Shut the front door AND a Spring Break food journey.

Church should be starting in 6 minutes, but it was canceled today due to weather.

{insert an ever-so-silent and non-celebratory hoorah... for Israel, of course}

Out my front door this morning:

ON my front door:

INSIDE my front door:

Out my BACK door:

We were encouraged to spend the day watching General Conference, holding family councils, studying (already spent some quality time this morning doing that in preparation for my Sunday School class), and working on family history. I consider this particular blog family history. Since Mar is still snoozing, and Bill's still at the church (because word from our Stake President came around 7:15am and Bill's meetings start at 5:30am), I'm jumping on some quiet time to catch up a bit.


As mentioned in my last post, the food we enjoyed over Spring Break deserves its own honorable mention, and here it is.
(Note: I am not a food stylist. These are raw digital images. What you see is real. haha)

For Britt and Austin's housewarming party, we made salads and roll-ups. The two green salads were mixes from Costco (total time-savers), and you can find the recipe for our favorite jello salad (in the middle) here.

I searched online for a variety of roll-ups to try.

Turkey Club (recipe here)

Costco copycat (but so so much better, trust me) - recipe here
These were my favorite.

Buffalo Chicken (recipe here)

**you'll see a couple of these recipes modified later in the post {wink}**
My least favorite (thus not pictured) were the Rueben roll ups. Not making them again.

Wonderful Sweet Scarlett enjoyed the marshmallows in her Frozen cereal Gigi bought her. She would pick them out, then leave the rest. Haha, I love that girl!


After our Aquarium adventures, we graced JCW's, where Britt shared the secret to not overeating AND overspending... you order the kid size burger meal!! They will make any of their specialty burgers in the kids size, which ends up being PLENTY, believe me.

We also discovered that a SMALL shake (raspberry lemonade... yum!) is ample to share.

On our trek from UT to CA, we stopped at Sonic. I know what you're thinking... why Sonic? You may (or may not) recall that we left at 3:30am. We hit Las Vegas around 8:30am, and Bill and Mar were in the mood for a burger. The only place I know that sells burgers at 8:30am is Sonic. Yes, we had to take the scenic route in areas of Las Vegas I'm sure to never frequent again, but they got their burgers. And a family size order of tots to share.

It is a well-known fact that if/when you visit the Feils, you are going to eat well. Period.

We had bacon-wrapped beef filets, crispy stacked red potatoes, and a {supa fun} spiralized salad (more on that in a moment) our first evening there. It tasted like heaven.

The following day, while the boys had to work, the girls hit a local sushi joint.

So so good, even if some of the pieces were way too big to stuff in your mouth at one time.

Shout-out-to-Denver Mile High sliders...

...with a broccolini salad and some tots.

We packed a picnic lunch for our Yosemite day trip...

I had told Jill about the roll-ups we made for Britt and Austin's housewarming, and how I really liked the Costco copycats that had a cranberry/cream cheese spread on them.  We wondered how it would work on our old favorite Sandwich for a Crowd. Jill had the great idea to put stuffing in the middle of the sandwich, and we gave it a go.
Best almost-like-Thanksgiving-dinner-in-one-bite sandwich ever. 
(I'll be adding this variation to my recipe blog as soon as I can.)

Quick funny story: Not long after getting to Yosemite, we looked around for a spot to enjoy our picnic lunch. We noticed a flat area on a rock, with water running down the rock nearby, that looked like the perfect scenic location to eat. Quiet. Serene. Peaceful. No people around. 

Stan and Bill went to the car to grab the food, and the girls all climbed up the somewhat steep incline to the desired location. Within moments of getting the food out and served, other people started to climb up the rock towards us. Suddenly someone walks directly behind us (so close that their foot was rubbing against our backs), splashing water onto Jill's plate. We marveled at the lack of courtesy for personal space that more and more people displayed as they started to climb all around us. One family sat down right next to Hannah (still trying to enjoy her lunch) to rest. One lady, trying to have her picture taken by her accompanying friend, kept sending glaring looks our way because we were apparently in her shot.

It. Was. Ridiculous.
I had to snap a quick picture as we finally shoved our last few bites into our mouths to clear out of what apparently became a very public area of enjoyment and entertainment in the 30 minutes we were sitting there. We will forever get a good belly chuckle from the whole experience.

On our way home from Yosemite we ate a Sals, a Feil-favorite local Mexican restaurant.

For Easter linner (Syddall lingo for a lunch/dinner combo), we tried a new recipe, Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin. I will totally make this again. So so good!

Another fabulous salad.

(Quick story: on our drive to UT from CO I was perusing Pinterest and came across a recipe that called for spiralized zucchini. Thanks to the wonderful world of modern technology, I quickly  {unbeknownst to Bill} placed an order for the blog-post author's recommended spiralizer. I wanted to have it sent to Britt's house, but the estimated delivery date was too far out - we were going to be in CA, so I sent it to the Feils. Isn't it amazing how easy it is to purchase something and have it delivered wherever you want?? We had a lot o' fun playing with it, especially with all that superfantastic CA produce.)

I won't mention my I-can-make-homemade-rolls-easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy fiasco. Let it be said that I got up bright and early the morning of Easter to make a second batch, and they didn't turn out that great either. I'll blame it on the difference in elevation {wink}.


While in Disney, we HAD to try the highly touted corn dogs. We waited for a good long time for them (seriously, people, this is Disneyland for goodness sakes. Could you have more than one itty bitty tiny cart for the corn dogs?? Not to mention that by the time we finally got to the front of the line we were told it would be another 20 minutes because they needed to "make another batch").

They were good. Really really good.

Mar has occasional stomach issues, so only ate two bites before giving the rest of hers to Bill.

Bill may or may not have had a bit of a gut-ache after downing nearly two of these mighty dogs.
That doesn't mean he didn't enjoy every bite, though.

I had to snap a quick pic of Jill's inordinate amount of mustard. Best way to eat a dog, right?

We also partook of the famed Dole Whip (thank you, Stan!) but I neglected to get a picture. Again, dear Disney, must you only sell them at one little window with a line wrapped up down and all around the busiest area of Adventureland?


After Disney, before we headed back to Jill and Stan's, we hit an In-N-Out.

Not so big of a dealio to all those who have these babies locally, but we don't have such simple pleasures in CO. Surprisingly enough, this was the only time we ate at one during our whole trip.

Honestly, though, In-N-Out has no.thing. on Stan's grilling.
This tri-tip was the bomb.

More yummy salad,

along with roasted asparagus.

The day we went to see the Sequoias, we packed another picnic lunch. This time we added to our creative Sandwich for a Crowd repertoire and once again tweaked a roll-up recipe.

Another success. So so good.


Our final night in CA we had take-out from a local Visalia Thai restaurant. YUM.

I want a Thai Basil (not the franchised one...) and a Sals and an In-N-Out by me in CO.

My final Spring Break food picture:
the guys after the Priesthood session of General Conference at Wingstop.

Since wings are not my fave, I'm okay with them enjoying them without me {wink}.

Loved Spring Break.
Loved the people {most}.
Loved the food {second most}.

Post post: Bill just came home and informed me that we have been invited by our Stake Pres. to attend another ward's Sacrament meeting at 1pm, as the weather has been improving. Guess I'd better change out of my pjs (which I secretly hoped to wear all day). Happy Sunday!