BBQ (and s'mores!)

Hannah planted a bunch of flowers a few weeks ago.

I think we've got the best garden in the whole complex.

We were worried about rain, but Saturday turned out to be very nice. We had bachelor Brett over for a BBQ, frisbee, and s'mores (Brett's wife and kid are away visiting family). Here you can see Brett attempting to roast some fresh mango. It was great raw and roasted.

28 weeks!

We splurged on a $20 grill from Walmart; we're happy with it so far.

I was glad to have Brett along: he's a BBQ expert. I think we probably would have had raw meat if he weren't there to help me realize how many briquettes we needed.

This is the replacement for the bush we planted last year. The old bush was growing great until it got mowed over. We were ticked. Thanks, Hannah, for finding a good replacement.

So Hannah called this her "low-carb s'more" (notice it only has one graham cracker).

Sodus Point

We decided to take a short Spring Break and headed to Sodus Point a few weeks ago. We wanted to see the lighthouse, do some shopping, and maybe sit on the beach awhile. It seemed like a good get-away location. Turns out, like most of our Spring Breaks, it was too early in the season for many things to be open or for the weather to cooperate. It was freezing.



We had dinner late and had to wait about an hour for it. So it was bed time when we were eating dinner, and the food was not exactly fat free. Needless to say, the pregnant lady didn't get much sleep that night and thus neither did her husband. We had fun plans the next day but both of us were tired and felt yukky. We came home early and took naps. After getting some sleep in our own bed we headed to the movies and saw Shirlock Holmes (which was great).



We did make it to the lighthouse and the farm. On the pier there was ice forming on everything that stuck out. These were a few weeds that had tried to grow in the cracks.




This is the view from the back yard of the B&B , beautiful. We are up on a cliff about 50 feet from the water level.

In the morning we went to a little adoption farm and fed and pet some of the animals. Animals are cool as long as they are on someone else's property.

Again on the pier, the ice just formed onto this, (we assume it's just a pile of dirt or shoveled snow) it was pretty cool to see.

Here's the long pier with the lighthouse at the end. We walked the whole thing. What you can't see is that the wind was blowing out on the pier and it was even more freezing than on the beach.

So, I guess this trip reminded us how much we like our own bed and how important our own routines are, like dinner at 6, and to bed at 9. Instead of dinner at 9 and to bed at 11. I guess we really are getting old and boring (or maybe it's just being pregnant).

Lotus Birth

I came across this phrase today in my reading and looked it up on Wikipedia naturally. If you don't want to read about it, it is where you leave the placenta attached to the baby until it falls off naturally in 2-3 days. I can't decide why I am so fascinated by it. I have realized that I am fascinated by a lot of birth things lately and not just because I am having a baby. Did you know that chimps carry around the newborn and the placenta until it falls off naturally? Neither did I. There is so much that I don't know or have never even thought about before, and that is becoming very apparent as I research birth. Why do we cut the cord? Is there a medical reason anyone knows of? Is it just because it's hard to fit a baby and a placenta in a car seat? Is it because it's not as cute as the baby? Anyway, mostly I am just mad that I thought there was only one option and here I am learning that there are many, something that has happened a lot over the last few months. What do you think?

Look Who's 4 Months Old

OK, not really, but kind of. Affectionatly known as The Guacamolito*, baby Hyatt has been popping out like the crocuses in the grass. We are very excited for Guaco's arrival around Sep 5th!
Thought you all would find these pics amusing. I find the pink sweater one quite funny actually. I still wear it all the time, just not buttoned.

You can tell it's Spring here by all the puddles! The lawn just turns into a lake for a few weeks till the group completely thaws out. (It's actually a huge pain cause we walk on the lawn a lot to get to and from our car.)

Happy Spring Everyone!!

* Name comes from this favotite SNL skit, sure to make you laugh!

Hammock Attack!

So as you may have seen from our Adirondacks trip, Hannah got us a pretty sweet hammock. I've always wanted to use it more than just while camping, so I started looking for a hammock stand. The Springs generously let us borrow theirs:

Hannah's favorite trick is to eat and rock.

We don't have pictures of me getting into the hammock because they're too embarassing. Hannah somehow gets in and out with much more grace.

I'm learning that the book in the way of the face is code for "no more pictures, please."

Notice we've perfected Hannah's cocoon.

Brad turns...

and Hannah and Brad both work on their cake decorating skills.

This is as far as we got until we just wanted to eat it.



I wanted to practice some decorating so I put half the cake in the freezer for decorating later and we both played around with this one for fun.

The Bosch

So for my birthday Brad picked up this Bosch mixer for me. It looked about 100 years old when I first saw it but with a little elbow grease and a dish washer it looks only 30 years old now. But it works great. It is just like the one I grew up with; a little bit of home in this far away country. Bonus: it came with a bushel of attachments that I had never seen before.


So, I decided to try them out. We have been getting onions every week in our CSA bag. That's great, but we use them really slowly and I have a serious problems with onions, the kill my eyes. So I like to cut a bunch up at once (or make Brad do it) and freeze them for later use. Here's what I did today.

onions- I had to peel, chop off ends and cut into quarters if large, but that's it


Knife blade on the Bosch, the lid has a chimney and a stuffer thing (you can see it in the above picture)


and a whole bowl of cut onions !


All bagged up and headed to the freezer.


This thing worked like a charm. I did shed a few tears but it was doable. Plus, I have onions in the freezer for the next year! They work great on anything you are cooking, soups, pizza, stir-fry, vegetable stock, pot roast, eggs...

There are also shredder attachments that I want to try, like for zucchini/carrots/cheese etc. I also am pretty sure the blender is way better than the one we bought at Target. I will try that out and let you know.
The other bonus, everything goes in the dish washer on air dry and your done!
Happy Happy Birthday indeed!

Catch up

My mom made this adorable baby sweater to match the blanket that I am making. She finished it in about 6 days, while the blanket will probably take me several months. Isn't it lovely? Soft and white.



This is the part of the blanket that I have done, it has a star pattern throughout and is actually pretty complicated; that why it's taking me a long time.



In other news, we have wanted a dish washer for a while but just couldn't decide what to get and if it was worth it/would fit/would even work. But, our friends bought one and then we got really jealous and had to have one for ourselves. It's like we're some rich couple in a ritzy apartment now, us and our dishwasher. It already has stuff piled on it; frankly our kitchen is just small.



And now our dish rack is so lonely and empty all the time, I should put some flowers in it or something.

It may be small but it's always open

That's my new slogan for Hotel Rochester. I really had a blast with Mom and Evey here to visit. I got to make delicious foods, stay up late watching Heroes, go shopping with sister and mother with similar tastes and body types, visit all the fun places around Rochester and forget all my regular schedules and activities. Sound good to anyone else? We would love to have anyone come who wants to.

Here are some highlights from the trip.

Erie Canal Trail

Easy Apple Cake (actually not so easy, but yummy)

live chickens at the Public Market



lots of flowers at the market

and two words, funnel cakes, Mom didn't know that she was taking a video and neither did we! but it sure was funny to watch us get ready to take a picture.

Looking at fall colors in the Sacred Grove


Looking up at the Palmyra Temple


Fall colors at "Thundering Waters" or Niagara


Moroni Monument atop Hill Cumorah, we took the dirt-path less traveled and it was special and unique



This little guy was visiting Niagara(well he probably lived there) and we almost stepped on him




Thanks for the fun visit and come again soon!

Oh Fall

I can't believe it. I was walking yesterday and heard the crunch of dried leaves under my feet. I wore a sweatshirt to go running in yesterday morning. We have already closed the windows at night and I am thinking about putting an extra blanket on the bed. What is this? It can't be fall already cause we never even had summer.

Granted, fall is a really beautiful time here. But, all I can think about is winter and COLD. So, for the record, I am not happy that it is cooling off. I would love to send a few more months at the pool, or going out in my flip flops, or eating ice cream in the sunshine. Maybe I should get myself a new coat to help ease the transition, what do you think?

In other news we want to have one more fling outdoors. Anyone want to join us? It means getting all our camping gear dirty and we probably have to bring extra jackets and blankets but it will be worth it.

Also, I made a tasty rhubarb crumble from grandma Hyatt's recipe except I added strawberries from grandma Carter's recipe and I think it turned out great. I hope our kids will be as good a blend as the crumble was. Thanks Grandmas!