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!

We love "Love Month"

We hope that everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. One of Emily's visiting teachers from church said that it is "Love Month" and that we should celebrate all month. Well, I don't know if we have been celebrating all month, but we definitely celebrated all week! 

It all started on Monday where we made some cute little brownie balls dipped in white chocolate with pink sprinkles on top. I'm not going to lie, they didn't look as pretty as I would have liked them to, but they were incredibly delicious! We then turned it into somewhat of a service night and took them to some friends (we also kept some for ourselves... We can be so selfish at times...). Here are some pictures from the week to help your imagination.

To start the process, we baked the brownies first and then mixed it all together.

Then we sacrificed our hands by molding the hot brownie into balls and placing them off to the side.

Then we melted some white dipping chocolate and rolled the brownie balls in the chocolate. 

Then we sprinkled them with some pink sprinkles.

And wallah!

We didn't seem to catch too many pictures of our actual Valentine's Day experience. We ended up going out to this place called Cafe Seoul for Korean food. Then we went to the dollar theater to watch Parental Guidance. The movie was super funny and comes strongly recommended for people who like humorous family movies.

We ordered some teriyaki chicken, udon noodles (which is actually Japanese), and some  bibimbap. I think when we walked into the restaurant, looked around, and realized that we were the only white people, we could count the place as authentic. I have never been to Korea before (aside from the airport) so I can't actually tell you if the food was authentic or not, but it sure tasted good!

This was the bibimbap before Emily mixed it all together. After she had mixed it a little and added her sauces, one of the workers brought us our teriyaki chicken and he said "you need to mix more... more sauce!" or something like that. It was pretty funny.

On Saturday we decided to go down to Medford and spend some time at the LDS temple there. It was really beautiful and just nice to be there. The weather was also awesome! The only complaint was that we had to drive about 5 hours (2.5 hours there and 2.5 hours back) to spend 2 hours there, but we survived and enjoyed ourselves.

We are so glad that tomorrow is President's Day. We aren't quite sure what we are going to do yet. Emily still has class (only 2 hours) but neither one of us has work. Does anyone have any fun ideas? Hope you all get to enjoy the holiday tomorrow as well. Much love from Eugene, Oregon! 

Awesome Weather and Fun Trips!

What a crazy and long week! Emily started classes and I started at work again. I didn't really mention it before, but I got a job as a substitute instructional assistant (IA). You might wonder what an IA does... Well, IA's get to work with kids that have variety of mental and/or physical handicaps. I have only worked with students at elementary schools so far, but it is quite the experience! I come home fairly tired, but it is just awesome to see the kids progress. How much do I actually get to see them progress as a substitute you ask? Well, as a male IA, the schools that I sub at want me back. I have had the privilege of working for several weeks and have only been to 3 different schools. Maybe I wouldn't call it progress, but it is awesome to see the kids being independent on their good days (I won't go into the bad ones). Most of the kids are in what the schools call a Life Skills classroom environment. I get to spend a lot of 1-on-1 time with kids and also get to ask a lot of questions when I'm not sure what to do or how to react to a situation. All in all, it has taught me more patience, and also a variety of ways to communicate with others.

I don't want to bore you with anymore stuff from school, so I'll post a few pictures about some of the highlights of the week.

This is Uncle Jeff, cousin Brady, and I at the golf course in Portland. Emily and I went up to the temple with our church's youth (I got called into the Young Men's Presidency... yay!!!) and stayed with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Tricia Saturday night. The last time I golfed, was when I was like 10. Uncle Jeff and Brady were really good at feeding me encouragement. :D

Look yummy? It was! 

Aunt Tricia, Kayla, and a few of the other girls made this awesome chocolate cake that has crushed heath bars on the top. We also got to eat a gourmet dinner on Sunday night with them... I wish I had taken a picture. Thanks Tricia and Jeff!

This was my birthday present. It's the lego edition of Blackbeard's ship from  Pirates of the Caribbean. It actually took me quite some time to put it together.

Just another view. The little guy in front was a free monster car set that I got with the purchase. Pretty much it's awesome!

Well, that's about it. We are just excited to start another week in the beautiful weather we are having here. Much love! Until next week!

The Happiest Place On Earth!

 So we just got back from an amazing week at Disneyland, Sea World, and Universal Studios with my (Emily's) side of the family. It was a blast, and we can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas when we will see our fam again. We miss them already! We will let the pictures do the talking this week.

Getting all ready for Grizzly Bear Rapids at California Adventures. Mom is so wise and brought us all ponchos...not that they really did any good, but at least we looked semi-cool.

My crazy hubby and Sarah Palin (aka Mom with glasses)

Michael is...nervous?

All the girls had floppy hats. Mine was a bit too floppy, so I was so clever and used a pen to keep it out of my face. It ended up looking like a sombrero though...kinda weird.

Michael stylin the floppy hat.

Apparently, I am most like Alice. This is a big change from the last five years of trying to be most like Belle. Usually, I end up with Lady (like from Lady and the Tramp...yeah, not even a human)

Mom and Anna on Dumbo

Me and Dad on Dumbo

Car crash! Michael and Sarah look incredibly calm for such a tragic wreck...but I adore Anna's face in this picture.

The San Diego temple. We tried to go, but they were closed for two weeks for renovations. Then we tried the Newport Beach temple...also closed. So we are headed to Portland this Saturday.

Sea World. This was such a magical place for me. I'm not sure James really loved it as much as I did, but I would love to go back and spend days there.

Getting ready for the Shamu show.

This picture is significant because last time I went to Sea World, I wasn't able to sit in the soak zone because I had a cast on my leg from running through a glass door. I was so thrilled to be in the soak zone this time...and oh boy, we got soaked!

Completely magical!

Dad's big surprise - a swim with the dolphins. Here he is in his wet suit getting ready to get in the freezing cold water. He was so cute - just like a little kid on Christmas. Anna was thrilled for him too.

Dad giving the dolphin a high-five.

Dad hugging the dolphin.

So we went to Universal Studios a day after we finished in Disneyland. I asked Jess to make her "How do you feel about Universal Studios" face and this is what we came up with. Lame. Totally lame. Not a magical place.

How many monkeys does it take to buy Jess a soda?

This and the Jurassic Park ride were the only things worth doing at Universal Studios. This ride was only fun because Michael got to watch contraband episodes of the Simpsons through the whole line. We were never allowed to watch that show as kids.

No, Michael is not sweating profusely. He and Jess and I went on the Jurassic Park ride three times in a row and got completely soaked. Think of Splash Mountain on steroids...with hilarious tourists that can't understand enough English to know there is an 80-foot drop and tidal wave coming just around the corner. Hilarious.

Jess and her Brother Husband...yeah, I didn't get a picture with MY hubby in front of the castle. I guess they figured this was enough :)

The Lego store. 

James's birthday gift from both me and his mom was a new Lego set. He declined twice, saying it was a waste of money and that he didn't need it.

But that all changed, and this is him right now as I write this post. Gotta love him!

We start right back into work and school tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great week. Love to all our family and friends!