Love summer BBQ's

I love summer BBQ's and have found some good recipes lately, so I thought I'd share the love. Anyone else have a good marinade or bbq recipe you want to share?

Here's the recipe for a yummy marinade I found. I've used it several times--with shrimp, steak, chicken, sausage, fruit & veggies and it's always turned out great.

Tangy Honey-Mustard Marinade
1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce (we like KC Masterpiece)
1/2 cup of honey
2 TBSP spicy brown or dijon mustard



This recipe is for Sausage Fruit Kabobs, which also has a honey mustard sauce/marinade (I added some bbq sauce to it as well). I used those tasty apple chicken sausage from Costco and added some fresh pineapple. We also dipped the bread in oil/balsamic vinegar. Yum....

Sausage Fruit Kabobs (pictured above)

3 Tbsp. spicy brown or Dijon-style mustard

3 Tbsp. honey 12 oz. cooked smoked sausage, bias cut in 1/2-inch slices

1 apple, cored and cut in 1/2-inch wedges

1 medium zucchini, halved and cut in 1/4-inch slices

6 oz. crusty bread, cut into 1-inch pieces

1. Preheat broiler. In bowl stir mustard into honey.

2. On four 12-inch skewers alternately thread sausage, apples, and zucchini, leaving 1/4 inch between pieces. Brush with some of the honey-mustard; reserve remaining honey-mustard. Place on rack of unheated broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from heat for 4 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, thread bread on four 12-inch skewers; lightly brush with olive oil. Add bread skewers to broiler; turn sausage skewers. Broil 3 minutes more or until sausage is heated through and bread is toasted, turning bread once. Serve with reserved honey-mustard. Makes 4 servings.

Oh, and here's one more. We had an amazing Mango Shrimp dish at Wahso in Park City, which we would love to have gotten the recipe for (my mouth is watering just thinking about it!). My friend Sarah said this is an amazing recipe for Grilled Shrimp that is pretty close, and you could just add mango. I have yet to try it, but plan to soon!

Grilled Shrimp
1 lbs shrimp

1 clove garlic

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp paprika

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 tsp lemon juice

1 heaping spoonful of honey

* I like to put all my shrimp on skewers, and brush on the mix while on the grill.

Park City with the girlies!

My old roommate Chelsey was in town, so we decided to spend the weekend in Park City for a little girls weekend. We stayed at the Park City Resort Marriott and had a great time. We ate amazing food, slept in, stayed up late, enjoyed the hot tub, and shopped, of course! We had planned on chilling by the pool, reading smut magazines, but the weather (of course!) did not cooperate. It wasn't too bad, but just not laying out weather. Friday night we ate at a fantastic restaurant called Wahso, which is on Park City's main street. Kinda pricey, but super tasty and totally worth it. The whole experience was great--great service, great food, great ambiance. And we laughed...alot...like little girls (especially when we fought--and laughed until we cried--over who had to hand the 1/2 off coupons to the waiter at the fancy shmancy restaurant). Saturday morning Sarah and I went for a great run together. It was such a beautiful morning and I so enjoyed being outside and enjoying the mountain air. Mostly I just love hanging with the girls. Thanks, girls, for the much-needed time with my girls!

Here are a few favorite pics...

I don't know why we thought this was so funny, but we were dying when we saw this mannequin who had lost her drawers. Don't worry, Amber made her modest and covered her up with her big beach bag (after we took the pictures, of course!). So mature, I know!


Don't ask...
Our little booth at Wahso.


Sarah with her new "secretary" look--I love her with glasses and her new cute hair!
Sarah and I took a million of these "armpit shots" before we finally got one that was almost centered.



Sarah and Christy finding more uses for the hot wash clothes we were given to wash our hands with.

Ruby Avenue Events

If you or anyone you know is in need of a wedding or event planner, you need to check out Ruby Avenue. I'm good friends with one of the owners/designers, Amber (Gregory) Wilding. Honestly, everything this girl touches looks AMAZING!!! They not only do weddings, but also corporate events, birthday parties, anniversaries, sweet sixteen parties, etc...I promise you will not be disappointed. They do an incredible job. Check out their website and blog, and if you know anyone who could use a little help in the wedding/event planning arena, spread the word!

http://www.rubyavenueevents.com/index.html

Lake Powell trip May 2009

Lake Powell is definitely one of the Hanson family's favorite vacation spots. We have a timeshare on a houseboat, so we are fortunate enough to be able to go quite often. We went down for Memorial Day weekend with my parents and Rob and some of his friends. Though we didn't have fabulous weather, we still managed to have a good time. We ate amazing food, played fun games, slept in, read good books, did a little sightseeing & a little wakeboarding. It was a very low-key, relaxing weekend. It's funny, Sienna is only 9 months old and this is her 2nd trip to Lake Powell. As you can tell from the pics, she wasn't quite sure about that life jacket, but she quickly warmed up and loved it once we got moving. I really need to do better at taking pictures of people other than just Sienna. If she weren't so dang cute.... I love this face Sienna is pulling. So funny!

Here's my dad as the "boat wrangler". (This is his new trick)

Get this thing off of me...now!!!

You're the meanest dad in the whole world!

Wait a minute...maybe this isn't so bad after all....

Hey, I LOVE boating!!!

Our little "nosy bear". This kid is SOOOOO nosy. Seriously, she gets into anything she can reach. She can't hear a sound across the room without rubbernecking to check out what's happening. She can't get a diaper change or eat or drink a bottle if there is anything else going on or anything within reaching distance. Rob told me about a clinical diagnosis that I think Sienna might have. It's called Fomo...Fear Of Missing Out. Poor little thing. I hope it's treatable.

St George Triathlon

A few weekends ago Dan and I went down to St. George for the St. George Triathlon. We stayed with our good friends Robyn & Bob and their cute family (thanks, guys!) and we loved being able to spend time with Amber & Matt Sim and the boys, who came from California. Unfortunately I wasn't great at taking pictures with (or of) our friends, so Caden and Gwen will have to represent for the whole fam. ;) We had a rough 5 weeks or so prior to the race, so we definitely didn't get to train like we had hoped. The last time I did a triathlon (a few years ago) I was 20 pounds lighter, with no children, so training this time was a whole different ball game for me. I honestly felt like the forces were against me in training. Between me and Sienna being sick, bad weather, insane work weeks, flat tires...it was a rough month or so before the race. My friend Amber and I were both sick during the race, congested and coughing up our lungs. Anyway, we knew that we weren't going to break records, but we knew we would finish and it was a good challenge. The morning of the race was a tad cold and was pretty windy, so they actually ended up canceling the swim. I'll admit that at first I was secretly (actually, it wasn't such a secret!) kind of happy to not have to swim, since that is definitely my weakest sport. I really didn't train much for the swim, but I figured that I would just bust out the breast stroke (or doggy paddle!) and though it wouldn't be pretty, I'd at least finish it. But then there was another part of me that was disappointed not to be able to do the entire triathlon. So, instead of doing the swim, they made us run twice the distance. A 10K might not sound too hard, but it was a tough, hilly trail run on that super fine red sand that sometimes felt like quicksand. What was crazy is that they made us (the Sprint event) do the same distance run as the Olympic athletes (only they trained for a 10K and got to do 2 5K's, which wasn't so bad for them). So, although we didn't do the full triathlon, at least it was still a tri-event. The whole event was pretty disorganized, and though we still had a good time I don't think we'd do that particular race again. I've heard the swim has been canceled for several years. Needless to say, it was definitely a challenge, but we had a good time. It was a fun weekend--hanging with friends, eating good food, enjoying good weather, crashing a couple of pool parties (which Sienna LOVED, by the way!) On our way home, we were able to stop and celebrate Mother's Day with my family, which is always a good time. We gave my mom a Blendtec blender, which I can't wait to try out.

Amber & I trying to stay warm before the race

How amazing is this pool? It was a friend of a friends. This slide was incredible.

My little swimmer. She seriously LOVED the water. She screamed at first, then got used to it and didn't want to get out. We even dunked her a few times and she'd come up smiling!
I love this picture.
Sienna loves to wave these days. Here's an action shot!
Just chillin' on her papa's lap
Little Gwen just lovin' on Sienna. She couldn't get enough of her! Thanks Robyn, Bob and fam for watching Sienna during the race and letting us crash at your place. You're the best!
Happy Mother's Day, Mama Hanson!
(By the way, I have the most amazing mom in the world!)
And yes, that is my brother Rob pounding fists with my 91-year-old grandma Tink. She's pretty hip.

Hanson Family Photo

I've been meaning to post this Hanson family photo for ages. This was taken back in December when Jeff and Carolyn were in town from Winconsin. Emily did a great job, as usual! (Which isn't easy when you have 3 little ones out in the cold!)

Sienna's photo shoot

Here's more photos from the photo shoot my friend EMILY did. This was meant to be 6 months pics, which turned into 8 month pics due to weather, scheduling & a sick baby! Better late than never, right? And at least we got it done before Mother's Day. I LOVE THEM!! It's so hard to pick a favorite.