Because Everyone Loves A Good Wedding Celebration

We just got back from Jeremy's youngest brother's wedding.  His bride had put together such a cute reception.  A little bit country, a bit vintage, and a bit glamor.  Totally fun.

This picture of the two of them walking on the tracks is adorable, but my boys had words of concern and consternation each time we walked past it.

They had a photo booth set up with chalk boards so the guests could write messages of encouragement and advice and snap a Polaroid of it to go in an album for the new couple.

Jeremy and I snuck an extra pic just for ourselves.  My real piece of advice was "Always keep dreaming" . . . or something like that. 

They were a cute couple, both wearing cowboy boots.

Classy groomsmen in suspenders and boutonnieres.

Baby girls in tutus.

Little boys in bow ties.

Tables decorated in lace and burlap.

A gorgeous cake that my little boys may or may not have gotten to a number of times before the actual cutting. . .  

A candy bar.

With cupcakes too.

Yeah, we see you over there Jeremy.  At least eat dinner first!

My sister in law snapped this pic.  It's funny because we have one almost exactly like it from about 10 years ago.

Then the party moved outside.

Sparklers for everyone.

And a classy sendoff for the happy couple. 

Home Again

We returned last night from three weeks at my mom and dad's cabin in the White Mountains of Arizona. It was a wonderful trip for all the right reasons.  Plenty of time with Nonny and Poppy and cousins and an aunt and uncle.  Lots and lots of warm sunshine.  Endless hours out of doors.  The sharing of favorite hobbies, games, food and more.   Plus lots of time for thinking about life and new ideas for projects both big and small. 

We'll probably spend a little bit of time reliving our many adventures, but soon enough we will be settled in and working on new ideas!

Walk and Talk

My first semester at college overlapped with my sister's last semester.  I lived in apartment dormitories and she lived off campus but that didn't stop us from spending hours together every day.  Sometimes we'd pick up a mini-loaf of bread with honey butter for a mid-morning snack.  Sometimes we'd head to my apartment for lunch or so Evelyn could take a nap in my bed.  And sometimes we'd just say "Hi" before heading to our next class. 

On a campus of 30,000 students it could have been a hard thing to try and find each other everyday--but it wasn't.  Not for us. 

I had started college in January after Christmas break, but in anticipation of the semester our brother gave us walkie talkies for a Christmas present.  Every day after our morning classes we'd switch on our walkie talkies for an update: where are you, where are you headed, what do you need to do this morning? And then we'd align our paths to intersect.  We'd keep up the casual exchange until we finally made it face to face and would switch off the walkie talkies. 

We were the model of efficiency.  We never had to wonder why the other wasn't at a pre-arranged meeting spot, or question whether we had remembered the time or place incorrectly. 

We got the whole range of looks while conversing on our Walkie Talkies.  Some people were confused.  Some would laugh and point (in the good way. . . I think).  Some were probably annoyed in some kind of teenage angst-y way.  But it was a great system, and we were just the smart ones that thought of it first.

Two Weeks Later--Still Digesting

 

Homemade Butter

Jeremy was out of town visiting family last week He found this hand-cranked butter churn at his Grandma Roma's house that is just like the one we got at Salvation Army last year. So he had Grandma help show him how to use it.

They poured in the cream and Jeremy got to churning. 

It got to the point where the cream had thickened so much that the churn paddle wasn't hitting the cream anymore.  Grandma Roma said she doesn't remember that ever happening. 

My guess is they need more cream so that it fills in the space even though it is thickened--we'll have to experiment with ours here and see.

So they decided to finish it up in the mixer.

At this point they salted the butter.

Then they squished and pressed it to work out the extra buttermilk.  (I've also heard of rinsing the butter in cold water at this point.)

This is Grandma's mother's butter paddle.

     Then they formed it into a log in the waxed paper and put it in the fridge to chill.

Jeremy decided to drink the buttermilk. . . waste not, want not.

Chocolate and Chuckles

When Jeremy and I were working on our undergraduate degrees in Utah we lived only 3 1/2 hours from Jeremy's grandparents in Idaho. We made the trip up to visit them quite a few times in those two years after we got married before we moved away.

I was proud of myself for being such a good granddaughter-in-law and joining right into the family. But really it was fun for me--I enjoyed going. And Jeremy's grandparents were always happy to see us.

Grandma Mae was almost always in the kitchen. Sometimes just sitting around the kitchen table chuckling at our stories and antics, but often cooking something. She baked bread, but would also use the dough for other things like scones. Her scones were what someone with my Arizona upbringing would call fry bread--but definitely delicious. Then she would make cheese bread, where she would have two rolled out layers of bread with a layer of cheese baked in the middle. Yum.

The best thing Grandma Mae made for special occasions was her chocolates. She made "Idaho Spuds"--these marshmallow blobs dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut so they vaguely resembled potatoes. She made fondant-rolled cherry chocolates, and one Christmas she made these cute little mice chocolates with sliced almond ears and pointy chocolate chip noses.

Grandma had made up all the chocolates before we all got there and stored them in this utility cupboard just outside the side door to the carport. That way they would stay nice and cool outside of the hot house, and out of the way since there were so many of them. However, grandma didn't realize that this made the chocolates highly accessible to hungry snacking relatives on their way in or our of the house. Every time we passed by that cupboard Jeremy would say, "Quick, let's grab a chocolate!" (And we weren't the only ones doing it.) So the night Grandma finally decided to pull out the chocolates to serve everyone she said, "I sure thought I'd made a few more than that!" But no one complained of any perceived lack of chocolate that evening, for we'd been enjoying Grandma's bounty all week long. And maybe Grandma was just humoring us and had known all along that we were sneaking chocolates, sitting at the kitchen table and letting out a little chuckle each time she heard the cupboard door squeak open and then closed again. 

Reunion-Top and Bottom

San Diego 2010 Top (and bottom) 10!


Wonderful- My Grandmother providing travel and accommodations for our whole family

Horrible- My sunburn (Legs only-- I kept three boys and my face and body sunburn-free all week I just forgot about my legs that first day. . . ouch!)

Awesome- The public reaction anytime we were together as a whole group: "How many of you are there?" (84) "And how many under the age of 5?" (Don't know--they won't stand still long enough for us to count)

Annoying- My brother Mark trying to convince our children that if they eat green things (celery, lettuce, or whatever) that trees will grow inside their body.

Invigorating- Haircut by my cousin--Hooray!

Embarrassing- Not ever finding time to paint my toenails for the beach--Oh well.

Appreciated- My dad taking the "early risers" to walk the beach every morning.

Tolerated- Sand in my bed (and on the floor, and in the diaper bag, and in our food, and in the cars, and. . .)

Cherished- Hanging out with my family in the Legoland parking lot after closing time, eating dinner and creating a jovial ruckus.

Tragic- One week not being nearly long enough to spend with them.


Bonus #11 is both at the top and bottom:

Frustrating--but Hilarious- Owen flat out refusing to put weight on his hurt ankle on our last day. We couldn't fight with him, we certainly couldn't carry him, and his ankle really was hurt. So he was carted happily around the airport in a wheelchair!

SIX

This weekend we left the boys in the capable and enthusiastic hands of their Nonny, and Jeremy and I headed out to celebrate our sixth anniversary of marriage.

We drove to Topeka and checked in to our bed and breakfast: The Woodward.


Jeremy didn't know quite how to respond to the "Head Butler's" request to carry our bags. (We're only staying one night--they aren't heavy!)



We looked around the mansion a bit, and then helped ourselves to the dessert bar before heading out to dinner. (You have to make the most of time spent without kids around!)

For dinner we went to Chez Yasu a little French restaurant we'd found a recommendation for. At 5:45 Friday night we got the last table available for the rest of the weekend. We were basically at a single table pushed up next to a window in the foyer, but we didn't care--we were grateful to have gotten a table at all. And it was worth it. We ate every course (except wine) and stuffed ourselves to the brim.

Jeremy will be mad at me for not saying more about the food, but I'm really not a food writer. I'll just say it was all delicious and involved scallops, mushrooms, lemon, lettuce, tomato, vinaigrette, goat cheese, duck breast, peppercorns, veal, capers, strawberries, chocolate, cream, and of course bread. I refused to leave until I'd eaten every piece of the crusty bread in the basket (our second).

We got to watch some of the Olympics opening ceremonies because we specifically got a room with a TV in. Not that we knew it was going to be the Olympics when we scheduled it, but we're just cable-deprived. (We're also excited about watching cable in the hospital room when I have the baby too--pathetic!)

We had a list for the morning of Topeka shopping we wanted to do. It included Toys-R-Us for birthday shopping, a Games Workshop store that never actually materialized, and Daddy Cakes cupcake shop!



Online it said they were open 11-7 or until they run out, so we wanted to go early. In this picture you can see that it's only 11:20. We'd already been waiting 5 minutes at the point I took this picture and we waited longer. There were 8 people in front of us in line when we got there, and they were already sold out of one kind of cupcake!!!



It's a funny little stand-alone shop in the middle of a strip mall, but it was really fun.



We bought six cupcakes (I could say one for each year, but we weren't that clever at the time.) And we ate bites out of each of them them on the drive home instead of stopping for lunch. (We were celebrating!)

Our favorites were probably the "Grashopper:" a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate genache, topped with mint flavored frosting, and a sprinkling of crumbled Andes mints; and the "Triple Threat:" a chocolate cupcake with chunks of chocolate in it and cherry filling, topped with almond flavored frosting and sprinkled with coarse sugar and sliced almonds.



Of course we had plenty of help finishing the cupcakes when we got home.

Really, it was a great little getaway.



Jeremy got me a new pillow for my poor pregnant body. And he designed and had this pillowcase printed up at a place in town. It's modern and clever. Jeremy's gift was a new gaming book. We've never been super big on anniversary gift-giving. Probably because we've not really had the money to go out and do something together and buy presents. We prefer the going out and doing something fun.

(Thanks for giving us the opportunity mom! See you when the baby comes!)