17 years: more photos

More photos from our anniversary:

Love!


Bonsai trees!


Boats!


Shenanigans!


Cocktails!


Happy 17 years, Dr. A.  I love you!

17 years

That's right.  Brian and I have officially been together for 17 years.  Wow.

We celebrated by getting a sitter (Awesome Anna!) and took BART to Lake Merritt in Oaktown for some walking. Brian took more pictures than me, so hopefully he can post more.  We walked around the botanical gardens, checked out a bonsai garden (some of the specimins are older than me!!!), did some paddle boating, then walked back around the lake for a quick cocktail, hightailed it back to BART and had a lovely time.  Can't think of a better way of celebrating our first 17 years than a long stroll, hand-in-hand, in perfect fall weather.

He's silly! 

He's handsome!!

He learns about the Oakland Scottish Rite Center and all the intricacies of the Freemasons at the bar.  

Happy 17 years, Mr. B.  I promise the next 17 will be even more fun!

It's pumpkin season!!!

This time of year I get so excited by the absolutely delicious canned pumpkin on the shelves at Trader Joes. I learned my lesson from last year and stocked up - those suckers fly off the shelves and when they're gone, that's it until next year.

I've already done a pumpkin bread, the spiced pumpkin scones from yesteryear, pumpkin muffins, pass on the pumpkin pancakes since no one liked them.

New this year is Pumpkin Milk Bread, a pin, and it was delicious!!!!  Light, slight pumpkin flavor but not overpowering, really tender.  It made two loafs:

this one was threatening to go stale, so I had to think fast.  What better goes with pumpkin than .... pumpkin!!!  And so was born the pumpkin bread pumpkin bread pudding.  The bread pudding recipe was here, and I used the whole pumpkin loaf here.  That's a lot of pumpkin in one bowl, my friends.  Since it was basically a mix and dump recipe (not a fan of that term, but it is what it is), the girls cut the bread cubes and mixed the pumpkin custard.  

It was all I love about pumpkin pie (the ooey gooey spice, pumpkin flavor, warm silky goodness) and nothing that I don't like (chewy, dry, soggy, or otherwise questionable pie crust).

Soooooo delicious!!!  Next time, if I have more time in advance, I'll make a salted caramel sauce with maybe some candied pecans or walnuts to go on top.

Reason # 25 I love my husband

His sense of humor:

* I assure you, Robin was only interested in the jelly beans.  And she ate all of them. 

Kuna Hike

We took a long, off-trail hike in Yosemite today to a small, 11,000 ft high lake called Kuna. This is a place of beauty. This is a quiet, secret space. This is a space sacred to Mr. B, whose car bears the license plate "KUNA" and whose wishes are for his ashes to be scattered around the lake. I've heard a lot about this place, and today was the day to go there.


Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who watched the girls the entire day and gave Brian and I our longest date since.... since... well, since Erin came into our lives.

 As pictures are worth at least 1000 words each, we'll tell the story that way. Let me just say what is not pictured. We had a lunch of mashed potatoes, SPAM and beer. Mr. B caught half a dozen fish in twice as many casts.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Robin Rides, Erin Instructs

There's so much going on in this movie, I won't spend time talking about it. Just will tag it with a bunch of things and let you enjoy!

I love you a mole

E: "Dad? How much you love me?"
B: "I love you more than Avogadro's number."
A: "'I love you a mole.'"

Little Buppy

Robin's lovey "Little Buppy", also known as Little Blankie, or sometimes just LB, is her favorite.  She cuddles it when she's sleeping, it's usually to the side of her cheek.  She used to need it everywhere but now it resides solely in her bed.

I got a new LB from eBay.  An exact replica of the original LB, clean, unwashed, yet to be cuddled.  Note the difference that 2 years of cuddling can make to a trusty LB:

Reason #7,294 why I love my husband

He loves getting flowers.  He especially loves tuberoses.  He's commented 4 times tonight how wonderful the whole house smells.