for the both of us that we have enjoyed these past two years very much and are definitely looking forward to many years to come (Lord willing).  Last year we decided that every year for our anniversary we would do something special--and try to go off somewhere for a little bit.  We also said that each year we wanted to get a bigger joint gift for the both of us, rather than get a smaller gift to give to each other.  We didn't exactly follow through on either of these ideas for our second year :).  We decided to use our trip to Canada in June and our vacation to SC in July as our anniversary trips.  For our big joint anni gift we want to purchase kitchen chairs-or possibly even a new table and chairs.  We haven't buckled down on finding exactly what we want, but it is definitely still on our to do list!

Seth and I both love lemon meringue pie, so for our anniversary I thought what other to make besides our favorite pie!  Plus, I don't exactly have cake pans at the moment so any type of cakey idea was immediately squashed (don't worry though, they are on the way from good ol Joanna).  Seth got me very lovely flowers, as did my wonderful mother-in-law :)!

Our Anniversary lemon pie and some of the mess while creating it.

Some very Yummmmy cake and very Beautiful flowers :).

The evening of our anni we went to a local Italian restaurant and had just a superb dinner.  Almost at the end of our meal a band began setting up their equipment and started playing some Jazz music.  It was a very nice surprise, and Seth and I enjoyed staying a little longer to listen to some music.

Since our anniversary we've been back to Bear Lake with our neighbor friends soaking up the sun and ended up with a raspberry shake.

Seth & I with our Neighbor's Hanna & Jaron at Bear Lake

Raspberry Shake----Yummm.

After our sunbathing at Bear Lake we had an Ethiopian Dining experience with our HomeGroup buddies.  Some of our friends recently took a trip to Ethiopia and they decided to give their cuisine a try here in the States.  What a fun experience it was, and of course the food was jam up.

The Dish.

So, from what we hear-in Ethiopia they serve this bread called injera and you use your own personal injera to eat the food on a big plate that several folks share.  Again-very fun and thanks to Jonathan & Marilyn-for spending so much time making this for us all!

This past Sunday we went on a little hike with our North/South Carolina group of buddies.  It was good to get out, get some exercise, and hang out with that group of folks.

The Cook's, The Strickland's, and the Soon to be Huff's :)

Beautiful scenery!

So-no haircut or appointment as of yet.  I keep trying to make the appointment and chicken out.

My running is still going well.  I ran 4 miles the other day and it felt good.  Seth recently ran with a friend for about 3.6 miles and he was pooped, but he did well.  How do men do that, or maybe it's just I'm very weak.  When I first started running I had a hard time running half a mile straight, but Seth's first time running in about 3 years he goes all out with almost 4 miles.  Here I am taking almost 5 months to get to 4 miles :).

We are pumped about the months ahead and our calendar is quickly filling up :).  I'm thinking some folks need to schedule a trip to Utah to come and visit us Cookaroos soon-we will keep you entertained!

Have a good rest of the week folks!

The Cook's :)

PS--I got a smart phone, and am totally enjoying the camera on it and playing around with all the pictures, so that is why all the pictures are interesting looking and why I've been posting so many more pictures on facebook :)!  Just FYI.