As Good as it Gets

No sense wasting time with words, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Just know this, when you combine warm weather, soft sand, the happiest place on earth, good food, temples, sunsets, and a rock-awesome traveling partner...let's just say, its hard to beat.


Day 1 - Walking through the surf at Newport Beach. Just after we hit up In-n-Out before soaking it up in the hot tub before a rather early bedtime.


Day 2 - Disneyland! Woot! On the bridge in Tarzan's treehouse. The lines were great all day. Most rides had about a 5-10 minute wait. Both Space Mtn and the Matternhorn were around 15-20. Autopia was about 25 but we were lucky enough to go at the absolute busiest time. Go figure.


Lunch of some bodaciously large corn-dogs at a little spot by the Golden Horseshoe.


Waiting in line (fast pass of course) at the Indiana Jones ride.


Walt has a mouse to pose with. I get a cute girl.


The Autopia hillsides flying by at over 5mph.


We wanted a picture with Mickey. The only way to get one these days is to wait in a super awkward line at his house and be escorted into his presence by two...um...interesting Disneyland staff guys.


Dinner of Steak Gumbo (for Kim) and Clam Chowder (for me) in breadbowls. Tasty viddles indeed.


Day 3 - We spend the day at the beach watching surfers, collecting shells, and playing a little frisbee. Kim's ultra-fabulous photography skills even captured this rather awesome shot a Huntington Beach local.


Also day 3, we got to see a pretty amazing sunset. The next picture shows the colors a little better. This picture was taken from the Seal Beach pier.


Surfers and sunsets, a snazzy combination. Right after Kim snagged this shot we headed to Kinda Lahaina in Seal Beach (where we ate last year as a family) for some seafood.


Day 4 - We caught a session at the Newport Beach temple to start our day before heading back to Anaheim for the afternoon.


We spent the evening in Downtown Disney, window shopping a bit. Legoland was particularly cool.


And finally, a nice California Pizza Kitchen dinner to end the week. Quite tasty.

Stockings and Skiing

For the FHE before Christmas we decided to try our hand at the fine art of stocking-making. We learned a couple of key things in this process:
1) Never trust ehow.com for accurate instructions on how to make a Christmas stocking
2) Always have a husband on hand who thrives off of jimmy-rigging things -- it saves a wife like me from having a sewing melt-down five days before Christmas


Turns out, they look quite nice (just don't look too closely!) and they were perfectly functional come Christmas morning, stuffed full of fun goodies.

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One of the perks of watching three ski movies in a span of a month or so is all the free stuff they gave away/raffled off to viewers like us. At the first movie, Gregg won a sweet Flylow ski jacket, which was too small for him, but just happened to fit me perfectly! (Score!) The next two movies provided free day passes to a couple of ski resorts, so we decided to put both the jacket and the pass to Wolf Mountain to good use on the 28th. While it wasn't the sunniest of ski days, we still had a marvelous time.


(Coincidentally, it was also our four month anniversary. Yeah, this is the life.)

100 Days

.... and counting*

*at the time of publication of this post we're up to one hundred and three

O Tannenbaum

one freshly cut fir = $14.00

one heavy duty tree stand = $12.00

(we don't have a saw, but that didn't stop Gregg from using our 'saw knife' from the knife block)

(note the swell tv fire, complete with popping fire sounds to add to the ambiance)

four hundred twinkling, colored lights = $11.52

our first Christmas tree = priceless

All the way home I'll be warm

You may have heard about the gigantic blizzard of doom that was to wreak havoc across Utah on November 23rd. Well, it sure did hit Logan. The wind a howlin' and the snow was a swirlin' for a solid four hours. We hunkered down, turned up the heater, ate some yummy dinner, wrapped up in a blanket and watched Home Alone.

Then ... after the snow stopped ... we ventured out to enjoy the magical beauty of this winter wonderland.

Our first view from the front door.
(Notice the edge sticking out into the doorway -- this blizzard was crazy!)

This is where we live.

As happy as a little boy on Christmas!

Cozy little cottage.

Frisbee in the snow = super fun.

The sweet and very aerodynamic (looking) Saturn.

Let it snow! Let it Snow! Let it snow!

A Reason to Celebrate

On Saturday (November 6th) we broke out the 1 and 0 candles for another milestone celebration: 10 weeks of wedded bliss. And we needed something to put the candles into, so I whipped up a batch of my new favorite breakfast/dessert/mid-day snack.

Here's the recipe for the deliciousness:

Apple Lemon Oat Muffins

1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1-1/4 cups unsifted flour
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup (about 1 medium) finely chopped apples
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Lemon Icing

Preheat oven to 400°F. In medium bowl, beat egg; stir in milk, oil then lemon juice. Add oats; mix well. In a separate bowl sift together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Add to oat mixture with apples and nuts. Mix only until moistened (batter will be thick). Spoon batter into greased or paper baking cup-lined muffin cups. Bake 20 minutes or until golden. Spoon Lemon Icing over muffins. Remove from pan.

Lemon Icing: Combine 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon melted butter. (Makes about 1/4 cup.)

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That night we continued the celebration by cheering on RSL in the second half of their first round playoff game. Unfortunately it was the end of the road for Real Salt Lake, but we enjoyed the evening and the atmosphere anyway. (Minus the beer-soaked purse and inhaled confetti compliments of the folks sitting right behind us.)

What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?

Tonight it's Tortilla Soup ... though it probably could be called Enchilada Soup because that's what it tastes like. Pure heaven. Try it yourself!

Camilla's Tortilla Soup
(with a couple minor additions/alterations by Kim and her mom, Peggy)

3 cans chicken broth (or ~4 cups H2O + 2 chicken bouillon cubes if that's what you have, like me)
2 cans cream o' chicken soup
1 med. onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 large pepper, chopped (we prefer red bell pepper, but green works, too)
3-4 chicken breasts (we had tenders, and 4 of those is plenty)
1/2 cup salsa
1/2-3/4 cup uncooked rice
pepper, garlic powder and cumin, to taste

Boil the chicken. Remove from water and shred. Saute onion, pepper and celery (and season with a couple shakes of garlic powder) till barely crisp. Mix broth and soup in a large pan. Heat till boiling. Add onions, peppers, celery, chicken, rice and salsa. Add pepper and cumin to taste. Simmer until rice is cooked (or until your dishy husband gets home from class ... whichever comes last ;). Serve with avocado slices, shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream and a handful of crushed tortilla chips. But it's even really awesome all by itself. Dig in!