Fun in the Sun

A few weeks ago we headed to St. George for Mark's birthday!  It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of sun to go around—105 degrees the first day we got there. 

Sand Hollow in St. George

 Trying to work on our tans

 Sandcastle!

 Mark lying lakeside

During our trip we played basketball like we always do.  Unfortunately this time around I completely forgot my basketball shoes at home.  They were in my room in a bag ready to go, but I never grabbed that bag when I left.  So I just played in regular tennis shoes/hiking shoes.  Not my choice exactly, but I guess it's shoes and that is what I needed.

Got some tasty snow cones.

Went to the city pool again.

Played some old school Nintendo 64 games.

We also hiked a short distance of The Narrows in Zions National Park on Mark's birthday!

 The lighting was not the best. 

Mark's bro Adam 

These are the shoes I had to play ball in.....need I say more?

I told you guys I'd bring my camera on this trip.  I even used it too; it's a miracle!

For Mark's birthday we had a wonderful dinner prepared by his parents:
Corn, Tri-Tip, Salad and Rolls.  Delish!

I have to share with you guys something strange and something unlike anything I have ever heard of.....
.......Mark's family aren't cake people.  I know what you're thinking: That's ridiculous!  (Though his mom did try out a chocolate cake/brownie recipe she found and some of us had a few pieces of it throughout the week. And by "some of us" I mean I, Shannah, ate a lot of it.
For the many many birthdays his family has had, they told me they never really made cake for the occasion.  Of course they would do other things in replace of cake such as birthday candles in rolls. Rolls people!  Yeah, that's totally normal...
Ha!  I love those guys though, they are such a great family even if they don't really like cake. Each one of them is so kind hearted and I feel privileged to know them:]

All in all we had a wonderful time!  But next time we are definitely going to go further into The Narrows, that much is for certain.

Summer Time!

It is here!  Surprisingly, in the past I have not been a big fan of summer.  I never disliked it, I just didn't understand what the big hubbub was about.  This time around I have been enjoying it way more than I have in recent years.

85+ degree weather, swimming, outside sports, snow cones, salads, fruit and all things wonderful.

You know what goes hand in hand with summer time?

Hot Chocolate

Okay okay, not really.  But I won't lie and say I haven't had it this season about two three times already.

Mark and I were at the store one night and decided hot chocolate sounded tasty. We ended up choosing Peanut Butter Cup over Dark Chocolate, Mint Chocolate and Milk Chocolate. 

I have to say, it is pretty good. But as much of a Peanut Butter freak I am, I think next time I'll get the regular hot chocolate. 

WARNING: The following photos were taken with a cellular device and sorta kinda suck.

All right....we may have made S'mores too. 

As you can see I put Peanut Butter on one side of my graham cracker.  

Yum!

The Perfect Marshmallow

 Gooey on the inside and golden brown on the outside. Can't get any better than this

I love hot chocolate and s'mores in the summer 

In other news, I was driving to work one day and saw this!

Gorgeous Scene!

(would have been much better without 3500 South in the way of course)

A few weeks ago Mark and I ended up going to St. George with about a weeks notice to take his brother his wallet he left in SLC. It was a lot of fun!  We played a lot of basketball, had snow cones, learned how to make homemade cinnamon rolls from his mom and played pool ball.  We are actually going down there again this Sunday (which was our initial planned St. George trip) for Mark's birthday so it should be a blast!

But the last trip down there we made Turkey Burgers for dinner and I can neither confirm nor deny if the burgers caught fire on the grill...

Scorched. 

Jumping to something entirely different, have you ever been to Blue Plate Diner?  It is quite freaking tasty my friends.  They have a lot of vegetarian/vegan options there but also a lot of food for the carnivores out there.  It is a simple place but I personally think the food is really good. 

My turkey, hummus, sprouts and avocado sandwich. 

It tasted even better than it looks.  

Well I am off to St. George at the end of this week for some seriously hot weather and a lot of fun.  Hopefully I'll take a lot of pictures, with a much better camera, and fill you guys in!