Grandpa Harris turns 90

Last weekend we celebrated Sam's Grandpa Harris' 90th birthday (Mom Robinson's dad). All of the Harris children along with some of the grand children came into town for the banquet they had put together for him. It was fun to finally meet sam's aunts and uncles on his mom's side that I had never met before, to finally put faces with names. Sam's mom, his sis Mary Kay, and his bro Dan all flew in for the dinner as well. It was so fun to see everyone. And to see his grandparents again. Sam has the sweetest grandparents ever. They even flew down for our wedding a few years ago. Grandpa Harris seriously has the kindest heart and the biggest testimony. It was fun to see some slides from when he was younger and to hear him speak at the very end. To hear him share his testimony of the Gospel with the entire family was really special. It was so sincere and true. I am grateful we were able to hear it. And I'm grateful we were able to go that night and visit with everyone.

the Robinson table, lol...


Grandpa Harris blowing out his candles:
Sam with his mom and Grandpa:

wait. im domestic? no way.

since moving back to utah i've had a little more time on my hands so i decided to start trying a few new things. after being in california and always having yummy homemade jam at hand in kari's house, i decided it was time for me to learn to make my own. so i called up a couple friends and had a little get together to make strawberry freezer jam. it was SUPER easy and turned out way yummy. we just used the "quick and easy" recipe from this box:

it ended up making 5 and 1/2 jars (only 4 and 1/2 pictured, sry lol). i only used 1 package of strawberries. it turned out to be the perfect amount for the recipe. the jam turned out awesome! i already want to try some of the other fruits on the box like peach or raspberry:

one more thing i made recently that was also super yummy was a bean, corn, avocado dip to go with tortilla chips. I was inspired by sam's sister's recipe of using black beans, corn, avocado, and cucumber(and tomato? cant remember) but i modified it a little to fit what we like since i'm not a huge fan of cucumber... so this is the list of what i used and if you ever want to make it, just put in more or less of other stuff you might like. i couldnt find a recipe online that i liked so i kinda just made it up (with mary's recipe in mind of course) and oddly enough, it turned out great! lol its moments like this that make me feel like i actually might be a good cook haha..

Avocado, bean dip:

1 can black beans, drained

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can shoepeg corn, drained

2 avocados, chopped (be sure to add last to avoid browning)

1 half onion, chopped

cilantro, chopped (desired amount)

few squirts of lemon juice

a little s&p

Kari's bday weekend in San Fran

A few weeks ago, kelli called me up and said she bought a plane ticket to cali for kari's 30th birthday weekend and told me i HAD to come too. i didnt think i'd be able to but when sam and i looked at the ticket prices, they were pretty cheap so we decided i could go! woo!! it was such a random and awesome trip and i'm so glad everything worked out so us sisters could have some time together. we had so much fun just us! and we decided from now on that we are gonna do the same thing for the next sisters' 30th bdays-- kelli's next year, then mine later down the road.. anywho, here are the pics. happy birthday kari! glad you had a great time! i know i did. :)

gettin pedi's before heading out to san fran:

our hotel in downtown san fran:cab ride to dinner.. aka roller coaster ride to dinner. those drivers are crazy! especially goin down those steep roads in downtown. yikes:
the biggest noodle you've ever seen lol (we took a walk down to the pier after dinner):

kelli found zoltar on pier 39:
seals? just a few left this time of year:
crepes for dessert. mmmm:

next day= shopping allll day! loved it:
??? we realized san fran is sort of an "anything goes" kinda town:
cheesecake factory for lunch. pretty sure all we did on this trip was eat and shop. perfect! hehe:
leaving the city.. all the sailboats in the bay:
thanks for such a fun time sisters! love you!!

Weekend in S. Utah

A couples weeks ago we headed down with Christa and Andy to Andy's parents' house in Summit, UT (halfway between Parowan and Cedar City).. They have a fun house on a ranch/farm and also had lots of close by canyons that we could drive to for day trips. We had so much fun getting to know Andy's family and spending all our time doing fun outdoorsy stuff! gotta love Utah for that. Anywho, we took lots of pics so hope you enjoy!

day 1- we headed up the canyon to Yankee resevoir to do some horseback riding, fishing, and fire cookin some lunch.. had to get the horses out pretty quick because there were some cattle that had gotten out of the gate and had to be herded back..
Andy's 4 year old sister. she rides by herself. no joke. this was when she turned to christa and said, hey can you help me up? we were like uhh suuure.. then once she was on, she took off! we were like um hope thats ok! lol, her dad told us right after that she is pretty good so not to worry haha:
herding the cattle:
riding on the trails:
lunchtime:
at the dixie county rodeo later that night. it was my first small county rodeo (compared to houston's huuge one every year) and it was soo fun!
day 2-riding up a different canyon for dutch oven dinners:



there were so many dutch ovens with lots of yummy grub! mmm:
shotgun shooting after dinner:
view of their land from the house. max was tied to that tree most of the weekend but he had lots of friends to keep him company. the st. bernard to the left, a sheep who just chilled there bc her legs were asleep from getting stuck somewhere(its behind the tree).. and their horses were kept in a pasture to the right(not pictured) but they lingered close to the house most of the time. i think max had fun. hehe
first experience on a trampoline LOL:
day 3- we took a trip down to st. george to visit with an older couple named the callaway's from sam and andy's mission. they were so awesome! took us out on their boat on the lake just north of st. george- sand hollow? i think that was the name.. did some wakeboarding and tubing and even a lil cliff jumping. it was a super fun day!


sam n andy with the callaway's. such nice people! love them!
I'm pretty sure we jam packed that entire weekend with as much to do as we could think of! it was the last hoorah before sam, andy, and christa dove into this fall semester of school. thanks for taking us along guys! we had some serious fun. :)

BYU Pep Rally

I'm not sure if BYU does this every year or not but it was OUR first year to go to their Pep Rally that they put on before the first game of the season. It was a short program but still pretty fun to stand n yell n act like silly school spirited college students hehe..

the band and Cosmo the Cougar:
Cougar Fight Song:

Catching up.. End of summer in Denver

Just a few fun pics from our last few weeks in Denver:

While out knocking in a neighborhood, Sam ran into some huge elk who were just passing by...

they were eating everybody's flowers hahaha:
Denver's state parks have all these off-leash dog trails that are super fun.. this was at Cherry Creek State Park right near our house (btw these were from a few weeks ago, max looks so teeney in the pics):

Max was a little afraid of the water at first:


soaking wet puppy:


playing with Sadie, Steve n Sarra's pup:

at Cherry Creek with Steve and Sarra.. Sadie LOVED the water. she was hilarious.
Lizzie loved the water too. hehe: