Cabin Livin'

"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."

-John Muir

A peek into our 10 days in the Eastern Sierra, aka June Lake, aka our "second home"... I've been coming here every Summer for over 15 years and it just gets more gorgeous every single time.
We're so fortunate to have a cabin to come to every year.. to share with our children the quiet and the beauty that exists only five hours from the hustle & bustle of the big city.

All photos are from my phone or Instagram... (the phone is so much easier to carry around than the big camera)

 Arrowhead Lake (Duck Lake Trail-head) Mammoth Lakes

 

hiking to Yost Meadow (Fern Lake Trail-head)

 

 Q'in on the deck

playing outside the cabin

 

Greasy Spoon breakfast (in Lee Vining)

 

 Bath time with cousin Stella!

overlooking Gull Lake (June Lake Loop)

 

Auntie Ash & Cousin Stella @ the "Beach"

4th of July

  

Bennetville (one of our favorite easy breezy hikes).  
Usually get the whole family to do it!

 

(picking Sierra wildflowers)

The End!

having withdrawals already....

Tiny Dancer

I'm not a stage mom by any means... And the whole idea of a dance recital sounded like there was potential for a  Toddlers & Tiara's moment.... We were told to put makeup on them.  I just added a little blush & Hello Kitty lip gloss.  That's how I roll.

But, it was such a treat watching my little girl up on the stage... making up her own dance (along with all the others)... not really doing what the teacher taught them all these months!  Ha!  But what do you expect from a 3 year old?  Whatever she was doing up there, it was fantastic and we loved every second of it!!

Here's our tiny dancer...

 

.....And a Rocco shot (in Grandma Nonna's arms)

This and That

Just a little something that I co-shot recently... A room filled with some pretty rad vintage cars... and there may have been a celeb here and there as well.

This & That

What have I been up to the last 3 months? Oh nothing really.... Just this:



Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the newest addition - Baby Rocco! Born 2 days after Christmas! Let's hope he doesn't hate his parents for giving him that birthday...

Now that we are three months in, I'm feeling almost new again... almost. Sofia loves her baby brother and we just can't get enough of that smile! It literally melts hearts... I'm not kidding.

I'm so excited that it's finally April! We just recently started up the garden again... Tomatoes are in and lettuce seeds are in the ground. Last year when we planted our lettuce seeds, I found out I was pregnant and then had a huge aversion to all the lettuce we planted. Not fun. BUT, we are back in the game of gardening and hoping for the best. We've gone through such an evolution in our garden throughout the years... I'll have to do a post on how we have evolved and what we have discovered through the years as far as "yield" goes.

So here's to cute new babies, Springtime, and gettin' down and dirty in the garden!

I leave you with another picture of Rocco...

Hello Dolly Bars

My, how time flies!!
I'm less than two weeks away from my due date and I can't believe how fast it has gone by..

Nesting is in full swing, and I'm running around trying to get everything done before baby comes... The house has been decorated since the day after Thanksgiving: lights on the house, tree up. And the Christmas cookies? I've been all over that lately.... I'm doing a sort of bake & freeze kind of deal this time around because any second I could be in the hospital and I need to have Christmas goodness to come home to!

These are Hello Dolly Bars... I've even heard them called Magic Bars. Whatever they are, they are a buttery, chocolatey, coconut-nutty goodness that will send you into a downward spiral of wanting to eat the entire pan. And since I'm on my last leg of this pregnancy, I was happily popping these things into my mouth like pills... not that I pop pills.

So, here you go!
I referenced Smitten Kitchen's recipe but omitted the butterscotch chips and also swapped the pecans for chopped walnuts.

By the way, this is seriously the easiest recipe. You are just layering the ingredients on!

Hello Dolly Bars

1 stick salted butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 8-10 graham crackers pulsed in a food processor)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (about 1/2 a small can or so - you might want to eyeball it)

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter on stove until just melted. Add graham cracker crumbs and stir. Press evenly into bottom of a 8x8 pan.
Layer the coconut, walnuts, and chocolate chips on top of graham cracker base. Pour sweetened condensed milk over whole mixture.
Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is light brown.
Cool completely and then cut into small squares.

Try not to eat the whole pan!

a day of apples

Once October hits, we start doing anything and everything Fall-ish. Even though we get extremely warm weather in Fall, we just have to put that aside and imagine crisp and cool Fall days... As a side note, Josh wishes he could start listening to Christmas music in October but I won't have it. I have to draw the line somewhere!
We headed up to Oak Glen this past weekend to visit the apple orchards. Unfortunately it was really warm but fortunately it was a LOT of fun!
We also took the excuse to get some 'belly' photos done since we were in such a fun setting! I look as though I'm about to give birth... but.... seriously, I still have a little over 2 months to go!

Apples were picked, apple pie & cider donuts were consumed (yum)... We even had apple beer! (which wasn't really "beer", but more of a cider)

...can't wait to put those apples to good use!

this & that

...from a wedding shot last Saturday in Lake Arrowhead