Anyone ever tried this before? It sure keeps Calvin's interest for a L-O-N-G time! He loves it!
First week of Christmas
6 years ago
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
The Next Food Network Star
Okay, so I'm definitely NOT qualified to be the next food network star, but I do like trying new things to cook and I enjoy watching the food network to get new ideas. Every time I watch the channel I'm always in the mood to make something a little more gourmet. One thing I've been wanting to try is pesto from scratch. We finally bought some fresh basil yesterday and so I made it tonight. It wasn't bad for my first time. To me it tasted like something I would get at The Olive Garden. I'm realizing I'm a big fan of pine nuts! I mixed chicken, basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and salt/pepper together with quantities of each based on taste. Here was the result:
The flavor was amazing, but I still need to work on getting the texture right. I didn't want to use very much olive oil to try and keep it on the healthier side, so it was a little dry. Trevor came up with the idea of possibly using plain yogurt along with the oil. I tried a little bit with the sauce and it wasn't half bad. I'm going to try that in the future and see how it goes.
The flavor was amazing, but I still need to work on getting the texture right. I didn't want to use very much olive oil to try and keep it on the healthier side, so it was a little dry. Trevor came up with the idea of possibly using plain yogurt along with the oil. I tried a little bit with the sauce and it wasn't half bad. I'm going to try that in the future and see how it goes.
Our Trip to Santa Cruz
Continuing our weekly-do-something-fun tradition, on Saturday we decided to head down to Santa Cruz. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed seeing the ocean! We first went to a place called Neary Lagoon. I've never been to a park quite like it before. There were tons of bridges all over this Lagoon.
See this bird in this next picture? It followed us for a large part of the path. It was almost as if he was showing us the way to go.
Then we went to the beach and saw this natural bridge (See the hole below the rock?).
There were tons of people at the beach, so we decided not to go down there but just walk along the beach front.
Then we went to the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. It cost money to go inside and we didn't feel like paying, so we just looked around outside.
They had a skeleton of a Blue Whale. It was incredible! It had washed up on the shore so they decided to strip it and preserve the bones shown below.
Here is the skull of the Blue Whale.
We don't know what it is, but it looked cool to us.
Then we went to the lighthouse and Surfing Museum. We were expecting a really cool lighthouse like on Pete's Dragon, but I guess this lighthouse was still pretty exciting. I kept singing "It's a Brazzle Dazzle Day!" The surfing museum was small and mainly had pictures of different surfers from the 1900's.
After we went to the beach we drove to downtown Santa Cruz and walked around a bit. After we ate dinner we were exhausted so we went home. All in all it was a great day!
See this bird in this next picture? It followed us for a large part of the path. It was almost as if he was showing us the way to go.
Then we went to the beach and saw this natural bridge (See the hole below the rock?).
There were tons of people at the beach, so we decided not to go down there but just walk along the beach front.
Then we went to the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. It cost money to go inside and we didn't feel like paying, so we just looked around outside.
They had a skeleton of a Blue Whale. It was incredible! It had washed up on the shore so they decided to strip it and preserve the bones shown below.
Here is the skull of the Blue Whale.
We don't know what it is, but it looked cool to us.
Then we went to the lighthouse and Surfing Museum. We were expecting a really cool lighthouse like on Pete's Dragon, but I guess this lighthouse was still pretty exciting. I kept singing "It's a Brazzle Dazzle Day!" The surfing museum was small and mainly had pictures of different surfers from the 1900's.
After we went to the beach we drove to downtown Santa Cruz and walked around a bit. After we ate dinner we were exhausted so we went home. All in all it was a great day!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Motocross Bikers
At the Microsoft company picnic they had some motocross bikers perform some stunts. It's not the greatest view and I was trying my best to hold Calvin while also taking this footage. I just thought of my Sharp nephews and thought they might like to see it. One guy did a complete flip on his bike which was really cool, but unfortunately I didn't get that on film.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Adventures in Seattle
We had a great time in Seattle this past weekend! Here are some pictures from our trip. This is Calvin and I on the shuttle at the San Jose airport. It is Calvin's first bus ride!
Here Calvin is on the plane. He fell asleep about 10 minutes before we took off and woke up after we arrived at the Baggage Claim area in Seattle. We couldn't ask for a better baby! :0)
Thursday night we went to a BBQ at Richard Wolf's home (Trevor's manager's manager's manager) in Seattle. Here was the view from his front patio. Wouldn't it be amazing to have that kind of view from your home?
Calvin liked his baby carrier pretty well as long as he wasn't tired. He had a hard time falling asleep in the carrier.
On Friday we went to an outdoor mall in Redmond. For dinner we went to a Greek Restaurant. Basically it was thinly sliced beef, rice, and salad with a yogurt sauce. It tasted like the sauce was just plain yogurt and dill, but it was actually really good!
Here is a view of the mall. Notice there weren't many people around. I was surprised how few people there were considering it was a Friday night.
After we went to the mall we drove around and found a park with a lake. It was really peaceful there.
Calvin did a good job sleeping that day!
On Saturday morning we went to this really great diner called Village Square Cafe. It seemed like one of those "best kept secret" places. They had these really good oat bran pancakes with maple syrup.
Later that day we went to the company picnic. I had forgotten how green Washington is!
Calvin liked to suck on his baby carrier.
Trevor liked to suck on it as well.
On Sunday we decided to visit our old church building that we attended last summer. It was nice to see everyone again! We really enjoyed being in that ward. Then we went to a park nearby and just rested.
Here is a view of the lake from the park we were at.
We also went to a rose garden by the Seattle Zoo. This is the third rose garden we have been to. There was a wedding being held there so we didn't stay too long.
There were these really interesting bushes that we thought looked like "pull aparts."
And some that looked like ice cream cones.
The lake was packed on Sunday with boaters out for a Sunday swim.
There is also a cool floating bridge that connects Seattle and Redmond. It was fun to drive across (when there wasn't a lot of traffic).
Monday was my birthday! In the evening we went to downtown Seattle to celebrate. It was fun walking down Pike Place Market and remembering everything we did last summer. We also remembered how hard it is to drive downtown. Seattle was NOT built to have a lot of drivers. We went to Red Robin for dinner on the pier.
So that is just a brief overview of what we did. We had lots of fun and enjoyed seeing different parts of the Seattle area that we didn't have a chance to explore last summer. We also went to the Bite of Seattle, Bellevue Square Mall, Marymoore Park, Microsoft's campus, and other things I can't think of right now. For the most part Calvin was an excellent baby. Everyone who saw him thought he was adorable and he is starting to smile more and more. He is sleeping through the night now (except the night before my birthday he was up every single hour...). He goes to bed around 10 pm and wakes up at 5 am. He eats and then usually sleeps between one to three more hours.
We're so grateful that we're able to do so many fun things this summer!
Here Calvin is on the plane. He fell asleep about 10 minutes before we took off and woke up after we arrived at the Baggage Claim area in Seattle. We couldn't ask for a better baby! :0)
Thursday night we went to a BBQ at Richard Wolf's home (Trevor's manager's manager's manager) in Seattle. Here was the view from his front patio. Wouldn't it be amazing to have that kind of view from your home?
Calvin liked his baby carrier pretty well as long as he wasn't tired. He had a hard time falling asleep in the carrier.
On Friday we went to an outdoor mall in Redmond. For dinner we went to a Greek Restaurant. Basically it was thinly sliced beef, rice, and salad with a yogurt sauce. It tasted like the sauce was just plain yogurt and dill, but it was actually really good!
Here is a view of the mall. Notice there weren't many people around. I was surprised how few people there were considering it was a Friday night.
After we went to the mall we drove around and found a park with a lake. It was really peaceful there.
Calvin did a good job sleeping that day!
On Saturday morning we went to this really great diner called Village Square Cafe. It seemed like one of those "best kept secret" places. They had these really good oat bran pancakes with maple syrup.
Later that day we went to the company picnic. I had forgotten how green Washington is!
Calvin liked to suck on his baby carrier.
Trevor liked to suck on it as well.
On Sunday we decided to visit our old church building that we attended last summer. It was nice to see everyone again! We really enjoyed being in that ward. Then we went to a park nearby and just rested.
Here is a view of the lake from the park we were at.
We also went to a rose garden by the Seattle Zoo. This is the third rose garden we have been to. There was a wedding being held there so we didn't stay too long.
There were these really interesting bushes that we thought looked like "pull aparts."
And some that looked like ice cream cones.
The lake was packed on Sunday with boaters out for a Sunday swim.
There is also a cool floating bridge that connects Seattle and Redmond. It was fun to drive across (when there wasn't a lot of traffic).
Monday was my birthday! In the evening we went to downtown Seattle to celebrate. It was fun walking down Pike Place Market and remembering everything we did last summer. We also remembered how hard it is to drive downtown. Seattle was NOT built to have a lot of drivers. We went to Red Robin for dinner on the pier.
So that is just a brief overview of what we did. We had lots of fun and enjoyed seeing different parts of the Seattle area that we didn't have a chance to explore last summer. We also went to the Bite of Seattle, Bellevue Square Mall, Marymoore Park, Microsoft's campus, and other things I can't think of right now. For the most part Calvin was an excellent baby. Everyone who saw him thought he was adorable and he is starting to smile more and more. He is sleeping through the night now (except the night before my birthday he was up every single hour...). He goes to bed around 10 pm and wakes up at 5 am. He eats and then usually sleeps between one to three more hours.
We're so grateful that we're able to do so many fun things this summer!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
New adventures coming soon in Redmond/Seattle WA!
Our family is leaving tomorrow for Redmond/Seattle! Trevor's work is flying him out to be in Redmond for fun (to Microsoft's headquarters) and we decided to fly Calvin and I out as well so we can have a fun family outing (especially since we will be there on my birthday!). Every year Microsoft used to have a huge party for all the interns at Bill Gates' home, but now that Bill Gates is no longer the CEO they just have fun activities for the interns all weekend long. I'm invited to most of them, but we will do other fun things as well while we are there. One activity includes the company picnic which is similar to the one we went to last year for Amazon. It's at the same location with the same caterers I believe. We are really looking forward to all the good food! We are really excited to have this opportunity to go to Seattle again!
I'm a little apprehensive about the plane ride, but I think Calvin will be fine. We aren't bringing our stroller in order to reduce our luggage. We bought a nifty baby carrier instead so hopefully Calvin will love riding in it! So far he hasn't complained at all when I put him in it.
Well, Calvin is waking up so I need to feed him now and then start packing! We will be sure to post pictures once we get back!
I'm a little apprehensive about the plane ride, but I think Calvin will be fine. We aren't bringing our stroller in order to reduce our luggage. We bought a nifty baby carrier instead so hopefully Calvin will love riding in it! So far he hasn't complained at all when I put him in it.
Well, Calvin is waking up so I need to feed him now and then start packing! We will be sure to post pictures once we get back!
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