The Fountain

Luke loves the water, and this fountain is no exception.

And, as it with most water sources, his fun required a change of clothes later. A small price to pay for so much fun.

A Quick Trip South

We made yet another trip to LA this weekend for a wedding. This time Sommer and Mike tagged along and we all spent the weekend at Jeff's apartment. After our bouts with the flu last week we really had to rally, but we had a great weekend and I enjoyed seeing a dear friend get married.

It poured rain on Sunday and we had to endure snow over the grapevine on the way home, but I felt especially bad for these folks - runners in the LA marathon. Talk about miserable.

While the runners faced the elements, we had an audience with the President...

danced with JT...

messed around with Forrest's shoes...

skateboarded with Tony Hawk...

played video games...

and played guitar with Uncle Jeff.

A great weekend!

Picture Perfect

I recently offered to take some pics of my friend Gina's boys. Specifically, their 2-year and 9-month photos. Her regular photographer is on hiatus due to a family situation, so I figured I'd give my usual model a break and use the opportunity to try out my photo skills attempts on someone else's kids for a change.
Here are a few of my favorites!

He went inside and pressed his face up against the glass. Tee hee.



 My favorite

Aren't they super cute kids!

Week 3

I'm already boring myself with all this weight loss talk. Blah blah blah. Becky wants to lose weight. We know. We get it. Hurry up and do it already.

But...because I'm not a quitter and I've promised weekly updates, here it is:

Flu last week = best diet ever!
Weekend trip to LA for a wedding = all flu-induced diet help negated
Verdict:  Last week was a draw

Also, I signed up for a free online course offered by Kaiser Permanente that's some weight loss support group thing. It's free, but I had to do a half hour session on the phone with a wellness coach (also free). So basically, I got to talk about myself for 30 minutes to a captive audience. Kind of awesome.

11 weeks to go!

Let the games begin!

My office mates and I may have found our post-Twilight obsession.

It's a 3-part series and they're in the process of casting the first movie now. Apparently we don't like to stray too far from the "Young Adult" genre. Has anyone else out there read these?

Becoming a Hot Mom - Week 2

Week 2 of 14

Well since my vacation week was a total (and completely expected) bust, I kickstarted my new healthy lifestyle this week instead. I only gained 2 lbs on our vacation (not 5 like I imagined), and was able to shed those pretty quickly this week. So now I am officially at:

Starting weight X

Here's what I started working on this week:

• Reduced carb diet - I am still eating fruit and drinking milk, but am mostly trying to avoid starches and refined sugars to help me detox and curb my cravings.
• Drinking more water - I usually do pretty well keeping with the recommended 6 to 8 glasses a day, but have upped that to 12 to 14.
• Taking the stairs - I've been making the effort to climb the 3 flights of stairs everyday.

I meant to go back to the gym this week, but haven't been able to balance my "work from home" day schedule, which means I end up waking up super early or going to bed really late (occasionally a combination of both) to catch up on work and don't have time to make it to the gym. Getting that back on track is on the agenda for next week.

Accomplishment of the Week:
RAW Bars

I have heard a lot of talk about people making their own "raw" energy bars. Made from dried fruit and nuts, they are really healthy and organic. I promise you, I am NOT the kind of person who makes her own food or really worries too much about manmade ingredients (or uses her food processor...like ever), but for some reason this project intrigued me. And they were really easy!

Needs:
Dried dates
Dried apricots
Dried cranberries
Almonds
Food processor

How to make:
Recipe from Enlightened Cooking
Mix dates and cranberries in food processor on pulse and remove (this will make a paste)
Chop almonds in the food professor and put into a separate bowl
Take part of your fruit paste and mix it together with the almonds (using your hands)
You can either form the resulting combination into a bar shape or do what I did and roll them into balls.

(You can repeat this using dates and apricots)

I actually ran out of dates and ended up trying to use just apricots, cranberries and dried pineapple. When the mixture didn't form the right sticky paste consistency (the dates help with this) I added a huge tablespoon of peanut butter to the mix before I combined them with the almonds. This probably made it a lot less "raw," but they were actually my favorite of the two batches.

I stored 2 or 3 balls (depending on size)  in ziplock bags in the fridge and they've been a great healthy treat for me to grab and eat for breakfast as I head out the door. And now I have a new found excitement about the food processor that has been in my cupboard for the last 8 1/2 years. Hooray!

12 weeks til Goal Completion Date!

A Very Perry Spring Break

Last week we were on vacation. We only had a couple of specific things on our itinerary during the week, so we decided to wing it for the first couple of days and not make any concrete hotel reservations or plans. Beware: There are a lot of pictures below. I took more than 600, so believe me when I say that I did my best to choose the best ones to tell the story. (As this barely scratches the surface, expect more on facebook in the near future.)

Days 1 & 2:  Monterey/Pacific Grove
It is our favorite place, so we decided to make it our first stop. We ate dinner at the Fish Hopper on Cannery Row while I checked Twitter feeds for updates on the winners of the Academy Awards.
Luke loved the ocean. It was all we could do to keep him from running straight into the surf. And we couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather and lovely cloud-filled skies.

After we leaving Monterey we headed down the coast and stopped in San Luis Obispo at the Apple Farm for a late lunch. If you're lucky enough to be Justin's facebook friend, you likely saw the ridiculous number of pics and videos he posted of our trip. (Sorry.) After a fun encounter with a fountain there, Luke's second pair of shoes (he only has 2) got wet and both had to dry out on the dashboard for the duration of our drive. (The first pair was wet from his dip in the ocean earlier in the day.)

We decided to stop in Pismo Beach for the night and got a great rate and an ocean view at the first place we stopped.

Day 3:  Solvang and other destinations

We got up and continued down the coast to the cute little Danish town of Solvang where we enjoyed $32 worth of pastries (not all at once, but certainly over the course of the next 24 hours.) We stopped at Olsen's Bakery because of its stellar ratings on Yelp. These ratings were confirmed when we saw on the news that they had just been on the Food Network for one of their unique cakes. We were not disappointed.

And this was the box we got "to go."

After pastries and exploring the town for about an hour, we headed up the road to the Quicksilver Ranch. Home of a dozen or so miniature horses. (Justin found it online - random. If we'd had the time we would have also hit up nearby Llamaville. Next trip.)

On the way back to the freeway we spotted one of the most amazing children's parks I have ever seen!

After a stop in Santa Barbara to meet up with my MIL and her friends who were heading back up the coast after a girl's weekend in LA (where they stood in a mob outside the Kodak Theatre on Oscar Night, got their hair done on the Warner Brothers lot, saw Academy Award winner Colin Firth and made a 2-second cameo on the Ellen Show), we continued south with a plan to meet up with our friend Heidi at an awesome BBQ place in the Long Beach area called Lucille's. We picked up Jeff on the way and had an awesome dinner. A picture does exist from this event, but Justin looks pretty terrible in it and I decided to be nice. (Heidi however, looked fabulous!)

Day 4:  Disneyland

Because we are the most ridiculous people on the planet, Luke made his 3rd trip to Disneyland in 7 months. He was so much more engaged on this trip and even "asked" to go on some of the rides, pointing vigorously at the Tomorrow Land spaceships and dancing during Small World. He was a little less sure about Pirates of the Caribbean (burying his head quietly in my shoulder during part of it) and was a bit apprehensive as Justin and I shot aliens on Astroblasters. (He's a lover, not a fighter.) We also had lunch at Club 33, which was the motivation behind the trip to the Mouse House in the first place.

Side Note:  Did you know they were taking out the CALIFORNIA letters in front of the California Adventure park? Totally gone. :(

 

Days 5 & 6:  Los Angeles

While I was at a CASE conference (for people who work in University Advancement), Luke and Justin went swimming, hung out in Santa Monica and had an all around good time. Me? I got a lot of good new information about social media marketing and ate a lot.

Day 7:  Hollywood

My conference went for part of the day, but in the afternoon we headed up into the Hollywood Hills to the Griffith Park Observatory. It is absolutely beautiful up there. You can see the Hollywood sign on one side and the rest of Los Angeles on the other. It is a great place to go to escape the urban atmosphere of LA.

"Where do I look dad?
 "There son."

"Over there?"

That night we headed home. We had a great trip! Thanks for sharing our adventures!

Becoming a "Hot Mom" Week 1 - Vacation

Well, this probably wasn't the best week to announce to the world that I planned on starting my journey to operation "minus-20." We've been on vacation this week, so now it's more like "minus-25."

This week I've enjoyed filet mignon and lobster tail in Monterey (we go big!), pastries in the cute little Danish town of Solvang, BBQ at Lucille's in Long Beach, a dessert bar and more filet mignon at Club 33 in Disneyland, crepes in Hollywood, and today a cookie topped with a chocolate medallion emblazoned with the nbc universal logo (among other assorted goodies at an alumni relations conference that started today in Los Angeles.) Needless to say my pants are even tighter and I may even feel a little sick.

Don't worry, I plan to rally and enjoy a Sprinkles cupcake and, quite possibly, more crepes before we head home on Sunday. Expect a real first post next week.