Dinner

Sharon received a gift certificate to Castagna for her birthday in August so we decided to go there for dinner last night on date night.  There are two kitchens, one Cafe Castagna which is more of a bistro and then the formal kitchen that has received rave reviews and many awards.  We didn't know this when we made the reservation so we ended up on the formal side.  What an experience, I felt like I was in Japan again, eating all sorts of weird food.  It also felt a little like Iron Chef.  Here is what we ate:

First it started with three snacks:
1. Buttermilk puff with herbed essence paste (not the greatest);
2. Squid tentacles and body served in pork fat (really good);
3. Duck chip - duck roo cooked down (basically burnt duck broth) served on a rock with a leaf (chewy and crispy).
4. Rye seed bread rolls with pork fat or brown butter (really good).

After that we went on to our courses.  On the menu there were 4 categories to choose one item in each.

Amanda's order off the menu:
1. Dungeness crab with raw sunchoke, brown butter, sea essence and anise oil. (this was really good, I even ate the roe).
2. Squash consomme with roasted spaghetti squash and fresh uni (not a great choice- uni is sea urchin roe which I knew when I ordered it.  Sea urchin roe has a very strong flavor and while I did eat all of them, I would never eat them again).
3. Sole with onion skins and hearts, elephant garlic and hazelnuts (Excellent choice).
4. Pear poached in mead with pear sorbet, twigs and meringue (pretty good).

Sharon's order off the menu:
1. Cardoons cooked in tea with smoked sturgeon, spinach and walnuts (the smoke sturgeon description, per Sharon, is sturgeon ash.  It was powdered sturgeon.  Sharon liked it, I didn't like it).
2. Black truffles with wild apple, cress and celery root cooked in ash (this wasn't too bad).
3. Lamb with grilled chickory, groats, grasses, dill weed and yogurt (lamb was very yummy, groats were like seeds).
4. Chocolate in different textures with crystalized sunchokes and coconut sorbet (the chocolate pieces had a black licorice taste that Sharon didn't care for, the coconut sorbet was great).

All said and done we would probably never go to this side of the restaurant again mainly because of cost.  Each dinner was $65, I guess you can order ala carte but we would have missed the whole experience.  We did enjoy ourselves and reminicsed to our B.C. (before Cooper) days when we would go out to fancy dinners.  It was great to spend quality time with my mate and we have a funny dinner story to tell now. 

Tumblebugs

Cooper dancing in his Tumblebugs class.

Second Pair

The second pair is socks for New Year's visitors is finished.



Yes that is for a little foot, size 5.5, my sister-in-law. That is half the size of my foot. I bought some chunkier yarn for the next two pairs.

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Audio

I am in the second week of an audio program called The Mother Revolution by
http://www.mothersonfire.com/
There is an interview a day sent to my email and the focus is on mothers feeling good about themselves. I am really enjoying the series, especially Wednesday's author Jack Canfield of the Chicken Soup books. I am a self-help guru, I enjoy learning how to better myself and relationship with my partner and child so this series is a great fit for me. Lots of good advice and reminders and only 30 minutes of listening. Today I drove to Eugene and caught up on the ones I missed this week. So far there are only two interviews I haven't cared for, the rest were good and Jack's was awesome.

In other news, our freezer is full of beef!! Cooper's swim class ends Wednesday and he starts a tumbling class that afternoon.

Mt Tabor Foot Patrol

After a few months hiatus from the foot patrol, I signed up for four consecutive Wednesday walks this month.  We have done two so far.  Cooper gets to play at the park either before or after the walk.  He is usually pretty good in the stroller during the walk.  We always walk in pairs and it's nice to chat with another volunteer on our walk.  We walk the park with reflective vests and collect trash, answer questions, record and report thefts, vandalism, graffiti, etc.  Everytime I walk I remember why I love Mt Tabor park, it is such a great place to go and explore and enjoy the views of Portland and serenity nature.

Zoo

This morning was quite balmy and warm so we decided to head to the zoo.  It was Cooper's idea and it was excellent. There was hardly anyone there so we took our time and saw most of the animals.  We (I) fed the lorakeets who attached me and my hair :)  The kids ran/walked most of the way, I had the double stroller for breaks.  It was a great day!

More Halloween Pictures

Happy Halloween

Cooper the Pit Crew Gearhead

Pumpkins

Today we finally got our pumpkins. We went to the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks, OR. They have a pumpkin trolley for the Halloween season. The trolley takes you one mile through the museum grounds to a small pumpkin patch where you get to pick out a pumpkin or two. All for $3/ per adult. Because of the rainy day we were the only ones on our trolley trip. It was great and perfect for us. Cooper loves trains and loved seeing all the old trains and tractors at the museum. He picked out a perfect little pumpkin too. We left with 3 pumpkins and Cooper gave the conductor a small tip. We are definitely going back in the spring when all the museums are open.

Socks

Sock 1 of 2 completed.

Favorite

I love catching Cooper in this position.




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Florida Pictures

We are back from Florida.  We had a great trip with a lot of activitiy.  Here are a few of my favorite moments.

Visit with Phyllis and Kate

Over Columbus Day weekend we had a fast and fun visit with my Aunt Phyllis and Cousin Kate from Chicago.  I showed them Mt Tabor on a beautiful day, we did a wine tour in McMinnville and they got to see me play the french horn in the Mt Hood Pops Orchestra.  It was a great visit and I am looking forward to seeing them this spring in Chicago.

Check out more photos at www.flickr.com/weeziebaby

Sick

This morning I woke up not feeling well. I had a hard time sitting upright and thought I was going to hurl most of the day. I had two kids and we watched tv all day. Sharon was able to take a few breaks from work to help me feed the kids. Larkin took a nice nap and Cooper played outside for a few minutes. All in all it was not bad with two kids. Cooper is at the age where he understands that I am not feeling well and wants to give me snuggles and kisses. Larkin is such a happy go lucky kiddo that she was totally fine just hanging in the house.
I am not sure if I have a flu bug or if the travels are catching up to me. I feel better now, I am sitting up but still a bit queasy. I hope the rest of the family doesn't get this illness.

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Swim Class

Cooper started Goldfish swim class last night. He goes in the water by himself and listens to the two instructors.



He did great and really enjoyed the class.



They did the back and front floats and he usually won't let us put him on his back but he let the teachers do it. Here he is getting ready for it.



The class wore him out because he was asleep by 8:30. We go two days a week until the middle of November.

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Orlando

We are having a great time with Nona. We went to the Audubon Society Thursday and then hit a park on the way home. There was a tortoise walking near the highway so Sharon picked it up and moved it to the water. Then she read that tortoises' don't swim so she moved it to the woods, with Cooper and another little boy following. The silly tortoise walked from that spot back to the water and Sharon is convinced he is now dead. Then she read that they are a protected species and she broke a bunch of laws for handling it in the first place. We were just trying to help it not get run over.


Last night we went to The Villages. This place is crazy, it is a huge development for retired persons and most drive golf carts all around. It is huge, we were lost trying to get to the restaurant. Cooper has enjoyed the golf carts in Nona's community so this place was over the top for him. He loved it, there were some that looked like old time cars, jeep ones, ones that looked like cars, and so many more. The streets were packed with them parked all over. They party it up all night, we enjoyed the music while we walked around and did a little shopping. We went to a toy store and found a die cast golf cart and Cooper sweet talked Nona into buying it. He loves it, holds it up when carts pass us and fell asleep with it last night. My mom was concerned he would be bored at this place and was elated that he had so much fun.
Today we went to the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Garden. We all got in for free thanks to reciprocity with the Oregon Zoo. We had a blast, they have a short train ride we took first, then we walked around and saw the animals. We ended our visit with the splash park they. Cooper had a blast with Mama. He got soaking wet, dried off and went for round number 2.






Lunch was awesome at an authentic German restaurant, we walked around the quaint town to the water and then headed home for the night.
Next up a flea market and dinner with friends.
p.s. The weather is perfect! Sunny and warm, 80s during the day; pleasant and cool at night in the 60s.


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Tag

Cooper played his first game of Tag today. He and a little girl were chasing each other at the OMSI cafe and she decided to change the game Tag. She told Cooper how to play and he got it right away. When Mateo was done in the bathroom, he joined in too. It's so fun to watch him play with other kids, they actually play with each other sometimes.


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Cooper and Teo

Cooper and Teo having a good
moment at the park today.



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Road Trip Pictures

We had an awesome road trip to Arizona, Nevada and home.  We left Saturday the 18th on a plane and arrived in Phoenix.  We rented a car and drove to Flagstaff through Sedona, AZ.  Sedona was beautiful and man, they drive fast in Arizona. 

We arrived in Flagstaff and went to pick up our new car from Bob, our friend's neighbor.  We visited for awhile and then left to return the rental car and continue our journey to Williams, AZ.  We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and started our journey to the Grand Canyon.  I am already in love with my new car, 2001 Honda CR-V.  We drove through the town of Williams which reminded us of Radiator Springs in the movie Cars.

 It was a beautiul day at the Grand Canyon.  We arrived and Cooper said, "I've never seen this place before."  We took a short hike, Cooper rode on Mama's shoulders most of the way and also stood in the shade.  We spent the majority of the day there and took a shuttle bus back to our car.  Cooper was obsessed with the Caboose near the hotel so we drove back to Williams to check out the Caboose.

On Monday morning we drove to Henderson/Las Vegas, NV.  It was a four trip and we drove through the Hoover Dam on the way.  We arrived in Henderson around 11:30 a.m. Sharon worked for a bit and Cooper and I ran some errands.  We had dinner with one of Sharon's managers and took Cooper to "his casino" (arcade) afterwards.  Wednesday morning we drove to Reno, what a boring drive.  We spent one night in Reno and drove home Thursday to Medford.  We decided to check out the Wildlife Safari near Roseburg because we have been talking about it for years.  It was really cool, the animals are roaming around on the grounds as you drive through.  They also have a gift shop, playground and animals to walk around and see.  Cooper loved it.

We love our new car!  We put 1,000 miles on our adventure and had no problems.  It rides really nicely and is roomy for our family. 

Road Trip

We are on the last days of our car adventure. We drove to Reno after getting a late start and arrived at 10 pm. This was our longest leg of the journey and Cooper did okay except for the arguing. He is a really great traveler, goes with the flow and usually doesn't complain. I've been commenting on what a great traveler he is and of course yesterday he had a rough time. He was not happy we were taking the freeway and wanted to walk around at every stop. He had a few fits and mainly watched Curious George on the portable DVD. He finally fell asleep at 9pm.

This afternoon we leave for home and are spending the night in Medford. It's about a five hour drive and I am dreading telling Cooper. I am going to take him to a park or the pool to get a lot of energy out before we leave.

We are having a fun workation but we all miss our doggie and the comforts of home.


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