Calm in the Storm

So a funny thing happened the other night...  Randy and I finished up our nightly routine of feeding the cats enough so they don't wake us up at 4am, giving Camille her medicine, and turning off all the lights.  We headed upstairs to go to bed, turned on the light and saw this:

We're not sure how they all got up the steps so fast!  All four cats were on the bed, and no one was biting, fussing, hissing, stalking, or otherwise startin' somethin'.  They all like our bed, but we've never had all FOUR at the same time without waking up to a blood curdling, inhuman screech, Camille under the bed and the three boys running in opposite directions with Randy in PJs in hot pursuit.

Please don't mind the unmade bed.  I don't really have an excuse other than it's hard to make a bed with a cat on it, which is usually the case 24 hours a day.

From top to bottom, it's Rocky, Apollo, Keller, and Camille.  See Camille playing to the camera?  

It was such a rarity, I was snapping pictures like I was trying to do some sort of stop action animation.

The only time we have ever gotten all four of them close enough together to take a pictures, they were eating.

Randy and I didn't want to move them or spook Apollo, so we very slowly and gingerly tried to get under the covers in between and around cats.  It was like sleeping twister.  Normally we would move the cats to other areas of the bed, but it was like if peace broke out in the middle east.  You don't want to screw that up!

With all the things we're juggling right now between work, weddings, scheduling conflicts and family stuff, it was a nice reminder to sit still and relax.  From our four furry little roommates, Randy, and me, we hope your oasis of calm finds you in the busyness of day to day life.

Megan's Bridal Shower

So some of you may remember this post that mentions our friends Matt and Megan getting married.  The wedding is in May and yesterday was the bridal shower.  

This guy is a groomsman and I'm the matron of honor.  

Matt's birthday dinner at On the Border after the tux fittings last weekend

We are very excited for both of them.  I have to give a toast at the rehearsal dinner and I'm a little nervous.  Luckily Randy and my brother offered to assist in writing it.  Ha ha.

We had a beautiful day yesterday for a swanky shower at Megan's aunt's fabulous house.  I made orange sugar cookies as favors, and they turned out great.  I used this sugar cookie recipe, doubled it, and added about 3 tbsps of organic orange zest.  Yes, I am zealous about my zest lately.  The cookies turned out perfectly.  A good thickness, fully cooked, but not too browned.  I highly recommend this recipe even though it is kind of a pain to chill the dough and pop it in the fridge in between rolling it out and cutting, and putting the whole cookie tray in the freezer to firm up the cookies before baking.  Yes, it is a lot of work, but totally worth dirtying 4 cookie sheets.  You might not want to use this recipe is you're making hundreds of cookies, but I made about 30 and it worked out well.

I rolled out fondant that I made a couple of days in advance and let sit out, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap so it would lose it's marshmallow-y sheen.  Then I used the same (clean) cookie cutters to cut out the fondant.  Since the cookies bake up and out a tiny bit, the fondant was just slightly smaller than the cookies and fit on top really nicely.  There's a ton of similar fondant recipes out there, but I've been using this one for years and it works out pretty well.  It tastes better than store bought fondant too, and it was a subtle compliment to the orange in the cookies.

Let me tell you, after kneading the fondant, and rolling the cold cookie dough and the tough fondant, I probably didn't need to lift on Friday.  It hurts just to type.  My arms better be cut for this wedding.

If you click on the picture, you can make it bigger.  I used royal icing to decorate the dresses and little cakes.  The P's on the cakes are for Megan's new last name, not the Phillies.

Megan picked the most beautiful blue for our bridesmaids dresses.  They are JCrew Evie dresses in silk chiffon Matisse Blue.  This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it is like a bright, multi-faceted turquoise-y ocean blue.  Gorgeous.



I tried to match the blue with ribbon from Michaels.  It wasn't perfect, but pretty close.

I did not make this cake.  The wonderful people at Cannons Custom Cakes and Bakery made it, based on this wedding cake I found on their website.  Cannon's chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting is Megan's favorite, and since she has to go with the cake maker that works with the venue for the wedding cake, we got her a Cannon's cake for the shower.  I can't take credit for what it says, my co-worker, Chris, found it on a google search somewhere right before I called to order the cake.  Chris is awesome.

Megan's aunt got a centerpiece made with the same flowers Megan will have in her wedding.  They look beautiful with the blue of the dresses.

Happy shower, Megan!  We're looking forward to the wedding!

My, my, my... Sedona

I promise, this is our last Arizona posting.  Since we both work full time and have a million things going on outside of work, we have all these pictures sitting around waiting to be edited and written up into a post.  It's only taken two weeks to get to them all.

While we were in AZ, Randy and I took a day to ourselves and headed up for a day trip to Sedona.  We both love Sedona.  The beautiful views, the calmness of nature, and Buck Thornton's World of Jerky.  Well, the last one is all Randy.   I enjoy the store, but dried meat really isn't my thing.

So we set out on the two hour drive north from Phoenix to Sedona.  The clouds were unlike anything we see in Pennsylvania.  Calm, slow moving, easy going.

We saw a ton of Saguaro cactus, which I believe is endangered.  These cacti (that sounds funny, cactuses?  Succulents?) can get really tall (up to 50 feet!  That's like 8 1/2 me's!)  and Grandma has a couple in her yard as you've seen before.  The area between Phoenix and Sedona is like a Christmas tree farm of Saguaros.  Makes me feel like I'm in an old Western movie.  Randy was an excellent driver and didn't get annoyed with me as I snapped pictures out his window.

I hope you guys like this shirt.  You'll probably see it everytime we go to AZ since I left it there.  We're all about packing light to avoid baggage fees.

This is a scenic view rest stop on the way.

There are some of the most interestingly, and I hope, inappropriately named places.  This and Horse Thief Basin are my favorites.  Like I said, western movie in my head.  Randy and I had a playlist of songs we deemed appropriate for the trip.  I didn't realize how many "western" songs Bruce Springsteen has or how much mariachi music Randy has on his ipod.  It was an eventful trip.

As we rolled into Sedona, the dirt got redder and the sky got grayer.  We were hoping for a desert Thunderstorm.  How cool would desert lightning be?

Unfortunately we never got that storm, but the clouds blocked the direct sunlight which was good for Randy's heat migraines and better diffusion of light for pictures.

Our goal for the trip was to hit as many vortexes as possible before sundown, and then hit Buck's and get some dinner before we left town.

Our first stop was Bell Rock.

A quick side note on vortices.  We didn't really know much about them.  They're supposed to be electromagnetic subterranean flows of energy.  Some people say they have found healing or had some sort of vision or paranormal experience.  We weren't setting out for any of those things, mostly we were just curious.  I'm not here to argue if the Hopi indians were right or wrong or if the New Age people in Sedona are on to something, or are just really silly, but I imagine they are like stone circles in Ireland.  Unfortunately for Randy and I, they aren't as nicely marked in Sedona.

We hiked up to Bell Rock and found a little trail off the main road that went around Bell Rock to our right and went deep in between Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.  We took it because we wanted to find the vortex, but what we found was lots of cactus, a tricky trail, fewer people, and an uneasy feeling of getting lost.  So we turned around an got back on the main trail.  We passed a lady with her little girl and her mom, and Randy asked her, "Is there supposed to be...  a vortex?  around here somewhere?"  While her mother kept moving to stay with her daughter, she stopped an chatted for a couple of seconds.  She said the whole area is a vortex and we'd have a better chance of feeling it because we didn't have any kids with us.

So we kept hiking up and up.  Some parts of the path are really tricky, climbing up steep areas and hanging onto rocks.  Of course I don't really have too may pictures of those areas because I was too busy climbing.

There were people who actually climbed to the top of the mountain.  Randy and I decided that next year we will get to the top, or close to it, but we didn't want the sun to go down while we were on the rock.  The trail can be treacherous, and while we are no strangers to climbing the Airport Mesa in the dark by the light of my iphone, we didn't want to get stuck up there without flashlights.  It's a LOT further of a hike and the fun would quickly diminish in pitch darkness.

We got about halfway up the rock to a little flat area and decided to stop and see if we could feel the vortex.

Just then the sun came out from behind the clouds and the valley was bathed in the most beautiful light.

So we sat and chatted and soaked up the sun and we felt good.  Calm.  Energized.  Inspired.  I don't know if it was the vortex, the beautiful view, being together, or just a sense of well being in communing with nature, but it was wonderful.

And then we decided...  to walk back down before it got dark.  Going back down was a lot easier than climbing up.

Our next stop as we headed into town was the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  It closes at 6.  We got there at 6:01.  So I got these pictures from the road.  Fortunately, we were there last year, and hopefully we'll make it again next year.  It is a beautiful and powerful structure and just being able to look at it for a couple of seconds was good enough for this trip.  Some people say there is another vortex near the chapel, but I like to think of it as a spiritual place for people of all religions.  It is a catholic church, but it's welcoming to everyone.  I've heard that some people have had supernatural experiences in the chapel, but I don't have any experience with that.  It's a beautiful church with a beautiful view and it is a wonderful reminder of the beauty of life.

Then of course we went into the downtown area of Sedona and got some jerky.  Every time we go, Randy hopes Buck will be there so he can have his picture taken with him.  He's still jealous of when I was there a couple of years ago without him:

I got my picture taken with Buck, and I got to wear his hat.  We'll have to remember that he is only there on Saturdays and get an earlier start next time.

Then we got a great dinner recommendation from the proprietor of the pet supply store across the street.  If you ever go to Sedona, check out Open Range.   Maybe a little touristy, but check out the view from our table:

The food was amazing.  All organic and free-range meats.  Randy got a bison burger and I got a French Dip.  Both were excellent.  The chef is from Kansas City and makes a mean BBQ sauce.  Sweet and savory and awesome on sweet potato fries.

Then we hopped on the road and headed back, lit by the light of the full moon.  It was a good day and a great trip to AZ.

Arizona House and In-N-Out Burger!

Jodi:  My aunts, Carol and Jan, are hysterical people.  Back in November of '07 we were out in AZ a week or so before the CFP(R) exam.  I studied all day and they took my grandmother out and did fun stuff.  I don't know what kind of stuff, I was busy cramming.  They came home each night and we all did dinner together.  We would sit around and chat and laugh for an hour or so, and then it was back to studying.  Call it CFP(R) delirium, call it lack of sleep, but one night we decided it would be pretty funny if Aunt Jan was the pope.  The quick backstory is that my aunt is very devoted to the church and volunteers and helps people any way she can.  She's currently studying to be an EMT.  Aunt Jan is like the patron saint of Minnesota, but she would NEVER admit that.  My dad's brother, Uncle Bill, (who you will see in a minute) had a dream that Aunt Jan was the pope, which we all thought made sense, but Jan found hilarious.  She's also very modest.  So I ordered her a pope costume and had it delivered to her house.  I mean isn't that the obvious thing to do?

Carol and Jan took a bunch of pictures back in MN of Jan doing all the funny pope stuff that we thought up that night in Arizona.  She swung on a rope swing and was "Pope on a rope".  She even walked on water...

Or stood on a bucket in the lake in her backyard.  They photoshopped out the bucket.

They also re-decorated the hallway of family pictures at the house in AZ.  Here's a picture from my parents' wedding.

That's my dad, Uncle Bill, Uncle Phil, Aunt Jan, Grandma and Grandpa, the inventor of Individually wrapped slices of cheese.  Seriously.

I guess defiling old family pictures isn't new in my family.

Uncle Bill, the guy who started it all with the pope dream.

I'm sure we'll re-decorate again, so these are some "before" pictures.

Here's a look on the outside of the house.  There are a bunch of jackrabbits that live in a prickly pear in the back.

This is the cactus my brother sat on when he was still in diapers.  Yes, that was lucky.

Isn't it calm and pretty?  That's why we love to go out there an relax.

We also love to go out there so we can go to...  In-N-Out Burger!  The best fast food chain EVER!  My buddy Nate in Sacramento introduced me to them when I was out visiting him and his wife, Shannon, back in 2003.  Randy and I are completely addicted.  You know we love Chik-fil-a, but you can't eat chikin all the time.  Once again, if you live in the southwest, this is probably no big deal to you.  Or it's like Wawa to us in Philly.  Anyway, if you have any trips coming up to AZ, California, Nevada, certain areas in Texas, etc., check out In-N-Out Burger (no Clockwork Orange references intended, you sickos).  The food is fresh, the restaurants are clean, and the menu is plain and simple.  Burgers and fries.  The fries are sliced from fresh potatoes and fried in vegetable oil.  They don't use microwaves, freezers, or heat lamps, or over-process their food.  They also fight child abuse through the In-N-Out Burger Foundation.  They "do good" in every sense of that phrase.  And they have bible quotes on the bottom of each cup.  No, this isn't a commercial for In-N-Out burger, but when we find a place we love, we want everyone to know about it!  If you're going to indulge in really yummy burgers, fries and milkshakes, you might as well feel good about doing it :)

A beautiful, sunny day with In-N-Out Burger and family.  What's better than that?