Great Weather

The weather has been nice lately (especially today!) so we've been out and about a little bit.  And Claire has been super cute...like usual.  She is finally playing on her own a little more without needing me to start (and continue) her play. One of the things she loves is her pom poms and easter eggs.  She is LOVING having her daddy home every night.  There is nothing like chillin on the couch with him and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Aren't they cute?!  And the blanket on the head thing is all Claire.  When we're driving and it's bright, she puts the blanket on her head...and falls asleep. I'm sure it looks great to the other drivers.

And one of my favorite things this stage is the way she says things and puts things together. It's fun to hear her talk (especially when it's to her toys).  Lately, these are some favorite snacks and she says them so cute that when she asks for them, I say sure.  I'll be sad when she says them right.

 

 Claire likes laundry day, she gets to "help" me sort and then play with the laundry baskets.  On Monday, she wanted to sit in the laundry baskets and have them "closed".  She sat in there for a while reading her "Panklin" (Franklin) book.

We love park days! Claire loves when there are other kids there that she knows (and are her size).  She climbs on everything and can climb and go down slides over and over. We spent a little over 2 hours at the park today and she was only slightly willing to go back home. Because of her love of playing outside forever, she takes a good nap on Wednesdays.

Saturday we went to the wharf to get a caramel apple and because Claire wanted to see the sea lions.

Now this is just sad.  I went to get some zucchini for a recipe and I was expecting what we normally have in Idaho.  I mean even an inexperienced gardener can grow a massive zucchini.  I saw these and I thought, "What? These pass for zucchini?" They are as long as a teaspoon and about as wide.  I was saddened for the sorry people of around here who have never had a normal sized zucchini.

New Recipes

So I signed up for e-meals about a month ago since Totsy had a deal where I got a year subscription for 1/2 off.  It is quite wonderful! I love having the menu planned for me and then the grocery list made as well.  Let me tell you, it pretty much rocks.  Now yes, there are some things I don't really care for, but I want to try most of them.  I've tried some new things (I still don't like fish) and it has been fun.  Plus, in some way, it forces me to actually cook and get out of my rut...especially with side dishes.  Well, I want to share some of the recipes that have been huge hits that even Claire loves.  And really this is just some, we've liked a lot of the recipes.  My additions/changes are in red.

These first three I did a bit of a change.  Instead of doing your regular baked or boiled chicken breasts as called for in the recipes, I bought a rotisserie chicken that was already cooked and seasoned.  It was probably about 5 lbs or so.  And I just split it up amongst the three recipes.  It was so delicious!

Okay, so the changes I made.  As I said, I used a rotisserie chicken. I also used Bisquick dumpling recipe instead of the frozen dumplings (I wasn't so pressed for time that I couldn't mix up the Bisquick and milk, plus, it's something I always have on hand and it's super easy).  I also felt that I wanted veggies in the mix so I added 3 handfuls of baby carrots and chopped them up.  I also added some dried onion.  I would have done fresh, but I didn't have any cause I made the decision while making it.  I would love to give you a measurement here, but I just did it so it looked like it would be good.  The consensus was that this meal was AMAZING! It's totally a keeper and an easy stand-in for a fish recipe on the menu.

These two both had the rotisserie chicken and one other major change: I used bacon instead of artichokes. I'm sure they would have been delicious with artichokes, but I couldn't find any marinated artichoke hearts at Target or the commissary and those are the stores I went to.  But the bacon was a fabulous substitute because it makes everything amazing! Also, where it calls for minced garlic, I used fresh garlic and just guesstimated how many cloves.  I think I did 1 clove per Tablespoon.  Maybe more because we like garlic here.  These were so good.  I was excited for lunch for the leftovers!

 This was I followed pretty much spot on, I did add 1/2 an onion though.  I cut it cup into small pieces and put it over the tomato before the olive oil and vinegar.  I didn't do the Parmesan crisps either.  We just did our trusty grilled cheese cause that sounded more filling.

I followed this recipe spot on.  It was really good! However, next time, I will use a yellow onion because I think the flavor would be better.  We ended up leaving the onions in the pan and not eating them with the chicken because it was too strong.  Also, with the sweet potato and carrot puree, I would boil the carrots for about 10 minutes in the broth, then add the sweet potatoes and bake.  The sweet potatoes were soft before the carrots so it was a bit uneven (but that didn't bother Claire, she would have eaten the entire thing).

So there you go.  My adventures in trying new things and cooking well rounded meals.  We've really enjoyed it and I think it's perfect for Claire's approaching stage of uber pickiness.  Maybe this will keep her from being super picky or at least confirm what she likes (and hopefully it stays good food and not just chicken nuggets...which, she's picky about those anyway).  I hope you enjoy and can try something new yourself.

Hearst Castle

Nathan and I decided to take a drive along the coast and go to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon.  The drive was beautiful! But it was slow and full of turns and hills (next time, pack the dramamine).  It was a fun day! We saw the beauty of the coast the entire way and we stopped to see the Elaphant Seal boardwalk which is really close to the Hearst Castle.  Of course, winter is mating season, so that was fun. Claire loved the castle.  She kept calling it her Castle.  We took a tour of the upstairs suites and then we roamed the grounds outside.  I think next time we may have to pay for all of the tours (okay, maybe next time if we're loaded cause it's $25 per adult per tour, but they do have a 10% discount for additional tours booked for the same day...who knows).  I was shocked and amazed at these rooms! I was tempted to tell you everything about this castle, but you can google it or watch the documentary on Netflix.  But, I do want to tell you that he (William Randolph Hearst) took 14th century CEILINGS from Italy and put them in his home.  WHAT?!! Oh you know. Just the usual.  Doesn't everybody do that for their homes?  Anyway, the grounds are gorgeous and the castle is wonderful.  I want to go back for an evening tour because they have people dressed in period clothing enjoying the castle as if they were there at the time.  It's like a dream come true right?!  Okay, so here are the pictures from our trip.

 

Okay, these things are HUGE! They were making some interesting noises. Claire was intrigued.  I was amazed at how fast they can move on land if they choose to.  They look like these massive lazy lumps that can't move very fast, wrong.  They can haul!

 

The view of the castle from the bottom of the hill.

Arriving at the castle.

 

Looking out a window.

A guest suite.

Part of the library (house over 4000 books).

Ceiling

The Lady of the House's room.

 

The Power Room.  Claire kept saying, "Big Power Room!"

And this is part of Claire's bedroom (She and the tour guide both called dibs). As you can see, the bed sits above, and there is the bathroom and parlor area below.  The space was narrow, so this is how they fit everything in to make a suitable guest suite.

 Celing of Claire's room.

 Stairs from the bottom of Claire's room to get up to her bed.

 Claire's bathroom.

This is the Neptune Pool.  I can see why this pool was so popular amongst guests.

There are fruit trees all over near the home. (The property is ginormous, though! Seriously, google it.)

This is the roman pool or reflection pool.  In my opinion it was a little dark in there so I see why the Neptune pool was more popular.

Our evening was happily ended with a beautiful sunset over the ocean on our way out.

 



How we roll

So, it's been a while and since I don't live near family, I figure I should update especially for the three of you who don't have facebook. :) First off, we're doing well and getting settled in.  Claire already loves to go swimming and we've been to the aquarium twice (believe me, it is amazing we haven't been more).  Anyway, as I was getting pictures to share, I found some gems of when I was still living in Idaho. So, I would like to share those first. 

To start us off, I have some pictures from our trip to Texas. Claire LOVES animals, so the zoo was a huge hit, especially since it had elephant statues to ride.

 She was getting into the spirit of picture taking and would stand on something random and say, "Picture You!" So, of course, I took a picture.

 Now this picture of the cousins is a real gem.  I had others that I could have merged together so everyone was looking and smiling at the camera, but I thought, "Why ruin a great blackmail piece?" It's quite lovely, don't you think?

 And of course, this is just cute.  The littlests and their blankets having their own silent conversation.

And of course, you need to be able to share in the happiness when Nathan came home for Christmas, and the randomness that is our daughter.

 When C saw Nathan, she wanted out of my arms and into his right away!

 She's just silly. Period.

 She loves the feel of her blanket.  This day, she was wanting it on her belly.  Well, when you have one piece jammies, you do what you have to.

On to our travels. We only went through maybe 2 tunnels, but Claire thought they we AMAZING! We go through a tunnel when we pick up Nathan or if we go to the Aquarium, so it gets pretty exciting.

 This was just funny to me.  I know the packers were rushing to pack up my stuff, so it's not completely their fault that they spelled things wrong.  But it was still funny.

As I said, Claire LOVES animals.  So the Aquarium is a great place for her.  We like the Nemo tank, penquins (not pictured), the jellies, and the touch pools the best.  Claire asks almost daily if she can go touch a starfish. I've yet to get her to touch the crab in the touch pools, though.

 Okay, this is just more of her being cute and random.

 This was Claire's fortune from Panda Express (our Valentine's dinner). So true right?

Claire loves to go swimming.  We live near a pool that has a kiddie pool perfect for Claire (1'6"). She loves it and cries every time we leave.

Another joy for Claire is the great weather so we can go to the park multiple times a week (sometimes every day). She loves to swing and has her favorite slides at each park (we have quite a few all around our community). She also loves ladders (it scares me sometimes because she has almost fallen twice!).  I like when she sticks to the little ladders.

Because of Claire's love for parks, we took her to a really fun local park that everyone raves about.  It is really big!  I think she would have enjoyed its entirety if it hadn't been so crowded (that's what you get on a holiday weekend I guess). But, the swings were still a hit.

 

She likes to watch the waves and feel the sand on her toes, but she doesn't like the waves to get her.  When they do, she tells them, "No do again!"

 Here she is loving that the sand has sparkles in it and so it's making her feet sparkle.

 
Oh and this is her penguin family.  I mentioned above that we like the penguins.  Well, the smaller two were presents from Grandma Norby when she joined us at the Aquarium.  The bigger one she already had.  She had to have these with her almost everywhere for at least 2 weeks. She still likes to have at least two of them in bed at night (along with Mario of course).

 

 

 

Yesterday we took a trip down to the Hearst Castle.  I post that seperately so as not to overwhelm one post with all these pictures.  Thanks for joining us on this brief catch up of our lives.  I hope to keep you in the loop with our activities as well as maybe rant/ramble since I don't have anyone to rant/ramble with regularly (Nathan always has studying...sheesh!)