The Greatest, The Greatest, The Greatest

This is photographic proof that my husband is the greatest. Despite generally disliking the Harry Potter craze (that is my Harry Potter craze) he went with me not once to the new movie but twice. We had tickets to go with my family the night after it opened but when we got a chance at tickets to the midnight movie (thanks again Morgan) he agreed to go with me twice, after maybe just a bit of coaxing. The midnight show was everything I hoped it would be with cheering crowds and fanatics dressed up as every character I could think of. The award for best dressed goes to Voldemort on the left, so amazing.

I know I am nerdy for loving Harry Potter but I just can't help it. I read the first book when I was in sixth grade and the last in college. I'm sad that it's all over but at least I'll get to enjoy the seventh movies one more time when my brother Spencer gets home from his mission. Glad I had Stephen to fill in for him and support my oddities. Maybe I'll finally get him to read the books one day.

My New Favorite Mountain

I love the mountains in Utah. Since Stephen and I got our bikes this spring we have gone on a beautiful canyon ride almost every weekend, the hills can be killer but you can't beat the scenery. This weekend we went up American Fork Canyon/The Alpine Loop. It was a gorgeous ride and the views of Mount Timpanogos were stunning.

Stephen is always so far ahead of me. He's nice to wait up sometimes but I'm not sure about the pictures of me riding (sometimes crawling) up a hill.

This is just a small taste of what we got to enjoy, pictures never do something this wonderful justice.

If I haven't convinced you that this is a worthwhile view I should mention that you can drive the whole thing. It will go by faster but it's beautiful from a car as well. Stephen and I drove this route last fall when the leaves had changed and it was amazing. I think that Mount Timpanogos is my new favorite mountain in Utah.

What's A Teacher To Do In The Summer?

Well, life can be rough being paid not to work but I have found some things to do during the day...


I've slept in and made delicious breakfast more than once. This is my favorite thing to make for breakfast and if anyone ever wants to come share them with me you are more than invited. After two years of my blueberry muffins, Stephen's a little burt out. 

Muffin Ingredients:

1 large egg (beaten)

1/2 c milk

1/4 c oil (olive or canola)

1 1/2 c flour

1/2 c sugar

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt 

1 c blueberries (fresh is best but frozen is ok if they aren't in season)

2 t vanilla paste (or 1 t vanilla real vanilla/extract)

1 t lemon extract (sometimes I put this in or if I don't have it, I've left it out or used just a touch of lemon juice)

Muffin Topping Ingredients:

2 T butter (cooler than room temperature but warmer than refrigerator temp)

2 T sugar

3 T flour

Rinse the blueberries in a strainer and set aside to dry. In a small bowl mix the egg, milk, oil, vanilla, and lemon. Place the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and blend well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir with a spoon until just moist. Add the blueberries and mix as little as possible, batter should not be over-mixed but quite lumpy. Separate batter into the greased or lined muffin tin (makes 10-12 depending on how full you make them).

Blend the topping ingredients with a pasty blender (a fork or food processor can work if you don't have a pastry blender but not as well). Blend until the mixture looks like coarse crumbles and most of the flour and sugar is stuck to the small pieces of butter. Top the muffin batter in the tins using a spoon or fork. Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I think they're best hot but they are good leftover or you can freeze them and thaw at room temperature.

I've been spending a lot of time with my cute young women. Here is a picture of some of them when we tie dyed shirts for camp (that's an adventure to look forward to in a couple of weeks).

I've been riding my bike almost every day. This is on the fourth of July when Stephen dragged me out of bed to conquer Suncrest with him. So hard but so rewarding. 

And I have spent some time with friends. This is a group of teachers from my school at Libby's wedding. As you can see, we are all having a really hard time not working.

I remember thinking it was kind of sad as a kid when I saw crafts by my teacher's desk that said things like, "The three best things about teaching are June, July, and August". I got over thinking that was sad pretty fast. I go back to school in just four short weeks. Getting back into my routine will be rough,I have to be honest about that, but I really do love teaching and I'm excited for a new crop of students that don't have to be my guinea pigs...as much as last year at least. 

Family Fun

Stephen and I have hardly spent a weekend at home this summer as we've been off attending family get-togethers. It's been great to be with our family and we have a packed July and August yet to come. Here are just a couple pictures of our adventures so far.

At the Young family reunion we went on a road rally and took pictures at each stop. This was my favorite one, I'm not sure if the boys were feeling manly or were just sick of smiling.

This one is for Nicole who was too pregnant to attend, Jessica is sporting a satisfactory bump herself. You aren't alone.

For the Logan fireworks this year Diamond Rio performed. This was quite the event for my mother so we showed up in force to support. Diamond Rio had more recognizable songs than I thought and the fireworks show was much better than we expected.

Happy 4th of July!

For Ashley

This post is for my sister, but check it out if you're interested. Ash, this is just what I did, you might find a better way.


Cut the squares into 3 strips: 2'', 2'', and 1''. Cut the middle 2'' strip into 3 parts: 2'', 2'', and 1''.

Switch the middle squares. You need to trim the top and bottom strips to be 4'' long so that you're middle will fit after you make your seams.

Sew the middle strip together and press.

Sew the top and bottom on.

Switch them to be up and down with every other square.

I'm going to cut my sashing to be 2'' finished with a 5'' boarder out of the same fabric so I should need just under 1.5 yds sashing/boarder fabric. My finished size will be 39''x45''.

Hope this was helpful!

A Week in Paradise...The Relaxing Part

After our hike, Stephen and I spent the rest of our week in Hawaii taking full advantage of the sea, the sun, and our completely open schedule. It was so nice to not be working and to be traveling together for a change. 

Tunnels Beach where we swam, snorkeled, and slept in the sun.

We did a lot of cruising in this baby that Stephen surprised me by renting. We were getting our rental car on his Hertz points he's acquired by traveling for work so Stephen kept making jokes that our car was going to be the very worst they had. I think this was a bit more his fantasy than mine but it was really fun to drive.

We got to go on a helicopter tour of Kauai right before we left for Oahu. It was amazing! They said that 70% of the island is only visible by
helicopter. Besides a tiny bit of motion sickness, I am so glad we did this. These next few pictures were taken through glass so don't mind the spots of rain.

This is the coast and the beach that we hiked and camped. It was beautiful from the air and amazing that it only took us a few minutes to fly right past what took us eight hours to hike.

We saw dozens of waterfalls, Kauai is one of the wettest place on earth and they have constant rain and waterfalls year-round. 

In Oahu we got to go to the Laie temple, and BYU Hawaii campus (I had to scout it out for my sister Lyndsay who is determined to go there and probably study "Laying on the Beach").

Matsumoto's Shave Ice, this is the most epic shaved ice I have ever experienced. Ice cream in the bottom, the fluffiest shaved ice on top of that, all topped with syrup and sweetened condensed milk. Sorry for the crooked picture, it was a timer on the trunk.

Our last day in Hawaii we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. What a great idea this place is. I kept thinking the whole time we were on this trip that I wanted to have some Hawaiian food or see some hula dancers or just get a feel for the culture there (the native culture not the hoards of tourists). This was the perfect place.

The Kalalau Trail

Stephen and I just got back from our Hawaiian adventure, it was so amazing! We spend five days on Kauai and three on Oahu. The most memorable thing we did was hike the Kalalau trail so it gets its own post, once I feel that all of my many readers can appreciate this hike I'll post a few others from the trip.

This hike goes along the coast of Kauai, a portion that can only be accessed by boat or by foot (Why didn't we take a boat you may be asking? I was asking myself that same thing during parts of the hike). The trail begins at a beautiful beach and 11 miles later, ends at another beautiful beach inhabited by adventurous campers and hippies. We did the hike the first and second days that we were there.

Here we are at the beginning just thinking that we are so tough...

22 miles or not, you can't argue with this view.

We went right along the coast, in and out of all of these valleys.

We had a few streams to cross and we had to purify the water along the way so we'd have enough to drink.  Neither of us had ever done this since we aren't avid backpackers and we felt like the little boy on the movie "Up" when he gets to go to the bathroom in the wilderness for the first time, "I've always wanted to try this!"

The trail was pretty thin and get a little hairy at some points, good thing we aren't afraid of heights or cliffs.

We were SO excited when we finally got to the beach! This was the last bit of energy we had until the next morning, we crashed on the beach all afternoon and night.

This is my favorite picture, can you believe this camping spot? Yep, that is our tiny little tent down there in the sand.

These mountains were so stunning, it looks like something straight out of a postcard or a movie to me.

The next day was pretty long. I have done 10+ miles hikes before but this terrain was nothing we were used to and we both were blistered and sore. We made it in and out in eight hours each way with one night camping on the beach. 22 miles later we were really stiff and ready to relax for the rest of our trip.

We treated ourselves to some amazing burgers and pretty much whatever else we wanted for the rest of the time, we felt we had earned it. 

Once we were done I really wasn't sure the whole thing was worth it but after some relaxing on the beach and pampering I decided it was. I don't think I would do it again but for the amazing views I am so glad we experienced it. 

A Weekend For Celebration

Well, it's official, I finished my first year of teaching! It had it's ups and downs and my students definitely noticed my excitement on the last day ("Mrs. Young, are you really that excited to have us gone? You seem REALLY excited") but mostly I am just proud of myself. With one exception I didn't make any parent hate me and with a couple of exceptions my students end-of-level test scores went up from last year. While those things are important I think the best part of teaching this year were the times when I got to bond with those special little kids. One girl told me on the last day how much it helped her when her parents were being sent to federal prisons for 8-10 years and I just gave her a hug and told her that she was special and smart and could make better choices with her life (that was a sad situation, don't tell anyone I hugged her, I don't want to be sued). Another girl said thank you for helping her though her parents divorce this year. Several of them told me thank you for being a nice teacher, except every once in a while when I could be the wicked witch teacher (yep, it happened). Teaching can be such a rewarding job.

This is where I would post a picture of those cute fourth graders if I was allowed

As great as those kids are, I think the thing that made this year so great for me was my amazing group of coworkers. There were five new teachers at my school this year and I think we helped bring a great energy to mix in with those ole' veterans. I just loved going to work every day to see all of these wonderful ladies.

Kristy, Me, Cassidy, Morgan, and the sweet sign in front of the school that looks like it's been there since the school opened in the 50's.

In other exciting news this weekend, it's mine and Stephen's second anniversary! It seems like we have been married a lot longer than that to me, it's been a busy couple of years. I love being married to such an amazing and supportive husband, it was the best decision I have ever made and the most wonderful two years. 

I decided to start an anniversary tradition. On our one-year anniversary we had the top of our wedding cake that had been waiting in our freezer. Our cake was made by a close friend of my sister and it was delicious, it even tasted good a year later. I emailed her and got the recipe that she used and I think I'll try to make it every year on or around our anniversary. This year was the pilot year. I baked them into cupcakes and took them to our ward BBQ. One lady was crazy about them and over the pulpit today, in her testimony, said they "took her to another place" and I'm pretty sure she meant a good place. I think that is a pretty good review.

They are vanilla cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate ganache frosting. I filled them with raspberry and all, it was a little tricky but worked great in the end. 

For our anniversary/school being over/my being alone 3 nights a week while Stephen travels for work, we are going to Hawaii next week! Stephen has traveled more weeks than not these past 9 months and it has been really awful for me but the points and miles racked up pretty fast. I'm going to find out next week if having him gone so much is worth it. We are spending five days on Kauai and three on Oahu. I am most excited for our 22 mile backpack trip on Kauai to see a part of the island not accessible by vehicle, it's going to look something like this...I hope:

I feel so spoiled but then again, we wouldn't be going if it weren't basically free. I have paid for this trip not in dollars but in having my husband away so much. I hope it makes up for some of that, I think it will. 

Les Miserables

Stephen and I got to go to Les Mis this week at the Capitol Theater with my family. It was amazing as always, such a wonderful book and musical. My parents gave us the tickets for Easter and it was fun to have them come down, they even came and helped me pack up my classroom for the big room change this summer! I have gladly had songs from this musical in my head all week since.

One of Zac's classmates in his architecture program designed this interactive...exhibit? next to the theater. It was pretty fun to play on, Kamie performed some feats of strength and my dad was like a kid in a candy store. I think most people walking by thought we were messing around on a construction site.

Oh, and by the way, TOMORROW IS MY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! Bring on the summer please.