Brian Head

We had a wonderful weekend in Brian Head over Presidents' Day Weekend. We joined forces with two of our favorite couples in Vegas and their adorable babies for a weekend full of good food, great skiing, and an abundance of baby cuteness. We were able to stay at Niels' grandparents' condo, which is conveniently located right across from the ski resort. Here's the bundled up crew:

Niels, Claire, Matt, John, Lincoln, and David

Susie, Claire, Mimi, David, me, and John

The babies all did really well with time change and travel. John got a fever (potentially teething related... we await the verdict), but he still had fun playing with his friends.

We enjoyed playing games, endless conversation, watching movies, and just hanging out.

We rotated covering meals, so we enjoyed authentic Korean bulgogi beef lettuce wraps, Russian borsch, killer blueberry french toast with fresh squeezed OJ, and delicious chicken pot pie. In addition to the good food, the skiing was divine! It dumped snow on Saturday, so the visibility was low, but the powder was unparalleled. I was starting to worry that I had forgotten how to ski, trying to muscle through that powder. On Monday, we rotated couples again (so 2 couples were watching 3 babies and 1 couple was skiing) and the skiing conditions were just perfect. The snow came at the perfect time, so we were able to drive up and drive home safely. Our car was... well... you can see for yourself:

Overall, it was a great trip! Thanks to the Parkers and Jensens for all they did to pull off this fun adventure. We are grateful for such great friends!

Cuisinification of Love

Matt and I like to express love for each other through food. We both out-did ourselves this year, spending an inordinate amount of time making fun, extravagant, culinary masterpieces. We figured we had the time to put in the labor this year, so we both picked items we'd been pining away after for some time. Since I doubt we will be able to recreate such masterpieces often, here's to documentation!

Matt is the grill master. His favorite book is his "Essentials of Grilling" from Williams-Sonoma, and he often flips through the pages with dreamy eyes. The dish he prepared was truly phenomenal, pancetta-wrapped prawns and scallop skewers. Surprise ingredient: the skewers are rosemary branches. Unreal. The scallops were delicious, but the pancetta-wrapped shrimp with rosemary flavoring was divine! So next time you are considering going all-out on the grill, consider these skewers. While he was buying the shrimp and scallops, and because he was already surging with gourmet meat-man testosterone, Matt also indulged us with conveniently on-sale lobster tail! Gilled lobster with basil butter. Yum. He also used the pancetta in an appetizer, pancetta and goat-cheese grilled bell pepper slices. Words can hardly describe... so here's a picture of our delectable feast:

I stepped up to the plate for dessert. I have been lusting after this decadent chocolate mousse layered cake since I bought a best of chocolate magazine four years ago. It is a process to make, however, with bringing ingredients to room temperature, cooling a cake, refrigerating for 6 hours before decorating, etc. Holy goodness it is so delicious! I am very proud of this little cake and will thoroughly enjoy each bite (as it may be a long time before I attempt to make one again!). Note the thin layers and perfect mousse texture:

Quite the scrumptious evening! Matt also surprised me with a hand-held blender, which I am thrilled about for soups and homemade baby food. He figured that would last a little longer than flowers or chocolates. Also, thank you to our wonderful parents and grandparents for the cards and gifts! John absolutely loves his Peek-a-Boo Valentine's book and my stylin' orange chew-bead necklace (yes, a necklace he can comfortably chew on).

Definitely the best Valentine's day I have ever enjoyed! Now onwards to a painfully mind-numbing task of re-setting Quickbooks, my business accounting software. Post about my fun ventures coming soon...

Overdue- Caught in the act

Matt created this video a few weeks ago, and most of the footage is from when John was 6-12 weeks old. There have been a few instances where Matt or I are filming John doing something cute, to realize mid-filming that he is in all actuality pooping. So, here is a journey back through John's first few months (I'm so used to how he looks now, it's kind of shocking to see this and reflect on how much he has changed!), a compilation of "pooper bloopers".