S'mores!

Eric, Christina, Taryn, Taylor & Rylee were in San Diego this weekend. After unsuccessfully trying to get a firepit at the beach Saturday night, we ended up back at our neighborhood park to make our s'mores. The kids had the run of the park (probably because it was 9pm;) and had plenty of "energy" (aka sugar) to fuel them!

Weekend Whirlwind

 Meran spent last week with my mom up in San Francisco, helping my brother, Ben & sister-in-law, Kate with their sweet twins girls, Serra & Channing. I saw first hand this weekend how busy 2 babies can make life! Kind of comparable to having 4 children, just in a different, sleepless way;). My dad and I drove up Friday, for the weekend, to pick up Meran. Jason held down the fort in SD with the boys & baby sister, and he packed in the fun! Here are picts from our separate, but equally fun weekends...

Channing & Serra

3 generations

Ice Cream at Ghirardelli

My first Food truck experience...I wasn't disappointed:)

Eatin' Clam Chowder in Golden Gate Park

Dinner Poolside

Karate

Cruisin' the Bay

Nap time, daddy-style

Trouble...

We all know, especially us parents, that trouble has lots of different spellings. Today, in my house, it was spelled the same as my youngest daughter's name.;)
It all started harmlessly enough, or so I thought. Bellen climbed up into one of the chairs at the kid's table, in the playroom. She motioned at the crayons and babbled. I was trying to get dinner ready and wanted to occupy her. My fault.
I gave her a Sesame Street coloring book and chose an orange crayon, reasoning this color could do lesson damage than, say, a  black or red crayon. Again, my fault.
I went back to preparing dinner, and all was calm. I know, from just over ten years of motherhood, that while silence is nice, it usual means something is wrong.
I walked to the playroom to find Bellen standing in the middle of the room with an orange MARKER in her hand. She had exchanged the crayon for a marker. Little pickle...she upgraded her coloring utensil!
It looked as though she had tried to put on "lipstick" and decorated her left wrist and right leg.
"Oh well", I thought. I chuckled at my naivety...thinking my 17 month old would sit & color,
snapped a few pictures and went back to the kitchen. (oh, and I did take the markers and put up high)

Chocolate Waffles...Jameson's dream come true

Last night, I went to Kensington Grill with some girlfriends. We weren't done talking after dinner, so naturally, we ordered dessert. Or should I say desserts. A trio of sorbets, peach cobbler and the chocolate brownie waffle were ordered to share between the 6 of us. Ofcourse, I was drawn to the waffle because I strongly feel that "if it ain't chocolate it ain't dessert";)-pardon the slang. It was warm, gooey and had a bit of ice cream served with it. As soon I tasted it, I thought of Jameson! He loves waffles and he loves chocolate. When I got home, even though it was well past 10pm I googled the recipe. The recipe* below seemed the simplest-although I did substitute cow's milk with almond milk and cut the sugar down by 1 Tbsp (using 4 rather than 5). I prepped the batter and in the morning, I had a happy 7 year old!

Chocolate Waffles
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
5 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup oil
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup semi-sweet choc chips
Beat egg whites until soft peaks for, set aside. Sift all dry ingredients together (or whisk them together). Beat egg yolk in another bowl for 1 minute, then mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients with the milk mixture. Stir only until blended. Fold in egg whites.This will make 4-6 Belgian waffles.

 *recipe from realmomkitchen.com

For the 1st time in 7 1/2 months...

I used a blow dryer on my hair! Oh happy day! How funny that something like that could make me feel joy. It also reminded me to not take the average, mundane, not so notice-able things, like eyebrows, eyelashes or hair, for granted. My head hair fell out in the end of December, from the effects of chemotherapy. That was a bummer, but I was expecting it and knew it would grow back. It was in February, when I had only 3 eyelashes and 5 eyebrow hairs left, when it got hard-I began referring to myself as a hairless cat (and you all know how I feel about cats...not a fan). Seriously, how many times had I complained about my big bushy eyebrows in my youth. Or, that I was having a bad hair day. Whatever Britton! You didn't know how good you had it until it was gone. Isn't that always how it is?
And the scary part is that I will probably, in the near future, complain once again about having a bad hair day. Ahh, sin nature rearing its ugly head.
So, I blog this to remind myself...God is so good. He gave me straight (yeah) dark (ok, with a little grey) hair. Lots and lots of eyebrows and eyelashes too. I am so thankful. Thankful to be on this side of the journey. Thankful for all the support God provided for our family. Thankful that life goes on and we are not left in those dark  moments....because we have HOPE in Christ.

A treat on a typical day

Today was a typical day. I was headed to the park with the kids, but stopped at Trader Joe's for a few groceries first. (I do this on the way to the park & bring a cooler bag...if i wait until on the way home to stop, the kids are too tired and it is a bad situation. You can picture the scene;)
I was checking out at the register and the manager commented on my hair. He said he'd been off for 6 weeks and he really noticed how much my hair had grown. He has always been very friendly, probably why he is the manager there, but we have never discussed my hair, or lack of, as was the case several months ago. Our conversation continued and he was shocked to find that I had had cancer. He kept asking if I was doing good now. I continued to pay and he walked over and asked if I "had room for flowers". He handed me a bouquet and said some kind words. What a sweet man. I didn't feel I deserved flowers, but I was grateful. And really, none of us "deserve" anything good. But, God is good and He shows his love in so many ways!

4th of July Happenings

We started the day with a big breakfast & a 4 hour walk, with a stop at Shelter Island's park. There were massive amounts of people lining the shore, anticipating the fireworks that were to take place that night. If you read your Yahoo home page, you will see those people probably left highly disappointed, as there was a "computer mishap" that caused ALL the fireworks to go off at one time. Oops...atleast our first 4th of July as San Diego-ans will be a memorable one!

Exploring the rocks

taking a swim in "our pool"

Cozy with dad...never wore sweatshirts to watch fireworks before;)

The "oops"

We watched, or atleast, planned to watch the fireworks with our neighborhood~on a bridge near the bay
Here is Meran & her neighbor friend, Katie, with their glow-creations

Del Mar Fair