Canning Salsa

Our heirloom beauties!

Spencer made the salsa. He really enjoyed himself.

We got 10 bottles out of it.

Maren and the boys

Hike to Indian Beach, Ecola State Park

Table transformation!

My dear sister gave us this table when we got married and it had been a great one. It was her first table when she got married over 10 years ago so we thought we would give it a little update.

We are really happy with how it turned out. We went with orange fabric that matched well with the new rug we got that is not shown. It feels good making do with what you got by just sprucing it up a bit!

It's a girl!

Though it may not be clear, you can see our little girl is having all kinds of fun in the womb. She looks like she already knows her yoga positions! Nice verticality of the torso!

Her cute little feet.

Another shot of her yoga position

Her face. We are so excited to meet this new little girl!

Projects of August 2011

This is just the beginning of a few decorating changes I am making in our new apartment. I got the table at a local thrift store for $5. I sanded it down and spray painted it to add some color to the room. The picture is not great but it gives you a bit of an idea of the added space we now have.

Spencer and I, or should I say Spencer, decided to attempt canning some peaches we picked at the local farm without the use of canning equipment. I gave up frustrated in the middle of it all after one of the jars broke in the boiling water, but my wonderful husband just kept working until they were done. Can't say we got a whole lot of product out of all the effort but it was a learning experience none-the-less.

My Firsts of Summer 2011

1. Planting and working a garden.
2. Canning pickles.
3. Living in a 3-bedroom apartment.
4. Learning to understand a 2 year old and how they think.
5. Seeing the Redwoods (at least that I can remember).
6. Canning peaches and realizing it is much easier to just buy canning equipment than trying to do without.
7. Buying furniture at the thrift store and refinishing it.
8. Trying foods such as fennel, Romanesco, Daikon radish, Kohlrabi all grown in the garden.

Grandpa and Grandma Madsen's House

We spent many days in the pool. One of the best parts about summer at grandmas. Maren started out insecure clinging to us for dear life. By the end of the week she as confidently swimming with only floaties on! It helps to have cousins just older that show you the ropes. She loved spending time with Dalin, Gavin, Tatum and Colton. There was always a meltdown when she had to say goodbye.

Fun with grandma and grandpa

Spencer and I got to get away for a couple of days for our 4th anniversary. We took a trip out to Mendocino to stay in a resort on the coast. We took our time through the winding roads of Napa Valley and pretended to live the high life. Pretty sure we were the youngest people around by the 30 years the entire trip. We felt like honeymooners right out of high school. We were even asked if we were old enough to see a wine list!

This is not what you think. Avoid the appearance of evil right? Well we just wanted to document the amazing GRAPE JUICE we had a the Culinary Institute of America, the most prestigious and most expensive culinary arts school in the U.S. We ate a fancy meal prepared by the students there for a fraction of the cost of eating the same thing in a fancy french restaurant.

Spencer in front of the Culinary Institute of America. If it wasn't for the poor lifestyle of a chef I think Spencer would enjoy being one.

We also stopped to take a peak at an identical replica of a Tuscan castle that some rich guy built in the 70's. Spencer loved the grand entrance reminding him of his beautiful mission.

We finally made it out to the resort. I had bought a groupon deal to get a farmhouse style room in a house for $99 originally $300 a night. This also included a $25 credit for dinner which was a well known restaurant, and complementary gourmet breakfast in the morning. We also got a free bottle of their orange flavored olive oil that we are now enjoying on our garden fresh salads. Well aren't we fancy! :)

The next morning we drove out to the coast in Fort Bragg to see the beach where 100 years ago it was the thing to dump all of your unwanted things such as cars, and anything glass on the beach. Today, all you see is ocean polished pieces of glass. We collected a small bag to take home to Maren. 

Here is a pic of the glass on the beach.

At the end of our trip we we had fun bowling as a family.

It was a great time as always in California.

Trip to California: Redwood Forest

On our way down to see my family in California, we took the scenic route to see the trees of mystery; the Redwoods.

Maren's face expresses her excitement not only for the beach but for the chance to get out of the car.

We stayed the night about 2 hours from the forest so we drove through it in the morning when the fog that looms over the trees was battling with the sun rays forcing their way in. It was a beautiful time of day.

More excitement to be out of the car. We made multiple stops. I don't have a picture of her getting back in the car but you can imagine it would be quite the opposite of the sheer joy you see above.

Paul Bunyan and Maren

One giant tree trunk. This was not some tourist stop of some famous tree, it was just on the side of the road where we got out and explore a bit.

I just loved this adorable forest! I say adorable because it looked so picture perfect like it would look in a Disney movie. The picture just doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful.

I tried to capture the amazing twisted bark and the tree juts into the sky.

We stopped at a little tree house that was contained inside one hollowed out tree.

Now this was scary. Our car barely fit without scraping. I had to get out to help Spencer through. You can see paint scraped inside the tree from other cars.