Fuddruckers (And #20)

Crossing number 20 off the list.

It's not dinner at Fuddruckers in Portland, but none-the-less it's dinner at Fudds! On our road trip to Texas we didn't have time to stop. So while in Texas, the Mr. and I hit up Fudds with a couple of my old friends from high school. It was so nice seeing them, as the three of us haven't been together in over 10 years!

Erin, Korie & I : 2010

Korie, Me & Erin : 1996

Mojito-maddness - Mojitos and Mojito Cupcakes (And 1 of 10 #21)

While discussing my 29 things to do before 30 list with my sister-in-law, she jumped in on number #21 - Make 10 new alcoholic drinks. She was totally interested in helping with this one. Perhaps it's due to her being 7 years younger...lol. She's still in the "partying" stage of life, however...she might very well be one of the most mature 22 year old's I've known.

Now, I'm from Texas...and I'm a beer kinda girl. Bud Light to be exact. In my younger mind, drinking a mixed drink was for sissy's. I may be a short 5' 1 100lb girl, but I tend to think like I'm a 6 ft, 200lb guy. - Crazy Texas girl.

My sister-in-law Kristen, first suggested a Mojito. I decided to go with her first suggestion because 1. it uses fresh herbs, 2. it looks pretty. It also sounded like a great drink to go with this new dinner recipe. Which btw, it did! 

After dinner, and during a little blog searching, I came across this Mojito Cupcake recipe from Cream Puffs in Venice. As I told Kristen about my find, it was within minutes we realized we had all the ingredients on hand, and decided to make cupcakes! Unfortunately, I don't really recommend the above recipe. It was good, but we altered the cake recipe, as well as the frosting. It was very lime style, little mint flavor before alterations. We'll need to make the recipe with alterations again to perfect it. Until then, here's a photo of our final product.

Date Night (And 1 of 8 #11)

#11 on the list in progress...



Date night #1 of 8.

The Mr. took me to a new restaurant in town, the Fujiyama Japanese Steak House. It was a fabulous dinner, and nice to spend a little quality time together before the upcoming deployment. If your in the area, I recommend the Steak House. Our chef Dominic was great!

Road Trip to Spokane (And #27)

Crossing number 27 off the list.


Thursday we headed out to Colville, just north of Spokane Washington. We planned a visit with some of the Mr.'s side of the family. It's been almost 2 years since our last visit! The weather forecast said rain all weekend, but it still turned out to be a beautiful! Here's the quick weekend re-cap!

We started out on Hwy 2, the scenic route across Washington!

Hwy 2 - heading to Colville

Beautiful rainbow - Hwy 2

An hour and a half into the trip, Cass begun asking the dreaded road trip question - "are we there yet?". We made a stop at this last photo to get out and stretch our legs, and Cass wanted to snap some shots of the rainbow too. It wasn't a very long stop as it was pretty cold! 

Charlie mowing the grass at Grandma's.

The kids and I headed out to enjoy the freshly cut grass and sunshine! As we headed inside, we found Mr. Puppy hanging on the clothes line! At first she thought it was Papa who put him up there, but later found out it was Grandma! haha.

Kaleb and the stubborn, I will dress myself MY way child -Cass!

Mr. Puppy!

A Japanese tag

We then spent much of the late afternoon going through photos and learning about Uncle Charlie's family history. This was much fun, as I love old photos and history!

Cass singing at Karoke night

We enjoyed a Saturday night filled with Karoke in town with family! It was exciting to see Cass get up there and sing a song she learned from preschool in front of everyone - what a brave girl! Kaleb enjoyed "singing" too with everyone! (see video clip above) Kaleb also enjoyed lots of walking around with Aunt Jan - this boy is going to be running in no time!

Aunt Jan walking with Kaleb

Stylish Cass in goggles - ready for a ride!

Charlie and Cass enjoyed a bit of 4-wheeling fun on Uncle Charlie's 4-wheeler this weekend too!

Ruth meeting Kaleb

We then polished off the weekend at lunch with an old friend.

I-90 heading home. Looking back at a wonderful weekend!

29 Things to do before I turn 30

Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake.

My cake - decorated by Cass

1. Weekend getaway with the Mr.
2. Go on a picnic
3. Make a fondant cake
4. Pay for a strangers meal
5. Read 5 books - in progress
6. Get into shape and start running
7. Start a 365 photo project
8. Make kitchen curtains
9. DIY wood-working project
10. Grow an indoor herb garden
11. Go on 8 dates with the Mr. - in progress
12. Take an overnight trip by myself
13. Stay at a bed & breakfast
14. Buy a large (living) indoor plant
15. Visit family & friends in Texas
16. Take the kids to the beach
17. Make both kids a quilt
18. Go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
19. Build a snowman with my family
20. Visit Portland and eat at Fuddruckers - Fuddruckers
21. Make 10 new alcoholic drinks - in progress
22. Go to a Seahawks game
23. Clean out & organize the garage
24. Send someone a surprise
25. Start a family tradition
26. Make my own Christmas cards
27. Take a road trip - Road trip to Spokane
28. Golf with the Mr.
29. Watch the sunrise

My 29 things blog was inspired by Charisse, at Oh Me, Oh My.



As the Mr. headed out to sea - the day before my birthday, he wished me a happy birthday and said, "You're a young 29". Thanks hun! He knows how difficult this year is for me, it's the last year I'll say I'm in my 20's!

Yesterday I celebrated my 29th birthday, it was a fabulous day!

I arranged to take the kids to Seattle and meet up with family, but after such a long week I decided to reschedule. I needed a day of just relaxing, so relaxing is what I did. Cass woke me up with lots of Happy Birthday love, then we had breakfast and started our day - which I let her plan. We made cake, played, drew pictures, painted crafts, took photos, and ordered Chinese take-out! She even washed the dishes!!

The crafts we made. 

The plaques are: Papa, Cass, Kaleb, Mommy! We plan to embellish the birdhouse and the barn soon. We were just too exhausted.

Chinese take-out.

Ordering take-out is a terrible weakness of mine while he's out to sea! Usually I order much more, but with the whole "eating better" thing I'm working on, I figured less food = less left overs = less bad food for me to eat. ha!

Note: Photo taken after we dug in - we were too hungry to plate up and photograph!

After dinner, it was time for cake! As I was out of the room, Cass decided to surprise me with cutting the cake herself! HA. I walked into the kitchen to see this proud 5 year old kneeling on a chair at the table with a butter knife, pie spatula with a huge hole in the middle of the cake! I hear, "look Mom! I cut the cake and I added hearts"! At this point I'm smiling from ear to ear and laughing hysterically at my sweet child! How do you continue to hide the fact that you hate those nasty little valentine hearts with such a passion??

Cake after a 5 year old digs in!

My first photo at 29! Do I look younger yet?

This sweet boy of mine decided as a birthday gift to Mommy, he would start crawling around. Maybe not full on crawling, but it's a good army crawl across a room!