Memorial Weekend

Nick and I had a great weekend!

We started by heading out to Roosevelt Friday for Mitch's high school graduation. He was one of the valedictorian's (there were 5!) so we got to hear him give a funny speech about what the 2011 Class learned in high school! It was so fun to see Mitch graduate - although it was bitter/sweet for him, I'm really excited he'll be in Cedar next year for college!

Nick and I with Grandma and Grandpa Hussey

Saturday morning we hung out with Kelsie and Cade, two of my favorite high school friends. We got to see their cute little boy Tacen, who we hadn't seen since our wedding! He was so cute! It was so nice to be able to catch up before they leave for Tennessee where Cade will start optometry school this Fall!

Kelsie, Cade and Tacen (the baby monitor.... he was napping!)

We then headed to Utah County.... where we bought this!!!

I've wanted one for years and Nick has dreamed of having one since his mission (everyone has one in Taiwan) so we splurged with a promise to be extra safe! Most of the time I'm sure we'll ride it around together anyway :) Now if only we can get it down here.... (we're waiting on the flaky delivery man).

Later that afternoon we went to see my Grandma's grave. We hunted for a pinwheel we could leave there for a long time - finally we found some a Harmons but they were itty bitty. Maybe next time Grandma!

Saturday night we headed to Ephraim to camp with Nick's parents. We did a lot of relaxing.... including sleeping in until noon! It snowed though, so we didn't feel like we were missing out on too much outside! We also read A LOT of the Hunger Games.... I finished the series and really liked them! Nick should finish tonight! Then we can talk about what we liked the most! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the snowy camp trip.

We had so much fun seeing our families! Thanks for the fun everyone!

the BEST cookies of all time!

The side of me that shares these is not the nutritionist side. It is the "just don't eat the whole batch" side ;)


Hot Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
2 sticks room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/4 cups flour
4 packages Hot Chocolate Mix (not sugar free)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup each white, milk, and semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Cream together both sugars and the butter until light and fluffy. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chips to the cookie dough. (I tried using my KitchenAid for this part and it was painful to watch. I just stir the chips in by hand because I don't want to work my KitchenAid too hard!) Chill the dough for an hour (or don't if you don't have time). Bake them in a preheated 350 degree oven for 9 to 11 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

These cookies do not disappoint!

A friend shared this recipe with me and I seriously can't get enough. She found the recipe here.

¿cuánto cuesta?

First comes love, then comes marriage, then 9 months later comes a "Honeymoon Vacation"!

*this is an extra long post.

Nick and I chose to get married in August (which is a crazy month at work for me) and we decided to take a mini-moon with the intent to go on a trip later on. It started with the two of us discussing places we'd like to travel to... Jared and Dani Wenn were also discussing trips, so we began to discuss them together. Before we knew it, we'd booked a cruise to the Mexican Riveria! In the 8 months we waited to leave on our trip, we convinced 3 more couples to come along, we received money back through the "Early Saver's Program" (the cruise cost went down at one point during the 240 days we waited), and we upgraded our room to a window. We Shober's are moving up in the world!

Nick and I first headed to Northern California for my cousin Mike's wedding. We had a whole day to kill before the wedding parties started, so Nick and I headed up to San Francisco for a couple hours. After we finally found a parking spot, we visited the sealions, enjoyed some street clam chowder, and took a look at the Golden Gate bridge from a distance.



We met up with my family that night and went to a wedding dinner at a little Italian restaurant. The food was great and we had plenty of time to chat and catch up.



The next morning we headed to the wedding. The weather wasn't cooperative the whole day, but we spent lots of our time inside so it turned out good. Once again, great food, entertaining dancing to watch, and plenty of time to chat. Mike and Adrianne were happy and we were glad we could be at their special day.



Sunday we flew to Southern California to meet our friends. The Brueck's, Wenn's, Jack's, and Leigh's were our travel companions. Once we hopped on the cruise we turned off our phones, slipped into some shorts, and sat down to a welcoming lunch. We loved it! At dinner, our waiters sang "happy honeymoon to you...kissy kissy" in the "happy birthday" tune.



Monday we stayed outside in the sun the whole afternoon. Nick and I have been reading the "Hunger Games" series and we spent a lot of time reading and relaxing. That night we went to the "Formal Night" dinner and enjoyed some LOBSTER!
(we're white!)







Tuesday was our first port day in Cabo San Lucas. We had to get "Tender Stickers" to eliminate chaos as we got off the ship and over to Cabo. Somewhere in the madness, we never met up with Camille and Brady. SAD! We were worried for our friends that were split up from the spanish speaking men in our group. Thanks to Dani getting her hair braided, Camille and Brady found us from a distance at a flea market! After we all met up we somehow stumbled upon the absolute best place to have take us on a water taxi tour. Most places dropped you off at a beach and "came back to get you" which didn't sound like the best idea to me.... Anyway, we found Ricardo and for only $15 he took us to Pelican Beach - including snorkle equipment, drinking water/soda, lawn chairs, umbrellas, and towels. PLUS he stayed at the beach and took the snorklers out to a little island to see loads of fish. After we played at the beach for a while he took us around Lands End to see some of the "sights".






Wednesday we went to Cabo again (this time all together) and headed for Ricardo's place to go parasailing. We loved it! The waves were a lot bigger this day and everyone who went to the beach mentioned that there wasn't much besides mucky water when they snorkled. We played our time in Cabo perfect!



Thursday we were in Puerto Vallarta. Nick found an excursion before we left (to save $)that we all signed up for. We were given a pick-up place by the excursion company that was by a scary broken down building... everyone questioned Nick at that point! The sheet metal roofed african safari shuttle finally made it to pick us up. We sped all over the city, which was pretty cool, then veered off onto a random, skinny dirt road. This part got really scary! Speed up, slow down. Swerve around this corner, swerve from other cars, speed up, slow down. Finally we made it to the spot! We were on one of the greatest excursions out there! We did a few ziplines, repelled, tubed through a river, and rode mules. Nick may have gotten stuck in a mule stampede... He made it out with just a fist size bruise thank goodness! We both admit this excursion was worth our time and $... even though we ran a red light an almost got in a terrible terrible accident on our second african safari ride!



Friday and Saturday we did a lot of hanging out inside on the ship. The weather was no bueno, so we played games, went to shows, ate, and relaxed again! What a great vacation :D





Sunday we rented a van and drove home. There were two times on the drive where a massive group of bugs smacked the windshield all at the same time! Way too funny!



This may seem a little weird (at least we admit it), but we took pictures with our towel animals every night!



Time to plan our next trip.... China, we think you're next!

YUM!

Last weekend when we were in Roosevelt my mom and I made chocolate covered strawberries. My mom bought a Symphony chocolate bar to dip them in and they were SO YUMMY! Nick and I got lots of berries in our Bountiful Basket yesterday, so we decided to dip a few and share them with our neighbors.

We started out with just dipping them in the chocolate.... then we decided to drizzle some white chocolate on them too! Aside from the two clumpy ones, we think they turned out really cute!


We think the best part was using a Symphony bar.... thanks for the idea Mom!