California Spring Break 2013

OK, I know.  I'm behind again.  We have had a few trips and visitors so I am hoping to get caught up to now very soon.  And, I got a new laptop for my birthday and Ash's condition on giving it to me was that I had to blog more.  :)  Yay for first blog from the laptop!  The first laptop I have ever owned.  I'm so behind!!

On to more exciting things....

We road tripped to northern California for spring break at the end of March.  We were able to visit my old Lawrence friends, Leigh Ann and Nate and their daughter Emerson in Sacramento.  Had a lot of fun with them catching up and letting the kids play.  Sacramento also has an awesome railroad museum.  I think Ash and I thought it was cooler than the kids did!

Emmie's little trampoline was quite the hit!  Yes, they are in their pajamas outside first thing in the morning.

Ash geeking out at the California Railroad Museum.

The kids were bored by the time Ash saw everything he wanted to at the museum.  Ha!

From Sacramento we went to St. Helena to stay with Ash's aunt Deb, uncle Bob and cousin Anthony.  The kids LOVED running around their property.  Harper learned within the first hour we were there that you can't walk on lily pads on a koi pond.  Helena learned that it is always spring in California, leading her to proclaim that we need to move there.  Deb was kind enough to watch the kids for us one day so Ash and I could spend the day wine tasting.  Ash's cousin Lisa set us up on the most amazing tours / tastings.  So fun to have a day to ourselves.

Harper restraining himself from throwing the giant rocks in the pond.

Me at the vineyard that I will forever remember for having the most generous pours ever.  :)

Easter Eggs with Aunt Deb.

 From St. Helena we did a little day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore.  Such a beautiful place.  It was foggy when we were there, but still very lush, beautiful and fun.  We stopped and did a couple of hikes and hung out on the beach.  We even saw an elephant seal beach with over 300 elephant seals on it!  Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.

Harper showing us which way to go on our hike.

From there we crashed at our college friend's place in San Francisco.  Phil, Dana and little Layla were excellent hosts.  We grilled, watched basketball, went to the zoo, rode the bus and the train all around the city (the kids' favorite part of the trip) and spent a day at Fisherman's Wharf.  Harper discovered a love of eating crab, Helena discovered she didn't really like accidentally picking up a crab on the beach.

The view from Phil and Dana's house.  Fun to see the bay and the fog roll in at different times.

Checking out the wares...

Ash ate an obscene amount of crab...

Helena ate an obscene amount of sourdough...

Family picture!!

Helena & Layla - Matching Target sweaters!! :)

The kids loved the 'gold man' street performer.

Harper fell asleep on the train...pretty funny. We did three transfers and he never woke up.

Thanks again to our wonderful friends and family for hosting us and making our spring break totally awesome.  Love, love, love me some California.  We'll be back.

-Emily :)

Costa Rica

Hey everyone....(**crickets**)....I know.  I suck a blogging lately.  I have good intentions. But, yeah...life and two year olds, etc., etc., etc., get in the way. 

But, we've successfully been to Costa Rica and back.  The grandparents in Kansas survived taking care of the kids.  Ash & I had our own little 'survival issues' while traveling.

I got stung by this:

Yeah, I'm not kidding.  It was about 4 inches long.  In my bed at the resort.  There was mucho hysterics, but two anti-venom shots later and I wasn't dead!  Yay for living!

Ash fell down a flight of stairs at the resort the day before I got stung and banged himself up pretty good, too.  (Two sore knees, an almost broken wrist, torn rib cartilage, cut on his chin).  This was at the beginning of our trip -- you know, before the zip lining, white water rafting and waterfall diving....so, we were pretty sure we were sitting ducks.  But, all was well.

We had a really great time lots of beach, sun, pool, drinks, buffets, good sister / brother-in-law time, good time making new friends. :) 

Ash in his 'vacation hat' (lol) and me on the beach by our resort.

Jess & Justin getting ready to go on our horseback riding / waterfall diving/ zip lining/ hot springs / mud bath / white water rafting adventure. :)

Hidden waterfall....

Jess & Lauren taking the plunge.  The water was COLD.  But it was fun.

Lauren thinking her hubby has had too much whiskey.  You maybe had to be there... :)

 A silly game we played: we told the waiters almost every night that it was someone's birthday. :)  We always got sung to and an extra cake. :)

After our steak dinner evening....

Me demonstrating that I was taller than my little sister for this one night.  Thanks wedges!!

Chris & Ashley

Us on the last day of our trip.  Sunburn much?  Or as Ash says..."Base tan!"

 So the resort had some lame-o Vegas/Costa Rican hybrid entertainment every night.  The last night we were there we decided to make our own dance party....thanks to one of our travel mates' ipod boom box he packed in his little suitcase.  It ROCKED and we were most definitely the 'people to watch' at the resort that night.  Some might say spectacle.  But it was fun and hilarious.  Anyway, these pics are from our mobile dance party. We definitely livened up the place that night.

Ash & Justin.....

Dance party making its way through the resort from the buffet to the bar. :)

INTO it. (Kristen, Lauren & Bailey)

Here's to hoping it's not another 3 years before we get to take another adults only vacation!  Thanks for all the fun guys!!

-Emily :)

Christmas Eve 2011

Our first of many Christmas events is always Christmas Eve at my Grandma Millie's.  We eat shrimp and pie and open presents.  This year it was so warm we even got in a walk around the lake!

Great Grandma Millie and Great Grandpa Bill with Harper, Kane, Helena & Ellie.

A family gathering isn't complete until Uncle Justin gives horsey rides.

The girls showing off their purses.

Ash & Jess snacking and drinking before dinner.

My dad's main job: fry shrimp.

My grandma ruining a perfectly good pan of jello. ;)

And then there was this:

It started when Jess decided it would be funny to have the kids 'smell' the pies and pushed their faces in it a little bit.  But then Ellie got really upset when it was her 'turn' and Jess felt bad and said, "look, I'll do it too."  And that's when Justin and I went in for the kill -- he pushing her face full force into the pie and me giving her a wet willy of whipped cream.  It was an opportunity we just couldn't pass up.

Jess took it in good humor, but then after Ash & Justin made a liquor store run, Jessica got her revenge on Justin.  And Evan got it all on 'tape'.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=749939728072&set=vb.46103297&type=2&theater

She got him good.  It was hilarious.  I'm still not sure how I escaped.

-Emily :)

Soup Brain

I've been tired lately.  Ash out of town for three days last week, Helena up puking in the middle of the night two times, plus my normal middle of the night insomnia, plus Harper's still insistence on not always sleeping through the night equals a grumpy, tired Emily.

Saturday morning Ash is home finally and I was preparing soup and cornbread for a friend's Halloween party that evening.

I'm making wonderful, beautiful butternut squash soup (my new fall food obsession) and finishing it up by pureeing it in batches in my food processor.  From scratch, gluten-free cornbread is in the oven. 

In the middle of my cooking bliss there are two kids whining at me for this and that...fast forward the movie, mom!, where's my milk?, where's my car?, on and on and on. 

Sidenote:  I now totally understand why my mom would sometimes get frustrated with my siblings and I when we were little for always asking her where things were.  Why is it the mom's job to know where every single little trinket, toy, shoe, blanket, etc. is at every single moment in time?  To quote my mother (and I often do these days...) "I don't know!  It's not mine!  I can't keep track of everything that everyone owns!" If Ash asks me where his shoes are one more time....;)

So yeah, my soup.  I'm pureeing the final batch and all of the sudden I notice my food processor making a weird noise, like it's stuck, and then I see a paper towel in a weird spot.  Hanging out of the top of the bowl.  OMG.  I did not just do that.  Upon closer inspection, yep, I did.  Pureed a paper towel into my soup.

Cut to me thinking for a couple of minutes if I could somehow salvage said soup to serve to people who aren't my immediate family.  Will they notice it's a little 'chunky'?  Maybe I could strain it out? 

Down the drain...

These are thoughts from a not-thinking-clearly brain.  I still had two-thirds of the soup that wasn't contaminated.  People will just have to eat less, I finally decided. :)

And then I realized, dammit, I burnt my cornbread.

And I have since had seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.  Still running a deficit, but much better.

-Emily :)

Busy Weekend



My running buddy Rosa pumped at the starting line. :)

I know, it's Thursday and the most current thing I can think to write about is last weekend....but, it was a good one...I promise!

Started off Saturday running the Tooele 10k race with my friend Rosa.  It was my second 10k (the first one I ran two weeks ago) and I'm proud to say I did really well (for me).  No medals or anything, but I finished in the middle of the pack and improved my time from two weeks ago by eight minutes.  (This is the part where I should mention that the race was entirely downhill. Full disclosure here.  There were 3 hills at the end, though.  Which wasn't nice after running as fast as you can down a canyon.)  For some reason I was SO SORE after this one...just now getting over it.  I guess downhill works different muscles...is more jarring...no idea.  We got a good laugh at the hillbilly-ness that is just west of the Oquirrh Mountains from Salt Lake City.  Part of the race was through an open range cow-grazing area...so we dodged some livestock and ran over several cow grates as part of the race. We also witnessed a broke down car or to on the race road and had a portion of the race on a dirt-ish road. :)  It was fun!
After the race, I headed home to relieve Ash of his morning kid duties so he could ride his bike before I headed for a girls overnight staycation in Park City with some SLC friends.

Amanda and Anne -- Troopers at about 36 weeks preggers.  :)  Or as one passerby noted on the street as we were out late drinking..."That's dedication!"  Ha!

Rosa and her Seven & Seven.

Jolena and Susanna -- who also had busy mornings doing a triathlon (J) and a 20 mile training run (S)!

The staycation was great -- I got to spend some quality time with new friends and also eat delicious food, drinks, smell the clean mountain air, hot tub on our balcony facing main street, and have a massage at the Deer Valley Resort.  It. Was. Fabulous.  And relaxing...which is what we all needed.

Heidi, hungover me, Amanda, Jolena, Rosa, Susanna and Anne -- outside the super fabulous Stein Eriksen Lodge spa at Deer Valley.

Thanks for the great time this weekend girls! 

- Emily :)