Sunday, May 17, 2015

Mother's Day 2015

Paul and the girls gave me such a great mother's day this year.  On Saturday morning Paul took the girls to Orchard Supply to do a mother' day craft (painting pots and planting flowers) while I got a mani-pedi and got my brows waxed at the mall.  Then later that day we went out to dinner.  On Sunday the girls wore the new dresses that I made for them and we played croquet in the backyard with the croquet set that Paul and the girls gave me.  And then Paul made ribs, scallops, and green beans for dinner.  It was such a lovely weekend and I felt very special.
 
 
These are just a few pictures that I already posted on instagram, but I thought I would include them here too.  I have done quite a bit of sewing between quilts, crafts, and Halloween costumes, but I have never actually made regular clothes.  I got the urge to change that a few weeks back when I saw the cutest dress pattern for the girls.  Then I happened to go to Joann's the day that their patterns were all on sale for $1 and I picked up a couple of different patterns for myself.  I'm very happy with how the girls' dresses turned out despite some mistakes and imperfections.  Somehow either my measurements (most likely) or the pattern was off on my dress so I made it way bigger than I needed.  I tried taking it in but could only fix it so much.  It looks so-so but really I would kind of like to try again with different fabric and make some changes for a better result.  But all-in-all I'm pretty proud of how all three dresses turned out.





Rose fell asleep in Paul's arms in the foyer of the church during Sunday School.  This is how I found them after I finished teaching.


That is butter being grated onto the ribs.  Then they get drizzled in honey and brown sugar, wrapped in foil and set back in the smoker to finish.  They are beyond amazing.  Insanely bad for you, but SOOOOO good.





And just for fun, here is a comparison picture from last year with the girls.  Rose was so tiny!  I miss the look of the bangs but man I just cannot handle maintaining them. 
 
 

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Yosemite in Spring

Back in early April (I know - I have been slacking on blogging lately) we did a quick little weekend getaway to Yosemite.  Paul and I did an April Yosemite trip before the girls were born and loved it so it was fun doing it again.  We were lucky to get a room at the lodge.  The girls had fun checking in at the kids' station and getting coloring pages and crayons to keep them busy while Paul was sorting out the room situation.
 


Since we were only staying one night, we got right to work unloading the bikes and heading out to explore.


We did the Yosemite Fall hike first.  The falls at Yosemite are usually bone-dry in October when we go, so it was fun seeing them flowing in the spring.  We took things slow, letting the girls climb on logs and rocks and just being outside together.


 






We had spent the previous few weekends hiking with the girls on Saturdays to get them prepared for Yosemite and it worked pretty well.  There wasn't one complaint out of either girl the entire day, despite lots of walking and Rose only getting a short nap while riding in her seat on my bike. 



 
What I don't remember from our previous spring visit was seeing so many blossoms.  We hit things just right because all of the dogwoods were in bloom and it provided for some beautiful photos and vistas.
 



We stopped by the river to throw rocks and Rose was fast asleep.  I carried her down and sat on a rock while Paul and Clara were wading.  My arm was killing after no time at all because Rose is built like a little tank.  But oh how I love when she does this - I know there won't be too many more times that she will fall asleep on me like this.





We spent part of the afternoon just relaxing behind the Ahwahnee hotel, playing on the lawn and enjoying some treats.  I ordered a Shirley Temple, which was amazingly good - I maybe have a soda 2 or 3 times a year, but when I do I make it count.  Rose is clearly a fan of Shirley Temple's too - I had to wrestle it away from her to stop her from sucking down the whole thing.



We had dinner at the Curry Village pizza parlor that evening and rocked on the chairs.  I probably say this every time I write about Yosemite but this is one of my favorite spots in the park.



And those are all the photos I have of our trip!  We rode the bus back to the lodge - the girls loved the buses - and Paul took Clara on a night hike while I put Rose to sleep for the night.  The next morning we had a lovely breakfast at the lodge and did the hike to Bridal Veil Falls, which we had never done before.  But it had been a long night because Rose kept waking up and so we left the park pretty early and headed for home so the girls could take naps in the car, which they did for most of the drive.  It was a lovely trip and I am already looking forward to going again in October.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Muir Woods National Monument

 
Two Saturdays ago we woke up bright and early expecting rain as had been forecasted the night before.  We got that rain overnight but it looked like things had cleared up so we made the snap decision to drive over to the Muir Woods National Monument.  We had tried visiting there once before, years ago, but it had been on a holiday weekend or something and we had given up when we got there and couldn't find any parking and waited in an insanely long line just to drive around looking for a spot to free up. 
 
It is such a beautiful spot, especially on the day we went after a night of rain.  Everything was wet and misty and fresh.  The forest floor is covered in ferns and miner's lettuce, which Paul points out for Clara and she picks and happily munches on.  Being in the redwood trees fills my soul. 
 

The trail is actually a boardwalk, which both protects the delicate root systems of the redwood trees and makes it wheelchair and stroller accessible.  But I was glad we didn't know that beforehand because we just brought the hiking backpack to carry Rose in once she got tired and went at the girls' slow pace which gave us lots of time to soak in the peacefulness and breath deeply from the pure, sweet air of the redwoods. 





About a mile in or so, Rose got cranky so we put her in the hiking backpack and Paul carried her while she ate her snacks (string cheese and chocolate chip cookies).  And within minutes she was out like a light and stayed that way for the rest of the hike.


We opted to do a loop hike where we climbed about halfway up the height of the redwood forest and walked on a trail at that level all the way back to the parking lot.  Paul is the master of spotting banana slugs and pointed out 9 of them to us.  Clara was super excited about each one but try as he might Paul couldn't convince her to touch one of them. 



They sure are disgustingly ugly little buggers.




After spending a couple of hours hiking, we left and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to the city for lunch at Gott's in the Ferry Building.  It was a pretty perfect way to spend a Saturday and I'm looking forward to taking our next visitors here to experience it for themselves.



Thursday, May 7, 2015

11 Years

4 degrees
17 countries
2 home purchases and renovations
1 ER visit (me when I cut my thumb)
Tens of thousands of student loans paid off (thank goodness that is behind us!)
10 (or more) visits to Disneyland
Hundreds of date nights
4 full-time post-graduation employers
1 marathon
9 national parks
2 beautiful and bright girls
11 incredible years