Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

As many of you know for the past several years, Seth and I have lived in Utah :).  

During these years we've stayed in Utah for Thanksgiving, unable to get back to South Carolina.  For the past two years, we've been blessed by being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends of ours-mostly Southern folks that have moved to Utah :).  This year was extra extra special because we were able to celebrate with Family in our Own Place.

We started Thanksgiving week by picking up Seth's parents from the airport and taking them to Seth's favorite restaurant Red Iguana.

Yummm...

Seth and I have come to the conclusion that others may not be as infatuated with Red Iguana as we (my husband) are, but hopefully it is enjoyed none-the-less.

After Red Iguana we went to see the Temple.

In front of the Salt Lake Temple.

After seeing lights set up all around the temple, we assumed they would be turned off after dark.  The lights are everywhere and beautiful, so we figured Mr. Jimmy and Mrs. Cynthia just had to see the temple in all it's Christmas Decor.  We went across the street to the City Creek mall and mozied around while we waited.  Once it was dark and the temple lights did not appear, we safely and sadly assumed they were just waiting until after Thanksgiving to begin lighting up Temple Square :(.  But at least City Creek was lit up and we got this pretty picture.

After the temple we took our guests over to a local hole in the wall gem called Bruges Waffles, which serves Belgium Waffles.  Seth and I were introduced to this little treasure a while back by some friends of ours.  Seth and I always enjoy these waffles.  I'm only guessing Mrs. Cynthia enjoyed it as well, since she left her purse at the Waffle joint, just to have her and Mr. Jimmy travel back down to SLC the next morning for another Belgium treat :).

During the week we went on campus for pictures with the Wellsville Mountains.

Beautiful.

Mrs. Cynthia & Mr. Jimmy

Cook's :).

Mrs. Cynthia with the Mountain Man.  

We said it was her brother Will :).  I've mentioned in a previous blog that this marvelous creature was in front of Seth's environmental building but was recently replaced by a business woman.  Obviously, the business woman had more money than the mountain man.

Thanksgiving was filled with cooking, cleaning, eating, and hiking :).  It was beyond perfect.  Seth and Mr. Jimmy smoked a local raised turkey (that we'd purchased from some of our farming friends).  He also made some delightful croissants. Mrs. Cynthia and I made sweet potato casserole, cranberry orange sauce, rice/pea salad, dressing, green bean casserole, and pumpkin cinnamon streusel coffee cake.

Seth prepping the turkey.

Mr. Jimmy & Seth working on the croissants.

Thanksgiving Dinner Layout.

:).

After our dinner, Seth and I got to take a little nap and VuuWaaLaaa everything was cleaned up!  

We then each wrapped up in warm clothes and headed out for a little hike.

The View.

The Cook Crew.

My cute man with his wonderful parents.

Seth & I.

Thanksgiving week flew by faster than we wanted.  We had such a great time and are so thankful Seth's parents came out to spend Thanksgiving with us.

We're shipping them back to warmer climates.

Bearded Cook Men.

Bearded Cook Men & Bearded Cook Mother :).

Thanks for coming out Mr. Jimmy & Mrs. Cynthia!  What a wonderful holiday it was.

Next Holiday: 

Merry Belated Christmas!

-Cinnamon Rolls from us to You-

Seth and I stayed in Utah for Christmas this year, due to very exciting events that are to occur in January :).  We will become Auntie E and Uncle Seth in just a few short weeks.  And as much as I'd have loved to be in SC with family for Christmas, it just couldn't compare to pushing our trip back just a bit to meet our lovely, beautiful, perfect, so much like her Auntie E, beyond adorable little Mackayli Nicole.  I can not even begin to describe the excitement that is building up in both Seth and I as the time is drawing near :).

This here is Eason and Brittany.  They may be cute chaps here, but my little niece will be wayyyyyy beyond cuter! We so can't wait to meet, love, and spoil her.

Anywho, so that little girl is why we postponed our trip and spent Christmas in Utah.  It was a quiet, cozy, white, and simple Christmas.  


A Cook family tradition is to have finger foods and nibbles for Christmas Eve.  We had Christmas Eve plans already, so we had our Cook finger foods and nibbles the night before Christmas Eve.  We watched Christmas movies and enjoyed our nibbles :).

Many of you may already know or notice, but Seth and I have Kitchen Chairs!!!  We've been wanting these bad boys for over two years.  When we were first married we ate dinner in lawn chairs for a few months, until we finally purchased a card table just for the plastic chairs.  We've been using those uncomfortable chairs for several months.  We wanted to get Kitchen Chairs for our anniversary, but couldn't find any we liked.  We walked into an antique store the week before Christmas looking for gift ideas, and low and behold we saw these amazing, matching, good quality kitchen chairs.  We long forgot those we intended to shop for and focused all our attention on these beautys.  Seth and I were sooooo beyond ecstatic after making this purchase.  I tried to talk Seth into not using the chairs until Christmas, but Seth WAS NOT having that.  These chairs had to be put to use immediately since we haven't used appropriate chairs at our dinner table for more than two years.

We went to a Christmas Eve service at our church and then had a yummy dinner with friends, then we rushed home to skype with my family.  Many ages ago, my parents began to exchange gifts to each other on Christmas Eve.  My brother and I have always enjoyed watching them exchange and see them joke with each other during the exchange :).  I'm glad we got to be apart of that tradition 2,000 miles away.

Christmas morning we woke up to light our advent wreath, eat Breakfast Casserole, skype Seth's parents, read Luke, open presents, watch movies, skype my family, take a chilly walk around our snow covered neighborhood, watch another movie, prepare for our Christmas dinner.  We both missed being with our families, but it was actually a nice change.  We enjoyed our Christmas in our home on our own time at our own pace :).  It was delightful.

Christmas Dinner

I enjoy taking pictures of our food and layout, so hopefully you all enjoy it as well.

Merry Christmas!

The Cook's :).

Catch Up

We survived our Wellsville hike--as I'm sure many of you already knew :).  It was a long, windy, and chilly hike-but beyond beautiful.  Here are a few pictures of our trek...

Starting the trek w/ Morey & Popeye.

We had such pretty colors along the way.

We started the hike about 10am & it was pretty darn cold.  The first little bit is covered by trees, so not much sun gets through-My hands & nose were frozen!

After a few hours of hiking up we finally made it to our first peak.  It's a little hazy, so not the clearest view-but still beautiful!

Seth & Morey soaking it in.

We continued hiking along the ridge a ways, stopped for lunch, hiked a bit more, and finally turned around to head back down.

Our little group.  It was cold and windy I tell you!

I must have brainwashed myself during the hike up the Wellsville.  I started the hike knowing it was going to take a long time, so I didn't stop very much on the way up.  I just had my mind set on getting to the to as fast as possible and the trek uphill didn't bother me in the least bit.  It also could have helped that I had the assistance of hiking poles--not sure.  The trek downhill is what did me in.  It took FOREVER!  My feet were completely worn out and my toes were being tortured from the constant beating against the front of my Merrill's.  I obtained several blisters and I blame it all on the downhill part :).  Anywho-the hike wasn't bad at all and it was just fun and absolutely beautiful to see Cache Valley from the top of the Wellsville's.

Seth on the way down.

A pretty view on the way down.

We found a tree with Seth's name on it :).

 I thought this was a pretty neat set-up.  As soon as you walk off the trail this is what you see.

The day after our Wellsville hike just so happened to be my birthday.  Seth told me he would make me any kind of bread that I wanted for my birthday and I could make my cake--what a sweet man :).  Seth isn't much of a dessert baking kinda guy, but he sure can bake some delicious bread.  I requested croissant rolls and decided I'd make a buttermilk cake with butter-cream icing.    Seth and I baked side by side all afternoon and somehow ended up inviting friends over for dinner?  We had a shrimp penne pasta, croissant rolls, and birthday cake! It was such a fun afternoon.

Seth working the croissant rolls out.

Cutting the dough up to roll out like croissants.  Why, yes that is a measuring tape you see.  My man is precise with his bread-making :).

The finished product!  Man were they tasty!  Add a little honey butter and you are in paradise.

My cake on the other hand wasn't as good as these croissants   It was a bit to buttery for most of our tastes-next time I'll definitely add some coffee flavoring or such to the icing.

 A few weekends ago we went on a hike with some friends from church.

The ladies.

The fellas.

The group...Just mind you it was cold and I had MULTIPLE layers of clothes on to keep warm and I look like a huge hippo and that is why.....

The beautiful View.  Even though it looks totally fake in this photo-it is real and just gorgeous!

Next came Halloween.  I was a marathoner :).  Seth was.....Seth :).

We've totally supported Clemson throughout this football season-Whoop Whoop!  One Saturday we went out and tailgated for a USU game with our Carolina friends, but definitely made it back in time to watch our Tigers kickoff :).

Joe & Gina playing Cornhole.

Our Carolina group!

Welp, that about sums up our past month out here!  We will be picking up Seth's folks here in T-minus 2 days and will be celebrating Thanksgiving with them.  We are both beyond excited and I just had to update the blog before they came :).

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Cook's :)

Cook Update Part II.

This Update Part II will mostly involve awesome pictures that were taken with our visitors last week.

During Emily & Trevor's visit-we decided to pack in as much as we could with them to make their trip worthwhile and hopefully enjoyable.  After our eventful morning of running and golfing we headed out to hike a strenuous Naomi's Peak.  It couldn't have been a more beautiful day with gorgeous fall colors.

Trevor & Emily at the TrailHead.

Good hikers here.

Like I've mentioned before-the colors were just so bold and breath-taking.  The sky was big and blue.  The air was crisp-at times chilly-but it kept us from getting to warm.  Just a perfect outing.

As you can see from the above picture Emily was in the lead.  During this hike I considered to Emily often as the 'beast'.  Seth, Trevor, and I would have to stop at times to catch our breath, grab a drink of water, or just to plain stop because our legs were on fire.  Emily would just continue treking up in elevation without any cares in the world, until she realized her followers were lagging pretty far behind.  We finally resulted to asking her if she was even the least bit tired, because she certainly didn't appear that way :).  

A view along the way to the peak.

During the hike we had to stop for a little pick-me-up snack, but decided to save our sandwiches for when we reached the peak.

Naomi's Peak :).

The Cutsinger's Soaking in the Western Range.

My man looking around at the Top.

Trevor & Emily--Troopers!

Seth and I.

Other side View.

Emily & Seth.

After our Naomi's Peak hike, we went over to Bear Lake and on down to Garden City for a raspberry shake.  It's the only thing that motivated us to complete that hike :).

Bear Lake Overlook.

Trevor & Emily.

 After our hike and trip to Bear Lake for a raspberry shake we were whooped.  We came home and made pizza's, hung out for a bit, and hit the sack.

Sunday, we headed to Salt Lake City to see the temple, eat Red Iguana (Seth's all time fav. place), and drop our guests off at their various locations.

So pretty.

Seth enjoying his favorite place--Red Iguana!

Driving through the canyon--So pretty.

We very much enjoyed having Trevor & Emily out to visit and hated to see them leave!  So, that about wraps up our little update here.

Tomorrow, Seth and I will be hiking these bad boys....

 Can I just go ahead and say that I'm beyond nervous about this?  It's 3,000+ elevation change, about 7 1/2 miles long, and about ehhhh 7-8 hours of hiking in there.  The Wellsville range are considered either THE steepest ranges in the US or one of them.  I'm sure we'll get some lovely pictures, but it will surely be a tough one!

Hope you all have a fun weekend!

The Cook's :).