I was digging through some old photos the other day and found some fun ones, so I decided to throw them into a marathon of a slideshow... beware, it's 15 minutes long:
Learning Adobe Illustrator
10 years ago
wedge
It's a nice long labor day weekend, with hardly anything going on, so we decided to do a little front yard landscaping
The kids picked out some tall aspens, and we barely crammed them into the car
Then we planted them in a mound of top soil (because the ground is too rocky) at the front of our property, for some future shade & privacy. We're still trying to decide what to do with the rest of the front yard. i.e. Bark/wood chips versus ground cover (ivy or periwinkle)? Suggestions?
Our days of getting a babysitter are numbered (who's going to want to watch twin babies for a measly $5-10/hr?), so we left the kids last night for dinner and a movie. We tried Mustang on main street and it was pretty good -- nice food, service, ambience (their Utah red trout is delicious).
For some strange reason, we've been on a bit of a wedge salad kick lately. We had it last night at mustang, a while back at pizzeria 712, and then somewhere else recently as well. It is just so refreshing, and we recreated it fairly well today at lunch:
Wedge Salad with Light & Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing
Just take a head of lettuce (bibb leaf > iceberg > romaine hearts), quarter it, and serve it with fresh tomatoes, red onions, and this dressing:
Blend together until smooth: 1/2 c plain yogurt or light sour cream, 1/4 c light cottage cheese, 1/4 light mayo, 1/4 c crumbled blue cheese. Stir in 1/2 c crumbled blue cheese. Enjoy
I'd like to introduce you to... Friday, August 29, 2008
not to mention the coolest looking. Early birthday present / nursing
chair (not me -- I don't nurse -- but for Lisa) / reading chair /
classic mid century modern design. Made of molded walnut plywood and
fine Italian leather, this work of art was conceived by Charles and Ray
Eames in 1956 for the Herman Miller Company, and is now part of the
permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.It can be yours for an incredibly low price at Jeremiah's newly
launched store parkcitymodern.com
You may want to think twice before ordering the Castiglioni Arco lamp, however, because it only comes with a plug for another continent.
would you eat one of these? Thursday, August 28, 2008
This was lunch at Google's cafeteria for a special occasion:
Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburgers
I hope they have a good employee health plan.
we don't need no education Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Here come the obligatory back to school photos.
Are you ready?
Drum roll please
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(Emily doesn't start until next week)
Speaking of school, here's a podcast for you. It's called 'Jumping Monkeys' and it's all about parenting, kids, etc. In this particular episode, they interviewed Jon Scieszka, author of Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales (That's the full title, not my commentary on the book. Remember, stupid is an S word, right emily). Anyway, Jon is fun to listen to, and they give a lot of good childrens book recommendations in this episode.
old yeller is comin' home
Good news: Casey is coming home tomorrow!
Bad news: He'll be on a 6 month home quarantine.
To make a long story short, we got the state vet involved, who didn't seem concerned at all that our little vaccinated dog found a rabit bat. But the county policy clearly states that because he didn't receive a booster within 24 hours of exposure, he needs the quarantine. The county finally agreed that it wasn't reasonable to have a vet lock him up in a kennel for 6 months, so we'll make a dog run at home and take him for a monthly checkup at the vet.
The big question is, what to do when the snow starts falling....
cruisin' Sunday, August 24, 2008
well, our last minute trip was a success, despite the 24hr of round trip driving time (next time we'll fly).
Last sunday night, we arrived at our hotel on the beach in Long Beach. We crashed right away, then spent the next morning on the beach playing in the sand, and lounging around the pool .
We boarded the ship around 1pm without any difficulty. Lisa carefully selected the right shirt to wear, and stood right up to the high counter. The lady at the counter was too busy chatting with our kids to even ask for a doctors note. Lisa did stand out a little on the cruise. Once when I was meeting her at breakfast, I asked the hosted if she'd seen my wife yet. "About this high, 3 kids?" "don't know" "Pregnant.." "Oh yes, I know her, but she's not here yet"
The ship was fine.. this was the only cruise line we could find that would allow 5 people in one room. We weren't sure how they were going to do it.... maybe a bigger than average room? Nope.. they just hang some beds from the walls too. A little cramped but the kids loved it. Emily was so jealous that her bed was on the floor and not hanging from the wall. (Note to self-- get a balcony next time. It's hard to enjoy room service when your room is all bed).
Speaking of room service, the kids thought that room service was the guy who turned down the beds at night, left chocolates out, and folded the towels into animal creations. Emily called them our 'servants', which we thought was funny until a crew member was in our room once fixing something, and emily said out loud "Look, there's our servant!"
The food was insane. So much of it. The lunch buffet was a little crazy... But we had fun at our nightly sit down multi-course meal. We even ditched the kids at their kids club for formal dinner night.
The kids got used to the courses and pretty soon even at breakfast they'd try to order an appetizer to start with. There was always something to choose from though. Our favorite was the warm chocolate melting cake:
Dallin liked the sushi bar:
And Emily had ice cream with every meal (except breakfast)
(ps- ask Lisa how much weight she gained on the cruise :)
The first stop was Catalina island, which was nice. We walked around for a bit, then just hung out at the beach. The beaches there are a little rocky. Lisa ditched us for a massage, but it helped her get through the rest of the cruise with all that walking.
The next port of call was Ensenada, Mexico. Believe it or not, none of us had ever set foot in mexico. I've flown over it going down to Guatemala, but never Mexico). So we had fun just roaming the streets of Ensenada. We haggled with some street vendors, some were almost Emily's age :) We walked by this one family sitting on the sidewalk and as we approached, the little 5 year old gets up and starts following us with a box of little animal toys, saying "one dollar, one dollar, one dollar..." over and over for a block or two. Emily said "He thinks he's part of our family".
I was in the mood for some real mexican food, but Lisa didn't dare eat the food halfway through a cruise. We did manage to find a mexican coke with real zucchero (none of this HFCS garbage we use in the states)
We roamed the streets for a while
And took a horse-drawn carriage ride, which was pretty crazy because we went right down a busy street with cars buzzing by on each side of us.
It was good for the kids to see another part of the world, where living conditions are worse and not everyone has it as easy as we do in the USA. It makes me want to take them on a quick trip to guyana and suriname before grandma and grandpa's mission is over... "walk down the mud lanes in canje and see the grass huts with no electricity or running water. "
Dallin wants to visit 10 countries by the time he's 10. Think he can do it? He's up to 6 or so.
The next day was just a day at sea, which meant crowded pools
No, we didn't dare touch that hot tub.
We strategically planned our swimming times to avoid the crowds, but even so, the pools on this cruise ship weren't the best. It didn't help that they hyperchlorinated the kiddie pool on day1 and it ended up closed the whole time. And amanda just missed the height minimum for the waterslide.
The kids loved their camps. There was always something fun going on: parties, scavenger hunts, mini putt, crafts, art, etc.
Amanda sang high school musical at the talent show. I'll post a video later.
We had some time for lounging around
mini-putting
whale-watching
playing shuffle board
and just hanging out at the pool
We're home, but.. Friday, August 22, 2008
-- a much needed vacation. More pictures and details coming soon.
But first, a very sad story:
Remember that strange bat hanging out on our window? Well, no wonder
it was out in the daylight -- it has rabies. Casey found it while we
were gone and was chewing on it. Our neighbor called animal control
to come get the bat, and they tested it for rabies. When the test
came back positive, animal control returned to our house to quarantine
Casey until we could show them shot records. When a got back into the
country this morning and learned what was going on, we called and had
a friend fax proof of Casey's rabies vaccination. We thought we'd be
able to pick him up tonight, but they called us back saying that the
city ordinances say that we either need to pay a vet to quarantine
Casey for 6 months (with the disclaimer that they dont think any vets
will do this) to make sure he doesn't develop rabies, or they'll
euthanize him. Needless to say, we're still in shock... Not sure what
to do. We'll be calling every vet in town tomorrow.
Poor Casey... So sad just thinking about it.
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