President's San Francisco Treat

I had President's Day off, so we thought we would take Brooke bowling. Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea, so we spent a few minutes at the arcade, which was usually above Brooke's capacity. She did ok on Deal or No deal, and ended up with a couple of cheap gifts.

This past weekend I headed out to San Francisco to meet up with Josh. We had fun at Chinatown, at Tony's Pizza (delicious), but the most fun was the 3 am wake up call on Saturday morning due to a fire alarm. We originally thought it was cool to be staying on the 10th floor, but after those stairs, not so much.

The reason for the trip was to see Brandon Pace get married. It was great to see him and he seems really happy. Congrats to Brandon.

We made some delicious cookies yesterday. You take a smore and stuff it inside chocolate chip cookie dough.

They look like baked potatoes before you cook them, but they are delicious.

Want the recipe? Here it is.

California Adventures: Gung Hay Fat Choy

The main reason for coming to California was to celebrate Chinese New Year's with my family. This was a first for both Brooke and Troy and I think they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Brooke would even say "gung hay fat choy" to receive the licee. She's very quick to get the hang of things although she has no idea that the real treat is what's inside.My aunts also threw a small baby shower for my cousin and I. She's due mid-March even though I look so much bigger than her!!!! No fair.At the end of the evening, my uncle brought out all the party hats and confetti for the kids to play with. The older cousins mentioned that we never would have had the chance to create as much of a mess as they did but it was fun to see all the little kiddies go crazy over confetti. I bet my aunt and uncle are still finding confetti around the house.
Monday, we headed north to Ventura. It was a gorgeous day and definitely made us not want to have to leave the following day to head back to single digit temps. I think within the week we experienced a 100 degree change in temps.We had a lot of fun spending time with my family and soaking in the warm sun. It's taken us a while to recuperate from the fun but I think we're finally back to normal here.

California Adventures:Disneyland Part 2

Ok, maybe I let the pictures talk a little too much. We went to Disneyland on Friday, and the weather was great, sunny, mid-60s, and the park was pretty clear. Lines were generally short, and the kids did great. We got to the park a little before 10, ate lunch there, left the park around 5 to eat dinner at Tracie's aunt's house, went back to the park for the fireworks and ended up staying until nearly 11 at night. The kids did really well, and aside from Brooke being scared by the fireworks and clinging to me like her life depended on it, and Sierra falling asleep on the way out of the park and not getting to meet Mickey, the trip was a rousing success. We took our time in the park, and focused mainly on the kids rides. Ok, that is certainly enough talking, here are more pictures.

California Adventures:Disneyland Part 1

Last weekend we went to California to celebrate Chinese New Year and to go to Disneyland. Since the pictures are more interesting, I'll let them do the talking.

And Back to Zero (or -9)

You know it's freezing when you see this inside of the house:

Currently, we are sitting at -9. We had a record low for a high at -3. The low expected for tonight is -21. I know you're all jealous that you can't experience this type of ridiculously freezing weather so I just want everyone to know that we still have room at the inn and our doors are open if you want to visit. If you makes you feel any better, we should be back up to the 40s by the end of the week.