Camping, Canning, & BYU Football...Oh My!

As I just started a brand new job and my brain seems to be bursting at the seems with all the new found knowledge and job responsibilities I have been looking forward to this weekend as a life line of rejuvination! 
On Friday I hurried home after a very busy day at work, changed into more camp appropriate attire, threw some necessities in a bag, grabbed my pillow, and headed out the door to meet Dustin at his house.  We carpooled with Lize & Josh as they had an excursion...which was necessary for us to even make it to our campsite.  Dustin and his friends have a secret camp site way, way, way up American Fork Canyon!  It is honestly one of the best camping spots I have ever been too!  You are pretty much secluded from everyone else and you have awesome view of the surrounding mountains.  After getting to our campsite & meeting up with Jim & Tiff, Andrew & Ashley, tradition (these boys have traditions for everything) is that we set up camp (quickly), and then we HAVE to go down to the "pond" to do the Log Walk!  I'm not making this stuff up!  The "pond" is now all dried up and the game Log Walk trails back to when there was a pond and the only way to keep from getting wet was to walk across the maze of logs on the top.  Well there is no walter...thank goodness, because I fell multiple times...but the Log Walk still lives on!  After the walk we headed back to camp to warm up by the fire and to start cooking our surprise tinfoil dinners that Josh & Dustin had made!  We all sat around the camp fire telling stories, talking about wedding plans for Tiff, eating sun flower seeds to curb our appetites, etc.  The tin foil dinners were a huge success!  These boys know how to cook & I love it!  After dinner was the surprise dessert!  Banana Boats!  Which is a banana (sliced down the middel) with chocolate and marshmellow on top, wrapped in tinfoil, and placed in the fire to cook!  They were delicious!  Most amazing thing!  The rest of the night was more stories (about Wart) which had us all rolling with laughter!  It was such a fun night we stayed up well past midnight.  The worst part of this camp trip was how cold it was that night.  I honestly didn't sleep very well because I kept waking up with my toes and nose freezing!  The next morning we enjoyed a fire(to defrost in front of), cinnamon rolls, & bagels!  It was a great campout...even though it was pretty darn cold up there.  I think I'm going to buy a heated sleeping bag for next time!

My Friend Jamee has introduced me to the deliciously tantalizing realm of canning!  I've always thought of canning as a time consuming, Grandma, boring thing to do!  I have always loved homemade blackberry jam, apple butter, etc, but I never thought I could or would ever make them myself!  Well I might have actually found a new favorite past time!  Yesterday morning after camping I woke up and thought "I'm going to make Jalapeno Jelly today!"...and I did!  I borrowed a large pot from Dustin, found a recipe online, bought canning jars, jalapeno's, liquid pectin, apple cider vinegar, and sugar.  Aside from the sugar I had never before used any of these ingredients before!  One batch took me a little less than two hours to make. I'm pretty sure I can get this process down to one hour or less!
Things I learned while my first time making Jalapeno Jelly:
1. Jalapeno's will burn you!  Bad!  And if you aren't careful you'll end up having to put burn cream all over your hands and walk around all night avoinding touching anything because your hands are grease balls!
2. Get a large processor!   Small ones take way too long!
3. Add the green food coloring to give the Jelly a better color!
All in all it was a great first experience and best of all the Jelly tastes great!

BYU vs UTAH!  Being from Washington I had no idea there was such a huge rivalry between BYU & UTAH!  Since living in Utah I quickly learned of the rivalry but never really got into the politics of it all.  This year has been completely different.  As I am marrying one to the most TRUE BLUE fans out there, the BYU vs UTAH game was life or death.  Before the game Dustin & I went to grab food at Cafe Rio...on our way home (10 minutes before game time) Dustin didn't say one word to me.  He just kept looking over at me.  I had no idea what was going on.  He told me as we were heading into the house that he was really nervous for the game and it had just him in the car!  Seriously?!  He was so nervous for his time he wasn't capable of holding a conversation!! It still boggles my mind.  The truth of the matter is that I also get sucked into the game and shout and scream right along side my favorite TRUE BLUE fan!   The game was great!  However, we ended up losing at the very last second...literally....by 3 points!  Ugh, it was a hard game to swallow!  Hopefully, next year we can break our losing streak to the "U"!