Throwback thursday | Sept 2016

  I set out to do a quick throwback to last week, since I never shared what went on and I am still recovering.  Then I stumbled upon a whole lot of pictures that I thought I might as well just throw in with this random photo dump.  I am SO behind on pictures...organizing and creating my yearly photo book.  But I'm not giving up, I'm just going to wait for that quieter/slower season.  HAHA!  Enjoy this month or so of throwbacks.

  A few weeks back Mike and I went to an amaze concert in San Jose.  Our first favorite band was playing alongside Mat Kearney who is definitely up there amongst our our other faves.  I mean, hello?!?!  When are we ever going to get to see both of them in the same night ever again?  What a treat!!

Needtobreathe.  Last saw them in SF in 2014.

Hide and seek in the Rose Garden with friends.

Joel's birthday and that smile!  Just can't get over it!

Our plump satsumas ripening as we speak!  Our fave tree!!!!!!

Facetiming with Layla.

Morning dates with Daddy.  These two.  Melt my heart.

  Expanding my chinese culinary expertise.  Our family's new favorite addition!  This is straight from Cook's Illustrated that I get free electronically from the library.  So awesome!  There are about 5 recipes I want to try from this particular magazine. If you ever feel like you are twiddling your thumbs and need something else to occupy your time, you should check to see if your library offers e-magazine subscriptions.  You have to download an app, but to get Cook's Illustrated, I'll gladly oblige!  I also got smart this week and figured out screen capturing my fave recipes so I don't have to go into the app and remember which magazine which recipe was from.

  I am finishing up the last couple stamps for my 2017 calendar.  Way further behind than I'd like to be, but way further along than I was last year.  Oh my...

  Giggliest, happiest guy at his 5 year well check.

  Hannah went on her beach trip last week.  She left on Joel's birthday for TWO nights OVERNIGHT BY HERSELF with her classmates.  Talk about big time stuff going on in our house last week.  Oh man.  I didn't think I would get emotional saying good-bye to her, but I totally was!  Oh gosh, my sweet girl.  She had an absolute blast and did great upon her return.  I wish I could share a couple other pics of her with her tent mates, but I am abiding by the district policies here!!

    Also on Joel's birthday (of course it all was on the same stinkin' day!), Calvin's class went on a field trip to the a state park in the Santa Cruz mountains.  We learned all about the redwoods and even got to go inside of one.  Did you know that redwoods heal themselves?  Anyway, I was one of the chaperones on the trip and everything was going great until lunch time when I was getting attacked by wasps!  They wanted my lunch and I couldn't even sit down there were so many around me.  They finally went away and I sat down to finish.  I wasn't paying close enough attention because next thing you know I am biting into my sandwich and I thought I was biting into glass.  I was stunned for a second thinking, what is that, when it kept stinging me!  3 or 4 more times, once on my tongue and the others on my cheek.  When I finally realized I needed to pull out whatever was in my mouth and when I did, a wasp came out!!!  Can you believe it?!?!  I was in shock!  Once I told one parent, the news spread like wildfire.  Fortunately, we had kids' benadryl in one of the med kits we carry for field trips, so I doubled up on it and it immediately stopped the swelling.  It hurt like crazy on the way home, but other than a little bit of itchiness on my face the next 2 days, there were no problems.  What a day!!  I was so ready for that crazy day to be over, but it was Joel's birthday so I wanted to make it special too.

  Just over a week later and I still feel like I am recovering from such an emotional week last week.  SO much fun, excitement, happiness, energy, big events...  I am craving some space and time to unwind and regroup, but that doesn't come so easy these days.  The good news is that I think that we'll have some of that this weekend.

Happy thursday!