Trip to Meet Ezra

 I flew down to California Wednesday to meet my newest nephew, Ezra Grey. I was excited to have window seats on both my flights and some amazing views. I tried to sleep most of my second flight, but woke up in time to see Half Dome and Yosemite Valley before we landed.

Mom, Michelle, Emery, and Ezra picked me up at the airport so I got to meet Ezra right away. He is such a sweet, cute little guy. We spent the afternoon at Dad and Mom's house, where Heather and the kids joined us. It was so nice to get to see everyone again. After the sisters and kids went home, Dad, Mom, and I went to Alejandra's for dinner, yum!

Thursday morning, Mom and I went blueberry picking and got two full buckets of blueberries.

We had lunch with Michelle and her kids again, then all went over to the Nickell's house to hang out for the afternoon. Mom and Isaac made hamburgers for dinner, which I had requested and very much enjoyed. Then Heather and I took the kids to swim practice.

They had time trials Thursday, which was basically a practice swim meet so that everyone could run through it before the regular meets start next week. All three kids swam freestyle, then both boys also swam backstroke and breaststroke and Evan swam butterfly. It was fun to see how much the boys have improved since last year on swim team. This is Natalie's first year.

 Picture with the cold kids. The air was warm, but the water is still quite cold.

Friday we spent more time with the baby; can't get enough of that. I got to take Michelle to a doctor appointment, then we all headed out to Dad and Mom's again for the rest of the afternoon and family dinner.

 Ezra got to try out the quilt Joshua and I made for him, I think he likes it.

The Trevinos got presents from Dad and Mom. We found that onesie on vacation a few years ago and Mom got two, one geared towards girls and one towards boys. Emery got the girl one when she was born and now Ezra has the matching one.

Micah and I played Monopoly and by the time we had to call the game for bedtime, he had quite a bit more money than me. Natalie had fun being the banker. The Nickell kids and Emery spent the night, so the next morning we all got to have banana pancakes and waffles for breakfast.

Dad, the boys, and I checked out the fruit trees and discovered that things were starting to get ripe. So I picked some fruit. We headed to Visalia and dropped off Emery and held the baby one more time before saying goodbye to the Trevinos. We had lunch at the Nickell's, then said goodbye to them as well and Mom drove me to the airport. It was easier to say goodbye since we are planning to come to California this summer, so we will see everyone again soon. My flight was delayed and I spent most of the time at the Fresno airport standing in line to get on an earlier flight so I could make my connection in San Francisco. Thankfully, that all worked out and I made my second flight which was on time so I still arrived in Eugene when I expected to. It was so good to see Joshua again; I had missed him a lot. 

 We had flowers blooming at home and the garden had grown a lot while I was gone.

Veggie Pies

Brenda and I spend a lot of time making meat and veggie handpies at work. This week we did meat pies on Wednesday and veggie pies on Thursday. It is a time consuming project, but we often have good conversations while we scoop, fold, and crimp.

Blueberries Growing

The three blueberry bushes we transplanted from the blueberry farm down the street seem to be thriving in their new environment. I'm looking forward to eating blueberries from them!

Adventures in Cooking

I decided to try a recipe in my latest cooking magazine for Squid and Fennel Pasta with Lemon and Herbs. I hadn't ever cooked squid before, or even eaten it much, so this was a new experience for me. It turned out pretty well and the squid was easy to cook, although all those tentacles did make me a little squeamish. I thought the dish was a little lacking in flavor, but that was partly because I didn't have any fennel bulb, just fronds. Anyway, overall I was pretty happy with it. Here's the recipe, in case any of you are feeling adventurous too!

Squid and Fennel Pasta

serves 4

5 T olive oil, divided

1 lb squid (bodies and tentacles), bodies sliced 1/4'' thick

Kosher salt and ground pepper

1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced lengthwise, plus 2 T fronds

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3/4 t crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 lemon, seeds removed, very thinly sliced, divided

12 oz. linguine or fettuccine

1/2 cup parsley leaves  

Heat 2 T oil in a large skillet over high. Working in 2 batches, season squid with salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until cooked through, about 3 minutes (don't overcook or it will get rubbery). Transfer to small bowl.

Reduce heat to medium-high and heat 2 T oil in skillet. Add fennel slices, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and soft, 10-12 minutes (some nicely browned bits should be stuck to skillet). Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and half of lemon slices; cook, tossing occasionally, until garlic and lemon are soft, about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1 1/2 cups pasta cooking liquid. Add pasta to skillet along with 1 cup cooking liquid. Toss, scraping up any browned bits; season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing and adding more cooking liquid as needed, until sauce coats pasta, about 3 minutes. Add squid and give it all another toss to combine.

Toss parsley, fennel fronds, remaining lemon slices, and remaining 1 T oil in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper. Serve pasta topped with salad.

Serving Lunch

An appetizer platter is perhaps a bit much for a paper writing session, but we got a great multi-purpose cake plate when we got married that can be used as a cake plate, appetizer tray, vegetable or chip with dip plate, a punch bowl, and maybe something else (I'm sure the possibilities are endless). But we had only ever used it as a cake plate. So when we decided to have a cheese and crackers spread for lunch, I couldn't resist pulling it out and filling it with goodies. Of course, Larry, who was here to work with Joshua, didn't mind.

Goodbye Honda, Hello Honda

We said goodbye to our Honda Accord at the end of last month. Over the Christmas break, we had taken it to our mechanic and they recommended some maintenance be done soon that was going to be expensive, so we started exploring the possibility of getting a newer car instead. It turned out that a friend of ours was selling her Honda Civic which is four years newer, has 80,000 fewer miles, and gets better gas mileage, so we decided it would be wise to make the switch. We got the new Honda at the beginning of April and sold ours at the end of the month. After thinking about it and working out details for so long, it was a relief to be done. But it was very hard to say goodbye to our Accord. I have been driving that car for a number of years and it was my grandpa's car before it was ours. It is what I consider to be my first car and has taken me many places. I guess I just expected to drive it until it was done, so selling it was hard to do. But I think the new car makes a lot more sense for us and the new owners seem nice. 

Here's a picture of all three cars lined up according to license plate numbers (which you can't see in the picture). Because we got them registered in Oregon at the same time, the license plate numbers were the same except one number that changed from 6 to 8 between the three. 

And here is a picture of our new Honda. We have been quite happy with the new car. It drives similarly to the other Honda, but gets better gas mileage. It is a little smaller, which makes it surprisingly more maneuverable. We had a little adventure with the radiator going out, but Joshua was able to replace that. Overall, everyone who has checked it out thinks it is in great condition. My goal now is to enjoy driving this car for many years without getting quite so attached to it.

Weekend Activities

Friday night we had the privilege of attending a concert at our church by Olivier Latry, the Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was wonderful and I only wished I had more of a background in music to be able to appreciate it more. After church this morning, we went up to talk to our church's organist about the organ and found out it is pretty impressive also and one of the finest in the state. We have always enjoyed the music at church, but it was fun to learn more about the organ and get to experience it in a different way through the concert on Friday. It also worked out really well because before the concert we were finally able to have our first young married/engaged couples dinner with three other couples from church. It ended up being a little rushed, but it was nice to get together with everyone since we have been talking about doing it for quite awhile.

After church today, we met up with some friends at Hendricks Park to celebrate Shelley's birthday. We had fruit, coleslaw, bread, breakfast burrito casserole, and juice for brunch and enjoyed visiting and walking through the beautiful flower gardens. It was a sunny morning and a great time to be in the garden because the rhododendron where blooming.

Weekend Birthday Trip

 Joshua took me to the coast last weekend for a birthday present. We spend Friday and Saturday exploring the area around the Three Capes Scenic Drive. The drive turned out to be not as scenic as we expected, but the area was beautiful and we found some great spots we are looking forward to visiting again. 

Friday it was rainy on and off for most of the day, but the drive up 101 was still beautiful.

 This was the first of the three capes, and the spot where we stopped to eat lunch.

Our campground was at the second cape, Cape Lookout. We got checked in and were going to go on a short hike nearby, but it started raining pretty heavily so we returned to the shelter of the van and drove down the road a bit to a place where we had a view of the water and played cribbage instead.

 We enjoyed watching and listening to the rain throughout the day and seeing all the mists and clouds.

 We were glad we weren't planning to eat at our table since it turned out to be in a large puddle. We had delicious breakfast burritos for dinner and while we were eating the sun came out.

 We decided to walk down to the beach and were glad we did because the sky was beautiful.

 I call this guy "the storm cloud that ate up the sky."

 It was getting pretty cold and we were concerned that the big storm cloud was going to start raining on us, so we headed back to our campsite for the night. By the next morning, the rain had moved on and it was a beautiful sunny day.

 We took a walk along the beach after breakfast.

 There were tons of these blue jellyfish all along the beach. We also saw a dead seal, but that was rather gross, so I didn't take a picture.

 There were lots of pretty flowers and plants growing around the campground.

The third cape was Cape Meares, were we saw the Octopus Tree and had more great views of the ocean.

We also toured the Cape Meares Lighthouse, which was neat. 

 We had a picnic lunch before continuing up the road towards Tillamook.

 We got a two-foot piece of beef jerky from the Tillamook Country Smoker and toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Unfortunately for us, they weren't making cheese because it was Saturday, but it was still fun to look at all the equipment, sample cheese, and get ice cream. 

After enjoying our ice cream in the sunshine (which was a bit too bright for picture taking), we headed home down I-5, which ended up being a pretty drive also. It was a wonderful and relaxing couple of days and so nice to spend some time together away from the busyness of school and work.