Birthdays Galore!

This post is a little later than usual; Jason and I have been working like dogs! Jason was in Chicago last Thursday - Sunday. He was up there for a meeting on Friday, but then stuck around for two more days to spend some time with his brother, Kurt. He is away again tonight, in Sedona, for a product specialist meeting. He'll be home again tomorrow.

Funny story though...he left at about 7:00 this morning while I was getting ready for work; I usually leave at about 7:40. At around 7:30 I started looking for my keys, which I discovered were no where to be found. Then I remembered taking them into Jason's car the night before, which was half way to Sedona! Turns out our valet key was also attached so Jason's key chain, so all three keys to the Subaru were with Jason. Luckily, a friend of mine could pick me up and take me to work, and I have another ride tomorrow morning. I know this doesn't surprise any of you that I left my keys in his car:)

At work, we started advising this week for selecting spring classes; I have about 6 to 7 appointments a day, and all my other time is eaten up with a new initiative I've been working on...pretty hectic! Before the term is over, I will have met about 300 students to select spring courses...12 down, 288 to go!

Friday, while Jason was in Chicago, I helped my friend Heather get ready for her daughter's birthday party by making lots of origami butterflies...here is a picture of a few.

On Saturday, my friend Kristen came over for some coffee and a chat, and then Heather's daughter Jane's birthday party was at 11:00. Here is a picture of me and the little birthday girl...


Later that night I went to a grown-up beer tasting themed birthday party for a co-worker. Here is a picture we took of a few co-workers and I...


Jason was home on Sunday, and we watched NFL (Go Pack!) and the season final episodes of our HBO shows. Jason will be home tomorrow night, and is going to be in Flagstaff (as of now) until the end of October. We don't have too many crazy plans over the next couple of weeks. Clemson plays Boston College on Saturday, and I plan to begin my fall / Halloween decorating this weekend...can't wait!

XOXO

Labor Day Road Trip

This year, to celebrate our labor, Jason and I took a road trip to Utah. We are trying to visit as many states in the Western US as we can, and the scenery is Utah is rumored to be some of the best.
We packed up the Subi Saturday morning and drove to Mt.Zion National Park. It is in southern Utah, and took about 4.5 hours. Our drive was an interesting one, through the Navajo Reservation for about 2 hours, over Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, and through various Arizona / Utah rocky deserts, along what is called the Grand Staircase. The Grand Staircase follows the Grand Canyon at the bottom, Mt. Zion in the middle, and Bryce Canyon at the top. We've now visited all three points! Saturday afternoon we took about a 3 mile hike along the Lower, Middle, and Upper Emerald Pools -- really pretty hike. After we checked into our hotel in Springdale, UT called the Pioneer Lodge(complete with a covered wagon on the sign), we ate at a surprisingly good restaurant called Whiptail Grill (Whiptail is a type of lizard we learned) and walked around the small town. I even got a hand-crafted mug from a local artists' studio for my morning cups of tea! Here is a slideshow of Mt. Zion...



On Sunday we headed to Bryce Canyon, about a 1 hour drive further North into Utah (pretty much in the middle of nowhere, Utah!). We were totally blown away by Bryce Canyon, and think you guys will be too by the pictures. I absolutely recommend this to anyone who happens to find themselves in Utah! We were pleasantly surprised, and glad we added the second stop to our trip. We took about a 3 mile hike down deep into the canyon along a trail called Navajo loop, walked along the floor of the canyon along Queen's Garden trail, and SLOWLY back up the climb along Sunrise trail. Other than thinking I may die at a couple points back up out of the canyon, it was a really unique canyon with a lot of interesting scenery. That night we stayed in Tropic, Utah, a town that was LITERALLY one street, no stop lights, in a cozy cabin. We ate at one of two restaurants in town, Clark's, and had a good ol' country meal complete with barbeque (Jason has ribs, I had the chicken) and blueberry pie...yummm. It was a really relaxing night just drinking wine outside our cabin, watching the stars, which looked almost as good as they do in Flagstaff:)

Monday we slowly got back on the road, made a pit-stop at Red Canyon, and Jason worked on perfecting his skills with the manual transmission (we made it home in one piece!) Here is Bryce Canyon...


J leaves Thursday for Chicago, and Clemson has their first nationally televised game of the season vs. Georgia Tech, so you know what I'll be doing! I believe it starts at 4:00 our time, so I'm DVRing the game to watch it when I get home from work...no one is allowed to send me updates until after 5:30 my time!!

Have a great week and GO TIGERS!!
XOXO

Mom and Dad Visit AZ

Mom and dad Bailey flew into Flagstaff last Thursday night, and Jason and I cooked our weary travelers a dinner of pork tenderloin and southwestern black bean salad (I put the recipe below). We went to bed early, and on Friday mom and dad came to see my new office and meet some co-workers, and we walked downtown to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Cafe Ole. The food isn't the best Mexican in town, but the back porch is incredible. I headed back to work for the afternoon, and mom and dad did some shopping in downtown Flagstaff.

That night we took mom and dad to Cuvee 928, a great wine bar with outdoor seating in Heritage Square in the center of downtown. The wine was great, but unfortunately there was an AWFUL band playing before the weekly "movie on the square". We walked to Brix, my favorite Flagstaff restaurant, for a delicious dinner.

Saturday we drove down to Sedona, AZ through the Hwy. 89 "switchbacks" to show off the amazing views of the red rocks. There we did a wine tasting at Wild West Wines, ate a great lunch at Renes, and did some shopping in a place called Tlaquepaque, a spanish inspired shopping center with a lot of tiling, fountains, art work, and gardens.




Complete with a trip to the ice cream store, we headed back up to Flagstaff, and had another home cooked meal, and an early birthday cake and gifts for Jason.

Sunday Jason got on an early flight to visit Jackson Hole, WY for a small vascular surgeon conference. Check out the 5 star Four Seasons hotel where he is staying...real tough life!
I took mom and dad for a breakfast at Macy's "European Coffeehouse" and in the afternoon my friends Heather and Greg and their two kids Max and Jane came over for a little cookout. Here's a great picture of Max and Jane. I was still finding misplaced knick knacks and pieces of chewed up carrot all over the house on Monday -- am I sure I want kids?? haha.

On Monday I had to work, so mom and dad went to the Grand Canyon (I'm a little "Grand Canyoned out") and we went to a nice dinner at night at Pasto, an Italian restaurant downtown.
I was up early this morning to see them off to Phoenix, and they are heading to San Francisco. I was sad to see them go, but so happy to have them here for awhile, show them our town, and share moments together at home with glasses of great wine!

Jason comes home tomorrow night and we're going on a road trip through a couple National Parks in Utah for the Labor Day Weekend...we'll be sure to post lots of pictures when we return!

Southwestern Black Bean Salad
1 can of black beans, rinsed
2 ears of corn, grilled, kernels removed from ear
1 red pepper, chopped
2 tomatoes, seeds removed, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
Handful of cilantro, chopped well

Dressing:
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 cup olive oil or canola oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk dressing together and pour over ingredients in a large bowl

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Jason and I have been super busy the past couple of weeks. Jason came back from a trip to Albany, NY and Providence, RI last Wednesday, my parents came in town last Thursday night, and Jason just headed back out today for a conference in Wyoming.
Students came back to NAU on the 20th, and it has been non-stop work since then! Thankfully, I had time this weekend to spend with my parents, and when they leave for San Francisco on Tuesday I'll post lost of picture and details of their trip. The opening picture on this post is from Jason and I in Phoenix two Fridays ago, the night before Jason left for his trip to the NE. Here are the pictures I promised from Angileigh's wedding...
XOXO

Wedding!

My college friend Angileigh's wedding was this past Saturday August 15 in Lexington, SC. She married Eric Hartman, a fellow die-hard Clemson fan and all around good guy. I was a bridesmaid and sang in their wedding. The Wednesday before on August 12 I took the "red-eye" flight out of Phoenix at 11:30 pm and arrived in Charlotte at 8:30 am the next day. With the aid of multiple glasses of wine, I was able to get a few hours of sleep on the flights, and although still a little tired, was eager to see my family.

My mom picked me up in Charlotte, and we went to Spartanburg, SC to visit Tim at his new school, USC Upstate, where he has transferred to play on the soccer team. He is living in a new dorm and despite the 2-a-day practices he is doing great!

We met Richard (on his lunch break all spiffed up in a tie!) for lunch at the Pita House in Greenville, SC - one of my favorite restaurants of all time. We saw his new apartment he'll be moving into in Greenville, and Richard experienced a minor panic attack as he realized all the furniture he was going to need to invest in!
I was fortunate enough to have a visit at my mum's house from my good friend Stacy, and we chatted over a glass of Malbec. Miss you!

My friend David Holmes (D-Day) picked me up in Greenville, and we rode Thursday night to Lexington, SC. D-Day is a friend of ours from college, and was also in the wedding -- we called him a Brides-man. Thursday night and Friday we bustled around Lexington preparing for the wedding, and then enjoyed the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday. Saturday we were up early and enjoyed primping for the wedding, posed for about a thousand pictures, and then got to enjoy the party! My parents and Richard attended the wedding, so I got to spend some more time with them too. I visited with a few people I haven't seen since graduating college; amazingly, it felt like no time has passed at all when I saw them. The wedding was beautiful, and I was really thrilled I could be there to share the day(s) with Ang, Eric and the whole Wingard clan. The whole weekend was such a whirlwind that I didn't take as many pictures as I would have like to with everyone I saw! My dad did take some of the reception, which I'll post this weekend. In no time at all I was up on Sunday, back in the car, and flying out of Charlotte back to Phoenix. Due to exhaustion, I had to stop in Phoenix and do some shopping for an hour (hehe) and then drove back up the mountain to enjoy my Sunday HBO shows and a delicious home cooked meal with Jason and Maddie. Jason greeted me with a glass of wine and a new recipe for stuffed shells...delicious!
In my absence, Jason had a short trip to Reno for work on Thursday - Friday, and spent the weekend in Flagstaff. On Saturday he and his co-worker David went biking on a more advanced trail for a couple of hours, didn't encounter any equestrian teams, but did have to make a few pit-stops for broken chains. Jason fell a couple of times, but only came out of it with a cut thumb...not too bad!
There has been a pretty bad wildfire in our region that started late last week. It is in the Coconino National Forest, about 13 miles from Flagstaff. On Sunday, driving up the mountain, I could see huge plumes of smoke coming up from behind the San Francisco Peaks. Monday was the worst day with a smokey haze and pockets of ash throughout town. Not a pleasant day to walk. It appears to be now under control, and we aren't under any danger. Had the fire spread to Flagstaff, the first spot to be hit would have most likely been Jason's Gore compound. Apparently a fire in a similar area a few years back did spread towards Flagstaff, and Jason's buildings were evacuated for a number of days. Here is an article about the fire


Last thing, my bio is finally up on the NAU website. Here is a link to our roster, click my name, and you'll find my bio.


We have both been trying to catch up on sleep this week. Jason leaves Saturday for Providence, RI and Albany, NY until next Wednesday, and I am working Orientation both Saturday and Sunday. We have been planning our trip to Utah for Labor Day weekend, and looking forward to my parent's visit on the 27th of August! I put a slide show of some additional picture from my visit to S.C. - more of the reception to come soon - enjoy!
XOXO

Madeline's Great Escape

This is a picture of Madeline covered in dirt after her escape into the backyard on Friday afternoon. After work, I took the laptop and a cold beer, and sat on my Adirondack chair in front of the house. After 10 minutes I heard a jingle of a bell that sounded suspiciously like the bell on Maddie's collar. I looked back, and sure enough, there was Madeline, totally covered in dirt, sneaking along the rock wall on the right side of our house. I picked her up and took her inside, at which point I noticed the sliding screen door at the back of the house was open about a foot. Jason mentioned last week that he thought Madeline had figured out how to open the screen door with her paw, but I didn't believe it. Sure enough, she has figured out how to open the door, escaped into the backyard, and jumped the fence to the front of the house. To get the dirt off of her, I stuck her under water in the bath -- you can imagine how that went. She wrestled away, spraying dirt all over the walls and floor, and ran straight for the screen door, and out the back again! After a quick chase, I brought her back in, and rubbed her down with a towel -- locking the screen behind me this time! Madeline always manages to surprise us with her tricks. We have learned our lesson though, and now the screen door remains locked.

After that adventure on Friday afternoon, Jason arrived home from San Francisco and we went downtown Flagstaff for dinner. We finally tried the German restaurant, The Matterhorn. We shared a plate of various German sausages, saurkraut, and spatzle...YUM.

Switch to Jason -- I had a great time in San Francisco this past week. In between taking care of stuff for work, I had the chance to explore quite a bit. I took a long walk, stopping off in Chinatown, City Lights Bookstore (a famous beat hangout), Lombard Street (known for being one of the hilliest and curviest in the world), Coit Tower, and Fisherman's Wharf. In my continuing search for regional cuisines, I found a restaurant called Sotto Mare that had amazing cioppino, which is a San Francisco specialty consisting of a variety of seafood in a tomato based broth. One of the hospitals that I had to visit was right near wine country, so after the case was over I took a sightseeing drive by the vineyards. All in all, it was a successful trip, as everything that I had to do for work while there went extremely well.

Saturday we had a really lazy day. We slept in until about noon, went to lunch downtown, bummed around some stores, and then grilled some shrimp for dinner. Our friend Greg came over for UFC 101, and we enjoyed some homemade mojitos. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any fresh mint (we tried multiple stores!), so we had to use mint extract, but it turned out well.

Jason is traveling this week to Reno, NV, but only over Thursday night. I take the red-eye flight Wednesday night to S.C. I'll get into Charlotte Thursday morning, and join in the wedding festivities for my friend Angileigh and her fiance, Eric. I am in their wedding on Saturday, and fly back to AZ on Sunday. I'll post pictures when I get back!
XOXO

Grilled Pizza

Happy Wednesday! It is still Tuesday for me, but Wednesday to most of our east coast readers! Maddie and I are home alone this week as Jason left for a Gore trip to San Francisco yesterday morning until Friday afternoon. He went to a hospital today to help a new doctor use his product in surgery. I talked to him today, and all is going well. He has another surgery Friday morning, and then he will come home. He has been scoping out San Fran and Sonoma while on this trip; we're taking a trip over Thanksgiving this year, and we're trying to decide between a couple destinations.
This week has been really busy at work for me. I'm serving on a search committee to hire three new advisors, and we had an all day phone interview session today. I have had a lot of meetings this week to begin training on my new team's projects too. Today I also found out I will be advising students in the College of Health and Human Services, and serve as Gateway's liaison to Athletics. I am happy with these placements, especially keeping my contact with athletics.
This past weekend we lay low. Friday we watched a movie, Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais, and made a stir fry. On Saturday we went for a hike on Schultz pass, which we discovered is mostly covered with mountain bikers. The trail has a lot of pretty wild flowers growing; here are are a couple of pictures we took.




On Sunday Jason and I tried a new recipe for homemade pizza on the grill. It was one of the best things we have ever made at home. It is a Cilantro - Parsley pesto with grilled shrimp pizza. Here is a picture of the final product hot off the grill, and a second picture of Jason devouring the pizza.




Here is the recipe:

1 whole wheat Boboli pizza crust
1/2 lb. fresh raw jumbo shrimp, peeled and devined
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley
3/4 cup cilantro
2 big cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
6-8 oz. of fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced


Mix the parsley, cilantro, garlic and olive oil in a food processor to make the pesto. Heat 1 grill burner on medium heat, and place Bobolli pizza crust, lightly brushed with olive oil, on the unlit side of the grill, with the top closed, for about 1-2 minutes. Place the shrimp on the grill on the direct heat for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until shrimp is cooked through. Cut the shrimp into smaller pieces once off the grill. Take the crust off of the grill, spread with the pesto, add shrimp, and top off with mozzarella slices. Place the pizza back on the grill on indirect heat, with the top close for 3-4 minutes, or until the cheese melts. Keep an eye on the crust so it doesn't burn. ENJOY!!

Art Walk downtown on Friday, and getting ready for more travel next week - post more later this weekend!
XOXO