A Day at Disney!

If you think this is going to be one of those "look at all the awesome stuff we did over spring break" post, guess again. We did absolutely NOTHING over spring break. Seriously not a singe thing!

No, this was actually the day after spring break.

We went to Disneyland, incase you couldn't tell. Upon browsing my millions of pictures... I found that I really enjoyed taking photos of the castle. Perhaps due to my fairytale daydreams, who knows.


Now this is the ball near Space Mountain... kids love this thing. It's like a ride but instead of waiting in an enormous line to ride it you just come up and shove some smelly kid out of your spot. It's pretty great.

Me and Lucy enjoying the front seat of the little rollercoaster in toon town.

I tried to put these in order... I really did.

Does anyone else find it taxing to load pictures up in reverse order?

So this is how were getting to the picture of the girls at the Blue Bayou already. Have you ever eaten there? It's the restaurant that is inside the pirates of the Caribbean ride. It's really cool. My dad used to always take us as kids so now when I think of Disneyland I start to crave the Blue Bayou... it's a very expensive craving. But FYI ~ you can make reservations there up to 60 days in advance, so even though it was the first thing on my DL agenda it was booked by the time i got there. They told me that they would only accept walk-ins if some of there reservations were no shows. It was only by a slim lucky chance that we even got in! I think they turned the people behind us away.


The kids got exactly two character autographs. It was kind of a bummer. This one we got of Minnie Mouse we had to wait in line for about a half hour to get!


It was fun for the kids to get to go through Minnies house though. It was quite cute.




The other kids were too fast to even get a picture of. Here's a primo example...

First you must know that while we were in line for Minnie, Chad was off on a quest for the perfect fast pass. So it was just me and the girls. And when we got out he wasn't back. So we waited in Minnie's backyard near the wishing well. Lucy of course loved Minnies house so she ran back in.

I ran after her...

the other two ran off...

When I came out like 2 seconds later Kassidy and Natalie were GONE! Chad was gone and Lucy was not agreeing to sit in the stroller.

A couple things went through my mind... First, the Oompa-loompa's are going to get us. ( I have this thing with Disneyland where I feel like it's sometime a little too happy... like almost creepy happy. Like if something bad were to happen those creepy little green oompa-loompa men would come out of the woodwork and take us "somewhere"...)

Second... oh my gosh my overprotective mother was right! I need a child locator device! Before we went my mom was saying how she was going to look on the internet for something that you put on you kids (like lowjack I'm guessing???) No no I begged. Please don't do that! I said to her, " I trust myself to watch my kids"

HA

Have you ever seen that show, I think it's called "what would you do?" And they have people walking on a busy street and then suddenly collapse... and no one helps them, they hardly even look at them. About a bazillion people pass before calling 9-1-1. And thats only after a fellow homeless person comes by and removes the beer can from their hand... have you??????

It was a little like that. I saw Chad from afar and yelled out. I LOST YOUR KIDS! and the people around didn't seem alarmed at all... I franticly tell the tale of how Lu ran in and I chased after her and when i came out the kids had disappeared... no reaction from the crowd... in fact I think the people we were standing nearest to were about to ask us to move out of there way. We were blocking their view of Minnie Mouse after all!

And so where where they you ask???


That's easy... the were in line to see Mickey Mouse of course! Where else?? Apparently even though they just waited in a huge line to see Minnie, they had no clue there would be a line to see Mickey.

This is the picture the DL photographer took of them with Mickey... They give you these photopasses. Yeah, not a bargain. They charge $14.95 to download it! What a rip so I took a picture of the picture on my computer screen...how does it look? pretty bad?


I got lots of pictures of the inside of the rides. Of course we had to scare the kids by taking them to the haunted mansion. I think if I was a kid I would be totally scared. A floating head in a jar that talks?



Oh and these are quite the fright! seriously... should kids be seeing stuff like that? Don't think I'm creepy or nothing k, but right after lucy was born I asked Chad if he thought if instead of painting rainbows and stuff on your infants wall you painted really scary pictures...if the baby would be scared of it's room or if he thought the baby would think it was perfectly fine and normal. He said... normal... I said NO WAY! I think you're born knowing some thing are just scary, like music. Some music is just scary.

no, I wasn't thinking of painting creepy images on Lu's wall. I said to please not think me creepy and or demented in any way.

Incase you really miss Pirate's...



Natalie kept saying... look at all the booty! I think she was talking about the jewels... but you never can tell with Natalie!


One thing Lucy was excited for was a ride on a train...

{by the look on her face it was everything she always dreamed it would be}

one of the only pictures of {most} of us. Because in Chad's words "Someone (meaning me) brought the stupid lens!"

I was going to bring the zoom lens but I couldn't find the lens cap so I just grabbed the 50mm. Apparently it's the "stupid lens".

Note to self: bring non-stupid lens next time :)


But seriously how else would i have gotten all these useless picture from inside the rides? There is no flash photography allowed in the rides. The stupid lens is awesome for low light situations!


Oh and lets not forget how awesome it is for taking photos of the magical castle all lit up! If you think this is the last of the castle pictures, think again!


Perhaps you're starting to see what I mean by these are out of order! Watch out everyone! Kassidy's at the wheel!


Oh nevermind! Shes so darn slow the poor lady behind her was scratching her head wondering what the problem was up ahead. I think the problem was that the pedal was really hard to put to the metal...pedal to the medal, get it? So not funny. I had to do the gas for Natalie, otherwise we weren't budging!


Hello Buzz.


Kass and Lu on the teacups while me and Natalie went on Space Mountain. We had to switch off for the "fun rides"


This is a classic Disney photospot, however when we got there it was way too busy so we skipped it. Walking past on our way out though I figured I atleast give it a shot! The important thing is that you can see mickey.... right?

And last but not least, the fireworks! Nobody does fireworks like Disney does them! They were grand. And I had fun taking pictures of them...




ALOT of fun. I actually have many many more pictures of the fireworks but I thought I was stretching my luck putting this many up :)



Isn't that amazing how it looks bright as day??

I thought so! Till next time Mickey!

The house at the end of the cul-de sac.

This is a post that will interest a select few...


Above you'll see the dining room area, that has the new addition of french doors that you can barely see through the boxes of cupboard and whatnots.

It's really werid to see the house you grew up in all ripped up :)


As you can see the kitchen is getting a major overhaul!


Let's see what we can find upstairs...


Very interesting... I like-ski.


Some things that havent (and won't) change.


lori is quite the artist don't-cha think? Imagine waking up to that every morning! But my mom and dad can't quite bear to paint over her artwork...


This I put up special for Stacey because she wondered what M & D had planned for the other side of those french doors! Not that this is self explanitory or anything but try to imagine a lovely pathway amongst all the other lovely things that will be back there. Quite lovely don't you think lovely friends? Do I say lovely too much?


One thing I will for surely miss...

the pomegranate tree.

Hello Amazing Friends

I have to tell you what happened last night because, it's called sharing, and sharing is caring and I care. ALOT.

Last week I made plans to start exercising. It takes me at least a week to work up to these kinds of things.

I was going to go fast walking with my new BFF (don't be jealous your all my BFF's!)

As you know walking leads to talking, especially when your walking with a girl and also you happen to be a girl. Which I am.

So we say things like "doesn't it just suck to make dinner" you have to think of what to make then you have to have the stuff to make it, or worse, you have to go get the stuff to make it, and to top it off you have to pay money for all that stuff. And in my house there's always at least one person without fail, that has to whine about it! Such a chore!

So she says to me, "we should trade dinner ideas!" to which I promptly reply... " I don't have any good dinner ideas"

BUT ... (this is where it gets good)

rewind...

Earlier that day I decided that I should ought to have dinner ready for Chad when he got home from work so that I would be ready to go walk off those cookies I ate for breakfast... and lunch. ( I haven't kicked the holiday sugar habit yet and it's March...not cool) well, I did it... I had dinner {sweet teriyaki pork soft tacos} ready to eat before I had to go, though I did not eat because exercising with a full tummy is no good!

fast foward...

When I got home I was plenty ready for dinner. And guess what!! It was soooo good!! And I said to myself... I'm going to tell Mia that I have a dinner idea to share!! And then I thought... No wait, I will just put it on my blog for all my amazing friends to enjoy!

The problem is I didn't use a recipe... but your good at following along so here we go...

a quick list off all the ingredients I used... 2 pork tenderloins, half an onion, brown sugar, 2 6oz cans of pineapple juice, soy sauce, 3 cloves of garlic, pickled ginger, sambal oelek chili paste, and *tsk tsk* a splash of Jack Daniels!

Pork... I get this at costco, its really cheap. It specifically is "pork tenderloin" it comes in like a package of 2. This is confusing because I tried to explain this to my sister and she was not getting it but finally after a few phone calls I think we got it figured out. its in a package that has 2 sides, in each side there is 2 loins :) following so far?

Use one half of the package... so 2 loins.

Brown the pork in a hot saute pan with a bit of oil, then take the loins out and place in your crockpot. So what you do next is deglaze the pan with some pineapple juice... I am including a picture of some of the ingredients I think you may like to see to know what I speak of.



Deglazing is basically using an acid to get the brown bits and what-nots off the pan. (can be vinegar or lemon juice or something... we're using pineapple juice:)

So you just take one of those little 6oz cans, and pour just enough to where it sizzles and stuff, then pour that along with the rest of the can into the crockpot with your pork.

Take your onion half and slice it into strips... I don't think thats how I mean to say it but other than julienne I can't think of the proper word for it... so strips (or julienne for you fancy shmancy folks)

Saute your onion strips in a bit of oil and when they're well caramelized add alot of brown sugar! If I have to guess I'd say I added like 1/2 cup but it could have been more... this is not critical. and when it gets all bubbly add a splash of soy sauce. Then take that and dump it on top of your pork loins. Then lavishly cover the loins with a layer of brown sugar... like I said I have not kicked the sugar habit... I like candy for dinner too! Dash it with salt and lid it.

Everyone's crockpot is different but I set mine to low (these are some pretty speedy pork loins and I like them s-l-o-w cooked)

Wait like 3 hours...

then when it gets all shreddable you take a little sauce pan and pour one more 6 oz. can of pineapple juice, a long splash of soy sauce (1/8 cup maybe????) 3 cloves of chopped garlic, and a forks worth of pickled ginger... chopped, some chili paste (don't quote me... 1/2 teaspoon? this will make your teriyaki sauce spicy so you just be the determiner of how much goes in k!) ... boil it. turn it down and simmer it for a bit. At the very end add a splash of Jack Daniels (if this rubs you the wrong way... skip it :) again its not critical) but it is gooood :)

Thats really all there is to the pork... you can either toss the shredded pork in the sauce or if your like me and you want to make sure you get maximum sweetness on your pork you can drizzle it right over your pork after you put it on your tortilla!

I made soft tacos with it. I love those bake yourself tortillas from Costco. so it was...

tortilla
shredded pork
heavy sugar drizzle (sauce)
cheese
lettuce
YUM!

The only thing I can think of that would have made these a little extra excellent is some diced mango :)

Which I did not have.

By the way, the pickled ginger is awesome. I used to buy fresh ginger but it always seems to shrivel up and get moldy before I used it. The pickled ginger is always there ready to be used at any ginger whim... you find this at the grocery store in the asian isle.

Also, the Sambal Oelek chili paste can be found in the same area I do believe... however I got mine at Cost Plus. Lee Lee's is another great place to find it, if your in the neighborhood. This is the stuff P. F. Changs mixes in your lettuce wrap sauce. Its quite yummy and may very well be the secret ingredient. Though not very secret anymore. Unless you want the secret ingredient to be the Jack Daniels which I can totally see because you don't want your good mormon neighbors you just invited over for dinner to know that you doused their food in hard liquor!!

And of course those cute little cans of pineapple juice can be found in the juice isle sold as a 6 pack. Near the canned juice not the bottled juices. Typically on the bottom shelf :()

I promise this is easy and tasty and best of all CHEAP!

enjoy.

It's not just the gamma...

Did I ever mention how much I love my mac? I can't even tell you how beautifully it displays photographs. You won't understand unless you see it for yourself.


Theres this little phenomenon called gamma. I learned about this when I was playing around with CS4. Oh and when I say learned, I mean it was brought to my attention and yet I still do not know what to do about it. What I gather from my gamma reading is that my photographs, displayed so lovely on my mac monitor, are displaying dark on the rest of the worlds monitor.


Which makes me sad. So I used my little gamma slider to make these photo's a little brighter for all the world to see. Basically this is my feeble {at best} attempt at helping the world see this mac-a-liciously :)

NOTE: not gonna work...
(refer to title of post)

So if you're on a lovely wonderful awesome mac and these are too bright... I know! It sucks but what can I do? But hey look on the bright side *snicker snicker* (bright side, bright photos... you get it right?) At least you have the pleasure of owning a mac! (and even so... these still look better on a mac) Did I mention how much I love my mac??


I wasn't sure if I had done a proper photoshoot in this little dress. I used that same Tina Givens pattern "The Little Goddess Dress" . Seriously LOVE that pattern!


I am *considering* doing a giveaway next month, in which this dress may be up for grabs :)

Interested??


These are taken at my mom and dad's house, the very one I grew up in. I find it to be quite lovely. But an interesting thing is happening as we speak!


I'ts getting remodeled! Which is kinda exciting and also little sad at the same time. I think it's kinda like how I feel about my current house... I want to sell it, and yet I don't. Because it's pretty small, so it would be really nice to move up... have a bit more space... and in the very same thought I feel like I would miss it. It's our first house! So many wonderful memories here :) Same goes for my parent house. I'm glad they're just remodeling though because the thought of selling it makes me really sad. But all that sentimental stuff being said I think the result will be awesome! They are going all out!!


The economy thanks them for being so brave.


Isn't this so true to life?? Everybody wants a piece of whatever grandma's got!

I figured I would throw in some pictures of the construction (which is further along that this even though these were taken only a few days ago!) for those of you that can't just hop on over because you live somewhere like... oh i dunno, Utah or something!

This is Lucy in the pool!


This is my cute m&d in the pool.


Chad was there just this morning and said the tile is no more...


Perhaps one of my favorite new additions... the french doors :)



I will totally be posting pictures of the end result! So stay tuned...

The day my boogers were black

Dad...

you asked me once what it's like at a reggae festival. Well, when you took us to the drags the other day me and Chad we're noticing the similarities. We watched you and Kass walking through the crowd and said to eachother, "it's alot like this"...


Except instead of all those booths selling hats, pins,and t-shirts with everyones favorite racer on it... there's these booths selling more colorful goods, usually with Bob Marley on it. And also not pins so much as patches and flags...


And instead of the entertainment looking like this...


(pretty good picture huh!) the entertainment looks more like this...


Couldn't pass up an opportunity to post this picture I got of Kymani Marley doing his thing! (Bob's son) Did you know Bob Marley has ALOT of children? Well he does... he had alot of love to give!

And the people walking around look less like this...



and more like this...


I thought I was being sneaky taking this random guys picture, but the look in his eyes tell me otherwise. I mean the fact that he's looking straight at me, you would almost think we were bosom buddies. So, I'm not sneaky, so what. There were plenty of characters at the drags I wanted to get a picture of but the drag crowd is tougher and I didn't want to get beat up over a silly picture. I think weird people would know the exact reason some wimpy white girl was aiming her camera at them!

And the "pits"... not so much this...


as this...



One more thing. The air at the drags smells heavily of exhust while the air at the reggae festivals have more of the "herbal" scents.

There was so much exhaust in the air I was actually a shade darker when I left! In fact my feet were like 100 shades darker. Pitch black to be exact. Note the title of this post :)

Oh and the entertainment is WAY louder at the drags. It was so loud even with the earplugs! Tickled my ears.

Kassidy scored an autograph while we were there! (I can't remember this guys name)


How cool does Kass look sporting her new Ashley Force hat? Note how it matches her Ashley Force shirt. I thought it was cute that she dug it up (seriously... dug... her room is a sty) so she could fit in with the racer types :)


If there's no garbage can right were you stand... it's ok, just make you own!


We parked so far away. I swear it was like a mile away. Gramps and kass took one of these taxi dudes. They didn't take this exact taxi but I had to take a picture of him because he was having so much fun blasting his "Thriller" song. He would come up behind people and they would start doing the thriller dance. Oh how I wished I knew the thriller dance!



This will be a fun game. see blue hair lady? You try to guess...

Was she attending the drags??? or the reggae fest???


Now I know there are a couple people that might already know so don't give it away for the rest of 'em! Oh and there's no prizes either so it's ok to lose.