New Year's Resolutions

I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but this year I decided my resolution should be to try to be as healthy and happy as possible.  Super original, I'm aware.  I'm also aware that healthy and happy tend to contradict each other quite often (especially in my world, the one where chocolate is a food group).  Alas, I'm going to give it a shot, no matter how high the odds are stacked against me (I had chocolate truffles for lunch today...oops).
To kick off my new lifestyle, I decided to make homemade dog treats (my babies need to be healthy too).  I found an easy recipe on Pinterest and here is the play by play.
Here are my ingredients:

This picture is awful, I deeply apologize.  Let's not dwell on my inability to look at a screen and push a button (it's not as easy as it looks sometimes!  Yea, I'm just a dope.).  Anyway, I used 2 eggs, half a cup of pumpkin puree (we used fresh pumpkin my dad grew in his garden...yum!), a quarter cup peanut butter (no sugar added), 2 and a half cups whole wheat flour (brown rice flour is better in case your dog has an allergy, but I didn't have any and I happen to know my dogs aren't allergic) and finally a pinch of salt.  I whisked wet ingredients first (I forgot to take a picture because as we've established, I'm a moron), then I added the flour and used a spatula to combine:

Once I got to the crumbly stage, I removed the spatula and used my hands (adding a spoon of water if too crumbly) until I got to this:

Now we're talking!  Once I hit the dough ball stage, I floured my board and started rolling:

I rolled until I got to the flat as a CD case stage (also known as the flat as an iPod stage, for you youngins):

Since my mom's cookie cutters consisted of Christmas, a foot and a heart, naturally I decided to go with the heart:

I used a fork and pronged each one because that's what they did on the website I was copying (I'm guessing so they don't puff up?).  Either way it was kinda cute.  Oh yea, and I did end up doing a few feet (how random is a foot cookie cutter??):

It doesn't even have toes!  I made up a story in my mind of the person who would be graced with a deformed foot such as this.  Wanna hear it?  Okay, so there's this guy named Bruce (yea, I'm naming him after Bruce Jenner, for some reason I imagine his feet look just like this) and he's surfing in Mexico and one day he cuts his foot on a piece of coral.  He ignores it and goes on with his life, until one day he begins to get really ill and his foot turns green.  He goes to the hospital and it turns out he has gangrene (I obviously have no idea what it looks/feels like when you get gangrene) and they have to amputate all his toes.  He cries and cries and wonders who's going to love him now with a club foot, until one day he goes to Malibu and meets Kris Kardashian and they make out and she rubs his foot and they live happily ever after (until they get plastic surgery and a reality show and then they get divorced).  The End!

Okay, back to baking.  I put them in at 350 degrees for 15-20 min and then turned them over and did the other side for about 5-10, or until they were slightly brown and dry.

Once they cooled, I let the dogs try them and they went nuts!  Even my mom's dog, Lola, who is the pickiest eater in the world inhaled them.  So yummy!

I even packed some to give as gifts.  I'm so generous!

Make these for your dog immediately!  They will love you forever and don't they deserve the best?

In other news, Aaron is back in Hawaii and the weather makes me want to jump into the ocean and swim until I get there (or get eaten by a shark, whichever comes first).  Here's the view from his backyard:

He had a day off work today for New Year's and he went exploring.  Here's downtown Waikiki:

Then he went to an outdoor market/fair:

He better buy me lots of cool stuff!  Jerkface!

I thought I'd end with something travel-related, since this is, after all, supposedly a travel blog.  However, right now it's a travel blog sans travel.  Don't worry, that will change soon!