Weekend Update

Okay, so maybe it’s more like weekend update plus the week before, plus the weekend before that, plus the month before that, plus one more weekend before that.  Whew!  All I can say is that it’s good to be home.  Kate and I keep posts up here regularly so there’s always something for you guys to check out, but behind the scenes, things have been crazy busy around here! I thought I’d do a little re-cap so you can see a few of the fun things we’ve been up to.

First of all, if you check out page 12 of the July issue of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, this is what you’ll see:

That’s us!  And our BBQ Bacon Sliders! To see them on the pages of such an iconic magazine is totally surreal for us.  Thanks to all of YOU for voting for us in the Blogger Cook Off last fall!

Last month we got to hang out with some fellow food bloggers.  Some were old friends and some were new, and they were all amazing!

Top row (L-R) Robyn from Just a Pinch, Brooke from Cheeky Kitchen, Kate, Sara, Sandy from Reluctant Entertainer (Bottom L-R) Tessa from Handle the Heat, Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod, Amanda from Kevin and Amanda, Anne from fANNEtastic Food, and Irvin from Eat the Love.

I’m totally going out of order here but that doesn’t really matter 🙂  We had the amazing opportunity this past week to be speakers at the Newel K. Whitney Summit at Brigham Young University in Idaho.  I have to show you this picture of my hotel lobby because I was totally blindsided by its awesomeness.  It was just a little SpringHill Suites by Marriott and it was so cool inside!  The rooms were funky too; great hotel.

The Summit is a yearly event for BYU-I’s School of Business and Communications.  We were among the company of some great business moguls (you can read their bios here).  We sat in a panel with the 3 other guest speakers and answered questions from the students, and then we broke out into separate sessions.

Kate and I spoke on developing web-based business strategy.  We explained our story about how we turned a little home-grown hobby into a profitable business.  We did 3 sessions to 3 packed rooms, so we thank everyone who came!  The students and faculty at BYU-I couldn’t have been better and it was a genuine honor to participate.

Since we were in Rexburg we decided to squeeze in a couple of book signings as well.  We did one signing at Deseret Book and one signing at the campus book store. The crowds there were extra wonderful and we had SO much fun meeting everyone!  Seriously.  And hey, if you’re bummed you haven’t been able to make it to a signing and you’d like an autographed book, then hop on over to The Cupcake Diaries.  We met the darling Allison, and signed a book for her that’s she’s giving away today!

We also met Susan Bell, author of Gluten-Free Cooking Made Easy.  If you’re looking for gluten free recipes, check out her book; it looks beautiful!

Random side note:  Want to know something interesting?  At every book signing someone brings us water bottles and every single time Kate pulls out her sharpie and writes her name on hers.  I think she’s afraid I’ll contaminate it, so this time I labeled mine too just to help her out, haha.

Last week we were in Seattle, which was especially fun since it’s my home town and the home town of Kate’s husband.  We had a great book signing at Deseret Book and the staff (below) was wonderful!  We loved going to Beehive Books in Edgewood, WA as well.  They had a such a cute little shop and comfy couches for us to sit on, which was a nice change of pace!

One of the best parts about our Seattle trip was that our families came along.  Kate and I have been blogging together, from opposite sides of the country, for a little over three years now.  And in all that time, our families have never met each other!  Crazy, right?

We were so excited to get everyone together so we had a big bbq at my parent’s house.

The two blondies (yes, including the crazy face) are mine and the two dark haired kiddos are Kate’s.  These four kids became instant pals, which was so fun for us to see.

Our oldest boys bonded right away over Doritos

and were inseparable thereafter.  They ran around building, jumping, and exploring all night and spent lots of time discussing important things like Legos and Star Wars and Lego Star Wars.  If Kate and I lived near each other, these two would be BFF’s for sure.

With the older brothers out of the picture, Kate’s daughter and my middle son spent hours palling around and speaking in a language I could not understand.  It was completely adorable and according to the cutie in green, there may be a marriage in the future.

I love this picture so much.  What can I say, he’s not used to girls!

Are you noticing how almost everyone matches up?  I keep telling Kate she needs to get with the program and produce a buddy for my baby.  I mean, it just makes sense, right?

Kate also did a signing in Houston and I know she loved meeting all of you Texans!  The staff at Blue Willow Book Shop was wonderful.  I snagged this picture off of our facebook page, so thank you to the reader (Kristine!) who posted it!  By the way, are you all Facebook Fans??  If not, then get your little booties over there and click that lovely “like” button.  That’s where the party is!  We’re getting close to 30,000 fans and we’re thinking maybe just maybe we should give something away to celebrate 🙂  So share it with anyone you think would enjoy it!

We’re finally back at home now, at least for a little while!  We’re trying to get caught up on emails and continue planning fun stuff for the summer.  And speaking of summer…one lucky reader gets to go on a little summer shopping spree!  Thanks to all of you who entered the World Market Giveaway, the lucky winner was comment #561, KJ! Congratulations!