One Week Countdown

We Leave on Sunday! 

Since we're crossing the International Dateline technically we're not arriving till Tuesday morning. So it's less than a week till we leave but a week till we arrive. Either way I'm positively ecstatic and bubbling over with excitement! 

I hope you're all jealous as that is the goal of this post.

Half Marathon aka Is Mrawmin still alive?

Way back in January a bunch of us decided to run a half marathon. Originally Terri decided this would be a grand idea but she conveniently accidentally busted her whole entire knee and could no longer run. Seems suspicious to me but I do believe she's got the the doctor bills to prove it.

 Fast forward to this last weekend and those of us with two working knees got to run it! We all finished too! The running crew consisted of Mom, Bret, Summer, Christian, and Me. The course was gorgeous and weaved its way in and around Thanksgiving point gardens and golf course. We ran past tulips and waterfalls in the gardens and up and down the hills in the golf course. Everyone was feeling great and ready to run except for poor Mrawmin. She by far trained more than any of the rest of us for this race and yet the night before she suddenly came down with a nasty cold. She was coughing up a storm and her voice was practically non-existent. We tried to drug her up as best we could before the race but there is only so much you can do.

After the first four of us finished we waited patiently for Mom to cross the finish line too. I looked at the time because during her training runs Mom had been pretty consistent with her pace.

The time came and went.
We heard an ambulance siren and wondered.
We waited some more.
And just when I was starting to wonder which race committee tent to approach to ask if an adorable brownish blond lady had been carted off to the ER...
I saw this smile rounding the corner!



She made it!

Run Mom Run!!

Later she told us that at the aid stations everyone was so friendly and she'd try to say thank you but as soon as she opened her mouth she'd double over into a coughing fit. I am so proud of her for finishing 13.1 miles and even more impressed with her hard-core ability to do it while barely being able to breath through mucus filled lungs at 4500 feet elevation when she'd been training at sea level! Very impressive indeed!

After finishing she got a massage and still felt pretty broken. We tried to work out some of the soreness by eating at Texas Roadhouse but I think only sleep and resting will do the job.

Grandma Blanks Birthday Cake

My Grandma Blank had a Birthday in April! She requested a Boston Creme Pie as her special dessert for her special day. So of course I made her one!

And wrapped it up in a box.

I let Christian tie the bow on the cake box because his bow tying skills are far superior to mine.

Don't you just adore the ribbon?! 

It was quite tasty!

Sadly I did not take a picture of Grandma eating the cake... So I'll post this recent picture of her instead. She's such a beautiful caring woman and I love her so very very much. Also I love that we both share a great love for fine desserts. Pretty sure my sweet tooth is a shared genetic trait.

 

In order for the cake to lay flat I had to cut off the rounded tops. I couldn't let the delicious cake go to waste so I made breakfast with the leftovers :)

Red Rocks

So I decided to do a pre-Thailand / half marathon post but when I logged in I realized I'd never finished the Red Rocks trip post. Bad Julie! 

Well here you go-

We did a trip to Red Rocks and subsequently the Las Vegas Strip a couple of weeks ago months ago. Red Rocks is only about 20 minutes away from Vegas so we always stay there when we go. Plus then you get to eat at the buffets after climbing, which always makes me a happy girl! We left first thing Saturday morning and straight-lined it to the beautiful Red Rocks. Since we had arrived mid-day we decided to do a bit of cragging at Moderate Mecca and climb a bunch of single pitch stuff. The weather was perfectly warm and sunny, which was a nice change of pace from the colder temps we were used to.

These boys were so psyched to get started!

Heres part of our group sitting around enjoying the sun whilst Christian reads from the guide book and tells us whats good to climb.

As the only two girlies on the trip we had to stick together so as to maximize our girl power and radiate awesomeness to the larger stinky boy group.

Bret.

Me.

Sum.

Bret again.

Christian.

The second day we woke up not especially early and after hitting up the Whole Foods for breakfast climbed a fun multi-pitch called Bird Land. I love Summer's face in this shot!

The last day we woke even later but still managed to get out to the local Egg and I and climb another multi-pitch called Lotta Balls.

Here's me belaying Christian at the first pitch to Lotta Balls while Summer susses out the moves. Lotta Balls is named for the tiny ball like rock formations that litter the middle pitch. You get to crimp and stand on these miniscule balls hoping that none of them break as you climb. Luckily none of them did.

Christian climbing.

Christian at the top of the second pitch belaying Bret and Summer as they climb at the same time. 

Me patiently waiting for my turn.

It took at least 6 tries before I got one picture with all four of us in the frame and me not looking weird.

We had so much fun on this trip! We've already started planning the next Vegas / Red Rocks escape. It was great fun with family and friends and we left with lots of stories that we can never share, plus great looking tans to boot!

In closing I'd like to share the Bret being Bret picture from the hotel window.

Bret's Camera

Here is a photo dump from Bret's Camera. He stopped by the other day to do his taxes and brought the fish he had caught that day. We grilled it up and served it with some lovely fettucini and roasted broccoli. It was super tasty! He had taken a picture of the fish and while we were downloading the picture onto my computer we found these other gems still on his memory card. 

I'm not sure what kind of plants these are but I'm sure Bret knows the scientific name for each of them.

Castleton Tower

Butters Cat after a bath

A day of climbing in Joe's with Sar-ha and I

Sar-ha

I think I'm making farting sounds at Bret cause he was making them at me every time I "exerted" myself on this climb which made me laugh until I fell off.

Christian climbing Good Plantains while Bret belays him

Bret is having a lot of fun with this girl lately. 

I think she's the bees knees!

Post to follow containing pictures of our trip to Red Rocks where the above picture was taken...

Pi Day

I hope you celebrated Pi Day! Yes this is a real thing! Or at least I've always thought it was... although only a couple of people at work knew what I was talking about and I work with a bunch of science peoples. I have no doubt that everyone in my family baked a pie on Wednesday March 14. But did you start it at 1:59? And did you bake 2 pies for 65 minutes at 358 degrees? And cut 9 slits in one and 7 in the other and eat it at 9:32pm.

I did :-)

Potato Head Cupcake

Last week my little friend Si turned 1. He is a very special boy and I really wanted to make him a special Birthday cake that does everything a 1st Birthday cake should. First of all, the cake should be bright as can be. That way when it gets all over, it will make your pictures turn out extra fun. Next, I am rather certain that putting pieces of toys on the cake is a must. So when the cake is all gone, the Birthday boy has something more to play with. Also important is the size. It must be bigger than the Birthday boy's head. Lastly, the cake should taste good. Therefore cream cheese icing is an absolute  must!

I used my giant cupcake pan with Funfetti cake mix. I used two boxes because one never seems like quite enough to fill the giant cupcake pan, plus I wanted extra batter for little cupcakes.

I made a giant cupcake liner using silver wrapping paper by cutting out a giant circle and folding pleats to shape the cup. I frosted the already baked and completely cooled cake bottom before transferring it into the cupcake liner so it would stick to the liner.

I wanted to decorate the cake using cream cheese icing but that can be difficult because cream cheese icing is notorious for melting off your cupcakes right in front of your eyes. I found that keeping the frosting in the fridge for a few hours and then frosting the cake and immediately returning the cake to the fridge kept a nice crust on the frosting. I'll have to try this again in the Summer to see if it still holds up to harsher temps.

Here is the frosting recipe- 

Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

1 C. (2sticks) butter

1 Tb. vanilla bean paste

7 C. powdered sugar

your choice of bright food coloring

After refrigerating the frosted cupcake for a couple of hours I added the Potato Head parts and they stuck in pretty good.

Here is the reason I was so excited to do this!

He loved it! And got a lovely bath immediately following. Thanks to H & B for letting me bake their adorable son a giant Birthday cupcake!