March Update

We had a nice relaxing March after the wedding.  Melissa had her birthday, and I happened to have that Friday off so I made her a chocolate cake with some of the new tools we received as wedding gifts.  All from scratch no boxes in use here at the Harp household haha.  I also got Melissa a new Willow Tree figurine, and a bottle of Argentinian Carmenere, a wine we both like.  All in all the cake was pretty good and I think Melissa had a pretty good birthday.  

Melissa's Birthday Presents

She blew all the candles out in one blow

Happy 27th Melissa!

We also made our second batch of home brew beer this past month.  It is a wheat beer that is partially grain and partially wheat malt extract.  First we steeped 5 pounds of wheat in steeping bags and home made steeping bags made of cheese cloth.  Then we added 3 more pounds of dark wheat liquid malt extract, and the hops.  Here are some pictures of that.

Note taking is important in home brewing in case you ever want to try to repeat a  batch.

Here's the grains steeping in the pot.  You can
 also see the Liquid malt extract in the can on the back burner.  

Here are the hops going into the wort.
 They foam quite a bit when they are first added.

Unfortunately there wasn't any snow left
on the ground to help cool off the wort, so
we just had to make do with watter in the
bath tub.  

During the first week in April, Melissa was on spring break and we went down to my home town of Canyon for a Wedding shower there.  We flew out of Salt Lake City and Melissa got some good pictures of the Wasatch on the way to the airport.  We also flew through Las Vegas.  Who could resist slot machines in the airport to pass your layover?

More of the Wasatch

Wasatch Range on the way to
Salt Lake City

Slot machines in the Las Vegas Airport

We had a lot of fun at the shower on Sunday.  We got lots of great gifts and gift cards, and we are so thankful that everyone was so generous to us.  Later in the week we went down to the canyon (Palo Duro Canyon State Park) and hiked the lighthouse trail.  This is probably the most popular and famous hikes in the park out to a rock formation that looks like a lighthouse of course.  

Capitol Peak on the way to the Lighthouse

The path on the way up
to the Lighthouse

The Lighthouse

One of our many attempts to get it all in the picture

Lighthouse Closeup

Melissa by the Lighthouse

Jason by the Lighthouse

The "nub" between the Lighthouse
and the canyon wall

Jason hanging out.

We just got our wedding pictures (http://www.rossweddings.com/index2.php or https://vando.imagequix.com/list.html?id=H93E19A ) so Melissa will be busy making our wedding scrapbook. Our new project will be looking for a house. We looked at a couple this weekend and we know it is going to be a very hard decision. We will keep you updated on our search. Until next time.