RECENT ADVENTURES

I wanted to share a few photos from our California vacation. We had a truly great family trip and it was just what we needed after the past few unpredictable and difficult months. There’s nothing like long hours on the road, especially if that road is the Pacific Coast Highway, to reset your spirit. The girls did amazingly well in the car, and adapted pretty well to all the various settings and towns we stopped in; we were pretty much on the move the entire time. This trip made me want to get out the map (and our passports) the moment we got home and start planning our next adventure.

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We arrived home to full on summer. The girls and I have kept the adventures going. We’ve been cherry and blueberry picking several days in a row with friends…

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We spent a long day up at Lost Lake…

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…and a few nights camping on the coast with my friend Kate and her son. It’s felt great to keep on the move, planning adventures, getting out of the house as much as possible. Adventuring with kids isn’t alway perfect or easy but it is so much fun, and it’s great for me to get out of my comfort zone and attempt to embrace chaos a bit; something I am working on these days.

We also somewhat randomly ended up cooking a huge Thanksgiving dinner for our best friends/next door neighbors. Long story short I pulled a frozen turkey from the chest freezer while looking for something to grill and forgot about it on a 90 degree day for 2 hours. By the time I remembered I couldn’t put it back in the freezer so we decided to embrace it and do it all out. I made a Brined and Roasted Turkey, Sourdough Stuffing, twice-baked roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a big salad, gravy, and Cherry Cobbler (following my Apple Cobbler recipe).

Other than Thanksgiving leftovers, we have mostly been making simple salads. Lulu loves to help me cook lately. She’s actually very patient and a good listener in the kitchen. Her favorite job is to shake up the salad dressing in a small jar. I also made a simple, delicious quinoa salad that I took with us up to Lost Lake that I’ll share with you really soon. Aside from small things like Garlic Bread and simple quiches (which can be made early in the day and eaten cool for dinner with a salad), we have been avoiding the oven… especially since our AC broke. I’ll also share my quiche recipe with you soon!

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