Sunday Stroll

Here are a couple pics from our most recent Sunday stroll. Enjoy!

Grapes of Wrath

You wouldnt think cutting grapes could be dangerous... however I'm here to prove you wrong. I know a lot of people dont like gorey pictures, but you should be grateful I am showing the post stitches. One good thing that comes from having a gimp finger is that your husband feels bad for you and does the dishes! Also, because I managed to slice my index finger, my typing is extremely slow which means this blog will be short. Lets hope for a quick recovery so I can get back to blogging!

Small Victories

Corinne and I like to watch movies. Every now and again we will go to the local supermarket and check out a movie from Redbox. The concept behind Redbox is simple, you look through the selection of available movies within what looks like a vending machine, choose the movie or movies you want to watch, and pay one dollar to rent a movie. In theory this is how it works, but the reality is far different. Every time we go to rent a movie from Redbox I think to myself “I am so smart, I only pay $1 for a movie that people at Blockbuster are paying $5 dollars for.” The trick is that I get charged $1 for every day (24 hours) I have the movie rented out for. So even though I tell myself I am paying only $1, we always end up taking at least three days to return the movie, and subsequently end up paying more than that $1.

That is what made this past weekend so amazing. We finally did it; we finally returned a movie within 24 hours of renting it. It only took a good thirty plus tries, but we did it. The movie we ended up watching was Yes Man! I intentionally choose not to see this movie in the theatre because the concept behind it reminded me to much of another Jim Carey movie Liar Liar. (With movie production companies making sequels to movies I thought were bad the first time; i.e., Transformers, Fast and the Furious, the Hulk, I thought it was my duty as a consumer to not support such reckless production of unoriginal movies aimed to appease the mass market.) With a lack of alternative movies to rent from Redbox, I finally succumbed to the inevitable and rented it. After watching the movie I would give it a solid B. I see it this way, the movie, while funny, was unoriginal and uninspiring. Jim Carey is getting old, and to see him dating a girl twenty years younger than himself just seems a little to unrealistic and creepy for me. On the plus side, it had Jim Carey in it. As crazy and bizarre as he is in his movies, he has a way of making the most unnatural behavior seem within the bounds of reality. His attractive co-star Zooey Deschanel, also in 500 Days of Summer, a movie I would give an A, did a great job. Her voice was great as usual, a notable characteristic of every movie I have seen her in, and she continued to play a character that I would consider somewhere in-between indie and hipster. All in all, I would say it was a dollar well spent.

Flaaaava Flaaaaav!

I read a lot of food blogs to inspire me to cook. I love cooking, but dont always know what to make. I tell Matthew to pretend like he is in a restaurant and to order anything he wants, but it doesnt always work. Which means, I end up making the same things over and over again. One of my staples has become homemade pizza. Usually its BBQ chicken pizza topped with cilantro and red onions. Lately I havent even wanted to cook the chicken, so tonight it was pepperoni. Last week I made a great vegetarian pizza topped with zuchini, squash, tomatoes, mushrooms, and feta cheese. I wish I had taken a picture, it was beautiful!

I have included the dough recipe below in case you want it to become one of your staples as well. However, I am needing some more inspiration for my toppings. So.... what's your flava... tell me whats your flava?

P.S. Matthew wont eat any other pizza, and he doesnt like CPK after having homemade.

1 c warm water
1 T yeast

2 1/2 c flour

1 t salt

1 t sugar

2 T oil

Mix 1 c water and yeast together. Let sit for 5 min while mixing remaining ingredients. Combine yeast mixture with flour mixture and let sit for 10 min. (I am usually too impatient to let it sit, but it turns out better if you do.) Roll out, add your toppings and cook for 20 min at 425.

Families are Forever

Nick came home from his mission!!!!! To celebrate, the whole family was able to get together. My mom couldnt have been happier, and of course... needed to have family photos taken. We went to Irvine Park and had a photo shoot. These are some taken with our camera. The rest of the week was spent going wakeboarding, to the beach, to the temple, to Billabong, making a cool Thomas the train cake, and eating good food. We are so proud of you Nickypoo! In love Nixon model The Women

Cute Couple

Hot

Nanna and Poppa

Isnt he adorable?!

Such Handsome Men

Happiest Place on Earth

Last week Matt and I met my family at Lake Powell!!! It is my happiest place on earth! I am surrounded by family and live in a place where time doesn't exist. When you are hungry you eat, when you are tired you sleep, and when the water is glassy you wakeboard. Thats all there is to it. Matt and I both got some much needed tans and R&R. To top it all off Matthew and I got to spend a whole 10 days together!!! That was some much needed bonding time. Here are some pictures of our tripMother and daughters
Matthew showin some skills. This was only his second trip wakeboarding. Pretty impressive!
Me skiing Check out the chops!
Jackson
Joshypoo!
Eatin some lunch in rainbow canyon
Rainbow bridge couple
Rainbow bridge family
Rainbow bridge group shot
Chillin on the boat with baby J

One Stop Shop

One of the many reasons we like living in the Bay Area is that we live so close to such a big city. San Francisco is like a tourist's buffet. There is no better example of this than our travels to the beautiful Golden Gate park this weekend. It is the Costco of all parks, a one stop shop! We were only at the park for approximately four hours but saw the following in that short amount of time. First we visited the De Young museum and discovered ancient african artifacts, early american furniture, sculptures, and modern art to name a few. (One of our favorites was the glass sculpture of a woman who when captured with light is illuminating; pictured below.) Next we went to the Japanese tea garden. It should be no surprise to anyone that we were too cheap to pay to go inside. We felt a picture in front of it would suffice.
On our way to the windmills, we couldnt help but stop and smell the roses, literally, the rose garden was beautiful. As Matt might try to claim, he wanted to see the windmill to honor his dutch heritage. The fact of the matter was that it was free and perhaps a good photo opportunity. We showed up just in time to watch this couple get married. Our day wouldnt be complete without a trip to the beach! A good 80% of the park is still unexplored. We cant blame you if you want to visit, our door is always open!

4th of July!!!

Matt and I had the opportunity to house sit for the wonderful woman I work for while she was out of town. It was perfect timing because Matt had two days off work and we dont have air conditioning to survive the 100 degree weather. We stayed 10 days and were able to celebrate the 4th as we should... with a barbeque, pool, fireworks, and family. Here are some pics of our weekend!Barbeque man with a Beard
Helens backyard and our paradise for the week.

A pic of the moon and stars before the big show.A dragonfly firework. We were excited (or should I say Matt was super excited)to take pictures of the fireworks with our new camera.

Weekend Without my Wife

This weekend marked the longest time I have ever been away from my wifey. Initially, I thought, if my wife is gone I get to lounge around and do whatever I want. It wasnt much later that I realized how different my life is without my wife. For example: the most complicated meal I prepared this past weekend was a tuna fish sandwich, followed closely by cereal. I realized how difficult it was to be motivated to wake up when you dont have that special someone to spend the rest of the day with. In addition, I got a flash back to what it is like to be single and go to church by yourself. How single people remain happy is impressive to me, after only three days without her. So you might think that I wallowed in my own pathetic lonliness this past weekend, but whether it was at the urging of my wife or not, I did receive company from Corinne's cousins, and my friends, Brandon and Marie Miller (as shown in the photo below). Our journey began with a car drive through Marin county toward the tip of Drakes Bay. While the picture captures some of the beauty of the surrounding area, it doesnt capture the 40 mph winds that threatened to rip the shirt off my back and carry me back to Lafayette.
Following our travels in that area and a quick stop along a beach, we made our way to the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Its on trips like this to historical landmarks that foreigners seem to appreciate our beauty more than our own natives.

To finish up my weekend alone and anticipating my wifes arrival at the Oakland airport I made a quick stop to the Oakland temple (a.k.a. my wife's workplace).

Photo Shoot

Yesterday Matt and I drove down the road to Mt. Diablo State Park. It was a beautiful day so we got a little dressed up, and took some pictures with our new tripod from Matt's dad. (Thank you so much, we love it!) Here are some of our favorites. Click to enlarge.