The Past Month in Pictures

We just got back from a month-long trip to Colorado. Here are some of my favorite shots from the past month.

We spent some time in a mountain house in Crested Butte with my parents and siblings. The incredible display of wildflowers ran our allergies wild. We went on a few small hikes and picnics. We ate lots of delicious food, including campfire s'mores for breakfast.

We attended a two-week orientation with the missions agency that is sending us to Thailand and supporting us while we're there. It was an incredibly intense and exhausting two weeks. But, we survived and we made some awesome friends with like-minded, Jesus-loving people, including the Pals (pictured below) who are headed to Japan.

Post-orientation decompressing at the park and at the pool:

May August be peaceful and uneventful.

Travels

Why, hello blog world! I haven't seen you in a minute! On Monday night (Or was it Tuesday early morning?) we returned from a two week Colorado vacation. I stayed pretty unplugged during those two weeks. Tomorrow, we leave for a weekend trip to Catalina Island and will be completely unplugged again.

The Colorado trip was absolutely wonderful, as always. Tons of amazing food, tons of wacky family, tons of incredible nature, tons of much-welcomed help with the baby. Although I have many pictures and many thoughts collected from the two weeks, I will leave you with just two pictures and one thought:

I hope I am as beautiful as my grandmas (both inside and out) when I'm in my eighties. Aren't they lovely?

Little Happenings

I celebrated my first Mother's Day on Sunday. I got another ounce of selfishness squeezed out of me as I realized that the day that is for celebrating mothers is still full of sacrifice for the kiddo. I was really looking forward to the day, but woke up especially tired, and then Grace struggled with napping all day eliciting more exhaustion and tears from me. But, boy was she precious in the evening when I made her smile, giggle, laugh, and coo! I am so grateful for my little daughter, bad days and all.

A picture of Grace because I know that's
what you really want to see!

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Did you catch that above? Grace is laughing! I have never seen anything more precious in all my life! 

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My dear friend, Marie, was in town for a wedding last week. She carved out time from the wedding festivities to hang out with me. We met our freshman year of college, lived together for a year in college, lived together for a year after college, and were bridesmaids in each others' weddings. She moved to Chicago in 2009 for grad school, and we haven't seen each other since then. It was so fun to catch up in person rather than via our infrequent phone dates.

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I have been using the Baby Connect app to track Grace's feeding, diapers, sleeping/napping, and her weight & height. Baby Connect takes the numbers I enter and turns them into all sorts of nifty charts and stats. For instance, I know that she's had 427 poopy diapers since she was born. Nasty. It's the only cell phone app I've ever paid for, which says something about how good it is. If you're a parent or hope to someday be one, check it out!

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We recently had a couple days where the temperature hovered around 100 degrees. I am not ready for another So Cal desert summer. In fact, I'm never ready for this type of weather.

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Grace and I are flying to Colorado on Monday! We're going to chill at my parents' house for a few days while Michael is at his students' summer conference. Then, Michael will be joining us for a full week after that. I am looking forward to cooler weather, mountain fun, lots of baby help, not being on point for meal planning and cooking, introducing extended family members to Grace, and spending hours and hours with family!

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In garden news, our brussels sprouts plan is sprouting its brussels! (You know what I mean.) We also have a number of green tomatoes that have appeared and numerous other seeds have sprouted. We'll hopefully start harvesting new veggies in just a few weeks!

Myrtle Blueberry and Wild Raspberry Cake

This cake took at least eight hours to make. Here's how it came about.

First things first. I firmly believe that everyone is strange once you get to know them. But, there may be something extra quirky about my family. For instance, here's a picture of the matriarch and patriarch of my mom's side with glowsticks in their glasses. Is this the type of thing that all people in their eighties who have been married for sixty plus years do? Or is there something extra quirky and endearing about these two? I suspect the latter.

Michael and I recently got to spend over a week with my immediate family in Colorado. Toward the beginning of our time in Colorado, we were four wheeling when my mom spotted raspberries. She yelled, my dad hit the brakes and pulled over, and we all stuffed our faces.

"Stuffed our faces" isn't quite accurate. The berries were tiny and it took some work to get a small handful. I really have no idea how bears get so chubby eating mostly this kind of stuff.

Shortly thereafter, the gathering continued when we spent a day in the mountains with my glowstick-in-the-glasses grandparents. Turns out my grandpa has been a mushroomer for the past few years, a fact that made Michael happy given the little shroom farm he once grew. 

We picked quite a few pounds of mushrooms and Grandpa decided he wasn't certain enough that they were safe (we weren't going to eat them anyway) so we threw them away. A few days later, we found out that they were safe and a man the family knows sells them for over $20 per pound at farmers' markets. Woops!

Then, we went backpacking for a few days and my mom found minuscule purple and red berries which she started eating and swore were safe. I didn't believe her at first, but then caved and ate a bunch. No one got sick.

Someone got the crazy idea of making a cake using only these berries (which we later found out are called Myrtle Blueberries). So, we picked and picked and picked.

Dad on all fours:

Andrea prowling through the trees:

These berries were so tiny and difficult to pick, they became a precious commodity. Here's Michael's reaction to losing one:

The fruit of two man hours of berry picking:

Ultimately, we got a decent amount of Myrtle Blueberries, supplemented them with more wild raspberries we found while driving home, and baked this cake.

Before baking:

After baking:

So, are we quirky? Are we strange? Yes. But, I love it!

Snowflakes

This year, we're spending Christmas in Colorado with my side of the family. Last night, we were eating my brother's homemade pizza when the snow started falling. We drove around looking at Christmas lights and it kept falling. We went to sleep and it kept falling and falling and falling.


In the morning, the railing on my parents' porch looked like this:

I stuck a ruler down the middle. 10.5 inches!

I pulled out the camera and took these pictures of snowflakes and was thrilled with the results!

The snow covered trees and houses look like a postcard. Needless to say, this California girl was thrilled and went out to frolick in it three times today! I think it's going to be a white Christmas!