My Trip Home 2011

Hello all! Long time no see! I'm backtracking to catch you up on it all. It's been a busy, fun and productive summer thus far. So where did I last leave off? Oh! With my trip home...

Annie!

One of the main things I must do when going home is go to my favorite restaurants. Tres Harmanos (I know I likely spelled that wrong.) is one of them!

Delicious Margaritas!

 

And then of course there is In-N-out!!!

Pedicures with Mom

I got to see my Cousin's new baby Taylor - She is adorable!!!

My other cousin's baby Peyton - this was her first beater! Licking the beater from the homemade whipped cream.

 Then there was the Farmer's Market. Since I was missing class back in Portland (a Art and Farm class) I was given an extra assignment to do while in CA. The assignment? To visit a farmer's market, make a meal with my purchases, and take pictures of it. Really??? I do that weekly anyways!! Ha ha I was thrilled to have an excuse to do this while at home. So..... on the menu: blackened cat fish, a saute' of tomatoes, corn and spinach as well as some roasted potatoes/beets. It was quite lovely....

Here is me picking out some heirloom tomatoes.

 an onion

 Corn

 

And why, there's a familiar name! It was such a pleasant surprise to see my neighbor's and best friend's ranch there. 

This is me preparing the catfish.

 

 And here is the cooked up meal. It was delicious! Thanks Mom and Dad for enjoying this meal with me and letting me invade your kitchen!

 

Also to happen this weekend was Rebekah's baby shower. I was so happy to be home for this!!!

 The decorations were adorable! Can't wait to meet little Sawyer!

 Rebekah, you looked amazing! So great to see you and feel your cute belly! :)

 Rebekah cried when she opened our gift. Sorry Bekah, this is the only picture I have!

 And then this happened, but I'll spare you from hearing that story again. ;)

In addition to little "just-like-my-uncle-Wes"Converse shoes, we got them a little "just-like-my-daddy" onesie that had tattoo sleeves sewn into it.

 

Oh and I definitely cannot forget the games! We had a great time playing "Stop."

 My time home was very enjoyable and so great to catch up with family and friends. Wes are coming home for thanksgiving this year so we can't wait to see you again soon!

Cake-in-a-jar

Rummed Cherries (recipe to come on Wes' blog!)

My work schedule has changed on Fridays and although it has me waking at 6 a.m. it has me getting off at 3! (hip-hip--Hooray!) Wes wakes up at 3 on Fridays after working the graveyard shift the night before. What does this mean? This means a couple more hours of good-ol'-fashioned, us time. So on Friday, I arrived home to Wes in his jammies, pitting cherries.

Wait, what? Come again?

Yes, pitting cherries. Not with a machine but by hand, with a paperclip method he learned somewhere. "Why?" you ask. Well my friends, Wes has become a gen-u-ine baker in the name of blogging. Wes has always been involved in our kitchen projects, and we usually cook dinner together. However, rarely (if ever) has Wes sought out a cake recipe, initiated its production, found the ingredients, poured the batter, and retrieved the final product from the oven. And this is exactly what happened on Friday when Wes decided we should bake a cake recipe for his blog. The recipe? A Bourbon-Cake-in-a-Jar recipe. Click here to view the recipe on his blog. We had a blast cooking up these lovelies, side-by-side with that new camera I told you about.

Clean jars for baking

Pouring the batter

Yum Yum

All Done!

Bourbon Butter Sauce

Poking holes in the cakes for the sauce to seep into

Topped them with homemade whipped- cream

Which I made, thankyouverymuch.

And we enjoyed every bite

Then shared some with our neighbors.

Our New Camera

Uh oh... such a mischievous look!

And there is the camera
(plus some other cute things that Wes drew in dry-erase-marker).

How could I not document such cute things?

And when we got home from seeing Harry Potter, a family of five was playing nearby:

Wes and I had been talking about getting a DSLR camera for quite a while. Then, when we went camping and we got to play with my Dad's we just couldn't resist any longer. After doing some research we decided on one and couldn't be happier. We've been having fun!!