Utah Adventure

Today a group of the Jensen family went to Little Cottonwood Canyon to hike to Cecret Lake.  (Cecret is pronounced Secret.  I'm not sure why it is spelled that way.)  It was a beautiful day to go hiking.  The weather was warm but wasn't too hot.

The adventure started at Lynda's home in Sandy, Utah.  From there we drove to the canyon, parked, and took a shuttle to the trail head.  The views in Little Cottonwood Canyon were amazing!

 Our hiking group at the beginning of the trail.

 The trail wasn't too challenging at the beginning of the trail.  The switchbacks is where the rocky challenge began.

 The views were amazing.

 Although Owen is 7, he felt he needed a ride.  His cousin Andy was so nice to give him a lift for a short while.

 Ella got a shoulder ride from Aunt Sonja all the way to the switchbacks.

 Andy's next rider was 4 year old Ian.

 Matthew's water pack gave him trouble today.  He didn't get discouraged and kept hiking.

 Halfway up the switchbacks, we took a break.

 A gofer wasn't afraid of all of us hikers.  He kept coming halfway out of his hole, grab a weed and drag it back in the hole.  He did it several times as we looked on. 

 This is our crowd closely watching the gofer.

 Robby's turn to carry Ella.

 Cecret Lake

 On this rock outcrop we watched a salamander swimming in the water.  I'm here with Owen and Hannah.

 The Jensen Family:  Matthew, Hannah, Ben, Kim and Ella.

 The Knetter Family:  Owen, Sonja & Ian

If you zoom in closely, you will see a few members of our group hiking down the switch backs.  This was a great hike for all of us.  The wildflowers made the views memorable.  

Birthday Fun with Grandma

Time to celebrate Grandma Sweeney's 81st birthday.  Grandma loves to eat steak so we had her lunch party at Black Angus.

The party goers:  Julie, Maeleigh, Natalie, Ethan, Haley, Logan, Madison, Robby, Grant, Kingsleigh, Perry, Grandma, Amy and Marshall.

 Marshall & Maeleigh shared green beans and carrots.  The fake twins are 10 months old.

 Logan had so much fun sitting by Madison & Robby.  They played and talked through the whole lunch party.

Grant helped Perry with the baby.  He says that Kingsleigh is the only baby he likes.  He LOVES being an uncle.

 Grandma & Amy

 Grandma & Haley

Grandma with her great-great-grand-daughter

Where should we go for your 82nd birthday next year Grandma?  We all love you and love celebrating your life!

Canning Chicken

Two years ago I thought canning chicken was gross.  I was forced into the situation and had to can the chicken whether I wanted to or not.  Over the last two years, I have used the canned chicken in many dishes:  quesedillas, enchiladas, chicken alfredo, and many others.  It is so convenient to just open the jar of chicken, dump it into my pan, add my seasonings, heat it up, and dinner is ready.  I don't have to thaw out chicken or take the time to cook it.  It's been great!

So if you would like to can chicken yourself, here are the steps to take:

 First you have to buy and cut up a lot of chicken.  I purchased 15 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts when they were on sale.  While I cut up the chicken, I cut off excess fat and skin.  You only want to can the good stuff.

 Next you have to wash your jars and lids.  I used pint sized jars.   Each jar holds about a pound of chicken.  The jars should be air dried.  I placed the lids in a pot of hot water and let them sit there until I needed them.

 Fill up each jar to within an inch of the top.  Using a canning funnel is convenient.  It reduces the chance of making a mess on the rim and the sides.  

 After the chicken is in the jars, use a spatula to scrape around the edges.  This helps get out air and packs the chicken in a little more.  You may find you can add more chicken to the jar.  Add about a teaspoon of salt to each jar then wipe the edges clean.  Next you put on the lids that have been sitting in hot water.  Screw on the lid ring until it is firm.  You don't want to make it super tight.

I have a 23-quart pressure cooker and canner.  It's really big and I'm able to put two layers of jars in it to cook at the same time.  Pressure cookers vary in size. Follow the directions on your pressure cooker.  Once my pressure cooker reached 11 pounds of pressure, I had to keep it at that pressure for the next 75 minutes.  When the time was up, I let it cool off before opening the lid. 

 The finished product is a jar of cooked chicken.  The liquid you see in the jar is chicken broth that was created while it cooked.  It doesn't look very appealing in the jar but it tastes great.

  Time for dinner.  I dumped an entire jar into this frying pan.  The meat is cooked and shredded once you break up the chunks.  It is suggested to always re-heat the meat prior to eating it.  

It is time consuming to can chicken; however, it is very convenient to have on hand when trying to cook a decent dinner when you are short on time.

Our 5th Anniversary!

June 7th was our 5th year anniversary.  Our time together has flown by; however, the projects around the house seem to get done so slowly.  I guess that is what happens when two perfectionists get married.  

 To celebrate our wedded bliss, we went out to dinner at Fleming's Steakhouse.  The restaurant has phenomenal steak and is way overpriced.  The filet mignon was super tasty and melted in my mouth with every bite.  We had a chocolate lava cake for dessert.  It came with a side of homemade (restaurant made) whipped topping that was even better than the delicious cake.

Although we didn't do much to celebrate our anniversary, it was nice to get out together for the evening and chit chat without teenager and phone interruptions.  I'm looking forward to many more years with this incredible man!

MiniTown 2013

Each year Aprende Middle School sponsors a camp called "MiniTown."  The goal of the camp is to provide leadership and diversity training to 8th grade students.  It is a great experience for ALL kids who attend camp.  They always walk away with an acute awareness of themselves, their friends, their peers, and their families.

 The adult women who chaperoned camp had great housing accommodations.

 I found a friendly squirrel outside my door.

 This building is where most of our large group activities took place.

 We had a fresh layer of snow welcome us on the 2nd day of camp :)

 My Discussion Group!

 My discussion group is a little silly.

 There were lots of great kids at camp!

 I tried to photo bomb every picture I could.

 Isn't singing stupid songs a requirement for EVERY camp that exists in the world?

 This student is another one of my Birthday Buddies!  Love her!

 All of us!

Dodge-Ball Tournament

I participated in Aprende's school wide dodge ball tournament.  I agreed to be on an all girl team because there would be prizes for best costumes.  Looking at my teammates and myself, I knew we had no dodge ball athletic  skills, so our good looks were going to be our strong suit.

 Our goal was to stay far away from the balls.

 None of us would run up and grab the stray green ball.

 We lost this game :(    (not a shock though)

We played against my student-teachers team in this game.  To our delight, we won!!!!  (Don't worry, we didn't win again after this!)

Our team:  Punk Ballerinas.

We won best costume!

Finally Met My Birthday Buddy

April 14th was an incredible day.  I met my Birthday Buddy Shelby.  We are just 39 years apart.  

She is perfect!

(For those of you who don't know, a Birthday Buddy is someone who has the same birthday as you do.)