Mini Waffle Furniture!

How cute are these?!? Check out more information HERE.

Picture from Sapore Dei Mobili (Furniture Tasting)

Pinata Cookies!

SheKnows.com posted a tutorial on how to make pinata cookies, and I think they are so cute!

Pinata Cookies from SheKnows.com

They seem like a lot of work, but aren't they cool?!? You can check out the tutorial HERE but basically, you layer three sugar cookies together with the middle cookie hollowed out to hold the candy. Maybe I can transfer this idea to make some fun Christmas cookies.

Easter Treats!

I hope everyone had a good weekend! MH and I had a great time celebrating the Easter holiday with family and friends and had fun making treats to share...

Lemon Green Beans

 Rainbow Jello

 Italian Herb Boules

 Citrus Salad with Mint

 Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

To no surprise, the rainbow jello was the biggest hit. It took forever to make though so I don't think we will be making it again anytime soon. Each layer has to be made and set individually and we found that all shortcuts end in disaster. 

Sights In The Southwest: Day 10

Our last stops on our trip were Pueblo de Cochiti and Kaska-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 

At Pueblo de Cochiti, photography, video, and sketching was not permitted, but to be quite honest there wasn't really anything to take a picture of and share. 

Kaska-Kutwe Tent Rocks National Monument was pretty interesting though. The tent like rocks can be seen throughout the area and were surprisingly tall. 

I didn't realize we would be hiking on our last day, so I was a little ill prepared in my jeans and flip-flops. Luckily the trail was only a little over a mile so I was able to manage without too much trouble.

After driving  2700+ miles in the car, it was time for us to head home. The Southwest has such a wide variety of things to do, we recommend a trip if anything in our adventure caught your attention. We would go again to see The Wave alone.

Sights In The Southwest: Day 9

On our way back to Santa Fe, we visited El Santuario de Chimayo. The church is known for it's amazing healing powers and we saw several groups making pilgrimages to the church when we were on our way. Since services were in progress when we arrived we just took a quick look around before we continued on our way.

Once in Santa Fe, we dropped by the farmer's market to check out the offerings of the local farmers and community. The farmer's market was surprisingly small, but I suppose we are spoiled being from California.

After the farmer's market, we walked around historic downtown Santa Fe and found the oldest house, De Vargas Street House, and church, San Miguel Mission, in Santa Fe. Both structures are listed on the oldest building in the United States.

De Vargas Street House

Sights In The Southwest: Day 8

We spent the morning in Santa Fe and visited the Georgia O'Keefe Museum and the Santa Fe Museum of Art. It was a little disappointing to realize that all of O'Keefe's famous pieces are located at other museums around the world but it gave us the opportunity to see some of her earlier and less famous pieces.

Santa Fe Museum of Art

Since we would be back in Santa Fe the following day we headed off to Taos in hopes of visiting the Taos Pueblo. Unfortunately, when we arrived we realized the Pueblo was closed and wouldn't be open while we were there. Instead, we took advantage of our time in Taos and visited a couple of the other sights in/near town.

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

We heard that Taos is a great winter town but in the spring it is almost a ghost town. With the great sunny weather, it was hard to not have a nice time while we were there though. 

Sights In The Southwest: Day 7

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a really neat place to go. Visitors can take an elevator down to the main cavern, located 754 feet below the visitors center. Once down in the cavern, you can walk on a paved trail to explore the different areas of the cavern.   

Most of my pictures turned out blurry since the only light in the cavern are the few lights that have been set up throughout the cavern by the National Park Service. I was able to get a reasonably good picture of this formation called the "Lions Tail" though.

Afterwards, we went to Roswell and visited the International U.F.O. Museum. After reading all of the articles, exhibits, and presentations in the museum, it really does make you wonder if a U.F.O. crashed in Roswell back in 1947. There is a lot of contradictory evidence that seems extraordinarily reasonable.
 

Before we left Roswell, MH treated me to a delicious frozen custard with berries snack. It was a great way to end our day and start our drive to our next destination. 

Sights In The Southwest: Day 6

When MH first told me about our Southwest adventure, I came across the travel section in the Los Angeles Times and some one suggested visiting Grand Falls. Since it seemed more or less on the way, I added it to our itinerary and it ended up being a really neat stop. 

Driving to the Grand Falls is literally like driving to the middle of no where. There are no signs for Grand Falls and these were the directions to get there: Turn right and drive 20.3 miles to unpaved and unsigned Indian Road 6910 (between mileposts 5 and 6). Turn left and drive along this rough road 9.4 miles to the turnoff on the left, which leads to the falls overlook.

Next on the itinerary was the Meteor Crater but once we found out that admission was $16 to look at the hole in the ground I opted to wait for MH in the car, relax, and do some reading. MH returned to the car much quicker than I anticipated, and admitted that the $16 admission fee was a total ripoff, but he can say he saw it in person and pointed out that I could not. I'm okay with that.

The last stop for the day was Petrified Forest National Park and MH and I were both underwhelmed. Most of the park was actually badlands and the trails to see the petrified wood weren't very exciting. I guess we had both hoped to see a better display and color variation in the petrified wood, and most of what we saw was pretty dull and boring.

This was one of the most colorful examples of petrified wood that I could find on the Giant Logs trail behind the Rainbow Forest Museum.

Sights In The Southwest: Day 5

We made it to the wave and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I don't think the pictures do it justice, it is an incredible sight. Here are a couple of my favorite shots that I took while we were there.

Sights In The Southwest: Day 4

The highlight of our trip was meant to be The Wave. However, only 20 people are given permits each day, 10 of which are reserved in advance through an online lottery and the remaining 10 are given out through an in-person lottery at the Grand Escalante Visitor Center. On our first try, over ninety people showed up for the in-person lottery! Nevertheless, we didn't win.

After our loss, we headed over to Antelope Canyon to ease our disappointment and it turned out to be the perfect place to clear our minds.

Walking through the canyon was really cool and the sights along the way were amazing. As the sun moved across the sky, the light would change inside the canyon, and you would see spectacular views that would only last a minute.

Later in the afternoon, we visited Horseshoe Bend. At this vista you can see the Colorado river make a 180 degree turn.

Since the sky was a little hazy when we got there we weren't able to get a vibrant photo of it but you get the idea.