The latest top 10 ....
1. Heidi and Kids Visit/Oakland Zoo. Heidi and her kids came for their Spring Break and had a blast. They, with Nate, John and Liza went to the Oakland Zoo, our now famous Le Asia Asian Market (think a modern Southeast Asian Albertson's), and Rock City on Mount Diablo--more later on that. They had a blast.2. Rock City with Heidi's Kids. While Heidi and her kids were here they went to Rock City--strangly large, grandios sandstone outcroppings on Mount Diablo. Kids get hurt up there all the time, but we love to go there--not because it's a passively dangerous way to injure yourself, but because ove the amazing views, it's beautiful and fun. There are caves, sandstone slides, it's actually a lot like Moab, but it's right in the middle of a very lush mountain that hovers over the East Bay Area.
3. Falafel. Some of our good friends had a bunch of gals from Church over to make Falafel. Apparently while many of us were eating funeral potatoes and jello all through BYU (at least, that is our friends' perception as they were at Berkeley), they were eating Falafel with their friends. Our own Julia brought the Falafel energy home and we all seriously loved it. You would too. Healthy and savory. Our friends hyped the need for unique ingredients like pure sesame paste Tahina (which, of course, there were 4-5 varieties at our Asian Market. Sooooo, if any of you want to make this we certainly could pick up some hard to find ingredients!
4. A Late Breaking Friends B-day Party for Nate. Nate normally nears nine nift y birthday parties each year. For the last of many, he invited a lot of his friends over to the Church gym on a rainy Saturday to play indoor soccer, three-legged races, war ball, pinata, and basketball. He was stunned and elated to find that they all gave him totally expensive Lego sets. He and John must have about 150 pounds of Legos, unreal.
5. Easter. Easter was low key but tres glam. The Easter Bunny hid the baskets, the kids found them, ate lots of candy, hunted for Easter eggs, ate more candy, all the good stuff. 
The real magic was our ward Easter fete which featured the ward young women painting kids faces, a grand Easter egg hunt, everything in full flair. The number of kids in our ward seems to have doubled in recent weeks so it was crowded and FUN!
6. Easter Dinner. Our sweet Julia made an incredible, palate tantilizing dinner for Easter--which, for the very first time in the history of our life in the western hemisphere, was shared only by those who live in our home! All the other family in the area were traveling. Honey glazed ham, Grammie's rolls, baked potatoes, pineapple, watermelon, artichokes, fresh long green beans, and key lime pie made with real key limes. Tasty. (BTW, the white dog in the picture is our friend's pooch. We're dog sitting over Spring Break.)
5. Projects. Boy o boy could I go off here. I've decided home projects are one of the things that keep me sharp at work. Lately, I've been working on restoring a 1910-20 era quartersawn oak hat rack, very very old fold out secretary desk with mini bookcase and a corner china hutch. Old, cool stuff. This weekend we also had a planting frenzy and I got about 5 other little time consuming but nagging projects done. 6. Pre-Call Family Reunion Prep. Of course, we're moderately bummed that we're going to miss the whole Gibson/Doxey family reunion in Colorado, but very grateful to be able to see you all at Emily's wedding!
I say moderately bummed b/c of the total excitement for #4 coming sometime around July 14th...right after Julia's entire family reunion is held out here in the Bay Area. We would be totally bummed but that's a great reason to stick around.
For the Call reunion, roughly 60 people are going to roll in--it's going to be a blast. Transportation, bedding, housing, logistics, tourist attraction tickets, teenager to toddler events are all being planned. Maybe if we have the baby while they are all here we can stay in the hospital and that would free up one more bed??? Oh yeah, they do have hotels here too. Sleeping on the tramp for a week is still open too. The funny thing... all we really need is to rent a soft serve ice cream cone machine and everything else will work out in the wash.
7. Nesting. We're nesting like crazy right now...here at home and even at work (our big convention is in the first week in August) so we're pushing to get stuff planned and done right now in every area of life. Maybe that starts to explain why we've pretty much dropped off the face of the earth other than blogging every few weeks. The kids spend a lot of time making Liza's hair a static bonanza.
10 comments:
Let me just be the first to comment and say that I screwed up the HTML with some of this so sorry if it doesn't work perfectly. You get the idea. If anyone wants to develop an HTML auto find error tool (or tell me where one is) that would be great.
Sorry can't help you with computer stuff but I did want to say that your posts are the best. I love that we can see what's up in California. I wish I could have been there for Julie's feast!!! I aspire to cook like you- can I take a course Cooking - Julie Doxey Style sometime?!?
Dan thinks my cooking is unique but it really isn't. Anyone can cook a baked potato, right? I do have to comment about a few of Dan's one liners this weekend. He's been as absolute hoot lately! After Easter Dinner he said, "You know, these dinners are always so hard for me. Watching you carry out the logistics of getting dinner on the table are really hard to watch!" Also, after eating out Friday night at a Mexican Restaurant Dan said, "You know our waiter Farfal--he's really an Indian posing as a Mexican. He can't fool me!" He's had many other. I'll fill you in as I think of them. I wish all of you could live near him! He really is a kick in the pants!
Yeah, Julia makes it sound like I'm just sitting there doing nothing while she is slaving away.
Well, it's true that she is slaving away...no doubt about that. But I must say, she's better off without me in there--and we both know it.
As was promised early, early in our marriage--I'll gladly do all the clean up, dishes, change those nasty diapers, and keep you doing whatever you want (for the rest of my life) if you'll just help us out on the food front.
Don't get me wrong--I got my cooking merit badge as a Scout, I worked at La France Restaurant and learned all about prep cooking, massive dish pile washing, and I had the sense to jointly run the Creekside Inn B&B in Alaska.
Breakfast is definitely my forte....simply because my mind is clear and uncluttered from severe hunger pressure.
But, make no mistake--she's better than I with all things food.
Afterall, regratably, I'm the one who was asked to get a green onion at a grocery store and came back with a round ball like onion that was green. Similarly, I once made a bean burrito out of green beans and a tortilla. My personal patience with food is just not there...but I do respect it dearly.
Alas, it's a sad truth, cooking for me means no more than something you can cut up and eat or something you can pour and eat. Any more than that is just too many steps.
Julia's dad knows this too. Last time they were here he was watching Julia cook. He said, "She's fast, efficient, tidy, resourceful...she's a good little cook." :)
Nice Hair
You guys are so fun! I love all the stuff you do when visitors come! You are the BEST tour guides! :)
Yes!... Dan and Julia's house is the place to be, for oh, so many reasons. Dan-- Do you realize how absolutely blessed (and darnright LUCKY) you are to have Julie and her stellar skills?! I do think you are, but I just wanted to remind you.
By the way... LOVE the blogs, it's nice to hear what's happening out west. I just aspire to be a little more like the both of you!
Wow, wow and wow. You guys do live in a dream I can't believe how big Liza is getting- she looks so old! I laughed when I read about the Falafals b/c that (unfortunately) was the biggest trigger of nausea during my recent pregnancy. There are falafal stands all over the city and to this day I get a gag relex when I smell them. And for the record, I threw up in the city more than once just from smelling them.
Cool projects Dan! I can't wait to be done with school so that Doug will find some of those cool Doxey-boy projects to work on.
I just have to say--Julie you are an awesome cook! Hopefully I can learn from you someday! And, Dan--yes I do remember that tasty green bean burrito--that was sick!--but very creative! It's funny you mention the green onion--That has been one of my favorite stories to share with friends--You are a scream Daniel! Keep up with the Doxey News--it's so fun to see what's up. Liza your hair rocks!!!
What about daydreaming about your brother-in-law showing up at your doorstep without any warning and eating dinner with you and sleeping at your house for three days. Now that's a daydream for you!
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