What a Great Birthday!

I feel like it's been ages since I (James) have written the blog. Well, last week we had the awesome experience of celebrating my birthday - and yes, it was awesome! So we have a few pictures to sum up most of the excitement. Funny how most of the pictures are of food.

We had so much fun  finding ways to use the peppers we have been growing in our garden. This was one of my favorites! We made some yummy crescent roll delights with cream cheese and jalapeno peppers inside. 

We went out to this Italian place called Mazzi's for dinner one night and it was pretty amazing - as you can tell from my facial expression in the picture. I enjoyed both my fettuccine alfredo as well as Emily's raviolis.

I don't remember if there was anything particularly special inside Emily's salad, but they used a pesto dressing on top that was fabulous!

I know this doesn't look as good as it was, but I asked for ice cream cake for my birthday and we decided to make it. So we made some ice cream and then put it inside the cake we baked. It turned out better than I thought it would. Although it was super delicious, it was also very very very sweet so we could only have a piece at a time.

Among the cards and gifts and what not, this was one of my favorite presents... Legos! I'm such a nerd. I felt like I should collect a few of the City ones and started with the Coast Guard ship.

Emily made my pancakes for my birthday as well. Isn't she the cutest!

After work, we went up to the LDS temple in Portland and then went out to Fuddruckers. It was my first time going there and I must say that they have great burgers! 

Another cool birthday gift, Dr. Pepper flavored bubble gum! We had a bubble blowing contest.

As you can tell from the size of Emily's bubble, she won.

Our time since coming back from Hawaii has been super busy! I started working at my new job at Bridgeway House working with autistic high school students. It has its challenges, but has been much easier than working with the elementary level like I did last year. There are still plenty of things to learn! Emily started her new GTF (Graduate Teaching Fellowship) job this past week and has been enjoying that. She starts classes this upcoming week as well. Life doesn't really seem to be slowing down a whole lot and I am already feeling like we need another vacation. :D

Summer has gone and Fall is here. Hope we will get back on a schedule and post a few more of our adventures! Much love!