Here is the finished product. I took this picture at work. Preview of what I'm going to eat for my snack :) They are soooo yummy! And they were really easy to make. I think I've eaten 5 already today. I really should stop since I can't exercise them off til the end of the summer haha. If you're interested, here is the recipe. I think they would be fun to make with kids too... maybe that'll be my mom specialty haha... maybe.Homemade Oreos by Smitten Kitchen:
For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter1 large egg
For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.
We used donuts for the wheels, licorice for the wagon top, covered in a napkin, gummy bears as the pioneers (a little out of proportion to the wagon), and marshmallow and black licorice oxen. Creative eh? The oxen were my contribution...
Audrey, Emily, and I. We sure do love pictures. I am once again so glad that they were able to come! This is the first summer Audge and I have lived more than a quarter mile away from each other! We sure have been spoiled to be so lucky. 
Mitchell loved playing baby with Analise. He would beg to be put in the play pen and then roll around and "goo" and "ga" at everyone. It was the funniest, and cutest thing. He is such a pleasant 2 year old, most of the time ;) And Analise was a joy the whole time. She is full of smiles.
I wish I had more pictures over the years with my sisters. Look what they've been hiding all this time! Haha, we had our own photo op and when I suggested we do a silly picture Laurel and Kristen had a surprised look on their face as if they've never heard of such a thing! Erin and I had to coach them through it. Lets just say that out of all the attempts, this is the best one. But the series of pictures leading up is hilarious! I love my sisters so so much. It was so fun to have everyone together again. I wish we all lived closer so we could have sister outing more often!
Me and my little stud muffin, Mitchell. He loved the s'mores we made after dinner. Quite the sticky mess, but that's what camping's all about. 
The next day we had the opportunity to go down to the Camp Lake and use canoes and paddle boats for an hour. Jenna had the great opportunity of coming with Audge and me. It was so fun to have her with us. Much like Erin and Jared's experience with Cannon, we feared that our canoe was going to tip over. Jenna wanted to help out and paddle, but everytime she moved from side to side Audge and I got a little scare and had to keep from tipping. Poor girl, she just wanted to help. We kindly reminded her that tipping was not an option and she had to sit in the middle. It ended up being fun, and she was so cute and had a great attitude. Happy disposition! 
Here we are in our canoe! What a great looking crew :) It was a gorgeous day, and the water was great. 
After we played in the canoes for a little bit we decided to take a turn in one of the paddle boats. This picture shows that I sat in the middle, but it didn't start that way... the missionaries put me and Erin as the paddlers, Audge in the middle, and Jenna and Cannon in the back. After my knee injury I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to be much help in paddling. My analysis was correct. I think I peddled twice before I couldn't do it anymore. Poor Erin thought she was going to die. We decided maybe it would be nice for Audge and I to switch spots. Once we did this it was a smooth sailing trip. Cannon was a little annoyed we wouldn't let him paddle, but we wanted to be able to reach it back to shore in a timely manner. It ended up being very relaxing, for me at least, and we had a lot of fun. 
Amber, one of the cutest girls I've met here at BYU, and my fellow gimp, outside Arches National Park wearing our matching gimp shirts :) I am so glad she was able to come. She recently had ACL reconstruction surgery and is a trooper for coming on the trip. May I add that she was amazing!? Stuck with the group almost the whole time and never once complained. I sure do love this girl. She makes me laugh so much! 
Day 1 in Arches we didn't do any hikes we just drove around and parked at the different viewpoints. This is Balanced Rock. There is a small pathway that allows you to walk around the rock formation so this was the "toughest" hike of the day. From left to right we have Sini, Amber, me, Audge, Nalene, and Enni. We were having fun with pictures and in this one are imitating the rock and balancing on one leg. Not too hard! 
Day 2! We all were awake at 5:30am and had camp packed up by 6:30. We wanted to get a head start on all of the hikes we wanted to do b/c it was hotsy totsy in Moab! This is me at Delicate Arch. The arch that is pictured on Utah license plates. This was the only thing that I was determined to do while at Arches. It is actually the thing that inspired me to pick this park to visit for our vacation. It was absolutely gorgeous, and so much bigger than I expected. The hike was beautiful, and not too long! We made it up and back in about 2.5 hours (includes playing time) and we beat the heat on this hike. 
I am so glad that Audge was able to come on the trip with us. I sure do love her! It was so fun having her there and doing all of this fun stuff together. Here we are next to the arch. I am in red shorts (right) and she is in orange shorts (left). Look how big that arch is compared to us! Enormous.
Here is the entire group minus Amber under the arch! There is no way I can tell you who everyone is, but isn't this an incredible picture? I absolutely loved this trip and all the people who came with. It was neat to get everyone under the arch together. 24 people under 1 arch= one big arch!
Later in the day we hiked Landscape Arch which was gorgeous as well. About 2 years ago while some hikers were on the trail they heard a loud sound which they thought was thunder and come to find out part of landscape arch had fallen off. The arch at its thinnest point is only 6 feet thick! Who knows how long this arch will be there? It sure was gorgeous. There were some other arches past Landscape that had a tougher terrain. Half of the group stayed behind and wanted to take a rest while the rest of us hiked on. I was a little nervous about physically being ok and able to do it b/c the majority was bouldering. With the help of some very cute boys I made it all the way, but I do have to give myself credit and say that I did most of it myself. But it sure was nice to have the assistance if needed. Here we are under one of the arches which I forget the name. Audge, Nick, Darin, Bryce, me, and Trevor. What a great crew!
Hike over? No! Mike Degener, a member of the Gimp club, whose number on his shirt is infinity b/c he has been injured so many times wanted more adventure. We lost the trail and climbed up the rock to the highest point we could find, and It was the highest point around. I did it! It was absolutely gorgeous! Here are some of us on top of Arches National Park pretty much. We are so far up that if you look down to the bottom left corner of the picture above you can see landscape arch and we are well above it. It was the best hike of the day and a priceless experience. I wish I could explain the beauty of the scenery around. It was breathtaking. 
Here I am looking out over the view from on top of the Park. It was gorgeous, once again. I had to get a picture of me on top of it with my gimp shirt b/c I needed proof that I climbed to the top with a handicap! I like to joke that this picture is of me contemplating how in the world I'm going to get down- that was the real challenge. I told mom when I initially got hurt that nothing would keep me from going on the trip, and even though I had a reinjury I still accomplished my goal and nothing held me back from enjoying the experience. Gimp or no gimp it was a great trip!
This is the last picture I got of the trip. The last arches we visited were the 2 windows. They were gorgeous and we were tired. We opted to walk half way up the trail and take a picture from a distance. Still got to see them! This picture is a rememberance of all the water we drank. Nice, warm, pool water. What a great treat ;) haha, lets just say we were excited to get to some clean bathrooms and cold drinking fountains- heck, they could even be cool drinking fountains. That would be refreshing. After we visited these we headed out of Arches to go eat lunch in Moab and then head home. What a great trip it was, and I am SOOO proud of myself for pulling through and really doing it! No more sitting around wishing we could do these things, we actually did it! And it was an experience to remember. I will also add that it was only a $20.00 trip for everything! Affordable, fun, and filled with friends. What more could you want?
Our next activity was a movie in the canyon, and Kaitlin and I prepared another surprise for the guys. Homemade ice cream! When we found the perfect place to watch the movie we whipped out the ingredients. We didn't have an icecream maker of course, so we did ice cream in a plastic baggy. I've done it multiple times, and it's really good. As we were compiling everything Kait burst up into laughter. What was so funny? She whispered in my ear, "I forgot to borrow vanilla!" I couldn't help but laugh harder. Vanilla ice cream without the vanilla, it was going to be ok, but interesting. We all concluded that we should proceed. About 2 minutes later Kait burst up laughing again! I could only imagine... We forgot spoons! ha ha. Luckily we brought along oreos to put in the ice cream so we thought we could just substitue the oreos as spoons. All 4 of us were full of laughter. Elder Wirthlin was right when he said that it is better to laugh at mistakes and bad happenings. It sure does make all the difference!
So here is Bryce and I in the process of making our ice cream, or should I say sugared milk, and enjoying "Goonies!" I was the only one who had seen it! Can you believe that? Where did these people grow up and what kind of childhood did they have to have never seen a classic like "Goonies?" I was glad to share such a great movie with them, and they all loved it. So all in all our night was quite eventful and unexpected :) But it turned out to be a great night! Jordan, we will miss you, and Kaitlin, I'm so glad I have had the chance to play with you so much! I sure do love her! She is not only one of my best friends, but I consider her one of my sisters. We have had quite the events and so many laughs. I just love her! I know I'm no Jordan, but I am Tiffany :) Let the good times roll.