A Cold January BBQ

I found all these photos on my camera. I think these are from a bbq in January - or maybe February? We pretty much have bbq nights 24/7. Get ready people - summer is a-comin'!!

Moral of the evening in question: don't eat more than one bacon wrapped, beef covered hot dog. You will feel awful afterwards, though your heart and taste buds will love you during the actual eating. Thanks for sharing Alex! They were delish!

Things you might have heard in our house this week.

...

I'm drinking everynight because it's spring break and I can do that!

Me: Don't fall asleep! It's 9 o'clock and it's my spring break.

Ant: Eh.

Me: Wake up! Well, now you're asleep. (watches Bob's Bugers alone)

I'm drinking coffee today. Why? Cause it's my spring break!

Let's listen to the Run DMC station on Pandora and dance around the house!

Me: I think I hyped up my spring break too much.

Anthony: What did you think it would be like - Cancun?

Me: Yes! It should be like Cancun. Let's have a Cancun party in the kitchen!

This spring break is boring.

Me: Let's go on a walk.

Ant: I'm too tired from skating! (whine, whine, whine)

Me: It's my spring break so we're doing what I want. No arguing, let's walk.

Ant: Fine.

Me: Let's go out to eat.

Ant: OK. Let's go to... (names 20 places I don't want to eat)

Me: No, let's go to El Patio. It's my spring break, no arguing!

Ant: Fine.

Me: I'm getting a margarita at dinner

Ant: OK.

Me: It's spring break baby!!!

CHEERS!!!

Also,

yes, my heart is broken over this failure of a spring break.

Kels

And you thought you had a lot of hats

Nope, Riley does.

 

Kels

Spring Break Kickoff

This past Friday we officially kicked off my spring break from school with a little backyard bbq. All day I was so excited to have a date night, but when we got home it kind of turned into a "cleaning date" - we pretty much deep cleaned the entire house before we even thought about eating food.

That's one of those things that kind of goes to crap when I'm in school. Our house is always neat and tidy, but it tends to get extremely dirty and fast, especially with all the dog hair, cat hair, and excess dirt from Anthony's work clothes and boots. Friday we turned our disgusting house into a nice, clean home.

In all honesty, that's my kind of date. At least we were working together, right?

Anyway, we finally made dinner. Anthony had barbecued bacon and chicken sandwiches. I made some sweet potato burgers from scratch. The appetizers (which we actually ate post-meal) were spicy bacon wrapped sweet potato bites. So good!!

If you're interested in the recipe for the sweet potato burgers it's linked at the bottom of this post.

We ended the night with a couple rounds of 20 Questions and half of the movie Hall Pass. We can never get enough of those funny guys.

sweet potato burger recipe

Kels

Andrew McMahon aka SOCO aka Jack's Mannequin

On occassion I realize that some part of me will always be that same girl I was in junior high. Do you ever think about who you were in junior high, before the pressures of a social life really start defining who you are? I think about that all the time. I was the girl with mismatched converse and long, wavy blonde hair who listened to Blink 182, Something Corporate and Jimmy Eat World on loop (among so many others). I didn't care about much outside of my "super cute skater kid boyfriend" aka Anthony, my friends, music, and getting good grades. I still love a lot of the bands that I loved back then, even though they aren't very popular today. It's cool, I know who I am. And I'm pretty much the same person I was back then - except, now I sort of know how to dress.

This past Saturday Sam and I went to see Andrew McMahon at the GAMH in the city. We had such a great time. This guy never lets his fans down - it's always an energy-filled show that you wish would never end.

It's really a testament to their fans that so many people show up to these shows. Every Something Corporate show I've been to has been sold out, and they really only have one major CD that got widespread attention. It's fun music, really.

Always a great time with my favorite concert buddy!

Kels

Yosemite Time Lapse

Yesterday I stumbled upon these amazing time lapse videos of one of my favorite places in the whole world: Yosemite National Park. These make me want to get back there so bad. This semester we have had zero time to make our way out to the park (or the cabin, for that matter), so I missed ANOTHER Yosemite winter. Good thing I have the rest of my life, right?!

It looks like the NPS and a special interest group are currently debating tearing down the stone bridge that spans the Merced River in the park. They're also thinking about banning bicyle rentals and tearing out the winter ice rink. I don't mind the possibility of the ice rink being torn down, but restricting bicycle use is just silly. Why promote more fossil fuels in the park through the use of cars? The bridge is supposedly causing erosion, but I do love that bridge. I'm 50/50 on that issue. I do hope that the part of the plan to include more campsites and parking spots does happen, because it's very hard to get a campsite in Yosemite. Who knows what the future will have in store for this park - it seems that it's always under fire from someone!

One quote that I really like -

"When are people going to realize that this narrow valley can't be everything to everybody?" Desai asked before the public comment period. "People can still bring their own bikes and rafts, and they can swim in the river."

An article follow up to yesterday's public forum on the issue can be found HERE (where I got the above quote)

Anyone who has an opinion on the matter should submit to the open forum through April 18th - at this link.

You can find the above video HERE

You can find the above video HERE

Kels

Dimples, Beer, Sandals, and other such things...

Just some bits and pieces of my life as of late:

This is literally all my animals do now. I can never seem to find the time to play, so they've become pretty good sleeping buddies. Also, Angie cut her lip on something a couple of weeks ago and now a part of her lip is white. No hair growing there and I think it's scarred. It would be right on her face! I guess she's just more unique now? Is this how parents feel when their children come home with tattoos and broken teeth? It's terrifying and I'm never having children. (Also, I'm obviously having kids. That was a joke)

 Sandals are back and I am so happy! I hate wearing shoes. In California we really can wear sandals all year round, but I try to not do that when it's really cold outside because I feel that it's kind of silly to wear three jackets with sandals. I care too much about what people think of me, I guess.

 Anthony's side of the bedroom is unique? (see pile of clothes on the floor and stacked on the dresser) I love the boards on the wall. I'll give him that.

 I just really like this photo. Sometimes the messed up ones make me the most happy.

I just like this picture. I think my banner is pretty.

Grandpa Joe loves his Riley girl. Mary has officially decided he's her favorite.

I secretly want to be her favorite, duh.

Anthony and I stayed the night one night last week to help Mary out a little bit. I couldn't help taking 6,000 photos of Riley. I love watching her with her Uncle Tony.

Almost a smile.

I can't stand those dimples. They are too freaking cute. They remind me of her cousin Jayce's dimples when he was a tiny babe.

Nakey baby. We got to visit with Michelle, Jenae, Uncle Mike and Aunt Ann on Sunday. They came down to visit Mary and Riley. We're hoping to visit Jenae and Michelle in the summer for some rafting on the American River.

   

We spent a few hours on Saint Paddy's Day with these folks. I love them to death, and Richard is too funny!

As if you didn't already feel like this post was on baby overload, here are more photos of my favorite niece.

 

I hear that this little chica slept through the entire night last night. That's the first thing Renee told me this morning. You're welcome Camello household... Mary and I make a good team, just saying.

WARNING: Tiger is now extremeley ornery and annoying. She's old and whiney and yet still looks like a little kitty.

Poppyseed bread is easy to make from scratch and I want some right now.

^^^ sugar overload ^^^

This is me attempting to be more "springy" in my work attire.

Also, I used the word "fave" or "fav" so many times in this post at first that I looked up which is the correct way to use the term. After reading THIS I decided I'd rather just say favorite, instead of sounding like a freak using a fake word for the rest of my life.

The end, Happy Thursday!

Kels