Getting our Hike On

We decided to get up to the mountains before the summer's over and do a short hike with Laina (while she still doesn't weigh too much).

We went up to Meyer's Ranch Park (which I picked because it was in the mountains, but not too far of a drive). It was a gorgeous day, a little warm (low 80s in the mountains) but lots of shade, so we loaded up the baby and some sandwiches and started a-walking....



The first half was a little rougher than we'd expected (since its a loop, you basically hike uphill the whole first half, then downhill the second half) and Laina started getting grumpy about halfway through, but then we discovered we could appease her with Kix, and she was content until we stopped for lunch




It was a pretty successful trial run at the family hike... hopefully we'll get more opportunities to get out this summer and enjoy the Rockies...

Buckwheat Pancakes with Blueberries

We went hiking this morning (I'll let Jay do that post w/pics and all), and I made us a delicious, hearty and healthy pancake breakfast to fuel us up for the excursion. These aren't your ordinary from a mix pancakes. No, they are my very own recipe (modified from a couple previously tried and not quite to my liking recipes) for buckwheat pancakes with blueberries.

The whole wheat and buckwheat are key to the recipe and provide complex carbs for long-lasting fuel. The blueberries make it delicious and add that healthy anti-oxidant boost. The agave nectar is a natural sweetener that I discovered from the Mama Manifesto where they have recently been discussing sugar and alternatives to using the refined white variety. I bought the Agave nectar (or syrup as some call it) from the local health food store. It was by the honey. It sort of looks like honey and comes in a similar jar. It is thinner though and dissolves easily in cold drinks (or in recipes). It's sweeter than sugar so you need less, which is good! I've only tried it in this recipe so far, but I think it came out great. I will definitely be trying it in more things.

Buckwheat Pancakes with Blueberries
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon agave nectar (or 2 tbs sugar)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
12 oz fresh blueberries, rinsed

Grease and preheat griddle to high. Stir dry ingredients together in large bowl. Add milk, eggs, oil, and applesauce. Mix well. Add blueberries and mix gently. Pour by 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle. When air bubbles begin to break and edges begin to set, flip pancakes. Cook another minute or so until lightly browned. Makes about 20 pancakes (no, I didn't count them!). Serve warm with extra applesauce or agave nectar (or syrup, if you must), and top with lemon-vanilla whipped cream. (To make the cream, chill mixing bowl and beater. Beat heavy cream, vanilla, agave nectar, lemon juice and lemon zest until soft peaks form. I used about 1/2 cup of cream, 1/2 teaspoon each of vanilla and lemon juice, 1 teaspoon agave nectar, and a dash of zest.)

Enjoy!

"Dere ye go" and other hits

Put a baby and a drum machine on a loop cycle together and what do you get? Musical awesomeness...

I decided to let Laina loose on the drum machine in the basement, and she didn't dissapoint! She came up with a better one before this (almost sounded like a Radiohead song), but all I had was my cell phone video. So I had her start over and come up with another one... the result was "Dere ye go"... some kind of weird new electronic style baby music...




The next day, Jenna and I were selfishly playing some "Rock Band" while Laina entertained herself with whatever was around in the basement, then, since she looked interested in the drums, we decided to let her at it... Here's a video of her playing some Weezer

The Not So Goods

That's the name of our new 'band'... the one we started when I got the game ROCK BAND for my birthday!

If you haven't heard of 'Rock Band', its a game for the ps2 (also for the newer systems, but we're cheap) that comes with a set of electronic drums, a guitar 'controller', and a microphone. You basically 'play' in time to a bunch of scrolling 'notes' (similar to the games Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, etc.).

We played it at Jenna's friend Kaci's housewarming party a few weeks ago and loved it, so it was a natural for a birthday present (thanks Mom & Dad for the birthday check!)

Here's Jenna playing some drums in our new setup in the basement (where my real guitars used to be):


We've been trading off playing drums (which are pretty tough when you start getting into the "hard" and "expert" settings) and singing & playing guitar (which is a little more of a challenge than just one or the other, and pretty much impossible if you don't already know the song)

Its pretty fun, especially if you can get four people together (including bass - for which we've already bought an extra controller) and have a whole band... Everyone can play on their own difficulty level, so you can have fun pretty quickly... Its kind of loud (though not nearly as loud as an actual band would be), so we had to move down to the basement so as to not disturb Laina with our intense Rock & Roll sessions...

I typed in "Not So Good" as the band name when I started it, not realizing that after every song when it tells you how you just did, the first thing it says is the band name... in our case "Not So Good"... its a little disheartening at first...

Anyway, we could use two more members... who's in???

Days of Summer

When you take too long between posts, you end up having to recap the last little bit... So here's some highlights of our Fourth of July weekend and my birthday...

we did some swimming

we played some cornhole on the boards I made (and bags Jenna made) with the Heldts on the fourth (along with barbequing some tri-tip) while the kids played in the baby pool. I didn't take any pictures of the cornhole set or anything else that day, so I found this random one of some intense cornhole tournament

we went to the zoo

laina worked on her abs


and we went to see The Constantines for my birthday. One benefit of preferring fairly obscure bands is that I was able to decide at 6pm on the trainride home that I wanted to go see the show, then we procured a post-bedtime baby-sitter, had dinner, and showed up at 9pm, walked right in and for only $12 each we saw a quality rock band with only about 80-90 other people (max) while sipping some delicious Beamish...

So there's the last little bit. Stay tuned for the unveiling of my other birthday present.... due to arrive today!

Vacation

We arrived home Monday from our wonderful vacation to Holden Beach, NC! What a fantastic trip. The beach house we rented with 2 other families was right across the street from the beach access and was perfect! I was very impressed with the east coast, having not been there before. The water was soooo warm and there were no crowds - I have been completely converted to an east coast girl!

The week went so well, in spite of having 3 families all living in the same house. The house was big enough that we didn't feel cramped, and I guess we're all just such good friends that no one really got on anyone else's nerves, as far as I could tell, anyways. What a blessing to have such good friends and to still be in touch with them after 5 years (I think) since we all met back in CA!

Some of the fun, besides hanging out on the beach, was playing Mexican Train Dominoes, playing Corn Hole (see the Heldt's blog for more on that), collecting shells with Laina on the beach (Jay will have to post more on that as it was more of a father/daughter activity), and my own personal highlight of the vacation....reading the first book in my new found favorite series, Twilight. I won't get into the details here, but let me just say that these books are more captivating than anything I've read in a long time, maybe more so than anything I've read, ever. I finished the first book in 2 days (Tara brought it to the beach for me) and passed it off to Rachel who finished it faster than me. Before we took off on the flight home on Sunday, I purchased the second book and finished that by Monday at 3pm. Then I happened upon the 3rd book at the grocery store on Monday afternoon and just finished that one before starting this post. Now I'm in trouble because there is one book left in the series, but it doesn't come out until August 2nd. What's a girl to do???

Alright, enough about books...on with the pictures from the trip.

a bit windy but we got a decent "self portrait"


The awesome view from the family room upstairs in the beach house
(we saw dolphins from this view one of the days!)

Laina loved playing in the sand

and floating in the super warm ocean!

Words

I'm not really one for keeping track of baby "milestones" and charts and measurements and parent bragging rights and all that. In fact, it's quite detrimental to Laina's baby scrapbook, which I haven't worked on for some months. Luckily I do remember that her first tooth came in at 11 mos and the first time she crawled forward was also 11 mos.

I do not, however, remember when her first word was. I think it's because she babbled so much and it's hard to say when she first started actually meaning something by her "mamama" and "dadada". Well, Laina talks A LOT now. She has so many words it's crazy. I stopped counting before her one year birthday (well maybe I never really even started). At her one year doctor appointment I had to think fast and count them up for the pediatrician who asked. She had at least 10 I could think of on the spot.

Anyways, at the encouragement of a friend, yesterday Jay and I sat and tried to think up all the words Laina knows. Well, here certainly is my bragging right as a parent. Laina doesn't walk, doesn't stand by herself, in fact, she barely pulls herself up to her knees. But she sure does talk! Are you ready? Here it is...she knows at least 83 words...yes, eighty three! Actually, I know there is more because after we made our list we kept thinking of more. And just this morning she pointed outside to the kiddie pool Jay filled yesterday and said "pool", which isn't on the list. Plus she also says part of the alphabet, with help. I think Jay actually got to the end with her once or twice, but I can only get to about J with her. The long list we scribbled on scratch paper is definitely going into the baby book! There is no way we can keep up with this kid! She is learning so much everyday.

Some of her most notable words are "help", which is one of the first ones I taught her because I didn't want to hear the whining when she needed something, "dirty", "turtle", and "Laina". She also has a few phrases or short sentences, including "brush teeth", "all done", and "butt day" (which you may remember from a previous post).

And, just because, here's a cute picture of Jay blowing bubbles with Laina. Oh, there's another one, "bubbles," that's not on the list...


So there you have it, a post bragging on the genius of my baby. I promise it won't happen too often.