Kate & Kris

Two BFFs, too far away.  Kate is in Santa Monica and I am in Chico, we've both lived in each city at one point.  It seems like we are constantly trying to keep up with each other's lives, trying find the time, now unfortunately the similarities.  But the one time we always seem to find the time for texting wars would be when one of us was watching Julie & Julia.  That, or enjoying a little too much wine, crackers, and brie.  Or both, they seem to go hand in hand.

So, it was decided.  Like Julie, we'd both buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.   I love cooking for my family, but will admit for the most part horrible at it.  Katie on the other hand is wonderful at cooking, takes cooking classes for pleasure, and should probably make a career of it.  But, unfortunately LA is more of a going out to eat city, so she doesn't always have the subjects to practice on (like my unwilling 2).

We decided we'll do 2 recipes a week.  Doable.  We're both coming up with our must-try recipes and trying to figure out 2 a week that will go well together and not be too expensive.  I am a SAHM trying to save money and Katie's a 'Champagne Girl on a Beer Budget' (book title idea already taken, bummer).

524 recipes, 2 recipes a week.  That still gives us 5 years to get through this, if we choose to finish.  And nope, won't be blogging about it, just doing it for kicks.  (I'm totally not a food blogger.  Maybe a nice pic here and there, hopefully some good looking food will come from this, but that's about all!)  Happy 29th Kate! ;)

"almost 2,"

and making the front page of the paper! "Jackson, almost 2, of Chico, picks his first peach ever at the Chico State University Farm on Tuesday," yup, I actually do think that's his first peach in the picture.



Inside the paper it reads, "Soon to join the women among the trees was Jackson, who is almost 2, with mom Kristen.  The mom recently acquired equipment for canning, but a lot of the fruit in their two buckets would probably be eaten fresh."

First off, laughing out loud, "The mom..."

Second, yup, I got a canning pot and the first batch turned out horribly.  I'm thinking it's not my thing and the pot might be turned into a beer pot for when the Caldwells teach us to brew our own.  That sounds like WAY more fun!

And third, "Soon to join the women among the trees was Jackson, " ha ha!  Because that's usually the case with our family too, lots of women and just a few boys.

Breakfast Downtown

Since Blair and I found that biking downtown was a surprisingly pleasant ride, Wednesday, Donnie, Jackson, Blair, and I went down for a little shopping and late breakfast.  Tin Roof has a great little outside patio, Jackson can be as loud as he wants, although of course he's always pretty good if there's food in front of him.

I'm not one to usually take pictures of my food, but oh my, I just had to.  This is Blair's drink and morning bun.  We will definitely be making a habit of this.

Jackson fell asleep in the trailer on the ride home.  Both times we rode downtown he did, must be a pleasant ride for him too.

Peaches

Tuesday, Blair, Jackson, and I decided to check out the Peach Harvest at the University Farm.  It was actually a great time!  Jackson loved picking peaches.  There were tons hanging low enough for him to pick.  He even got his picture taken for the paper.  We'll keep a look out for that.
















$1 a pound, nice.  So far we've made peach cobbler and enough peach salsa to even freeze a few batches.  Peach muffins are in store for the morning. 

The Fountain

Miss Blair came into town for a few days to stay with us and relax.  We had a great time!

Monday we rode our bikes all the way into downtown.  As a treat for being such a good boy in his trailer, Jackson finally got to play in the fountain downtown.  He had a great time, but surprisingly didn't soak himself silly like we thought he would.  We got Brooklyn Bagels and headed home.





With Blair,

Ta Da!

Who needs paper?

Golden Boy

On a summer evening.

Ice Cream Truck

Saturday we heard the Ice Cream Truck around 11:30am.  I thought we would ignore it since Donnie wasn't home and I wanted him to be there for some pictures.  That is, I thought we would ignore it until Jackson started yelling, "I cream, I cream," and pointing and running towards the front of the house when he heard it.  How he knew was the music meant, I don't know.  So we figured what the heck.

Of course he didn't know using his other hand to hold the money would make for a better picture,











His first ice cream from the ice cream truck, a Dino Sour Sherbet Push Pop.  It really was that orange.  I have no idea if it's going to come out of his shirt or not.

Caldwells

We just love guests!  And of course were so excited for the Caldwells to come and visit with little Logan.

What a cutie!

Jackson did soooo well with the 'baby' (we could not get him to say Logan, he was simply baby).

Logan and Mitchell



Logan and Amanda with a little vintage play.



One of Jackson's favorite things to do.



Jackson's first time on the slide with Donnie.  Eek!



We had a great few days.  Poolside, Apples to Apples, downtown, on campus with the bookstore, The Brewery (which was a nice change from our regular Bear burgers with guests) getting to do the beer sampler, and Woodstocks.  Thanks so much for coming, we can't wait to do it again!

WPPI

WPPI is coming to Sacramento!  That's so close!  I have never been to a WPPI, little Jackson was too young last year for me to leave him.  I think I would be in awe the whole time.  It would be so amazing to go, learn a ton, and put it straight to use on my photography.

Not only that, but one of my favorite vendors, Pixel 2 Canvas is giving away tickets to the WPPI road trip! If you have been to our new house already, Pixel 2 Canvas did the fabulous canvas of Jackson in our dining room (the picture in our blog header).  The quality is amazing and the red against our red dining room wall look awesome.

Fingers crossed!  Thankfully I have nothing on my calendar next week :)

Weekend B&B

A friend said since we've moved in, our house is almost like a B&B now.  It's great, we do not mind in the least!

This weekend Janet, Susan, Dawn, and Nicole came up.  We did the usual Farmer's Market, downtown shopping, The Bear, swimming, and happy hour.  Thanks for coming up!

Jackson is always so entertained when people come.  The next day he was so pooped, he didn't even make it into his bed for naptime.  And this barely ever happens.





Aww. I can't choose.




He was out for 3 hours like this.  Unheard of.

Dora's Birthday

Did you know today is Dora's Birthday?  I'm sure probably not, and don't worry, you shouldn't.  We do since we watch Nick Jr.  Jackson loves Dora, and finally loves his backpack because of her!  The other night he didn't want to take it off before bed.



And check out Jackson's big bed!  I cannot believe it, he asked to sleep in it the other night and did perfectly fine.  Now that its been a few more successful nights, I think it's safe to say we have a bed sleeper.  Crazy.

Quick Week

This week flew by.  I mean flew. 

We had to come back to Napa for Donnie's dear great aunt Elsie's funeral.  90 years old and one day exactly, I'd say she led a good life.  Err, I didn't bring my camera because I couldn't find the cap, and really wish I had it to take pictures of the military send off.  Such a bummer. 

We did get a little babysitting time for Donnie and I to be able to hit up some of our favorite Napa spots.  Madonna Estate (thank you Brette!), Mustards, Hog Island Oysters (a first for us), and the movies. :)

Col-ow

Jackson has a new setup in our office.   His own little work table/desk right next to ours.  He now asks to color whenever someone's on the computer.  Much nicer than him trying to take over the computer while you're trying to use it. 

And he now knows that the magic printer can pop out fun stuff for him to color,

First Bike Ride

We've had this hitch for what seemed like forever but had yet to set it up.  But today, Donnie (and somewhat myself) got the garage organized.  He put stuff in the attic and now we finally have some room for it to sit in the garage!

Jackson was so excited and crawling all inside of it, waiting for it to be finished.  Finally once he was in, all he had was this catatonic stare, he was so enthralled.


Waving bye!



Donnie and Jackson took the first ride.  I thought I would get a little time to myself.  After a little while, they came knocking on the front door asking if I would ride since they were going to go a little longer.  Jackson said he wasn't going to get out!

More of the boys.

3 Sorority Sisters have 3 boys within 3 months of each other.  Of course the only way to get 3 boys sitting together for a picture is to give them popsicles.







Thank you Lovejoys!

Just a Wednesday Evening.

Soaked and loving it.

All in a day's play

Dirty face from who knows what,



A little bug watching.



Thank goodness Roly Polys are resilient!




And thank goodness for hoseable Crocs.  The scuffs show the love.