i love living in utah.

this past memorial day weekend i headed down to moab with some friends.  living in utah is seriously the best.  despite some of the strange laws, the outdoor playround that we have here at our fingertips is honestly amazing.  from the best snowboarding ever to the amazing desert camping.. utah really has a lot to do.

3 of my friends who were with us actually had never been to moab, so it was exciting to see them enjoy it.  i’ve been going there since i was a little kid, but it is always nice to go back. i never get sick of it!

well as you may probably guess, not all my eats were photographed during my 3-day-long campout.  but i did manage to get some things documented!

here are a few shots of my prepwork.. batch of protein pancakes, a huuuge plate of protein bars & a bag of fresh cut veggies…

on the drive down we were ridiculously hungry only a few hours in because all of us forgot to eat when we were quickly getting out the door to hit the road.  sooo we decided to stop in a little town called price and found a small sandwich shop.. always good to go local.  i hate places like subway.

while we were waiting for our food, we noticed the table had a huge basket of saltines. someone brought up the fact that it is impossible to eat six of them in one minute without taking a drink.  well of course we had to try…

jessica couldn’t do it.

i actually did eat 6 saltines, but that was before they mentioned the 1 minute limit.. so we stocked up our purses to try this a little later. more on that to come.

for lunch, i ordered a turkey avocado on ww sans mayo and i caved and got some french fries because it was either that or mayo-laden potato salad.. yeah, i could have skipped a side all together, but where is the fun in that?..

us utahns are weird. we have something called fry sauce.. i thought this was a national reknowned thing as a kid, come to find out it is really just something utahns and idahoans are into.  all it is is mayo+ketchup=fry sauce.  genius? not really. but i am pretty certain hundreds of gallons of the stuff is consumed annually.  is this something eaten in any other states?  i am pretty sure you can see it featured in the film napoleon dynamite.

anyway, i didnt use the sauce much but i did indulge in those fresh cut fries.

i was disappointed in the sandwich because of the lack of lots of turkey.. but there was an abundance of avocado so it all worked out.

oh, by the way.. all sandwiches included a free cookie.. they WERE fresh baked.. i couldn’t really say NO.. could i? ;)

here is allie with her cookie, i told her i would feature her and her chocolate chip lovin on the blizog. blurr times infiniti.

well that is all i have for saturday photos. horrible, i know.  lunch kept us full for a really super extra long time.  we rolled into town and met up with some friends who are living down in moab for the summer and working as river guides.  one of them led us to a dope camp spot and we set up camp, built a fire and let the fun begin!

a little later on in the night we did get a little hungry.. i snacked on veggies + hummus, archer farms jalepeno chips and kashi crackers.

and well..  i did manage to eat six saltine crackers but no.. i didn’t handle them all in under one minute.. although i came the closest! it was a competition between 3 of us.  i swear i will be able to do it next time i try! i have some funny photos and a video of this event.. but they are on my buddy’s camera.. so i will have to show you all later!

SUNDAY!

we woke up bright and early, sleeping in is not an option when camping.  it gets way too hot in the tent with the sun beating down on it!  we whipped up some much needed breakfast!

first we heated up some coffee from the jug that i brewed before leaving home..

with a little UVAB!

while cooking, i laid out some grapes & strawberries for snacking..

we scrambled some eggs..

and then stuffed them in a breakfast wrap along with turkey, LCL wedge & ketchup.  yuhhm.. hit the spot!

for breakfast dessert i warmed up a protein pancake and smothered it in PB & homemade raspberry jam.  OMG i forgot how much i adore my mom’s jams!

aura, my friend’s dog, was with us. we brought her down (my friend is one of the river guides) to see her dad.. but we failed on the dog food bringing.. so she also got some protein pancakes ;)

i would have liked to have our pups there, but we were going and doing too much to have them around, plus my car already had 5 people.. haha 4 dogs would not have fit!

and we all enjoyed a celebratory memorial weekend mimosa fully equipped with a strawberry :)

we put on our swimsuits and got ready to go on a hike.  i made a whole slew of PBJs and we grabbed a lot of other snacks for the journey: PB filled pretzels, bananas, apples, nuts, dates & clementines. the hike was mill creek north fork.. a hike i do every time i am in moab.  it leads to a natural swimming hole with cliff jumping.

well,  i don’t know what happened but somehow we wandered up the south fork instead of the north fork and ended up a couple miles up the wrong spot, but it was a fun-filled beautiful hike!  we ended up asking someone about the swimming hole and they directed us back down to the start of the fork.  i knew something was fishy a mile into the hike, but i just kept going.. oops. oh well!  here are some shots from the hike:

and when we got to the hot spot, we did some cliff jumping and happened to run into a bunch of people from small lake city..go figure. there was also a whole slew of people up there, dudes playing the drums and people hanging with their dogs.. it was the most crowded i’d ever seen it! super extra fun.

i ate a PBJ and some PB filled pretzels along with some camera shy dates and nuts.

it made me a little sad to be here, the first time i ever was at this spot was with my dog mable who is now resting in peace.. you may see her name tattooed on my wrist from time to time.  it is a sad thing to see everyone with their dogs here and not have mable.. here are a couple photos of her in this same spot:

miss her!

hang time

after basking in the sun and hanging out for a couple hours, we headed back to the trailhead and decided to go run the river.  since our friends are tour guides it was free ninety free,, so we figured sure why not!

we hooked the rafts up to my 4runner.. well, the dudes did.. while the girls snacked on some chips & salsa out of the back of the other car.  we were really good helpers ;)

by the time we got to where you drop in the river, it was raining and there was some lightening.  on a normal day, this doesn’t bug me.. but on a day i am going to raft some rapids.. well it just doesn’t appeal to  me so much.  half of the crew ended up going.. well a little more than half actually.  amber, allie and i stayed behind. no shame in our skipping out game.  turns out they were rafting into the dark hours of the night and the raft flipped and everyone was freezing their butts off and it was basically not my idea of the raddest time. so it worked out in my favor in the long run.  although i would have liked to raft the rapids, i have done it many many times before. here is a photo of marshall and i on the same river last summer:

so annnyway!  us 3 girls headed back to camp, amber built us a sweet fire and we played some games that we made up using rocks and the cooler lid’s cup holders and a tin pan.  we are creative genuses!  we called our game AJA (stands for amber-janetha-alle).. sooo clever. ha!

i put out a little snack station of hummus, cottage cheese, turkey pepperoni & multigrain chips:

and then we worked on making some tin foil veggie dinners..(broccoli, red potatoes, carrots, onion, bell peppers)..the beef we brought along was looking a little sketch so we opted to just cook the veggies!

and we roasted some smart dogs.. i HATE regular hot dogs, but i do love the smart dogs! well.. maybe not love, but i like em enough to eat em camping :)

we cooked the dinners on the coals..

and they were the bomb dot com when they were done!  i snagged some hot sauce from the gas station.. yeah, i steal condiments.. so? and i also put some ketchup on my veggies. yummm!

a little later it was time for smores! yes, a definite necessity when camping.  i always use the fudge stripe cookies instead of graham crackers & chocolate bars.. it is just waaay easier.  and tastes just as good!

well that is all the photo action i have for saturday!  i did a little more food documenting on

SUNDAY!

more coffee.. not photographed.. and then we made some more eggs but this time we mixed in the leftover veggies that we had cooked the night before. um, delicious! there was something about the fire-baked veggies that made them taste soo good in the eggs as opposed to cooking the veggies on the stovetop. try it sometime! just bake some veggies in tin foil in your oven!

i made another breakfast wrap and used some of my stolen hot sauce this time ;)

it was SOOOO good!!  (excuse the dirty hands.. ha camping!)

after that we packed up camp and hit the road.. i had places to be later that night! (more on that later :)

sad to leave :(

and we snapped a shot of the windmills on the drive home..

well this is kind of a lame attempt to share my vacation with you.. sorry it tapered off near the end.. it is tiring to blog so much at once!! plus i only had 4 hours of sleep last night, so i am having a rough time looking at the screen.

before i go, some items of business!

a big thanks to the lovely em for awarding me with this dopeness:

i honestly am SO stoked i have stumbled upon all of your blogs, i feel such a bond from this awesome community that i never even knew about just two short months ago!  i adore each and every one of you.. THANKS for being such rad girls!  i have never been given a reward on a blog before.. ha so i am not really sure how it works?! BUT.. if i am supposed to pass it along, let me know… i am a little food blog challenged still ;)

and also a big fat congrats to lauren on her marriage this past weekend!

anyway! i have a lot more to talk about–monday night i went to the sounds, paramore & no doubt.. so photos of that to come (we met the sounds and it was ammmazing!!)

and also i have today’s eats to upload, but i am famished from this marathon post!!

OH and i have read up on all your memorial day weekends!  (and not so much memorial day weekends out of the US)  and although i didn’t comment you all, it looks like you all had a great time :D lots of BBQs and good foods!

ok, i’m spent.. check ya later alligators <3