Happy Father's Day

I didn't get to spend Father's Day with my dad this year. Don't worry, he had a fabulous day with Tyler at the Mammoth Motorcross. I did make him this beautiful card though. This is my second homemade card and I'm already getting better. You can see the distressed edges I mentioned in my last scrapbooking post pretty well in the picture. I hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

Chocolate Caramel Tim Tam Ice Cream

In aniticpation of the first day of summer, I decided it was time to pull out the ice cream maker. I decided to try a new recipe that involved heating the ingredients over the stove (I'm trying to get more and more advanced with my ice cream making skills). I made a chocolate ice cream that was very simple, even with the heating and cooling. Then mixed it up in my ice cream maker and added crushed up Tim Tams (an Australian cookie) during the last 5 minutes. Just before serving I added a caramel swirl. The ice cream was delicious and the perfect treat to kick-off the summer! If you want to try your own home-made ice cream check out my Three Fruit Ice Cream recipe. It is a family favorite and perfect on a hot summer day!

Chocolate Ice Cream

from: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients

2 cups half-and-half
¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Whisk together the half-and-half, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up).

2. Chill mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Fold in any treat your heart desires when it has finished churning (or in the last few minutes of churning).

Mailer's Haven Dodger Game

After the day of scrapbooking, Nic and I went to the Dodger Game with his co-workers. They gave us Dodger Bucks so we pigged out on Dodger dogs, pretzels, churros and hot chocoloate. The Dodgers lost horribly, but we still had a lot of fun!

Scrapbooking

As most of you know, I love scrapbooking! My mom and I went to another Friday night/Saturday crop on June 17th/18th. Tommy came with us and we had a great time as always. We learned a few really cool new techniques, but here is one of my favorite old techniques: chalked edges. Take a chalk ink (I like Fluid Box) and rub it along the edges of your cardstock. This is a quick and easy way to enhance your page. You can also use Tim Holtz distress inks, which give a more subtle aged look. I do this with almost everything now because it gives it that little extra pop. If you try it, I think you will love the way it looks and become just as obsessed with it as I am. I learned a cool new trick this weekend that I used for my Easter Egg Page. I covered the eggs with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (it has to be really wet). Then I covered the egg with embossing powder and flicked some off. Then I heat with a scrapbooking heater until the texture changes. Then I go back over with a different ink color and it only sticks to the embossing giving it a cool "speckled egg" look. For the more advanced scrapbookers, here is a video showing tons of other cool things you can do with the Tim Holtz distress inks. Happy Scrappin! :)

Celena's Birthday

On Sunday, June 12th, Celena, Lindsay and I went to Sicily to celebrate Celena's 30th birthday. This is the 3rd 30th birthday I have celebrated in the last couple of months. It is so crazy that I have friends that are 30, and even scarier that it means I'm going to be 30 soon. Yikes!! Anyways, we went to Sicily for dinner and even got wild and went shopping at Target after! ;) We had a great time! It is so nice that I have friends that live so close and even nicer when we spend time together. We should definitely get together more often. :)

Oh, I almost forgot, my mom got me this texture boutique thing and I made my first card! I'm hoping to get better at it, but I thought I did pretty good for my first attempt.

Mom's Birthday

On Saturday, June 11th, my mom, Tommy and I went out for lunch to El Sol. It was one of my parent's favorite restaurants when they lived in Tujunga. Then we went to watch my cousin Brooke in her first dance recital. It was really fun seeing her onstage and we especially enjoyed all the little kid dances. Hopefully I have a little girl someday so we can watch her on stage! After the show, we went shopping at the Glendale Galleria. I found a pair of jeans for $20 and another pair for $30!!! Such a good deal, right? I was excited the entire rest of the day over that find. :)

That night, we met my dad, Ron, Judy, Tyler, Justin, Nic, Russel, Randy, and Shane at Gourmet 88 to celebrate my mom's birthday. We ordered TONS of food that was all delicious! My mom opened presents, we sang happy birthday, then enjoyed Velvet cupcakes!

Brandon's 30th Birthday

On Friday, June 10th, my mom and I went to Brandon's 30th birthday party (Nic had to work, like always). It was at the Tavern in North Hollywood. They rented out the entire upstairs area, which had a really cool vibe. They had delicious passed appetizers like mini burgers and mac n cheese balls. We all sang Happy Birthday and then they passed out cupcakes. It was really fun!

Strawberry Banana Bread

I had some mushy strawberries sitting in the fridge that I really didn't want to thrwo out. I figured I could still use them for something and then it hit me: Strawberry Banana Bread! I love the flavor combination of strawberries and bananas so i decided to give this a try. I used my favorite banana bread recipe and instead of using 2 bananas, I threw in one banana and a bunch of strawberries. It wasn't as good as regular banana bread, but it was light, refreshing and perfect for summer.

Hangover

After Magic Mountain, Nic and I took Ben to Islands for dinner. Then we went to Menchies for dessert. Once we got back Ben crashed and Nic and I watched the Hangover. I am so glad I watched it again becasue it was WAY finnier the second time. :) On Monday night we took Ben to Chiptole, then we went to see Hangover 2. Of course it wasn't as funny as the first, but it was still very funny! After the movies we went to Coldstones for dessert. Nic and I agreed that we could definitely get used to this whole do fun things on weeknights thing. :)

Magic Mountain

Early on Sunday, June 5th, Nic went to LAX to pick up his cousin Ben who was visiting from Australia. Then a big group of us went to Magic Mountain. We went on Viper, Tatsu, Goliath, Scream (about 3 times in a row), Collosus, Riddler, Tatsu again and we ended the day with X2. Besides the fun of all the rides, we had fun making fun of Ron's constant eating, his teddy bear hugging, we played hand games in line, and even watched a girl have a panick attack/faint after going on Tatsu. Then Ron had to sit in her seat and he said it was soaked with sweat. Gross! We had such a fun day and I am still addicted to X2. It terrifies me everytime. I can't wait to go check out the Green Lantern ride that is supposedly similar to X2 and is opening sometime in July.

Sabrina's Graduation Party

On Saturday, June 4th we went to my parent's house for Sabrina's graduation party. The weather was not what you would expect at this time of year, so most people stayed in the house, but a surprising number of people did brave the pool. We had lots of good food, a gorgeous cake pop and cupcake display courtesy of Lindsay and basketball cake. Sabrina opened her presents and we all spent most of the day chatting with friends.

I am so proud of Sabrina. I can't believe she will be moving to Pheonix and working for the Suns. Way to go Beena!!

Here is a picture of all the jam packed jacuzzi because it was too cold for most people to be hanging out in the pool and my favorite picture from the day. I call it the double pool plank.

Nic and I got Sabrina an ice cream maker because we figured it might come in handy this summer. Not only is it going to be disgustingly hot in Arizona over the summer, but one of Sabrina's favorite things that she begs for me to make whenever she is home for summer is 3 fruit ice cream. I made her a little recipe book too so she has some delicious recipes to try. :)

Tyler's Birthday

On Friday, June 3rd, we went out to dinner for Tyler's 17th birthday. Can you believe he is 17?!? I can't! We had dinner at one of Ty's favorite restaurants, Kisho. We had a lot of fun and and laughed a ton! Some highlights were the "Cake" the "gift card swap" and the "butt pinch" Nic even made it to the last bit of the meal after his b-ball games. :) After Ty opened his presents, and we sang happy birthday we ate my new favorite cupcakes: the fleur de sel from Velvet Cupcakes. It was a really fun evening with the family.

Movie Night

It's been really fun having Sabrina home. Seems like we have been doing stuff almost every night. On June 2nd, we went to Chipotle for dinner then went and saw Bridesmaids. It was really funny. At one point I was laughing so hard I was crying. It has been really fun doing stuff on "work" nights. I think we are going to have to try and do things like this more often.  

Usher Concert

On June 1st, I went with my sister, Allanah, and Lindsay to the Usher concert. We grabbed dinner at one of my faves Granville first then went over to Staples. I met up with Ashley quickly before the show started, which was fun. The concert was great! Usher, who despite trying too hard, in my opinion, to replace Michael Jackson, was very entertaining. The dancing was great, which was to be expected and the music was fun too. Especially when he did a medley of all his old school songs. I'm apparently getting to that age where I like an artists "old stuff" So frightening! haha. Anyways, it was a really fun night.

Dinner at Rusty Pelican

On our way back from San Diego we stopped at Bloomingdales to spend the last bit of money we had from wedding gifts. After that we thought it would be fun to grab dinner at one of our all time favorite restaurants, Rusty Pelican. Since we were celebrating our anniversary and that restaurant is one we have spent many previous anniversaries and our engagement night, it seemed like a perfect idea. We got our usual calamari appetizer and the pesto salmon (our wedding entree was inspired by this dish). The food was amazing as always and it was so relaxing to sit on the water spending time with my baby. Once we got back to Valencia we grabbed frozen yogurt at Menchie. It was an absolutely perfect weekend!!

Anniversary Weekend in San Diego

Nic and I spent Memorial Day weekend in San Diego. I've been down there tons of times before, but I've never really done all the touristy things and Nic was dying to go to the zoo, so it seemed like the perfect place to spend our holiday weekend. We drove down on Saturday morning, checked into our hotel and went straight to Seaport. We walked along the water, then stopped in for lunch at the Fish Market. We had a fantastic table right on the water and the food was really good. Then we checked out the USS Midway and strolled along the waterfront enjoying the gorgeous weather.

That afternoon, we went to Point Loma to check out the Lighthouse, Cabrillo National Monument and stunning coastline. It reminded me a lot of the Great Ocean Road coastline in Australia (minus the 12 apostles). From there we went to Mission Beach, which had a really fun atmosphere. From there we went to Ocean Beach, which was rather artsy and quite interesing. The sun was just starting to set once we got to the beach and it was quite beautiful. We walked back up the street and drove over to sunset cliffs, which we heard was the best sunset viewing. It was spectacular!!

That night we went to a Mexican restaurant near our hotel then walked around the Gaslamp Quarter. It was a very fun and jam-packed day!

On Sunday, we went to the zoo. It was so much fun! My favorite exhibit was the gorillas, they were so entertaining and interacted with us, which I just loved! I could have been there all day, but it is a huge zoo with tons to see. Another one of our favorites was seeing a momma hippo with her baby. SHe was giving him lessons like pushing him around under water and helping him up for air. I have never seen a hippo do anything besides stand around so I was super excited about this. We also got to see soo many other animals and Nic got some incredible pictures. We had such a fantastic time! After the zoo, we went to Balboa Park for a little bit and just walked around taking in all the beautiful architecture and rose garden.

That night we met Aunt Susannah, Will and Sam for dinner. We went to this place called Pizza Nova right on the water. It the food was really good and it was fun to spend some time the the Hick family. After dinner Nic and I went to Little Italy. We walked along the street and got some gelato. It was delicious and definitely one of my favorite areas.

On Monday, Nic and I went to brunch at the Mission. I got the hugest french toast ever and Nic's pancakes were huge too! After breakfast we drove over to Old Town San Diego. We walked around and checked out all the old fashioned shops. Then we drove along the coast past all the beaches including Pacific beach. We checked out La Jolla, which seems to be a popular Memorial Day beach spot because it was packed!! Our last stop was the Torrey Pines Golf Course for Nic. We definitely fit a lot into the weekend and had such a great time! I can't wait for our next Minication.

Our 3rd Anniversary

On May 24th, Nic and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. I was pleasantly surprised to get roses delivered to work! :) I have always wanted something sent to work and was beyond thrilled. (Nic says he waited all this time so it would be unexpected...I'm not sure if he really made me wait intentionally, but it worked. I was completely caught off guard!) I had to sneak and take photos because they were just so beautiful (shhh! don't tell my boss). The first photo is right away and the second is a few days later after they fully bloomed. Aren't they gorgeous!?! They looked so beautiful in my office all week!!

That night we opened gifts. Nic got me a cushiony kitchen mat and I made him an album of all our anniversaries.

Then we went to Roys in Pasadena for dinner. They really went above and veyond to make us feel special. Everyone who worked there kept wishing us a happy anniversary, they dropped a Happy Anniversary note off at our table, gave us a complimentary dessert, took our photo, and sent the photo home with us in a frame! Pretty impressive, right? Not only that, but the food was amazing! If you have never been to Roys you must go! It is fantastic! We had the canoe apppetizer for 2, which was fun because we got a little bit of everything. I got a white fish in this delicious creamy sauce and Nic got the surf and turf. The lobster was delicious and came on top of this pureed pepper mash that I am somewhat obsessed with and Nic said the filet was one of the best he has had in a really long time. Then for dessert, in addition to our complimentary dessert, we of course got the chocolate souffle. It is impossible to go to Roys and not get the souffle. Yummy! Oh, and I almost forgot Nic's favorite thing about the night....tvs in the bathroom. The nba playoffs were on, so as you can imagine, Nic had to visit the bathroom rather frequently. ;)

I really can't believe it has already been 3 years. It still seems like our wedding was just yesterday. I think I fall more in love with Nic every day and feel so lucky to be his wife. I'm truly blessed to be married to such a wonderful man. 

Tri Delta Weekend in Santa Barbara

On Saturday, May 21st, I drove out to Santa Barbara for a weekend with my sorority sisters. This trip was long overdue and Rebecca did a great job planning a perfect weekend. We had a fantastic time! On Saturday, we went wine tasting, out to lunch, out to dinner, and out dancing. On Sunday, we went to breakfast, walked along the beach, and layed out by the pool chatting. The weather was great and the best part was getting to spend time with so many of my sisters. I made some of my best friends in college and am so happy I was able to spend an entire weekend with them. It felt just like the good old days. ;) I can't wait until next year's trip! I'm so excited we are making this an annual thing! Delta Love!!

Chicago

Nic went to Chicago for work May 17th-19th. Since I have never been to Chicago and didn't get to tag along on this trip, I decided to force let Nic write this entry. :)

Crystal is currently holding my wrists, forcing my fingers on to the keyboard…. Not really, but a pretty dramatic opening to my first ever blog post. I anticipate the fact I am blogging will create widespread fan fare throughout the online social world. This success will not come without cost. I will undoubtedly face much criticism from any of my friends reading this. Most of this will center around questioning of my manhood.

Before moving on to Chicago, I would like to praise Crystal. She has done a really good job with this blog. It is really cool to be able to look back at all the events in our lives over the last year or so. I think it will be even more enjoyable to look back on in the coming years. I know she puts a lot of time and effort in to this, and I definitely appreciate it. It also makes me realize how lucky we are, and how many great things we get to see and do.

I did go to Chicago for a couple of days in May for work. I attended a trade show with two other guys from Mailer’s Haven. We left on the 6:45am flight from LAX on the 17^th. Had a direct flight through to Chi Town. We went directly to the convention center to set up the boot. The convention center was at the end of Navy Pier, so we grabbed some food on the water. Then we went and checked in to the Double Tree hotel. We each had our own hotel room which was nice.

Later in the day I met up with Crystal’s friend Amy who splits her time between LA and Chicago. She is in a management position on the NBC show Judge Mathis. I went over to the studio to meet her and checked out some of the filming. It was pretty interesting, especially watching the idiots they get in there to take part in the cases. I ended up actually sitting in the audience for one of the cases. It was a black couple fighting over custody and child payments of their kids. Amy got a me a seat in the very front row and she made sure the camera man got me some air time. I was basically the only white person in the audience so I won’t be hard to miss. We will keep you posted on the date it airs. After we grabbed some food and drinks at a Mexican restaurant where she knew the owners.

We had the first day of the trade show on the 18^th. It was a new experience for me and got to meet some potential new clients. It was game two of the Eastern conference finals between the Bulls and Heat. The week prior I had been trying to tap into my basketball network to see if I had any connects to tickets. I had a few leads, but nothing actually came through. I ended up meeting Amy again after the trade show was done and we watched the game at a pub. It was a pretty cool atmosphere and all of the locals were really in to the game. The Heat ended up winning so that deflated things a little.

We worked until about 1pm on the 19^th, packed up the booth and headed to the airport. I had really wanted to eat some Chicago style pizza, so on the way I made sure we stopped and found some. We ended up eating at Giordano’s Pizza. It takes about 35 minutes for the pizza to cook, so I was getting a little nervous we were cutting it close to make the flight. It ended up working out ok, and the pizza was bomb. I even had enough to take 2 pieces home on the plane. When I got home at about 11:00pm PST Crystal and I ate them.

It was a short, but busy trip. Sorry I didn’t elaborate more on the work side of things, but that part of the trip was not very exciting.

I definitely want to go back and visit with Crystal as she has never been there. It is a cool city.

Well there is my first blog entry. I kind of feel like a kid in 2^nd grade. You know when you had to go to school on Monday and write about what you did over the weekend…

Until Crystal forces me to do this again.

Yours Truly,

Nic.

Survivor Finale

On Sunday, May 14th, Celena and I went to Don Cucos with a bunch of Actonites to watch the Survivor Finale! It was very exciting that Natalie had made it to the finale and it was fun to gather with all the people we watched the premiere with to watch the last episode. Natalie did so great and eventhough she didn't win we are all so proud of her! Wednesdays just aren't going to be the same anymore.

Lindsay's Birthday

On Saturday June 14th, Nic and I went to Lindsay's 30th Birthday Party. Lindsay did an amazing job! It felt like we were at a wedding. She had a candy table, dessert table, dj, and decorations. She thought of everything down to the tiniest detail. Tons of friends that I haven't seen in years were there, which made it extra fun. We even got to witness Lidnsay dancing on her gogo box, which I think is a good indication that it was a Very FUN party! Happy Birthday Linds!!

Weekend Crop

On Friday May 13th-Sunday May 15th my mom and I went to a 3 day crop. We had a great time and I am really glad we have started to make this a monthly thing. Not only has it helped me get back into scrapbooking, but it means I at least get to spend time with my mom once a month. :) Here are some of the pages I made over the weekend:

Movie Night

On Thursday May 12th my mom and I went down to Dana Point to visit my papa. He has been in the hospital with all sorts of problems. We went down there expecting the worst, but we were pleasantly surprised when we saw him. He looked pretty good, was laughing and joking around, and even got up and walked at one point. I sort of wished we had taken a picture with him, but I don't think he was in the mood for a photo shoot.

That night we met up with Rachelle for dinner at Gourmet 88. We all read the book Something Borrowed, so we had a little discussion about the book over dinner and then went to see the movie. It was soooo good! Not as amazing as the book, but really, really cute and quite funny. If you have not read this book, you have to!! Go get it and Something Blue because the second you finish Something Borrowed you will want to jump right in to Something Blue. Emily Giffin is an incredible writer and has become one of my favorites! Then grab some girlfriends and go see the movie, you won't be disappointed!

Mother's Day

On Sunday morning we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the hotel. Then my lucky mom got to spend most of her mother's day on airplanes. Southwest even gave her a free bloody mary and card! I know everyone is jealous! After we landed, my mom had to drive up to Mammoth by herself....can you say Best Mother's Day ever! I must admot though, we did have a good laugh about it and it can't be worse than the time the boys took her on the bike ride from hell, plus I think seeing Beena graduate was the best gift of all. :)

When I got home, Nic and I decided to grab dinner at New Moon. It was delicious and they even gave me a $5 off coupon for Mother's Day. I think I will have to use it to take my mom there for the Mother's Day meal I wish she could have had with us. I love you Mom!!

Sabrina's Graduation

On May 6th, the tripod left for Pittsburgh for Beena's graduation. We arrived pretty late at night so Beena took us straight to Primanti Bros. for dinner. We ordered fried pickles, which I wasn't particularly fond of at first bite, but quickly became obsessed with. They are so addicting. We had a great time catching up with Beena.

On May 7th, we got up bright and early to go to Sabrina's graduation. We were so proud of her! I'm so glad I was able to be there for her. After the graduation we caught up with Sabrina's friends and of course took tons of photos. Then we went back to the hotel for a little nap and more fried pickles. ;) That night we went into the city for dinner. We rode the Duquesne Incline up the hill to dinner. We passed deer on the way up and the view was just stunning from the top. We had the most incredible view at dinner. We even saw a firework over the water from the Pirates game. After dinner we drove around a bit before heading back to the hotel.

On Sunday morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel before heading to the airport for the trek back home. It was a lot of traveling for the short amount of time we were there, but it was totally worth it! We had the best time!!

Cinco de Mayo

In my true holiday fashion, I decided at the very last minute that we needed to do something to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. On my way home from work, I stopped and bought some stuff to make a few things, then had Nic order food from la Cocina, which we had been wanting to try for a while. We made margaritas and elote (mexican corn on the cob) and ate fish tacos and enchiladas from La Cocina. We sat outside and enjoyed our delicious meal. I was also planning on making margarita cupcakes, but didn't have the energy, so I'll have to save that one for another occasion.

Survivor Dessert

In honor of the next to last Wednesday survivor I made one last dessert. This time I made oreo rice krispy treats with gummy worms. They were delicious!! Two of my favorite things combined into one delicious bar. Then to top it off, I dipped them in white chocolate and crushed oreos...they were heavenly. It was a great treat to enjoy while watching Natalie get one step closer to the Survivor finale!