FMTSO - My Town's Premier Attraction

Ok, I'm aware that my picture is nothing spectacular. I actually just took it with my phone, and was trying to snap the shot fast enough in the parking lot of my work before the owner of the car ran out and said, "Hey, what are you doing to my car!?" I can't imagine telling him that I am in a photography "club" (what are we exactly?) and I needed a picture of a Goodyear tire.

Anyway, let me tie my picture into my town. I live in Goodyear, AZ. We're located about 45 minutes southwest of Phoenix. Whenever I tell people the name of my city, they sarcastically make a comment about Goodyear tires. However, that actually IS how the city got its name!

The 16,000 acres were purchased by the Goodyear family in the early 1900s to grow cotton which was used to make their tires, primarily tires for jets in World War 1. Since then, it has blossomed into any typical city with lots of new neighborhoods, however, there still are cotton farms throughout the city! (Not sure if they're still used for Goodyear tires though...)

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ok, so whenever Greg and I get Chinese, for as long as we've been together, we ALWAYS both order Sweet and Sour Chicken. Well, #1) the only 2 Chinese places within 20 miles of us (one way) were way overpriced for the amount you get. (Oh, how we miss the Chinese place in Havelock that delivered!) And, Greg wasnt crazy about their sauce (he's really picky about sweet and sour sauce.) #2)We really don't have the money to be getting takeout, even if it IS a good price. But, for some reason lately, I've reallyyyy been craving it.

So, I decided to go Keri style :) and try to make it myself. I found a couple recipes online, one calling for flour and one calling for cornstarch, and I didn't know what the difference between the two would do to the chicken, so I decided to call my culinary friend Kat, who ended up giving me her recipe from when she was in school. Here it is. :)

Vegetable oil, for frying

Cornstarch

Chicken, cut into 1" cubes (I used 3 breasts, and still had leftover batter, so if you only want a little, you could cut the recipe down accordingly)

4 eggs, scrambled

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup flour

5 oz cornstarch (just over 1/2 cup)

1 tbsp baking powder

salt, nutmeg and pepper to taste

9 oz water (just over 1 cup)

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet to frying temperature. Kat told me when you sprinkle a little flour in the oil and it starts to crisp, it's just right.

Mix the last 7 ingredients to form a batter. Roll chicken pieces in the extra cornstarch to lightly coat, then dip in batter, then place in frying pan. There should be enough oil in there to at least mostly cover the chicken. Let it sit for a minute or two to crisp up the bottom, then flip and do the same to the other side. I then placed the finished chicken on a plate with paper towel to at least soak up any excess oil.

As far as the sweet and sour sauce goes, I just bought "La Choy" sauce, because the ingredients are all normal, and I figured I'd try one thing at a time. First, I did the chicken, and maybe one day I'll try the sauce.

Anyway, the chicken was AWESOME. The outside was exactly like at a chinese place and it actually had better flavor, probably because it was a better quality chicken. (Greg mentioned that at least we know for sure that it's not cat.)

So if you like sweet and sour chicken, I definitely recommend this recipe! YUM!

Friday My Town Shoot Out - Places of Worship

My places of worship (aside from Sunday morning) are all different kinds of places.

Sometimes, it's the front seat of my car, and is usually accompanied by praise and worship music.

Sometimes, it's my kitchen sink, ALSO accompanied by music.

Sometimes, it's my couch accompanied by my Bible.

And even sometimes, it's wherever my running shoes happen to take me.
My places of worship can't be narrowed down to one building. When He's a God as awesome as He is, how can you not praise Him everywhere?

Friday My Town Shootout - Skylines

I will not be participating in this week's shootout, but please keep me on the list. I'll be back on next week!

Birthday, Anniversary and Halloween

This past week has been a celebratory one for us, as it is every year.

The 27th was Hunter's second birthday. Mommy can't believe he's 2 already! He is eager to inform you of that every time you ask him how old he is, also.

Since we don't really have any friends here in AZ, we just had an intimate party. I made pasta, because that causes little frustration during mealtime in trying to get him to eat. He doesn't like meat and we always have to bribe him with vegetables (I know, crazy) to eat his meat, so I made pasta and veggies since it's the closest thing to what his "favorite" meal may be.

After dinner, we webcammed with my family so they got to sing happy birthday to him and watch him blow out candles. They also got to see him open his presents, too.

I, unfortunately, don't have any pictures of presents or candles, because I was helping him with it, and Greg was recording. He did have fun though. He just couldn't figure out why he'd open a toy and then we would take it away from him and hand him something else. He just wanted to play with the first toy!

The 28th was Greg and my 4th wedding anniversary. More surprising than my baby turning two, I canNOT believe it's been 4 years that we've been married. It has definitely flown by, but I am so thankful for every day. We didn't do anything for the actual day, but we will be going out on a date next week to celebrate. It's been months since our last date, and I'm super excited to get a babysitter and go!

On the 29th, we decorated our pumpkins. We stripped the little guy down to his diaper, gave him some paint, a couple brushes, and a pumpkin, and let him go wild! He LOVED it! He was so proud of his masterpiece when he was finished. And for whatever reason, this child HATES having anything on his hands. (When he helps me cook, he can't accept the fact that he's going to get food on his hands, and can't go on with helping until I clean it up.) Anyway, I thought the paint would be interesting, but he didn't mind it too much. He definitely noticed it, but just kept painting. I don't think he's ready to do finger painting yet, but it's a start. :) Greg and I each carved a pumpkin. Here is the pumpkin trio on Halloween night. Might is the one on the right, and Greg's is to the left. For Halloween, we dressed Hunter up as a Marine, because we had the camies and what's better than free? Also, Nana Wehrman made a matching hat (or should I say "cover") that topped of the ensemble (no pun intended) perfectly. While at the dollar store looking for face paint, I saw a cat costume that I decided to sport for the day. I couldn't pass it up for a buck. Here is Hunter head to toe in his camies, before paint.

Here are the two of us. :)

Our neighborhood had an Oktoberfest, as they called it, that we went to. It was right on the lake in the neighborhood and they had booths set up with different vendors, and games for the kids. The most interesting thing to Hunter, however, was the big stack of hay.

We then, of course, went trick or treating. We brought the camera along since this was really Hunter's first trick or treating experience. The following video is the first house we stopped at. Watch what he does. :)

Now, maybe it's because I'm momma, and I was there, but I am still laughing about this. I just thought it was so sweet. When have we ever rang someone's doorbell and NOT gone inside? :)

After a little trick or treating, I came back to pass out candy. This is the first year we've lived in a house, so really the first year we had trick or treaters. It was so fun. I love the neighborhood we live in and love how family oriented it is. Another first was being able to sit outside and hand out candy because it was 75 degrees outside! Oh, how nice that was!

Once we came inside, we did give Hunter one piece of candy so he could see the fruit of his labor, but he crashed soon after. It was a big few days for a little guy. :)

Friday My Town Shoot Out - Park Landscapes

As much as I'd like to think that I work ahead of our schedule with assignments each week, so I'm not overwhelmed on Thursday when I realize I have pictures to shoot, this rarely happens. However, I was very lucky with when this assignment fell on the calendar. If you looked at my previous post to this one, you saw that my family and I took a trip this weekend to see some gorgeous Arizona landscapes. As we left for our trip, I looked up what our assignment was and was SO excited to see that it was park landscapes! I am very proud of some of my pictures this week and so excited to share them with you.

Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. How's that for a landscape? :)

Here's my husband and Bella posing for a picture.

I am very proud of this next photo and think I may frame it. This picture was still taken in the park. The Canyon is actually about 10 feet to our left.

After the Grand Canyon, we drove to Sedona, which is located in the Coconino National Forest. The drive there was so gorgeous, and we stopped to get some pictures of the scenery.
And I have saved my favorite to be last. I am definitely framing this last picture.
If you've been here, you know that Arizona has some gorgeous scenery to offer. If you've never been, I suggest you try to make the trip!

Our Northern Arizona Vaca

This weekend, my boys and I made a trip up north. It's crazy to think that "up north" is the Grand Canyon, considering growing up, "up north" meant the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. THAT is up north. Anyway, while on this side of the United States, we wanted to take advantage of being so close to some awesome sights.

We left yesterday morning and drove the 5 hours to the Grand Canyon. I vacationed there as a child, but Greg had never been. It was as gorgeous as I left it 13 years ago. See for yourself...

Isn't God amazing?

We spent the morning there. We would have loved to hike down, even just a little ways, but that's obviously impossible with a toddler. So we just enjoyed the view from the top. After the Grand Canyon, we drove 2.5 hours south to Sedona. Now, if you've never been to Sedona, AZ, YOU MUST GO! This place is GORGEOUS! There's seriously no place like it...I don't think so anyway. The drive there was gorgeous too. The highway twisted and turned around mountains-and I MEAN twisted and turned. There was a stretch of the highway (probably about 2 miles long) that twisted down the mountain and probably brought us down about 1000 feet in elevation...if that makes any sense. I got some pictures of the drive too...

We arrived in Sedona right about sunset. We ate at a really cool diner called "Red Planet Diner" that was all space themed. It was really cute for kids. And their food was good too! We went to bed early after all the driving we did.

This morning we drove around Sedona and looked at all the gorgeous Red Rocks. We got pictures from up on top of a mountain looking down at the valley where the city is and then the mountains behind it. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Just to the left of the center of the picture is "Coffee Pot Mountain." Can you see it?

One thing you can do in Sedona to get the full feel of the mountains is to go on a jeep tour. However, if you're extremely tight on money (like us,) another option is to find a jeep that is driving on a tour and follow them! Now, in no way is this even comparable to an actual jeep tour (because I got to experience one as a kid when we visited there) but it is at least good to find the dirt roads that take you to some gorgeous places!

After Sedona, we made the 45 minute drive to Jerome. Jerome is a little town that was built in the side of the mountain. It was established in the late 1800s as a copper mining town. Now, they have cute shops all along the streets, and a gorgeous view of the valley.

While there, I got a turquoise stoned necklace and Greg got and awesome belt buckle! Check this out! It's real!

We drove the last 2 hours back home after a good lunch and lots of shopping. It was a fun filled, and very busy two days, but very enjoyable. This was our first let's-go-see-the-gorgeous-views-that-America-has-to-offer family vacation. I think that means we're officially Mom and Dad.