When I am sad I...

Drink a Jamba!

Take a bath

Eat Dove chocolate

Talk with my family

Beg for a foot rub

Clean the house

Think about buying flowers, but usually get there, and decide to save the money instead.

Write a list of things I am grateful for

And of course, get a snuggle from this guy :)

What do YOU do on hard days?

Goodmorning VIETNAM!

I can't believe it has been a week since we had Trang (pronounced Chung) and Son over to cook a Vietnamese meal with us. They are both from the Hanoi area of Vietnam. These two work with Scott, and they were so willing and nice to come over and show us the ways of truly authentic Pho and Vietnamese spring rolls! We LOVED both those dishes and Vietnam, and our re-creation last week did not disappoint! I mean, how could it with the meat cooking for hours on end, and using a literal beef bone to flavor the broth!

Here they are, getting to work in the kitchen. Trang prepared things for about 4 hours before coming over, and we spent another 3 once they got here cooking every ingredient to perfection. We cut and grilled onions to make shallots. There was nothing store bought in this meal!

Trang is a certified chef. Why she is getting a masters in accounting at BYU, I don't know. She should be a cooking instructor!!! :)

We have already been to the Asian market to get ourselves our own rice paper!

She taught us every step to create the most tasty and beautiful spring roll! It's all in the folding!

We could NOT wait to try them, so we shared a roll mid preparations!

YUM. YUM. YUM. We love Vietnamese food because it is so fresh and natural! You just feel GOOD eating it! See that plate of brussel sprouts in the back? That's not for everyone to share, we had a plate each!

And this Chrysanthemum herbal tea is the perfect pair to the meal. It has this natural sweetness from the flower, but no added sugar. We put mint in it to get it even more flavor. And don't worry, we had our picture from Ha Long Bay, Vietnam out to set the mood!

Now for the Pho! This is a much more time intensive dish. I didn't take pics of everything, but each ingredient is prepared individually, then placed into the wide-mouth bowl. The beef bone broth is then poured over it at the last second.

MMMMMmmm! What I would give for that bowl of Pho tonight!

We had such a great time, thanks Trang and Son for showing us the ways :)

Next, it's our turn to show you a traditional American meal!

Black Tie Dinner

Scott’s CEO, Nick Greer was nominated for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. So, we got all gussied up and headed downtown for the event of the century!

The event was spectacular. The conference room in the Salt Palace had calla lilies everywhere we turned. Everyone was dressed to the nines- such a formal event!

We started with whole wheat rolls and a side salad with your dressing of choice. Next was bacon wrapped filet mignon, delicious mashed potatoes, and a white fish wrapped in cabbage, with julienned carrots to add a splash of color! For dessert, rich chocolate with raspberries a la carte.

Each of the CEOs/Companies that were nominated had a 3-5 minute film telling about their corporation and kind of touring the office. It was so so so cool to see all the amazing ideas and cultures of these companies throughout Utah.

The most memorable part for me was realizing what a blessing and an opportunity it is to be an American. I didn’t expect to have a patriotic experience there, but I really did! All of these entrepreneurs (read: risk takers, opportunity seekers, need fillers, job providers, money makers!) are able to do what they do because they live and work in an environment that supports new start-ups.

Us girls all had a fun time dressing up! More on my dress drama later...

One of the nominees has an American company that starts businesses in Ethiopia. The CEO said “Ethiopia needs businesses, not charities.” It’s kind of an obvious solution, but really, thousands of donors give to help clothe and feed the people, which is a great thing to do, but really we could be helping by empowering the people and creating an economy that lends a greater quality of life.

It was fun to connect with all the “One on Oners” and celebrate Nick in his accomplishments!

p.s HUGE thank you to my friend Megan for helping me out with my hair. I LOVED it and she did it so fast and so perfectly!!!

Camping

I feel like I always post about camping. The pictures all probably look the same, and the stories are often the same too. Set up the tent, roasted mallows, spent time in nature.... But as routine as it is, it is still GREAT. And registering at REI for our wedding is still in my top 5 best decisions. ever.

The extra space in the Kia is really great. It totally makes a difference!

This trip, we discovered the glories of hot Crystal Light. As opposed to hot chocolate. We went to get the hot coco out of our food box in the morning, and it was gone! So we tried this and I would argue that it's even better!

Mmmm! Nothin' like a good fire and a 2 man tent!

I realize that life will not always allow us to decide to go camping at 6pm and be up in the mountains just a few hours later for a great weekend away. But for now, it is soooo fun!

Self-Guided Rafting Trip

Saturday found Scott and Vess on the adventure of their lives. They're both fairly experienced rafters, and I think they felt pretty excited and confident about running a portion of the upper Provo river. We rented from Outdoors Unlimited in Provo and drove about 1.5 up past Kamas to begin the adventure.

Vess had a lot of trouble getting his wet suit on. I was very sad Angie wasn't there to deal with that :) The boys got that raft pumped up, and loaded in some rope and water for emergencies!

This is the portion of the river trip I saw. The put in:

(The videos are very funny!)

Do you think I felt confident after seeing that? Not so much...

But, I went on my way to the first check point. I listened to a lot of my audio book and enjoyed the river and the sun!

According to our calculations, the boys should have arrived at our first checkpoint in 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Well, I didn't worry at the hour mark. I told myself there were probably fallen trees and they had to get out and walk around. I came up with more excuses at the 1:20 mark, 1:40 mark, but at 2 hours with an estimate of 1/2 an hour, I worried. BAD. I left them this note on the bridge, and went to search.

The next 20 minutes were scary for me. The portion of the river between the put in and the first check point was unaccessible by foot/vehicle, so I felt helpless. I drove back and forth between the 2 points, blowing my whistle and desperately praying for their bright blue raft to round the bend. And just before I headed for the ranger station:

They came :)

Before I knew it, the came bumping along to the first check point. They were glad to have made it, as was I!!! I think overall they had a great time, and really loved the adrenaline and thrill they got from the ride.

Good thing they had wetsuits because that glacier run off was CHILLY!

HIP HIP HOORAY for their safe return and fun memory!

HIP

HIP

HOORAY

:)

Just another day in the hills

Well, we headed for the hills out past Eagle Mountain. Shooting activity #2 of this year.
I do not love guns. I do not like guns.
But, I must say it was a pretty fun thing to do on a Thursday night :)
Here is a Russian rifle. I think that was Scott's fav. Thad has over 10 guns- Scott LOVED learning about them and trying them all out.
I like handguns better than shotguns. For sure. I was nervous at first, but you should have seen me shooting them one after the other in each hand!

And the best picture for last, me and my (favorite) co-worker Christa!

She's pretty much a pro!

Lazy Sundays

Every good Sunday includes either:

a nature walk in the canyon before church,

Or reading scriptures up in the mountains after our early dinner.

Life is good in Utah.

When it is sunny :)

Cactus Jack!

The highlight and lowlight of the weekend happened to be the same thing. It all began as fun and games: We hopped the fence and met 14 different horses.

We gave them each a good pat and Scott fed them greener grass from across the fence.

Scott is part cowboy you know… He really is a natural around horses. Except for that one time 2 summers ago when a horse head butted him and Scott left with a bloody nose...

Anyway, we had a grand old time, eating French dip with cousins and exploring this huge barn (on the outside, house on the inside).

We were wandering around the barn when Scott found and approached a man who was sure to have an ax and some wood we could chop. Scott buddied up to Cactus Jack, a true mountain man. Scott held their handshake for an extra moment, looking into his eyes wondering if this “Cactus Jack” thing was a joke. When their handshake finally broke, Cactus asked “What? You’ve never heard of me?” Apparently he thinks he’s pretty famous.

“I know every trail from here through Idaho, Wyoming, Montana...” When we asked him if he’d take us for a ride later in the summer, he asked “Well ita’ll depends on whatcha wanna do- a coupla days, a coupla months?” Turns out Cactus Jack is in the mountains for 7 months of the year, living off the land and loving his life. We all stood around listening to stories for a while before we took our wood and were on our way.

Let “Woodchopping Contest 2011 Tanner Style” begin! Some logs were harder than others. Some contestants were stronger than others.

But is wasn’t until the last log when it happened.

Yep, we broke Cactus Jack’s most prized possession. His ax.

And that is a MAN ax if I’ve ever seen one. It wouldn’t be sooo bad if it weren’t this man’s livelihood. His ability to chop wood allows him to stay warm through the night. “Don’t got a vehicle, don’t do money…” This man is not going to the Home Depot to get a new handle. Scott and Tyler went back to break the bad news, and assured him that we will get it fixed up and bring it back to him. We will be back this weekend.