Our Weekend: Food, Food, Food!

Another fun weekend gone by...and somehow, I only have pictures of the food we made. Weird! ;)

We spent our Saturday morning preparing food for our next great adventure, and the afternoon at Mitch's house with friends. Well, I should say afternoon until midnight - probably the latest I've stayed up since New Year's Eve. Married life is great! :)

First, we were up early to pick up our Bountiful Basket. Going to get our basket is like Christmas morning for me, I get so excited to see what we'll be eating this week. When we get home, we enjoy spreading it all out to photograph it, then we start planning how we're going to eat it all.

We decided to try something completely new to us - making our own pickles! Curtis took charge of this project, and as far as we can tell everything went well. Now all we have to do is wait and see how they turn out!

While Curtis was working on that, I made granola for the first time to bring on our next vacation. We are planning to bring plenty of snacks for hiking and road tripping as always, but this time we're also bringing some meals to make while either camping or in hotel rooms. It's been fun finding foods that will be filling, nutritional, and that don't require refrigeration!

Once we finished up in the kitchen, we packed up and drove over to Mitchell's for a fun afternoon with friends and...can you guess? Great food! Mitch always makes amazing meals for us! I brought along some ingredients and utensils so that the girls and I could bake while the guys played war games.

For dessert, we made a much-requested recipe, Dessert Pizza! It turned out to be amazing, and my favorite easy and delicious pie crust recipe was perfect, as always, even when spread as thin as possible!

Oh, and I got to introduce my friends to one of the greatest appliances in my kitchen: my Happy-Fun Apple Corer! It cores, slices, and peels apples all with the turn of the handle! But how did it get its name? Growing up, "Happy Fun" were 2 words my mom would use to describe our favorite things. The park across the street from our neighborhood was called the "Happy Fun Park." Apples made in the apple corer were called "Happy Fun Apples." I would say that those words can also describe growing up in the Schillinger home - a Happy Fun Childhood. :)

Last year, Curtis and I were wandering through a thrift store when I spotted it on a shelf. I was so excited, I just knew it was the one thing I needed to make my kitchen complete! The poor cashier had no idea what it was though...that poor deprived man. ;)

And that was our weekend! Quite a Happy Fun Weekend, I'd say. :)

Phoenix Hiking, Day 2: Usery Park

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Hiking in Usery Mountain Regional Park

Rain was predicted for Saturday, but thankfully we were able to fit in one more short hike for our weekend in Phoenix. Holly and Paul took us to a Usery Mountain Regional Park, a place that they frequent with beautiful desert scenery. We took Blevins Trail to Cat Peaks Pass, then back the way we came.

Charlotte, ready for another hike! We are thankful for dog friendly parks! 

Taken with our GoPro

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Panorama facing West, with the Superstitions either in a fog or raincloud! 

We had a great time walking the beautiful trails of the park with friends. Again, there were more people than we're used to seeing when we go hiking, but we can see why so many come here! We saw lots of wildflowers this weekend, but the cactus plants all around are just getting ready to bloom. 

There's the city in the distance!

Why is is called Cat Peaks, or Cat Peaks Pass? Because of the caves/dens on the hills! Can you spot the opening to the cave?

Close up of the cave!

We also saw our first rattlesnake of the season! Some trail runners ahead of us pointed it out, and boy was it mad! I picked up Charlotte to keep her safe, but Curtis took the GoPro and got a video of it rattling away. Yes, I'm still working on my video editing, but I promise these videos will find their way to the internet someday! :)

When we reached the car, Charlotte decided she was done with hiking for the weekend. We were impressed with how well behaved she was - though part of that could be because we wore her out!

If you're wondering where Phoenix is, this mountain is happy to help!

After saying goodbye to Holly and Paul, we went over to Jeff and Lydia's for a delicious lunch, games, and catching up. It's so nice to have immediate family so near by! The last time we visited them was right after they moved in, and it was fun to see the changes that they've made to their beautiful home.

On our way back, we made a very important stop at Krispy Kreme's, and then an (almost) equally important stop for a letterbox on the way home. 

Charlotte, cuddled up with her Koala on the drive back :)

We saw a glorious sunset to finish up this trip!

And that was our weekend adventure! I guess we never actually made it to "Phoenix" on our weekend trip to Phoenix, but we loved the places and people we visited and didn't have to deal with the traffic...win win! :)

Phoenix Hiking, Day 1: The Superstitions

Friday, February 27, 2015

Through-hiking in the Superstitions

Last fall when we did our Supai trip, we had the pleasure of meeting Paul and Holly, an awesome couple who are both very strong Christians with a good understanding of the Bible, AND also very well-traveled and knowledgeable about great places to visit and hikes to take. They are basically who Curtis and I aspire to be like someday! They graciously offered to help drive us around so that we could do a through hike, and invited us to stay with them so we could make the most out of our weekend adventure.

Curtis picked out a through hike that would be doable in a day, and happened to have several letterboxes on it. We drove to Apache Junction on Friday morning, and parked at the Peralta trailhead. The trail was very crowded at the beginning, even on a weekday. The first 3 miles were rocky and the steepest that we had all day, but not too challenging. The scenery was amazing - there were hoodoos on either side of the canyon walls. After a bit, the trail started switchbacking up through the canyon. The hardest part was the heat - we had a late start, and the sun was beating down on us now! 

Taken with the GoPro

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GoPro - looking back

Right as we were nearing the end of the incline, the trail switched to walking up a steep rock face. But the splendor of the view we saw once we reached the saddle took our breath away! I don't know what I expected to see, maybe some more mountains, and Phoenix in the background, but I couldn't have imagined this. 

The view at the top - to the West, looking at Weaver's Needle

The big, prominent peak is Weaver's Needle. All I could see on the horizon was the Superstition Wilderness - no signs of a big city anywhere. And we were going to be walking through there!

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The view to the East, where we had come.

As it turns out, this is where most of the hikers were headed, so as soon as we started down the other side, we were alone. The next 4 miles were all easy downhill walking through gorgeous scenery. We enjoyed getting a different perspective on the Weaver's Needle as we got closer and closer.

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The Weaver's Needle, from the bottom looking up.

I was a bit concerned when I kept seeing so many unmarked trails and not knowing exactly where we were, but Curtis was confident that we were going the right way, and thankfully he was always right! Once we reached the end of the 4 -mile downhill stretch, we stopped to have lunch. We were over halfway, with 7 miles down and only 5 left to go, and feeling great. I think Charlotte was worried though - it's hard to tell what's going on in her head, but at this point, I think she thought we would be turning around and going back the way we came. She was probably concerned about having to walk so far back. She's a great sport though, and puts up with everything we throw at her. :)

GoPro - looking ahead at the various rocks in the Superstitions

GoPro- Looking behind, at the Weaver's Needle

Curtis had told me that after the 4 miles downhill, the next mile or so on Parker Pass would be uphill according to his maps, but I don't remember any more steep inclines. It really was an easy trail after the first 3 miles. We only saw 2 other couples hiking on this part also, which made it more fun. The only challenge might have been the heat - summer is coming, folks! We also enjoyed finding some letterboxes that hadn't been found in years.

In the last 2 miles, Charlotte was starting to wear out. She stopped in the shade to lie down a lot - Curtis would go and give her a drink, and she usually bounced right back. We had to cross a stream several times, and a few times she tried to get away with just standing or sitting in the water. She was one dirty pup when we reached the end! We started seeing more people in the last half-mile of the trail, and Charlotte enjoyed all the love she received from them. We reached the First Water trailhead at 4 - after hiking 12 miles in just over 6 hours.

I was looking at the map when we were finished, and I realized how much more of this beautiful wilderness we have to explore! We went from the Peralta Trail (102) to Parker Pass (104) ending at the First Water trailhead. There are so many more trails out there!

Paul and Holly came to pick us up shortly after, but before taking us to the Jeep they took us to see the beautiful Canyon Lake. We went to get our car, then drove to their home where we enjoyed dinner and fellowship, along with a lot of scheming for our Spring Break trip! 

The End of February

Snoopy is a bad influence on my child.

Last month, Charlotte turned 7 months. I've heard this period around 6-12 months be referred to as the "Terrible Twos" for puppies, and I believe it - Some days, she turns into quite the little rebel. Even though she has so many toys, she'd rather chew on things like the wall or the floor. How do you find pleasure in gnawing on flat surfaces? Beats me, but she definitely enjoys it. 

However, there have been lots of good days as well, and we think that as time goes on, she's less feisty and more well behaved. Even if she doesn't obey us, she still knows what's wrong and what's right. 

This month, she added to her tricks repertoire the command "Kiss." She obeys it most of the time for me, and all of the time for Curtis. Especially if we just ate.

I've noticed that she's also recognizing more words. It used to be just "Food" and "Outside," but now she also knows "Walk," "Breakfast," "Fly," (which we use when we want her to catch a fly), and an assortment of names of her toys.

Last weekend, we hiked a total of 15 miles and she was able to walk the entire way (one day she walked 12 miles on her own!) It's a great thing to not have to have Curtis carry her parts of the way! She also saw her first rattlesnake...but being a protective mother, I did not let her meet it. I carried her till we were safe from it. :)

We're pretty 50/50 on the healthy meals. If I feel like eating healthy, we go all in, but once Valentine's candy goes on sale, there will be sacrifices made. I made Rolo cookies one day when we had a friend over for dinner. I made half of them with the Rolos on top, the other half had them in the middle. It took us the entire batch of cookies and we still can't decide which way is better!

Which is better?? So hard to choose. I should make more.

Charlotte is also getting more and more privileges, like not being put in the kennel when we eat, and that results in us getting some hardcore puppy eyes... (No, we weren't eating breakfast in bed... You can't have cookies for breakfast.)

Charlotte refuses to speak to me once she learns that the cookies are gone.

Last week, we had the pleasure of visiting with my grandparents and getting to show them around our desert. I'm so thankful that they made the trip down here and that we got lots of time to catch up. They were definitely deserving of a warm vacation, and the weather cooperated so that we could spend the whole time in the sun! I'm so thankful for them and how involved they've always been in my life. 

It was a great month, with lots of beautiful days and some rainy ones, but altogether we were able to hike 45 miles and enjoy several adventures with family, friends, and our new Jeep. We're excited about March though, and looking forward to having all of Spring Break for more adventures! Stay tuned!