Spring Break in California

Hello everyone! Here are a few pictures from our Spring Break in California last week. They're a little out of order. We spent three days at the Newport Coast villas near Newport Beach. Then we headed down to San Diego for two days. The first few pictures are in San Diego

Seaworld--enjoying the sun, waiting for one of the shows to start.

The Shama Show. Unfortunately, the trainers weren't able to get into the water with the whales, which made the show a little less exciting than in years past. But it's always fun to see Shamu leap like this. 

Arr, arr. The sea lions were quite entertaining. 

Tamsyn was determined to touch a dolphin. This is as close as she got.

Mama and Baby Beluga. So cute.

At Universal Studios. Here's a faux Norman Bates taking off after our shuttle, a knife in his hand.

Here's a set from Whoville.

There are a few nice, tall guys in the world. Here's one the girls found. 

Here are the girls at the tidepools near the villa in Newport. Tamsyn has a handful of hermit crabs. We didn't find out until later, at Seaworld, that we shouldn't have been picking them up out of the water.

The Newport Beach Temple at night.

This is the villa where we stayed in Newport. In this view you can see the living and dining rooms and the fully furnished kitchen. There is also a washer and dryer back there.   

Here's the room where the girls slept.

The master bedroom.

Why am I showing you all this? So you can see why we were persuaded to buy into the Marriott vacation club. After three days in a place like this, who wouldn't want in?

Close up of blocks

Sail Boat Quilt

Christi made this cute quilt for one of Chris' co-workers and I quilted it. She will be the envy of everybody at the baby shower.

Smart Object

The picture I created of Alyssa was done by using it as a "Smart Object" This means the picture can be changed out any time I want. I added one of Kennedy to show you what I mean.

Photoshop lesson

Here's what I learned today.

Another photoshop lesson

Christi

I scanned some B&W pictures of Christi and have been practicing my photoshop skills. Here's the first one

Stevie

I was scanning some pictures into the computer and came across this cute picture of Steve when he was a baby.

Sunrise at the beach with photoshop

Layer style in Photoshop

I'm just practicing on some Photoshop tricks

Happy Birthday Tristan

Today is Tristan's 5th birthday. We had his party yesterday and he requested to have a dinosaur party. I made this volcano cake with dinosaur candles.

After his party friends all got here and did a few crafts, we went on a treasure hunt. The end "prize" was a baby dinosaur in a camouflage egg. We then took the baby dinosaurs through an obstacle course which included pteranodon terrace (jumping off a big rock in front of our house), stegosaurus swamp (jumping through hoops placed on the ground), volcano valley (a maze through cones), tyrannosaurus tunnel and and adventure through brontosaurus forest which led them to a "real" dinosaur track. We then did a little science project with a volcano eruption. Then it was time for presents and cake. You can't see it in the picture above but I put in some dry ice at the top so it looked like the volcano was smoking.

I think the kids had fun. We were happy to celebrate this little boy's birth. He is such a good, sweet kid and we love him!

Layers

This is what I learned to do with layers today.

Down the lanes

Nine inches and still falling!!!

Good day for picturews

When is spring coming?

Christi told me yesterday they were expecting the weather to be in the 80 degrees. This is what we were greated with this morning. Bah!

When is spring coming?

Happy Birthday Tristan

I can't believe Tristan will be five years old on Sunday. Happy Birthday, little man!

April sunset

Lee & Alyssa were visiting with us again tonight and we saw yet another sunset. I think those sunsets follow Alyssa everywhere she goes. I am not just making them up.

Love that Grill

We've been enjoying our panini grill ever since Christmas. It's great for grilling a couple of chicken breasts for a Chicken Caesar or Cobb salad and we've made all sorts of sandwiches with it. Here's a recipe for one I tried last night. I'm a sucker for a good Monte Cristo sandwich so when I saw this recipe I cut it out and promptly forgot about it. I ran across it again the other day and decided to try it. Although it doesn't say to use a panini grill, I thought it would work well, and I was right.

Monte Cristo Sandwich
Blend together 1 beaten egg, 1 Tbsp milk, dashes of pepper and salt. (For four sandwiches, 2 eggs was just sufficient).
Mix 1 Tbsp soft butter and 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard (I didn't use quite that much mustard). Spread mixture on one side of 2 slices of 1" thick French bread.
Arrange on buttered side of one bread slice: 2 thin slices of smoked turkey, 1 Tbsp thinly sliced shallot or red onion (we skipped this), 2 thin slices Swiss cheese, and 2 thin slices smoked ham.
Cover with second bread slice, buttered side down.
Dip sandwich in egg mixture, covering completely. Fry in 1 Tbsp butter on both sides until brown. Place in 350 degree oven for 3 minutes. Remove. cut diagonally. Serve with sour cream and jam, on the side.
This is what I did: I brushed my grill with olive oil, put four sandwiches in and put the lid down. In three or four minutes they were done and delicious. No need to use the oven.