We are back from a 5 day, 4 night, 1100+ mile trip to Zion, Bryce and St. George. It was quite an adventure, which I will document here, of course. For now, here is a sneak preview:

As you can see, I had some fun playing around with pixlr-o-matic.

As L and I approach eight years of marriage and the kids are at the age where they will start creating long lasting memories, I have been thinking about vacations. Since I like lists and categories, here is one for you. I decided to break the vacations done into week long vacation (6 nights), near week vacations (4 nights), and long weekend vacations (2 nights).

Without further adieu; here you go…

Tier 1
Oahu/Maui (2004)
Big Island (2007)
Big Island (2010)
Japan (2011)

Tier 2
Vancouver (2005)
Utah (2012)

Tier 3
Napa/San Francisco (2005)
Napa/Berkeley (2006)
Napa/Oakland (2007)
Mammoth Mountain (2008)
San Diego (2008)
Monterey Bay (2009)
Napa/Sacramento (2009)
Napa/Berkeley (2010)
Las Vegas (2011)
Monterey Bay/Big Sur (2011)
Napa/San Jose (2011)

I am planning our 2013 vacations, suggestions anyone?

This past Sunday we checked out Aria, an international supermarket that just opened up near Costco. The store is HUGE and carries a wide variety of food. Its main focus is Middle Eastern, I think, but there is also Mexican and “American” food as well. I was excited to find that the bakery has sangak, fresh out of the oven.

As you can see, it is quite large, and is only $1.99. We ate what we could with some hummus and I ripped up the leftovers and put it in the freezer. Just microwave for about 30 seconds and then stick it in the toaster oven to crisp it up a bit for a few minutes.

Unrelated, here’s n giving us a Sunday matinee performance.

Since my first edition of the “College Sports” List, I made two big changes. First I added the San Francisco 49ers, since that is the one professional sports team I follow the most. So I had to change the name of the list to just “Sports” List! I also changed the categories from “first” and “second” most memorable, to “all-time” and recent history. So I could include the best accomplishments of that team historically.

Even though it has been less than three months since version 1, there have been many updates.
#1 Aaron Rodgers was named 2011 season MVP
#2 Jim Harbaugh was named 2011 Coach of the Year
#3 Indiana Hoosiers got to the Sweet Sixteen
#4 Cal Men’s and Women’s Swimming are NCAA champions in 2012
Note: They also both won in 2011 as well.

I am definitely looking forward to the 2012 London Olympics. Only 123 days to go!

Here is the list…
Sports List

You could say I’ve lost my blogging mojo this month. In an effort to catch up, here we go…

We enjoyed Auntie Anne’s free pretzel day. Hope they repeat this next year.

Celebrated National Poundcake Day on March 4 by baking these for a friend that recently had a baby.

Finally finished painting the kitchen/family room.
Before:

After:

Added some decor to k’s bedroom wall:

Tried ebelskivers from Trader Joe’s frozen section. Pretty good. D has never been to Solvang, so we’ll have to go someday.

The kids slept in the tent the night of n’s birthday party.

Curiosity got the best of us and we ordered some free fries from BK. Green ketchup is not so appetizing.

Friends that couldn’t make it to n’s birthday party brought over this yummy cake from Bon Epi–thank you!

Celebrated National Ravioli Day on March 20th (with some of n’s birthday presents in the background).

This month we’ve also been dealing with some difficult losses in our church family. It really reminds us of the brevity of life and to live every day that God gives us for His glory.

On Sunday our church had the privilege of hosting the U.S. Naval Academy Women’s Glee Club. They performed both during our worship service and at a concert Sunday night. Although we typically do not go out on Sunday nights, we came fully prepared with toothbrushes and blankets for the kids. The concert was quite enjoyable and I’m glad the kids were able to go. One of the first songs was Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” aka “Sail Away”. I thought that was such a great song choice and the arrangement was so creative. (I think the next addition to their repertoire should be Christopher Cross’ “Sail Away”, a personal fave). I also liked their rendition of Sara Bareilles’ “King of Anything”. D even wants to see Wicked after hearing “For Good”. (I see it is playing next year at the Segerstrom Center, so maybe we will!)

The Legoland tickets we bought back in December were good for two admissions within 90 days of each other. The first time we went, n was over the 34 inch mark, but not by much. Surprisingly, for a theme park geared towards younger kids, the number of rides for 34 inchers is pretty limited. This time, we measured him at home without shoes and he seemed to be just below the 36 inch mark, so I was not sure if he would make the cut off for the 36 inch rides. Fortunately, he was just tall enough, so we were able to go on a new group of rides. Pretty good, since he is still free until his 3rd birthday, which is next month. The kids’ favorite was Captain Cranky’s Challenge, which n actually went on last time with D. k was not brave enough, but I guess two months has helped her along, too! We were also able to enjoy a mini roller coaster, Coastersaurus.

It was also much less crowded this time, since last time we went during Christmas break. There were virtually no lines except for a really long line (almost an hour) for Sky Cruiser. However, we waited in line right after lunch, so it was probably good to let our food digest.

I liked how there were some details I noticed that I did not pay attention to last time:

Like these bison planters

and this photo op:

This guy’s job was to wade in the water to help boats that were stuck in the Skipper School ride.

It is actually pretty easy to get turned around in the boat since there is no track. This happened to me while I was trying to take this picture of D and k and n was left to steer.

Here’s a picture of the kid-sized sinks in the bathroom which I think I mentioned last time.

From Recently Updated

We were able to do everything we wanted to do in five hours (10-3). I told D that we would probably only go one more time, and that would be when n is tall enough to go on all the rides. Not sure when that will be!

Today is National Baked Alaska Day, but I’m not that ambitious. Instead, I will recap our weekend.

We went to an art-themed birthday party for this cute little 4 year old girl.

The kids had fun working on the mural.

n enjoyed the chocolate cupcakes, especially the chocolate chips

On Sunday, D helped organize an udon luncheon for 300+ people at our church.

(pre-broth)

Our pastor’s niece is in the women’s choir at Azusa Pacific University, Bel Canto.
They gave a concert after the luncheon, which the kids and I enjoyed. It was a good weekend.

Out of the three teams I follow, two had better seasons than in 2010.

Cal Golden Bears were 7-6 in 2011, two games better than in 2010 (5-7).
San Francisco 49ers made it to the NFC Championship game and were 13-3 in the regular season, 7 games better than in 2010 (6-10).

Only the Indiana Hoosiers had a worse season. They were four games worse in 2011 than 2010. 1-11 in 2011, vs 5-7 in 2010.

So not bad overall. The 49ers are back!!. However, the Hoosiers are as bad as ever. But one good thing is that they have no where to go but up!

We had a low key MLK weekend. I was complaining to D that we didn’t do anything “blog-worthy”. D jokingly told me to post about him replacing four smoke detectors (yes 4!). So, here you go:

Too bad I don’t have a picture of him actually installing it. This one in particular, in our bedroom, was difficult because the ceiling goes up higher than a normal ceiling. I heard some sounds of frustration, but it ended with success.

We tried out a new place called Tasti D Lite. Their claim is that it is not ice cream, and it is not yogurt. That leaves me to wonder what exactly it is.

This picture reminds me that we need to cut n’s hair. 🙂

We shared chocolate macaroon and mango yogurt (I guess they do serve yogurt also). The employee helping us was very enthusiastic/friendly, and directed us to a big sign and told us to look at all of their low calorie options. D was more interested in the sign so he could pick out one of the most high-calorie options (the yogurt)!

Have you noticed the trend of menus listing the calories next to all of the entrees? It is supposed to make everyone more health-conscious, right? Well, it has the opposite effect for D. Last week, D scanned the calorie counts on a restaurant menu just so he could pick out one of the more calorie-rich entrees. Oh, to be a runner!

The rest of the weekend was filled with going to the park, researching flooring options and watching television (football for D and Golden Globes for me).