Wednesday, March 31, 2010

ravioli eating contest

This is a super long post with tons of photos. I had narrowed it down to 83 photos that I selected from close to 150. Sometimes it's hard to be selective so I just let this post have it in the picture department.

I'll have to check with my dad, but for as long as I have been alive we have always had a traditional ravioli eating contest on the Sunday before Easter, Palm Sunday.

When I was little I used to stuff my face with ravioli's at my Grandparent's house, trying desperately to keep up with my older cousins, my dad and my uncle. 4 or 5 or 6 of these bad boys would end up in my stomach along with Italian sausage and pork. The raviolis are not like little 2" squares either, they are the size of a coffee can folded in half (that's how you cut the dough, with the lid of a coffee can).

This past Sunday we kept the tradition going sans my sister's family, but we ate enough for all of them. We got to my parents cabin around 3 in the afternoon and started the day off with another family tradition. Chips and guacamole!!

DSC01694




After we had our fill of chips and dip we headed outside to play with Grandpa's new flea market find. A marshmallow gun! Yep, PVC pipe, joined together with T and Elbow joints to make a gun that shoots miniature marshmallows.
DSC01797

Espen had a hard time getting the hang of it but once he did he thought it was a riot!

DSC01720
DSC01722
DSC01725
{kristen wiig?}
DSC01726
{mini marshmallow}
DSC01731
{proud parents}

I snuck off for a moment to rummage through my parents garage, you never now what you might find. I found my bicycle from when I was just about 5 or 6.

DSC01757

I remember waking up early on Christmas to find my dad putting the training wheels on that bike. I of course thought it was from Santa so my dad, quick thinker that he is, said that when Santa delivered the bike my dad told him that I didn't know how to ride a bike yet and asked him for some training wheels. Santa just happened to have an extra pair in his sleigh and gave them to my dad to put on. Clever! Needless to say, I made sure Espen was fast asleep this year when Jeremy was putting his bike together on Christmas eve for fear that I wouldn't be so quick on my feet to come up with a 'Santa' cover up story. (Espen, don't read this.)

DSC01764
{pink bike + banana seat= perfection}


After all of the biking and shooting, ha, we worked up our ravioli appetites and headed inside for dinner. As always, the food was amazing! Tons of sauce and cheese to top the raviolis and meat and although I only ate two this year, it was delicious.

DSC01791
{yum}

I learned that day that you have to be careful of what you ask your kids to do. For instance, while Espen was taking a drink of milk I asked him to smile for a picture, which he did. What I did not realize is that he would smile before he swallowed his milk, hence the following photo. The fact that I caught this on film kills me. So funny.
DSC01784
{smile, no WAIT!}

DSC01788
{got it}


After dinner, Jeremy retreated upstairs to digest his food while my dad took Espen and I out for a ride in the 'Monster Truck' as Espen would call it. My dad will tell you it's a 1941 Dodge Command Car. It's a real beast of a car, rickety, noisy and has sharp pieces of metal and ripped up upholstery all around it, but it is pretty darn cool.

DSC01832
{who's driving this thing?}


DSC01824
{so blurry, but look at that concentration}
DSC01817


You can't go for a ride around the neighborhood without stopping by the gigantic metal animal farm and jumping out for photos!
DSC01837

DSC01841


I rounded the corner of the house on my walk 'o junk to find these two guys shootin' the you know what. Not sure if it was camping or politics that they were discussing in these pictures but I'm guessing it was one of the two.




Espen learned a valuable lesson today. If you drink too much beer you may stumble into holes you just dug.
DSC01844
DSC01848


The day was awesome. The food was delish, we had some great conversations and made it home in one piece. Till next year!

Thank you Ma & Pa for having us up, we had tons of fun.
DSC01851

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

the cabin

My parents cabin, or so it's called is not quite a cabin. What it is though is an amazing structure that makes no sense and a whole lotta sense all at the same time. For the most part you can understand what was going on in the previous owner's head as he built it but then a sideways piece of colored rock jutting out of the wall will catch your eye and you think to yourself 'what the heck?'.

My parents have done an incredible job fixing it up and making it even more impressive than it already was. While we were up there on Sunday I took a moment to walk around and snap some photos of the groupings of 'junk' that dot the landscape. Junk that will someday be turned into something wildly fantastic or are the groupings wildly fantastic themselves.

DSC01781

DSC01778

DSC01779

DSC01755

DSC01754

DSC01753

DSC01749

DSC01752

DSC01751

DSC01750

DSC01745

DSC01743

DSC01741

DSC01736
{the cabin}

the party's at 7

Saturday. I was not feeling well. My allergies were out of control and I had a slight hangover from dinner with the girls the night before. I skipped breakfast all together but once lunch time came around all I could think about was my leftover burger from AZ88. So while I ate my food at the island, Jeremy and Espen settled down on the couch with...I'm not even sure what, something green and fresh that looked delicious. I was so out of it that I didn't even think to ask what it was, or maybe I did, but I just don't remember. I may have felt like I was on another planet but that didn't stop me from noticing how cute Jeremy and Espen looked at the couch watching Sgt. Frog on HULU.

**Please note the ace bandage on Espen's leg and the curtain tie-back/bandage on Espen's hand/wrist. Why the bandages, because he had 2 teeny tiny scrapes and he said they would make him feel better.

He felt better all right and wrestling with dad while he tickles the bottoms of his feet with his beard always makes Espen crack up.
DSC01571
DSC01568

Since we somehow made it into the bedroom with the camera I thought it was the perfect time to snap of few pictures of our new dresser. The first shot I tried to get Espen jumped right in to help show it off...

DSC01573
{thanks Vanna. i think you have some chocolate and puppy freckles on your face}
DSC01563
{the dresser}

I know the dresser needs a little TLC. I know the lamp needs a shade. I know the TV needs to be mounted on the wall. All in due time. In the mean time, I was able to use almost all of the drawers for my things instead of them being crammed in a box hidden in a cabinet. Jeremy and I played a fun game of 'Hang it or Fold it' with his band shirts. Now 30 of Jeremy's Metal Band shirts are in the box hidden in the cabinet and we have about 1.5 extra feet of space in the closet to hang things. Woohoo!

So, later that night we new that our condo association was having a little soiree at the pool with wine and cheese so we could meet some of our neighbors. I didn't really want to go and I am pretty positive that Jeremy didn't either but we got dressed, I got dressed up and we decided to see what it was all about. Before we left we asked each other 30 times, what time is it at? Is it at 6 or 7? I thought for sure it was 7, Jeremy thought it was 6. He went to check the mail while I was getting ready and he said there were some people down there.

DSC01595
{party people, i mean, parents}

At 7:40 we walked down with Espen in tow. It was DARK. Dark and quiet. Jeremy ran down the breezeway to read the party invite...ya, it was from 4 to 6. Ha! We completely missed it. How did that happen. And darn it all I looked so cute. Oh my gosh, we were cracking up but kind of relieved. Next time we'll be sure to double check the invite.

Jeremy had to leave to meet up with a friend so Espen and I played 'kitty & puppy'. He was the puppy, I was the kitty. He drew on my kitty face and did a good job, I thought. He disappeared with my eyebrow pencil and then came out to the kitchen to show me the puppy feet he made.


DSC01600
DSC01599


I began to feel pretty awful again and since we took such a long nap earlier, Espen and I could not get to sleep. I messaged Jeremy to bring home food around midnight. Thankfully he did not, Espen and I crashed and the next morning when I looked in the mirror, I was still a kitty.

i love my bike

i love my bike, i love riding it around on satruday morning in the spring.
i love my basket, i love filling my basket with eggs, flour and chocolate, oh and bendy straws.
I love my bike.
DSC01531

life is good, coffee is better

I love coffee. I drink plenty of it during the day. I make it for myself every weekday morning so on the weekends I have made it known to the boys that I think it’s only fair that I get to be the last one out of bed and that someone other than me should make the coffee. I'm not sure why I feel so entitled to have someone make coffee for me but it's just how I feel and I really don't think it's too much to ask.

Jeremy has been pretty good about it, I may have to say 'ooh, I want coffee' a few times before he gets my hint and remembers my 'I won't make my own coffee on the weekends attitude'. We don't have a fancy espresso machine, just a French Press, which really does make some great coffee in under 5 minutes. So, on Saturday, Jeremy heated up the water, added it to the coffee grounds and came back to bed. The next thing you know we hear Espen say from the kitchen 'Mom, I'm making your coffee'. Just like in a movie, Jeremy and I turned to each other with a 'WHAT?' face and jumped out of bed. This is what we saw.

DSC01515
{pouring the coffee}
DSC01518
{three, yes three teaspoons of sugar please}
DSC01522
{stir it up, ready to go}

I was almost in tears. This was one of the coolest things I have ever seen Espen do. Not just because he was preparing my beloved coffee, but that he did it on his own and he did it SO WELL!! I mean, with the utmost care. You should have seen it in person, amazing and he was so proud of himself too.