Waiting for dinner

The kids are playing Crazy Eights.

Mushroom Kale Pasta

Tried this recipe this past weekend. I substitued real mushrooms for the dry so it required a little adjusting. One piece of advice, make sure your kale is very clean. Despite being washed, we had a little unexpected protein.

Vitamix blender

We replaced our Blendtec blender with a Vitamixer from Costco that we bought during black friday for $350. The problem with the Blendtec was that the jars kept leaking at the seal. We had one jar replaced by Blendtec but the replacement actually locked up. After googling the problem, I found a lot of other folks had the same complaints. I haven't seen the same complaints for vitamix so I thought I'd try that one out. As usual, Costco was great with returning the Blendtec no questions asked. The one problem with the vitamix though is that it doesn't fit under the cabinets. :)

Relaxing at the top

Made it to the top again. 3.6 miles round trip without too much complaining. I think the promise of frozen yogurt helped.

It's official - Lauren can ride a bike

Over the Christmas break, Lauren learned how to ride her bike. She has gotten close in the past but this time she can ride and ride and ride. Here you see her riding around the track at the middle school. Notice she's not riding her bike that she got from Santa. That bike still has yet to be ridden.


Here's Cole following close behind on his new bike. Notice he's trying not to smile for the camera.

Advice for the New Year

One piece of advice for the New Year. If you ever see these little poops anywhere in your house, you have a mouse. I had seen some of these a few weeks or even months earlier and thought they were from a cricket but there were other signs that I missed that should have led me to investigate more. It wasn't until I was searching for a bag in our garage cabinets that I found him or should I say her.


Here she is. I luckily was able to trap her in a box.


She had made a nest in our cabinets. She tore this orange ribbon off of our luggage and used it as part of her nest.


Oh and this is how I could tell he was a she. In case you were wondering we carried them far away from the house and let them go into the preserve.

Cole's turn

Cole made it to the top of telegraph pass. Total hike was 3.7 miles with an elevation gain of 625ft. He can't wait to go up again.