Family Sunday

On Sunday, we took Evie and Kimmy to Cesar Chavez Park for a walk around the park. 

After our walk, we went to our breakfast spot - Sunnyside Cafe. It was HOT out so we were able to sit outside to eat. After breakfast, we walked home and chilled outside for awhile. Then, we went to Costco, the Nursery, and got $1 Ice Cream. 

When we came home again, Evie passed out. She was done from being awake and excited for two straight days!

We finished the day by grilling out again for dinner and then bringing Kimmy to BART. She took the train straight to the airport. She is heading to LA for work for the week so this was a nice stop for her before a week of work!

We love seeing Kimmy quarterly! 

Brewery Hopping

On Friday night, we drove down to San Mateo to see our friends Betsy & Greg for dinner. After a great time with them, we got to pick Kimmy up at SFO! Wahooooooooo! We picked her up around 10pm and headed home. Evie was thrilled to see her. 

On Saturday, we went up to Healdsburg and Santa Rosa. First stop was Bear Republic Brewery in Healdsburg. 

Yum...enjoyed my wheat beer while Kimmy & Erik drank their IPA's. I love when Kimmy comes because Erik has a dark beer drinking buddy. 

Sampler!

Yay! Reunited!

Got a Growler to go!

Next stop,  Russian River Brewing Co!

We headed home after the breweries and picked up some groceries to grill out. We pumped the DMB tunes and chilled outside. haha. 

Here's Kimmy at the pick-up window. haha

Cheese, wine, beers, grilling....what a great night

This is Evie's punishment position. She ran to the fence and barked at someone so I picked her up. haha. She hates it!

Here is Evie's new toy we got her at Fideaux. She looooovvveeees it. 

Erik was the first one to bed. Then, Kimmy & I put on Gilmore Girls. Kimmy lasted 5 min so I would like to announce that for once, I was the LAST one up! haha

Revelation

Ummmmmm so I NEVER posted about the wedding and honeymoon. Can you believe it??? I was just scrolling through last years blog posts and didn't find anything. I did one big photo dump and that was it. 

Well, in honor of our one year anniversary, I will be sure to do the proper postings on the CT Bachelorette, Wedding, and Honeymoon!!

Salad Bar & Favorite Things

Erik had a meeting after work today so it was just Me and Evie for a little while. We went for a walk, went to Pet Food Express, and Whole Foods to hit up the salad bar for dinner. On our own for dinner = no cooking! Yay!

 I also got two mini desserts - one for me and one for Erik. I always get the fruit & custard tart and Erik gets a chocolately one. I LOVE this dessert. Can't go wrong with fruit and custard!

When Erik came home, we watched the Rangers game since it is the playoffs! Although this is a short season, we sure are watching a LOT of hockey. 

I wanted to share out some things I am loving lately....

A Few of My Favorite Things

1. Pet Food Direct

Evie's dog food is Hill's Perscription Diet and you can only get it at the Vet or a specialty store. We used to walk to the Vet to get it in SF. This site sells Evie's dog food so I didn't have to find a new place to buy it over here in our new 'hood. We are even on a monthly auto shipment so we never run out of food. It's so easy and they do not charge shipping fees over a certain dollar amount! It's the same price for us to buy from a store or this site, with all the convenience of having it show up on our doorstep!

2. Balsamic with Honey Dressing

This dressing is Deeeeeeelish! Plus, you can find it at the store for Buy One Get one Free sometimes! Yes, please!

3. Trader Joe's Roasted & Unsalted Sunflower seeds

So good. Put them in your salad and it makes the salad taste more exciting!

4. Pace Garlic & Lime Salsa

I pretty much love any salsa verde I meet and this one is no different. Chunky, spicy, so good. 

5. Dentotape

If you are using Glide floss, you might as well just not floss. This Dentotape is the real deal. It is thick and legitmately pulls food out from in between your teeth. After using this, my Dentist said my teeth and gums have never looked better. Booyah. 

Well, those are some of my favorite products these days. If you try them, hope you like them!

Top 5 Thursday...and Chocolate Cake

Well we missed Top 5 Tuesday so we will move it to Top 5 Thursday!

1. We are getting so excited because KIMMY is coming to visit this weekend. We will pick her up at the airport tomorrow night. Wahooooooooooo!

Summer 2008

2. Our one year anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks. I can't believe it's been a year already. I wish we could go back to our wedding and attend it.

3. I have a new rule that I can only go on Facebook and Instagram twice a day. It is making me SIGNIFICANTLY more productive in life.


4. Things are so much better at work. I am FINALLY getting the hang of this account. It's been a month and I guess I should've just realized I would've figured it out and not put so much pressure on myself. I am finally Elle when she figures out that the defendant is lying!


"Heyyyyyyyyy.......I know what I'm doing!"

5. We stopped drinking during the week and noticed we both lost a pound or two. We also started running again which is really hard. We can't believe we ran a half/full marathon back in October but we are getting back at it!


And with that, I will leave you with the best Bill Cosby skit for a laugh.

Balsamic Chicken

Tonight, I tried a new recipe for Balsamic Chicken with white beans and spinach. We both really liked it so I'll probably do this one again. I just discovered all of the things you can make with condensed soup so I am going to explore some new recipes with the soups. The recipe is below!

Campbell's Photo

What You'll Need

2 tablespoons olive oil 
1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 
3 cloves garlic, minced 
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar 
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Golden Mushroom Soup 
1 can (about 15 ounces) white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained 
1 bag (about 7 ounces) fresh baby spinach 

How to Make It

• 1
  Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes or until well browned on both sides. Remove the chicken from the skillet.
• 2
  Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic to the skillet and cook and stir for 1 minute. Stir in the vinegar and cook, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
• 3
  Stir the soup and beans in the skillet and heat to a boil. Stir in the spinach.  Return the chicken to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium.  Cover and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the spinach is wilted.

Monday at the Park

To start the week off right, Evie and I went to Cesar Chavez Park after work. It was a nice day for her to run around and have a little fun. It was a clear day so we could see SF from Berkeley!

 We also saw a Crane(?) in the grass

 Evie frolicking about

 Me and the May Moo

 And here's a funny name for a boat that we saw in the marina!

Here's to a good week!

New Table & Evie's Scared

This weekend was filled with various activities: going out to breakfast, errands, hanging outside, going to dinner at the Triple Rock Brewery, and going to SF to pick up a dining set we found on Craigslist! 

We needed a dining set so I scanned Craigslist and found this great set that was basically new. 

It will definitely do for now until we find something we are in love with. I can't wait to pick out a cute table runner from Etsy for it. Now, we can have people over for DINNER! Wow, that will be a first to have people over and be able to sit at a table!!

Here's a funny video of Evie. We had this little blow horn thing from our friends birthday party and I used to scare Evie. Check her out.....

Garden Update

Today, I took on a DIY project to stain this bench that came with the house and also this table we've had for awhile. I will show you the before and then the after when they are done. I stained today and am getting a cushion for the bench!

Erik's garden is really blooming. Here is a tour of the garden!

Blueberries

Tomatoes, strawberries, and a lot of other veggies

Rosemary

Lemon tree

We have some pretty flowers too!

Can't wait to try some of the vegetables from the garden!

Bottle Rock

On Friday, we drove up to Napa for the Bottle Rock festival. We went to a specified parking lot and got free parking thanks to our passes. We went in a special little shuttle bus over the concert. We scanned our tickets for these special VIP passes. 

We went over to the festival and there were a ton of food and drink vendors and three big stages for the shows. 

For those about to rock, we salute you!

 We got up there around 6 so we only saw a bit of the Flaming Lips and Black Keys. 

We only stayed until 9pm. It was SO crowded and it was just too much. There was a VIP section next to the Black Keys stage with a private bar and bathroom. Unfortunately, the bathroom was overflowing so we couldn't use that. We left and couldn't get back into the VIP area at all because it was so packed.

I really hate being in big crowds like that and start to feel panicky when people are crowding me and bumping into me so we moved to the back of the pack of people watching the band. I don't really understand why people think this is better than just listening to the band on spotify. Both Erik and I were like, lets go home and get on the couch where we belong. haha.

We're grateful for winning the tickets and having the opportunity to go to the festival but it wasn't our scene.

On Saturday, I gave my passes to my friend Kira so I hope she enjoyed herself!