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 :)