An Island Adventure

John and Kevin climbed up Mt. Whitney two weeks ago. With Brent in Europe, that left me and Natalie with a day to ourselves - no boys. While I was searching around for something for us to do I ran into the Aquarium of the Pacific online. I thought, "that would be fun", but I didn't want to go so far away with just Natalie I wanted to go with the "whole" family and since it is the launching off place to Catalina Island I planned a whole trip around it. We left on Tuesday night, met John in Woodland Hills (he was on travel) left early on Wednesday morning for Long Beach. Our goal was to arrive at the aquarium when it opened, tour it, then head off to Catalina for four days. And that we did. We arrived on Catalina early enough to set up our campsite then go back to town for dinner. It's about one mile to town. We didn't pack any food; just sleeping bags and tents and of course toiletries and clothes. There were showers at the campground so we were all set. We stayed three nights. Every morning we left the campsite and didn't return until after nightfall. We saw all kinds of wildlife on those walks; deer, woodpeckers, quail, and squirrel. The walks back were very relaxing; a nice way to reflect on the day and have intimate family time. So, needless to say, Natalie and I did not go to the aquarium that non-boy day. That day, Natalie and I went to Lancaster to see the newest Jackie Chan movie then to Palmdale for lunch and back-to-school backback shopping. I don't have any pictures from that day.

Here are some choice pictures out of about 300 from our "non-boy day" inspired family vacation. Oh, by the way, Brent is safely home from his European vacation. I have yet to take an after picture, but I will and I'll post it too. He does look different.

The Aquarium of the Pacific

Here's Natalie taking in her favorite of all the sea animals, the sea lion.

John touching a sea ray.

Kevin touching a sea ray too.

An adult sea ray with a leopard pattern. Cool and weird.

Seahorses.
Did you know male seahorses have a front pouch they use to carry around fertilized seahorse eggs and when they hatch the male is the one to tend to the hatchlings while the female seahorse has simply left her eggs and gone off somewhere?

Family photo.

Catalina

Getting there; a picture of "the boat".

On the boat.

On the boat too.

In Case You Were Wondering . . .

This is what the inside of my refrigerator looks like right now.

Any questions?

Pink Flamigoes

This morning John and I woke up to find plastic pink flamingoes covering the front lawn.

It's a fund raiser for the local girls soccer team for tournaments and what not throughout the year. They were "sent" to our house by some friends who knew we would be generous enough to donate money to their cause. $5 to have the girls remove the birds and $20 to have them "sent" to someone elses front lawn. As far as I know they are still outside. We called one of the team members at lunch to have her come and get them, but they have not shown up. School starts tomorrow, maybe they are too busy getting ready for that. Hmmm . . . am I the new proud owner of twenty some plastic pink flamingoes.

Great idea for a fund raiser. Hint hint Robin.

Here's a Better One

of them dressed like vegetables.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I promise.

"Here's a Blondie For Your Trouble." ~ Nancy Drew

Seriously. Have one.

Toby Mac

Toby Mac played at the Anaheim Angels Stadium last Sunday with the Harverst Crusade. I was excited about seeing him live, but was less than enthusiastic about the venue.
I'm glad we went but . . . yeah.

Here is a picture of him from the big screen after he took off his beautiful white blazer.

Oh, another treat from the concert was seeing Dennis Agajanian.


Here he is playing guitar.

The one below is a video of Toby's fancy footwork.

One More Thing About That

The Ditty Bops concert we went to a couple weeks ago was the first performance of their Farm Tour. To honor the farmers they dressed up like vegetables! Amanada was dressed as a carrot

and Abby was dressed as an artichoke. Here she is holding a vegan cupcake singing up a dream.

Awesome!

Third Stop

After the museum we went to another favorite dining spot for lunch. Can you guess where?

After the satisfying fare it was home again, home again.

Next stop . . . TobyMac.

The Nex Day

The plan was to see The Ditty Bops, stay over night and in the morning eat at our new favorite breakfast place in the city, Du Par's. After breakfast no one was quite ready to go home so we visited the nearby Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I'm so glad we did. I was introduced to Dan Flavin, an artist of fluorescent tube art. I was so excited by the exhibit I wanted to walk through again and again. What a nice surprise.

Here are some examples of his work.

Isn't it so pretty?

So . . . The Ditty Bops

I first heard The Ditty Bops on XM radio last Fall. A song called Fish to Fry caught my ear. I have since discovered more of their songs to Love. They are two very creative and talented girls with a mission to inspire and entertain. Check them out at the link above or here.

While poking around the internet to learn what I could about them I realized I could see them live. And see them live I did at the lovely Henry Fonda Music Box Theatre in Hollywood. I arranged an overnight trip for the whole family; John, Kevin, Natalie and Me. We stayed the the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in North Hollywood and ventured to the venue via the Metro. Fun! John admits to coming to the show with me out of humor, but was pleasantly surprised by their flawlass musical engineering.

We'll see them again when we can.

Bye Brent ~ Have Fun in Europe

Here is a picture of the family the morning before Brent left for Europe. He left on Sunday the 29th of July. He will be gone for three weeks! He returns the day before school starts, August 20th. In this picture (Saturday morning) he is ready to leave for work and we are just preparing ourselves for an overnight trip to L. A. to see The Ditty Bops live!

Free Groceries?

Weird.

Today I went grocery shopping early for a Saturday. 8am. As I was completing my order the bagging clerk gifted me with a bag of groceries! I have a whole new appreciatiation for grocery shopping, which I'm sure was their intent. Of course I thought the grocery bag was going to be filled with stuff I could not use but, look at this . . .

Stuff I can use . . .

paper towels,

rice vinegar,

spaghetti sauce,

shampoo,

4 spice packets (1 for making turkey gravy),

refried beans,

enchilada sauce,

band aids,

markers,

hair gel,

tuna,

diced green chiles,

Hawaiian bread,

cheese sauce,

hot sauce,

cheese and peanut butter crackers,

cough drops,

2 toothbrushes,

fajita tortillas,

and I that's it.

Thanks Stater Bros.!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Wish I was there shopping with you.

Happy Birthday Teresa!

Sunday I was surprised by a phone call from Linda. We made dinner plans for Monday. The deal was they would bring all the food and all we had to do was barbeque it, eat and take them swimming. And they did. They brought all the food including the cake. It was fun seeing everyone. Thanks for coming over.

Water Skiing with Brent Teeter

The weekend after our birthday and baby meeting trip was spent water skiing with Brent Teeter on Lake Meade. Thanks Brent!

Check out the video of Kevin skiing.



and here is one of John.



We all had fun skiing (I got up for about 3 seconds), trying to ski, swimming in our own personal lagoon and just driving around the lake in the boat.

Nathaniel Scott Boberg

Born June 20, 2007

Continuing from June Lake . . .

John and I drove up to Fremont the Sunday after his birthday to meet our new nephew Nathaniel. Check out Michelle's blog for some pictures. Nathan was so anxious to meet us he didn't sleep all day. We had a nice dinner together, a peaceful night and a gloriours walk around Fremont Park in the morning. David's first day back at work was that Monday, so he missed out on the walk in the park, but he did get to treat his co-workers to a Hershey's chocolate bar announcing Nathaniel's arrival.

Looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Seven Seven Seven

John turned 43 (4+3=7) on July 7, 2007.

For his birthday he planned a hiking trip for us in the June Lake area. So, Friday after work we headed up to Mammoth, checked into our room then went out for a nice dinner at Whiskey Creek. Saturday morning after breakfast we made it over to June Lake for a nice "flat" hike. Not. The trail was not flat! And it was bloody hot! I hate hiking. I didn't give up though even when John said "Let's turn around", many times. Happy Birthday John, I Love You. It was beautiful at the "top" and half way up to the "top" was beautiful too.

We didn't make it as far as we intended, not because I was complaining, but because we ran out of water. So, June Lake hiking is beautiful. I will do it again even if I do hate hiking. After a brief landing at Schat's in June Lake for lunch

we visited the Double Eagle Resort in June Lake for spa treatments and relaxation (a Christmas gift from Mom Bullard, thanks Mom!). After a nice relaxing evening at the spa we drove back to Mammoth, had dinner at the Chart House then went back to our room. The next leg of this particular adventure was driving to Fremont on Sunday to see our new nephew Nathaniel Scott Boberg born June 20, 2007 and gift him with a baby quilt I made. The first one ever!

My Newest Favorite Drink

I've been wanting to try one of these for a couple weeks, but have had not looked very hard. The one store I did look in did not carry them. The timing was right to purchase one on the way to David's this weekend. As you can see it's vitaminwater with natural fruit flavoring. The first one I had was passionfruit. It was so good. It's sweet, but not sweet like soda. According to the label they are sweetened with crystalized fructose. Their labels are quippy too; fun to read. I like that. The second flavor I tried was guava and the third was grape. So far my favorite is passionfruit. They come in fifteen different flavors and vitamin mixtures. The one on the left in the photo is flavored with dragonfruit and according to the label has very much vitamin C, the one in the middle is called tropical citrus for energy and the one on the right is fruit punch fortified for revival. I want to try them all, but they seem hard to find and when I do find them that particular store does not carry all the flavors. So, I may be at it for awhile. To check out all the flavors (maybe you'll want to try them too) I've included a Glaceau, the producer of this drink. I think I'll try tropical citrus tomorrow for energy.

Let me know if you try it.

Ta Da!

French Toast Casserole
Photo as promised.

I made this casserole again when George and Jane were here visiting last weekend. That was Saturday morning.

Friday afternoon when they arrived we all headed straight to the pool and swam around cooling off. Friday night we sat down to a yummy dinner of grilled salmon and salad topped off with blondies and vanilla ice cream. During the preparation of dinner Jane sat down and treated us to some piano music. After dinner we took a short walk though the park.

After the casserole on Saturday we visited the Naval Armament Museum to see the product of the project John works. Then off the the theatre to se Ratatouille. I think the movie inspired John and George. They came straight home a began to make bread. John has been dreaming of recreating the bread his grandmother and dad used to make when he was younger. John was able to do that with the new bread machine he aquired for his birthday. Happy Birthday John! While "the boys" were creating their favorite treat Jane and I and Natalie and Kevin made sandwichesto take to Lake Isabella where we watched an early fireworks show. Happy Birthday Kevin!

Sunday morning we enjoyed homemade bread with butter and jam for breakfast served with grapefruit halves. Off to church we went followed by lunch at Cafe Potpourri. The afternoon took us back to the pool to cool off, naps, then pork tenderloin for dinner. After dinner we celebrated the birthdays of John and Kevin with Baskin Robbins cake and presents. More flashlights have been added to our collection. One solar powered and one that floats while sending out a life saving red flashing beam. Heather even popped in for a visit. Jane was able to capture a picture of the four kids all together.

Monday morning John and I were back at work, but Grandma and Grandpa came over in the morning to pick up the kids for a McDonald's breakfast.

Thanks for the visit Jane and George!

Come back soon.

Maybe when it's not so hot . . .

My First Favorite Song Ever

TobyMac Rocks!

Until recently I've never been one to have a favorite anything, but at nearly forty years old I finally have a favorite song! The most exciting part of the song is the first few seconds at the deep base "boom boom" part.

Happy Father's Day Everybody!

If it weren't for fathers none of us would be here today.
Treat Him to . . .

Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt
Praline Topping, recipe follows
Maple syrup

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. (I cut mine into cubes instead). (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup. (I melted the topping before topping and didn't serve it with maple syrup. It's plenty sweet already).

Praline Topping:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 8 hours
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Episode#: PA1B23
Copyright © 2006 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved


I treated John and the kids to this this morning along with a fruit salad of kiwi, bananas and strawberries.

Sorry I don't have a picture.

Next time . . .

Big Pink Pillow

I made my first purchase with my birthday money today. Behold my new pink pillow.

Natalie Learns to Sew

Natalie took a quilting class last week. Pictured is her at the sewing machine and her with the project she finished at home today. There is a video too of her working on it.

Doughnut Anyone?

Last night I watched a bit of FoodTV. Alton Brown made doughnuts. True to form, I then wanted a doughnut dunked in hot coffee because that's what he did; so this morning John, Brent and I walked to Crest Donuts for fried cake batter.

Ginger followed us as far as the park, waited for us and met us on our way home.

Hi Ginger.

All in One Day

We, John, Kevin, Natalie, and I, left the house this morning by 7:30am to make it to Dupar's in the Los Angeles Farmer's Market for breakfast. We had french toast, pancakes, bacon, a mushroom omelet and coffee. Very good. So good, John said, "We should come back here some time". Yea! From there we went to my newly revisited favorite store, Surfas. They sell all things gourmet and everything kitchen. Since I was there last, which was a couple of years ago, they've moved into a new bigger space. Now they sell even more cool stuff! Below is a picture of their walkway entering the store. See that? There are kitchen gadgets imprinted right in the concrete! How cool is that! I'm still reeling . . .



If you're wondering, I only bought three little things and spent only $10. Two clear plastic tongs (one large, one small) for serving salad at potlucks and a flat whisk came home with me today.



After all that, we went to the beach. Santa Monica Beach. It was a little on the cold side so we didn't go in the water, but we did soak up some sun rays and collect shells. Then we visted the pier, where the picture above was taken. From there we made the trek to 3rd Street Promenade for some Johnnie's pizza. After dinner we purused the shops a bit before stopping into Coffee Bean and Tree Leaf for some coffee and hot chocolate. From there we headed back to Ridgecrest. And here we are, home again, home again . . .

Our Latest Adventure - Memorial Day Weekend

Here John and I are ready to backpack overnight. Our plan was to hike through Cottonwood Lakes, but like Mt. Whitney you now need a reservation to hike there. We did not know that and as of Saturday morning we did not have a reservation, so we went with plan B; we hiked through Casa Vieja just past the Black Rock Ranger Station in Kennedy Meadows. This was my first overnight backpacking trip ever.

Here is a photo of the inviting unassuming trail head.

Here is the destination spot. Just between the sandy area and the area covered with trees is a nice little creek with a hot spot.

Here I am on day two in a meadow still two miles from the car.

Overall the trip was good. I would do it again. I guess. The nightime was not too cold for sleeping. The hike was a little grueling, especially on the way back (it was all uphill) but not unbearable. Unlike Cottonwood Lakes, Casa Vieja is at the elevation level where you can still breath normally while hiking. June 9th we're planning to hike in the June Lakes area.

Bizcochitos

My mom used to make these many years ago. She says she got the recipe from either Gourmet or New Mexico magazine.

Bizcochitos
From New Mexico, also called: Galletas, Biscochitos, Biscochos

Cream:
1 cup lard (or half lard, half butter)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg - lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp anise seed - crushed to release more flavor

In a separate bowl, stir:
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

Mix:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture, add water until smooth.
Refrigerate.
Roll pieces of dough 1/8 inch thick on floured surface, cut into shapes.
Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture.
Bake at 350 for 12 - 15 minutes until they are golden.
Transfer to racks to cool, store in airtight container for 5 days before serving (if you can, I suppose it allows the flavors to meld, but I eat them right away).

Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

I finally finished the bag I was going to make for you at Christmastime. The fabric is greener in person. It's inspired by the green rolling hills of Tennessee and of course your poodles. I hope like it.

I Love You.

Disneyland with Kevin and John

Here is a picture of Kevin and me standing in line of the "new" Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago. Kevin went with his school band to learn about quick site reading. John and I went to support Kevin. The group had a short lesson then played some Disney movie theme music. The Disney team then dubbed the recorded into animated film clips. They played some music from Peter Pan, Aladin, and some other one. We saw the clips at the school last week at a recital performance. It was the first time we saw the result of their Disney session. It was very cute.