Kirsten and Mark

Cafe Rio Manhattan Beach

There is finally a Cafe Rio within reasonable driving distance from our place! Yay! It opened Wednesday. We went Friday. Unlike a Utah opening, there was no line out the door. Good sign the locals haven’t yet discovered its amazingness.

As soon as we walked in it was obvious that about 95% of the people eating in there were Mormon. If you are Mormon, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re not, trust me, you can just tell. Add to that all the shouts of “free meal” and you knew they hadn’t filled up a “frequent diner” card in less than 2 days. They were there for the same reason we were…

In addition to all the excitement, the food was delicious too….of course! That tortilla soup is so yummy! And Britton liked the strawberries that came with is quesadilla. He needed more or we were in for a meltdown. Mark liked his pork salad, who wouldn’t. It was totally worth driving down the 405 at 7 o’clock on a Friday night.

We had a fun family dinner at the best new restaurant in town and I don’t have to wait 6-9 months between cravings anymore. That just may be the best part.

Whenever Brit sees a camera lately it’s “pitur” “pitur” until we actually take one…or a few.

Oh, and someone told him about saying cheese before a photo, and now he really does.

His bear “Bop”

All snuggled up!

Yes…he needed a picture of this.

Pick a color

Put it away

Notice there’s not really any coloring going on. Just putting them in and out.

This has been our excitement the past few weeks. I know. Tremendous amounts.

Maybe when this rain stops we’ll actually go out and do things again.

Christmas Eve pajamas, with train slippers

Playing "train" with aunt Sara

Enjoying the gift of music

Being a human present...or bow catcher

Seeing slides and a castle made all of ice

Seeing this!

And this...a life-sized Nativity of ICE!

Waking up Christmas morning to Britton's presents

Having to play with a toy before it's all unwrapped

Holiday Lights

The DC Temple bathed in fog

These are just some of the great joys we had this Christmas…and we look forward to keeping the Spirit of Christmas with us throughout this year!

Yeah…that’s right. 18 whole hours. And, what did we do almost the whole time? Eat. Well, not exactly eating the whole time, but many activities revolved around food.

The plan: Leave early Monday morning, catch the 7:15 bus to NYC, get there by noon. Have the whole day, and leave at 10 the next morning.

The reality: Metro train had a problem. Took twice as long to get to bus stop as planned. Missed bus. Had to wait till 9:15. Barely made it on that one because of no shows. Later in the day=more traffic getting into city. We arrived at 2:45. We were really hungry, but didn’t want to drag our little suitcase all around, so we headed to the hotel. Should’ve walked the whole way. Would’ve been faster than the metro. Finally arrive, check in and all is well.

Head down to The Hog Pit, a BBQ place recommended by the fabulous Missy and Ari. They were right. It was FANTASTIC! I like pork and bbq, but it’s not like my favorite thing in the world. This was the best I have EVER had. I had the pork sliders and Mark had brisket. So delicious. I was full too, so a lot bummed we’d already made reservations for dinner back at the hotel.

That glowing thing in the background is their “Hog Pit” Sign.

True Texas bar decor as well. Since it was 4 pm, we were the only people in there. That felt a little weird. But, it was nice too. Thanks for the suggestion ladies!

When we looked on a map to figure out where to go next we realized this place was only a few blocks from the bus stop! Ah man, we’d have saved a lot of time and hunger if we’d just headed straight there.

We headed north toward Macy’s and Times Square. Stopped here:

We got Britton M&Ms in all the colors they had, and some mini ones as well. He loved them, as expected. Then we stopped here:

Can you guess? It’s Macy’s. They had the ground floor decorated very nicely. We were in there for a long time…and eventually made it all the way to the 8th floor. Yeah. It’s that big. A little ridiculous. Outside it was so cold, and I had forgotten my scarf and gloves at home, so I really considered actually buying a scarf or hat there. For those that know me, I don’t really do either, so to consider paying $35-40 for one it must have been really bad.

We also made a stop at the Hershey’s store and stocked up on good stuff. Well, I stocked up on their Cinnamon Chips. I can’t find them in LA, and there is the BEST cookie recipe on the back.

We turned east and ended up at Rockefeller Center.

I realize this is blurry. Maybe I really should give in and let Mark order the new Canon Powershot. Oh well…

Just across the square they had angels and trumpets, which looked through to Bloomingdales and their Snowflake Show…seriously, they danced to music.

More food: A stop at Magnolia Bakery for a slice of Pumpkin Cake, and we were off back south to make our dinner reservation.

Asia de Cuba. It’s basically what it sounds like, Asian style food with Cuban influence. It was a lot nicer/fancier than we were expecting. Especially being from LA when you can walk in almost anywhere in jeans and a casual shirt and be fine. The food was actually really good, and there was a lot of it. But, it was a bit pricey for my taste. Especially when I wasn’t really hungry at all after lunch. I was quite pained as we paid the bill, but it was a nice experience.

By that time we were pretty tired. I wanted to badly to see a movie since we hadn’t been to a theatre for months, but our hotel was calling. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Station. It was probably the most comfy bed ever. Especially compared to the last hotel we stayed at (Days Inn Barstow, we still hold a grudge.) I loved their pillows and their comforter. The morning came much too quickly. Luckily, we can buy it if we want through their “home collection.” Not sure yet if I want to spend $65 for a pillow though.

The next day I realized that the outfit I was wearing was twice as warm as the one from the day before! Blast! On our ride home we made another discovery–almost all of the money we spent in NYC was on food of some sort…lunch, M&M store, Hershey’s store, Magnolia, Asia de Cuba…I mean seriously, it was a little ridiculous. But, it was all pretty good. The Magnolia cake? You could pass it up. The cupcakes in there didn’t look super yummy either. I think it’s a cute little bakery that got famous, and is now a MUST SEE.

Anyway, we had a great time and I’m excited I finally got to see NYC at Christmastime…now maybe for Thanksgiving.

We went to my aunt Tracy’s house in Page, Arizona (well, technically Greenehaven about 7 miles from the town. And oddly, Greenehaven is only their small subdivision.)

Anyway, we drove up Tuesday night and stayed with my dad in Vegas. Then had breakfast with Mark’s cousins Adrien and Lauren. It was so fun to see them and the super cute girls. The food was great too! Thanks guys…hope to see you again soon!

In Kanab we stopped for a visit with Angie, Bryan and Lexie. Looks like they still like holding hands.

We had a great little visit…always too short!

Then it was on to our destination. It’s right by Lake Powell, the south end.

Brit enjoying a football game with aunt Shaela

Eating Thanksgiving dinner. He wasn’t super into all the food, but he liked the roll and turkey. Ugh! What happened to my child who ate everything? I know…he’s a toddler now.

Some under-the-chair acrobatics….or something.

Rocks! Brit loved picking up the rocks. And every time…Rocks!

All the cousins…yes, there were this many of us, plus about 9 more. More on that later.

The nothingness that is Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. Though very pretty. Sunsets and storms are amazing.

Brit didn’t do too well with other people. He was really a mommy or daddy’s boy all weekend. Even Grandma holding him wasn’t ok. He did buddy up with my cousin Casey though. She’s 8 and he went to her a lot.

Finally getting a decent hair cut! It was dire. He liked it until the bottom…he hates that part.

The family girls…and boy. I was taking the picture. Shaela, Tracy, Brit, Chezney and Mom

What there aren’t pictures of:

20 people and 7 dogs crammed in a 3 bedroom house.

Us sleeping on an airmattress in the dining room and Britton waking up throughout the night, needing a drink or something and me trying to make sure he didn’t wake up everyone else.

The 3 pies I made…2 apple and 1 cherry for my birthday. I have to admit–it was dang good!

Britton throwing up 3 times on our way home. Our fault really…we let him watch a movie and play with the iPod. I just feel bad making him sit there with nothing to do (even though he doesn’t complain) but he just can’t do anything else or he suddenly gets sick. Super fun!

Our HARD AS A ROCK mattress at the Days Inn in Barstow–never stay there. We were so tired we knew we had to either stop or crash…so, much to my chagrin we stopped. We may as well have slept in the car.

The great time we had together with family that we see very rarely. We’re glad we went and for the blessings we have.

Thanks Trac!

For the past 6 months or so I’ve been going to Dream Dinners every 6 weeks or so. Dream Dinners is a place where you go to make freezer meals. They have all the ingredients ready–chopped, portioned etc. and I just have to put them together. I make about 12 meals in an hour. It’s awesome.

Well, Paige and I decided we could also make our own, so we gathered some of our favorite–or easy–recipes and headed off to Costco

It was quite the trip…sad I don’t have pictures of it.

Then it was back to my house for some of this:

The Prep Counter

Just some of the food....

There was so much food! Pretty good for $330

Master Chef

We had lots of fun pouring, mixing and creating.

Professional pizza makers

One of our meals…mostly for the pizza-loving boys.

And here's a tortilla

For some reason I’m channeling a Price is Right model. Here’s to the yummy enchiladas!

Completely full fridge

Seriously, completely full. I couldn’t fit another thing in my freezer either. Granted, a lot of this is Paige’s too….

We created a few dishes

And, what were Brit and Mav doing all this time? Well, being perfect angels of course. Really, they were very good. They played together, watched a movie or two, didn’t cause any serious harm, and even liked each other at the end.

What? It's educational!

So, after about 9 hours together, from shopping and cooking, we ended up with about 15 meals. Combined with that and the Dream Dinners I already had I haven’t cooked a complete meal from “scratch” in like a month. It’s sooooo awesome!

The Bee is getting ready for some sweets

Maybe a dip in the water...

Really, he wanted in.

Get the candy

put it in the basket

That really was his favorite part, but a lot of people just put it in his basket for him. It took a long time for us to get these pictures. Since he doesn’t yet dare talk in two-word sentences, the best we got for “Happy Halloween” was “Ween!” sometimes elongated and often with a hand in the air in excitement. Trick or treat was “teet” and of course, his always present “Thank you.” He did steal many workers’ hearts for sure.

What are the odds? A witch and rock star have a cute little bumble bee!

The Bee collecting sweet stuff

Scary trunk..I mean, witch's lair

We think Britton had fun. We know he liked running around on the baseball field during crafts. When we got home he was just interested in taking his candy out of the pumpkin and putting it somewhere else. It was the days ahead that we would constantly hear “candy?” with a cute little sign.

Wednesday…the one before Halloween….we carved our pumpkins. Well, just one of them.

Brit colored his since we figured a knife wouldn’t be a super good idea.

Mark starting on his masterpiece

Brit likes the guts!

Yes, that’s his eye

Happy Jack

On Thursday we went Trick-or-Treating at a retirement home near by. Some of the residents were excited to see us, some of them couldn’t have cared less. But, the kids got to go running around in a new place, so that was fun.

On Friday at Musicmakers all the kids dressed up and then we decorated cookies afterward. Brit loves the sticks!

This is what you get when you have 2 toddlers decorating cookies.

Put your finger in the sprinkles

Dump them out

Get them all over the “designated work area”

Lick the frosting  and enjoy!

Not really, but I did see a post on a mom site yesterday about being so busy this week she might be exhausted by Christmas. After the week we had, I may agree with her a little bit.

A couple of weeks ago we went with Shanni, Teo and Marcos to the Pierce College Pumpkin Patch. We had a great time.

Brit was a “cowboy”

Brit’s first time on a horse. He was a little afraid at first, but had fun.

Pumpkins

Britton and Teo

Their favorite ride was the train. They went three times.

When we got home, Brit thought he’d sit on the pumpkins again.

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »