cali trip 2011

cali trip 2011–day 6

no, it’s not a milkshake, just a cup of water. but cute, none-the-less!

daddy, paying bills in his awesome hair with layla in her awesome hair!

no trip to EG would be complete without a trip to feickert park: shane, riding laps around the playground. he insisted on bringing his bike on the trip. this was the ONE time he rode it…layla climbed up the ladder to do the tallest slide in the park, but quickly turned and booked it back down because there was a SPIDER on the slide! eek! selfie at the park. I call this one “kids on posts”.

back at home, the kids went swimming, and dave and I went on a lunch date to paesano’s. I had this yummy margarita and an even yummier salad! dave had a calzone that he ordered without onions. when the waitress came by and saw him painstakingly picking onions out of it, she offered to have a new one made, which he declined, and she said she’d have it taken off the bill. well, when we got the bill, not only was dave’s whole order not on there, but my drink had been comped! new favorite restaurant!!!

meanwhile the kids were in the pool: all week, I’d been trying to convince layla to jump off the top of the waterfall, but she wouldn’t do it. I even offered her $5 if she’d try it, but she said she was too scared. I guess she finally did it wednesday night, after they got back from the bay, when they were swimming with gramma and papa. so she was super happy to demonstrate it for me! all 3 jumping off!

later that afternoon, amy, adam, and finnigan stopped by, along with sue and darrel, jordan and sophia. they all did some swimming too. sophia can fly!!! micah and finn checking each other out. and… gotta love how the big boys play in the pool. this went on for a long time.

the day ended with shane AND layla both going home with jordan and sophia for a sleepover. LAYLA’S FIRST!!!! so exciting!

Comments

dear to do list,

i hate you. actually, i loathe your existence to my very soul. and i refuse to have anything further to do with you. you can consider our relationship OVER. please do not try to contact me, as i will be unavailable. do not stalk me. do not try to make me feel guilty for abandoning you. YOU SUCK! sincerely, rachel

christmas day at barb & paul’s

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the zoo

yesterday, the last day of spring break (well, weekday, at least) and shane had had enough of not doing anything expensive interesting. so we packed a lunch and went to the zoo. it was a little cold and rainy when we left, but by the time we got there, the rain had stopped and it turned out to be relatively warmish. layla was determined to see some fish. i guess we should have gone to the aquarium, but we did manage to find her a few fish. i think her favorite was the super huge reticulated python that actually moved while we were watching. well, the top 3 feet or so of it moved. the remaining 5 or 6 feet of it stayed coiled up where it was. we probably spent the bulk of our time in the “zoomazium” which is a fabulous indoor playground type area. there’s a huge tree that layla and shane spent time doing laps through. you climb up the inside (think mcdonalds playland climbing structure) and then slide down a big twisty slide. there wa...

white wine marinated pork chops recipe

this recipe comes from the weber’s REAL GRILLING cookbook and is my family’s recent favorite way to have pork chops. shane thinks these are the best food he’s ever eaten, and will generally eat 2! i think layla asked for seconds as well, and micah pretended they weren’t on his plate… which is typical. we’ve made them on the grill, or broiling in the oven, and both are equally good. 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh thyme (I have used dried as well, and it works fine) 1 tbsp minced garlic (think I used a clove, maybe two) 2 tsp kosher salt (this was a little much. I think the second time I made them I reduced it to 1.5 tsp.) 1 tsp freshly ground pepper pork chops (4 or 5) whisk ingredients together in a bowl. place pork chops in a large ziplock and pour in marinade. seal and turn several times. refrigerate for 2 hours, turning once or twice. allow chops to stand at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before gril...

the saga of layla's ankle

on Monday morning, layla got out of bed and complained about her ankle hurting. I looked at it, and not seeing anything or figuring how she could have injured it in her sleep, I dismissed it. she didn’t complain about it the rest of that day, even through walking to a friend’s house for a playdate, playing all afternoon, and walking home again. that evening, during dinner, she started complaining again. I thought she was being dramatic and trying to get shane in trouble, because the two of them had been horsing around. when she didn’t want to finish her dinner and crawled down the hall to get her jammies on, I went to look at it. lo and behold, it was crazy swollen! the first picture is the bad ankle, the second is the good ankle, just for comparison… so we put some ice on it and chilled out for awhile. I wrapped it in an ace bandage and put her to bed. she did not sleep. she whined and whimpered and moaned and cried. dave got her up and had a look. we put some more ice on it. we dis...

rachel's continued ramblings

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