A new skill!

For Kevin's 26th birthday, I gifted him with a sushi making class. That was waaaaay back in March, and last night, we finally had the chance to cash in on that gift. PCC offers many different cooking classes, including sushi rolls made easy. It was incredibly fun, and really informative! I had made sushi before with my dad, though more often than not I simply watched while he made them, then enjoyed the fruits of his labor. Not anymore, I say! I am a sushi making machine!

It is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The teacher had lots of great info and stories. He learned how to make sushi when he was living in a Buddhist monastery, which is pretty unique! He often asked why things were done the way they are, and the monks response was inevitably "It's tradition!" So, he showed us traditional ways, and then showed us the shortcuts that make sushi rolling a much easier and pleasurable experience!

My rolls: First we learned with the nori on the outside, then we learned how to make inside out rolls! I put avocado, carrot, scallions, baked tofu, wasabi, and cucumber in mine. The inside out rolls had black sesame seeds on the outside.

Kevin added cilantro to his, plus everything I used. We felt very proud of our rolling skills, and they were scrumptious!

The proud owner of a perfectly rolled sushi! I took that one home and had it for lunch today at work.

Kevin gets ready to dig in, yum yum!

We are very excited to continue making sushi, and would love to have a sushi making party where we can teach you how to make them! Yay for a new food to make!

Denny Creek to Lake Melakwa Hike

On Saturday morning, Kevin and I headed up to Snoqualmie Pass to go backpacking on this great trail. It heads up Denny Creek, passing a couple of lovely waterfalls, up to Lake Melakwa, which is a picturesque alpine lake situated in valley with peaks on three sides. It was truly gorgeous. It is supposed to be a pretty popular hike, but we encountered very few people on the hike itself, and while there were a handful of day hikers about, there were only a couple other folks staying the night there like us. The hike up was nice, if a little bit of a puffer. It was about 4.5 miles with a 2300 foot elevation gain. Fortunately, it was totally beautiful scenery, and Kevin and I had lots to talk about as always, so that kept our minds off of the grade!

Testing out my new sleeping bag! Super warm!

Getting ready to hit the trail, bright and early!

The trail took us right underneath I-90, which was a very odd experience!

About a mile in is this natural waterfall that is great for kids to play in. It looked fun, but we didn't get wet.



Stopping for a snack on the trail

A good sittin' log!

He's the incredible shrinking man!

Arrival on Lake Melakwa, how gorgeous!

Home sweet home!


I immediately found a reading nook, and parked myself in the fleeting sunshine!

The cold set in

Look at him pumping yummy creek water!

Cooking dinner...well, all I really did was stir, but who's counting?

Yum!



Hanging the bear bag

The next day we went on a little day hike to try to get up to the saddle between the peaks seen below. Unfortunately, we didn't make it all the way as the trail basically disappeared from beneath our feet. But it was fun climbing over rocks!


Kevin decided he had to jump in the crisp alpine lake. He couldn't resist. Crazy man!



By the way, that was 4 different takes. He jumped in 4 times!!!

We headed out in the late afternoon after a great afternoon of reading and relaxing in the glorious sunshine.

It was a great hike, and we can't wait to go out again. Now that I have my snuggly warm sleeping bag, we're thinking we'll try to get one more trip in before winter! Woohoo!

Another nephew visit!

So Monday Kevin and I headed up to Bellingham to celebrate his parents birthdays, who were visiting Adam and Erin for the weekend. It was nice to get to see everyone, as we've been busy and haven't seen everyone at once since the wedding...which by the way, today is our 1 month anniversary! Hooray!

Anyhow, Corbin of course was the real center of attention, as he is wee and beautiful and smells like baby, and squeal/laughs a little, and has learned how to roll a bit, and is just all kinds of delectable that aunties have such a hard time resisting! I even got to cobabysit for a little while as Erin had to get together with some friends. Grandma and I had a grand old time while the boys played a new board game Kevin got from Adam. Okay, Adam was there, but it still felt like babysitting as he was deep in Power Grid with Kevin and Mark! :)

It was a great visit, and we can't wait to see everyone again! Cider pressing in two weeks! Woohoo!

Baby time!

Yesterday I headed to Bainbridge (sans the husband) to check out some of the photos from the professional photographer with my parents, and was happily surprised that my brother and his wife had brought Nate and Jackson over for the weekend! We had a nice visit, and I can't believe how quickly Jackson is growing! He is about 15 pounds now, and is just so darned cute I want to steal him every time I see him! Could be a problem...






I got to feed him, change him, play with him, get him to roll over for the first time from his tummy (he's somehow done it from his back already) sleep, and general love all around! It was an excellent little visit, much to brief for my liking though!

Today, Kevin and I went off to REI to do a little wedding gift card spending and pick up a forest service pass for next weekend. I found a new sleeping bag, yay! I got the REI Mojave sleeping bag, and I am very excited to use it and not freeze my butt off when we go camping and hiking anymore! I also found an excellent pair of shoes on clearance, which never happens to me! No pictures because my camera battery is dead, but they are super adorable!

This afternoon we went to see Shrek the Musical at the 5th Ave Theater. It was surprisingly good, with excellent costumes and some really fun songs. I'd recommend it for anyone up for some laughs! We had a really good time!

Tomorrow we hope to head up to B'ham to see Kevin's family and see what Corbin is up to these days. He's rolling, too! How exciting to have these two nephews so close in age and get to see the different stages they are going through!