Joshua is 30!

This past week Joshua turned 30! We celebrated on his actual birthday by going out to a fancy restaurant with friends. Normally we would only go the 2 of us and it was a really fun experience to go out with a small group and be all fancy, order a bottle of wine, appetizers, a dessert with a candle. We all felt so adult.

Then over the weekend we threw a big party. There were balloons that lit up different colors, giant #30 balloons, glow sticks, disco balls and constant records playing. It was so great to see so many people we love in one room having a good time. It's my happy place.

We had prosciutto wrapped shrimp, butternut squash mac & cheez, beet salad on a stick (an invention I made that I think is genius, a big ol cheese plate with salami and olives and of course this year donuts galore! Joshua loves donuts, so I decided to do that instead of cake this year. It ended up taking about 9 hours to complete 4 different donuts with 3 different types of dough. I learned a lot along the way and mostly enjoyed it. His favorite was still his go to- pink with rainbow sprinkles. I also made a chocolate frosted with cocoa nibs, bourbon basil blueberry, and sugar & cardamom coated filled with lemon curd. It was fun to watch everyone try to pick donuts and see which they liked best. We didn't end up with very many left over.

I also made a taco piñata, his other favorite food, and filled it with chocolates and mini (plastic) bottles of liquor. I only made it with masking tape but it took about 12 people to finally crack it open. My lunch hour piñata making skills were stronger than I realized.

Joshua had a really great time and we finally headed to bed around 1:30am. Then on Sunday I'm pretty sure I spent the entire day on the couch barely able to move:)

Walter goes to Portland

Two weekends ago we decided to take Walter to Portland. We needed to put some miles on him so Joshua could change the oil to check something, needed to see if the fridge would stay on for days at a time at the correct temperature, wanted to sleep in him 2 days in a row and cook a meal to see if we forgot anything, but mostly we wanted a mini adventure.

We drove about 2 hours toward our destination on Friday night, set up in a state park where we read books and hung out huddled under blankets. Saturday morning we drove into Portland where we got Blue Star donuts, my favorite. They have a blueberry basil and passion fruit cocoa nib that I could eat dozens of! The sun was shining and it wasn't too cold so we walked around a bit, did some baby shopping at some second hand shops. We went to a fancy food court where I introduced Joshua to bimbap bowls and we got fancy soft serve ice cream- his with lemon curd and sprinkles, mine with a berry hard shell and homemade oreos, and walked along the water.

That night we struggled a bit to find a place to stay for awhile but finally nestled ourselves in at a park. We got to cook dinner in Walter for the first time too. We made hot dogs, onions, and mushrooms along with mac and cheese. We spent the night talking about how cool Walter is and playing a few games.

We made some sausage and bagels in the morning then drove off to do a little hike. The trailhead ended up being packed and we weren't feeling super interested so Joshua started driving straight toward the coast. The sun was out again and we were happy but then we found out we could go out and drive on the beach, even happier. It was like the beach was a road, tons of trucks blazing by, people flying kites, digging for clams. We popped open the back, which we hadn't done before, and rolled ourselves in blankets and pillows and did some great people and ocean watching. It was immensely lovely to just sit there all cozy with sun on our faces and cold breeze by the water. Plus we felt so cool driving on the beach. 

Then we headed on home. It was a great mini retreat. Also our fridge worked great!