A Trip to See Art

Jaime and I took a trip north this week. There is an exhibit from an art museum in Paris at the de Young museum in San Francisco that we wanted to see, so we decided to make a trip of it and visit her sister in Sacramento too. We drove to Sacramento Monday, with a stop at In'n'Out for lunch.

During the afternoon, we got to make a tart with Jaime's nephew and niece.

  

They had a great time arranging the fruit.

 

The next day we drove to San Francisco. The exhibit we went to see was good, but very crowded so we didn't stay as long as we thought we would.

While exploring the rest of the museum, we were excited to discover a painting by Hopper. He is one of Jaime's favorite artists and this was the first time she had seen one of his pieces in person.

Another cool painting.

After the de Young, we headed over to Pier 39. We went to a restaurant there for a late lunch/early dinner. The raspberry lemonade spritzer was really good.

We got a great table in the corner with two windows overlooking the bay.

After walking around and checking out some shops, we got ice cream. It was good.

Then it got really messy, but was still good.

We returned to Sacramento to spend another night with Jaime's sister and family. Wednesday we hung out with them for awhile before driving back in the afternoon. The drive seemed like a perfect time to enjoy my complementary bottle of Coca-Cola from our tour of the World of Coca-Cola this summer.

We made one last stop on the drive home. In Turlock, we met up with my friend Marissa and had dinner at Red Robin.

"Mastering the Art and Craft: Baking & Pastry"

My friend and fellow baker, Jaime, recently bought a new baking cookbook that is full of tempting recipes. Michelle and I used the book first and made a zesty lime tart. Unfortunately, it was more of a flop than a treat. It wasn't attractive looking and tasted okay, but not great. Undaunted, I tried another recipe today, this time for spun sugar. It wasn't perfect either and would have been easier if I'd had a few more hands, but I'm happy with the results.

They turned out more abstract than I intended.

Since I didn't really have anything to do with them at home, I took them to work and put one on the lemon raspberry cake I frosted tonight.

I was happy with the results and everyone I work with freaked out, so it was a successful recipe attempt.

Off We Go!

We are about to set off on a family vacation for the next three weeks, so I'm not planning to post on this blog while we are gone. If you would like to follow us, click the link for our vacation blog 

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated 4th of July with family BBQ, swimming, and of course, fireworks. The weather was beautiful and it was a great day for a celebration. Our fridge was full of special treats; we ended up having too much food, so now we'll have to celebrate again today with the leftovers! Mom and I made ribbon Jello in wine glasses for our "with dinner" dessert, they were festive and pretty. Next, we jumped in the pool for a swim. The water was nice, but the air was already cooling off, so we got a bit chilly, but it was fun. After the pool, we had our second dessert. I made a festive fruit tart with blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. It was delicious. We ate quickly, then headed to the Nickell's for fireworks. Isaac and Jonah had left before the rest of us and already had the fireworks set out and ready to go. Michelle and I were busy photographing the firework line up when Isaac announced the finale piece wasn't even out yet. Wow. Things started out small with sparklers, although Jonah and Isaac had some sparklers that weren't quite so small and actually got rather crazy when they started sparking more than expected. Then they started setting off the bigger fireworks in the street and we had quite the show.

The neighbors were setting off their own fireworks.

The last firework exploded more than it should have and caught on fire at the end.

Here's a video of the evening:

It was a festive and fun fourth with lots of food, family, and fireworks!

The Pre-Party

Fourth of July is here again and we started celebrating on the 3rd with fireworks at the baseball game! First, we met at the Nickell's and had star shaped sugar cookies Michelle and I made at work this week.

Then we headed over to the baseball stadium to watch the end of the game. We got there at the end of the fourth inning and bought snow cones. The view from the grass where we were sitting wasn't very good, so it was hard to follow the game, but we weren't very interested until it was tied at the end of the ninth and had to go into an extra inning. By then, the kids were pretty tired because it was already way past their bedtime. Thankfully, we scored at the bottom of the tenth to win the game at 10:00pm. Finally it was time for fireworks! The show was short, but worth the wait with lots of good ones. I love fireworks!

Relaxing Weekend

Jaime came to visit this weekend and we went floating on Sunday afternoon after she arrived. 

 Our first stop was Walmart to get a cheap inner tube and lunch. Then we headed for the river. Thankfully, this time we knew to wear shoes, which made the walk along the railroad tracks much less painful. It was a beautiful day for a float, hot and sunny but the river wasn't too crowded. Michelle trying to get in the water, it was still pretty cold. The float took about an hour and a half and was relaxing. Afterwards, we went home and Jaime opened her new game.Pirateer is a game she played awhile ago and has been looking for, but they don't make it anymore so it's hard to find. We finally found a new one on ebay for a good price so Jaime was pretty excited to finally get to play.

The next day we decided to go floating again. This time Janelle came with us and we went for a longer float and had lunch on the river. Ready to set out. Jonah trying out a rope swing from the starting bridge. Michelle and Jonah with the crab that held our snacks and music (they brought their iPod and speakers). Another Chaco picture! It was another relaxing afternoon on the river, we went farther this time and took about 3 hours, with a stop in the middle to reapply sunscreen. Back at the car afterwards. It was a lovely way to spend a hot summer day.