Beautiful food, beautiful girl...

Last Friday's pizza dinner was this caramelized onion, bacon, and spinach pizza, recipe courtesy of Cooking Light. So, so, soooo good! It can be somewhat labor intensive and because of that, I didn't make it for months and months, possibly years.

I couldn't choose only one or two photos of The Girl, so here is my first ever photo collage.



Come visit! We'll play and eat:)

Alive and well

Judging by our last post and our lack of recent updates, you might think the boys are wandering out in the desert somewhere or that we decided to turn back to Los Angeles and were kidnapped by aliens along the way. Not at all. We are home, in OUR home, and life is so good. I will now throw down some photos in an attempt to summarize what has been going on and to pacify my faithful readers who have been besieging me with requests.

While making up our minds on where to live and whether we'd really close on the house we were planning on, we stayed with the wonderfully generous Craig and Jessica. They are family AND friends. They piled up their kids to give Mr. M and me our own room. They fed us. They watched kids while we signed documents, etc. Now that we're in our own place, it's a real treat to live near them. Jessica took me fabric shopping (yes, I bought some!), and I've introduced her to IKEA.

Ethan and Scott started school. They LOVE their school, and they love riding the bus. It picks them up at the end of our driveway at 7 am and drops them off at 3:15 pm. It makes for a very long day for them at school and a very short time together at home before bed. Here's a video of them on the first morning that they rode the bus, in which we learn that Ethan controls the weather (he has since recanted that claim):



Mr. M is enjoying his new job. It takes 10 minutes to go from our front door to his office door, if I drop him off. He keeps pinching himself and thinking he'll wake up and this new life of ours will be a dream. He is still slugging away on that dissertation.

Uncle Shaun came to visit for a week. We all had a wild time:


I love our new house. I need to paint the garage floor, so that all the garage stuff currently in the front room can go to the garage. Ask me if the front room is tidy yet. Ask me if I've painted the garage yet. I need some motivation.

One reason my work is a bit slow is this delightful little person. She is very busy these days, as you can see:


And really, it's hard to get work done when there's someone like that around:)

Day 1: LA to AZ

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Notes to self:

1. Even if is a hot day and you think you need shade, do not park your car under a tree with birds in it.

2. You can fit 36 water bottles under the driver's side seat of a 1997 Toyota Corrolla.

3. Remember where you packed your camera so that when your kids want a picture of a saguro cactus, you are ready.

4. Quote of the day:"Hey look at all those Saguaros! It is like a Saguaro Los Angeles."

5. There are some really cool wind turbines along I-10.

6. Hotwire: Love it. $56 to stay at the Hilton.

On our way

The plan was for us to pack Wednesday, I would start to drive our Thursday and Mrs. M would fly out Friday. By Saturday, we would all be together and we would bask in planning effectiveness. Needless to say, it didn't happen that way. We discovered that we had a lot more stuff than we thought we did. Once we got to the stage that we were putting everything in boxes we felt DOOMED*! I would still be in California loading an ABF truck if it were not for the the many people helped us out. We are in debt to the Elder's quorum , family, co-workers and neighbors who assisted in packing our truck. I also should include a shout out to the ladies that helped watch our kids so we could pack.

Even with all this help we still had to pull an all-night "pack-fest" before Mrs. M's flight to Texas. When it was all said and done all our possessions were compressed into 10 linear feet plus what I could shove into our Toyota Corolla. I set off a more than 24 hours behind schedule and very much sleep deprived. For the safety conscious readers, don't worry. I didn't push myself too hard and pulled over for naps whenever I felt like I was drowsy. Any way here are some photos of our preparation for departure.

*Technically, I guess we could have used FedEx to ship us, but I didn't think it was worth pricing it.

Winding down in Los Angeles - TASTE

As we're preparing to leave, it seems only fitting that the weather be perfect, the sky gorgeously blue, and all our vacancies fill. Today we used up our last Groupon and tried a new restaurant for lunch, Taste. It has a location on Melrose and one in the Palisades, and we chose the Palisades to be able to say goodbye to the beach and the ocean. We took the whole family and were very pleasantly surprised by a lovely dining experience in all aspects: personable and sincere service, a comfortable ambiance, ample menu options, food that looked and tasted great, and good value.

We had some delicious fresh bread served with butter and hummus as we waited for our food to arrive. There was a lot of natural light in the restaurant, beautiful dark woods, and a comfortable, casual feel. One of my pet peeves is loud music in restaurants. Another one is feeling like you are too close to the neighboring table. Neither one applied here.

Ethan ordered the prix fix off the kids' menu. His fruit arrived first, a generous portion of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and sliced bananas. His main course was a grilled cheese sandwich on thick toasted bread with a small bowl of tomato soup; Scott opted for a cheese pizzetta. I tasted them all, and they were yummy. Mr. M had a grilled chicken sandwich with mixed greens, and I had a Kobe Beef Burger with mixed greens. Mmmmm, that beef was so delicious.

We decided to splurge for dessert, since we were celebrating life. Ethan had vanilla gelato and Scott ordered a chocolate cupcake, which arrived topped with a raspberry on a plate sprinkled with powdered sugar. He picked it up to eat with his hands, like a normal cupcake, and I suggested that it would be more polite to use his fork. He obediently picked up his fork, skewered the cupcake, and lifted the entire thing to his mouth. I couldn't contain my laughter and assured him that it would be fine to use his hands. Mr. M and I shared a chocolate brioche bread pudding, which arrived warm, topped with crème anglaise, vanilla gelato, and a beautiful raspberry.

When we were all finished, Scott exclaimed, "That cupcake was so good that my face is all dirty!" He did seem to be wearing a good deal of chocolate around his mouth.

As we walked out after paying the bill, our waitress handed Michael a small paper bag with some hummus, such a nice touch to finish a perfectly delightful afternoon.

If anyone is looking for a place to celebrate or just enjoy a meal, I highly recommend Taste. I also have a coupon for a free chocolate brioche bread pudding, which must be used by August 15th. I doubt that I'll be able to use it since we are leaving so soon. Any takers?