date night

Since having baby boy, Dave and I have only gone out once by ourselves sans baby boy to grab some dinner for an hour-ish while he slept at Grammy and Poppy's house.  Well, this time Grammy and Poppy pulled through again and gave us a fabulous Christmas gift: tickets to see Wicked and offering their babysitting services to watch Clark for the night.  As you can imagine, we were pretty thrilled.

And as it just turned out, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Norm were in town too so Clark was extra well taken care of.  We were feeling really good about leaving the little guy in such capable hands.


We had planned to hit up a local Pasadena haunt for some pulled pork and hearty BBQ, but we pulled up and it was closed for a special event.  Laaaame!  Oh well.  As it turns out there was a fabulous hole in the wall Mexican joint next door with killer taquitos and freshly squeezed watermelon juice that made up for it just fine.

Pulling up to the theatre I started to get really excited.  Not only was I wearing a nice blouse that I didn't have to worry about getting baby spit up on and a pair of kicking booties, but we were seeing a great play with killer seats and David has never seen Wicked before!  He didn't even know the musical goodness that was about to hit him.


At intermission David was trying to remember a song he had liked best from the first half so I proceeded to sing the opening lines to every musical number they had done so far.  Midway through Dancing Through Life he stopped me dumbfounded and asked, How do you know all the words already??  Oh honey, I've been listening to these show tunes since I was 13.  Trust me.  I know the words.

It was such a lovely night to just get away and be the two of us again.  Somehow it's still crazy to think that this is how life used to be.  Just us going to and from as we please.  And now we sit in the theatre before the show begins and watch videos of our little munchkin and crave pictures of him at intermission.  And even though it was good to take a break, there was something so right about coming home and tip toeing into Clark's room to check on him.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

weekending

How come some weekends seem to last and last, and others (like this one) are over before you know it?  It's ridiculous.  This weekend flew by and now it's Monday all over again.  The injustice.

This past Friday night Dave and I were very excited to try one of our new found Santa Clarita eateries - The Newhall Refinery.  Dave and I haven't gotten excited about a local restaurant in a while so this was a treat.  We give it two thumbs up on food, pricing, and service.  Plus they serve a beet salad with goat cheese - brownie points for sure.  We liked our dinners so much we were persuaded to stay for dessert and our waiter told us we had to order their blueberry bread pudding.  Neither of us have ever had a bread pudding before (and I mostly associate it with being the only dessert anyone ever seems to make on Chopped), but holy moly, this was a winner.  We shared one serving, but honestly, I think I need my own next time...

On Saturday, after washing cars and working a few hours, we headed down to Pasadena and wondered around possible neighborhood options.  The LA commute is not something Dave is keen on doing too much longer if we can help it so...hopefully we'll be moving further south this coming springtime!  We shall see, but as of last night wandering the streets and grabbing a hot chocolate to stroll up and down Colorado Blvd, I was charmed.  Plus we found a tasty hotdog joint, what else do you want from a place to live?

Please stick around fall weather!  My boots will be so very sad to be put away again...
And yes I am aware that most of this post involves us eating - you can see where our priorities lie.

celebrations!

Well, it's officially official and we can finally start spreading the news - nope we're not pregnant - Dave got a new job!  He'll be starting work with Ernst & Young in their LA office this September and he's pretty excited about it.  We definitely did our fair share of happy dances this weekend and ate some mighty good grub to celebrate.  Dave has been working this past year for a wonderful local firm in the Santa Clarita area, but he can't wait to drive down to LA and be a part of a new team (not so excited about the commute, but you win some you loose some).

Bricks on Lyons did not disappoint us with some great burgers and tots to aid in our celebrations: we were happy people.  Plus we RedBoxed the Hobbit and saw it for the first time that night, which, you know, was pretty awesome.  When we got to the end of the movie I totally forgot it was a trilogy and I was so confused when it stopped before they got to the mountain.  That was a little anticlimactic.

We're also in the market to get Dave a new car - bleh - and on Saturday we did a few test drives at dealerships down in Orange County.  So of course we called my parents to see if they wanted to meet up for dinner.  We ended up at Downtown Disney for some sandwiches, gelato, and the best company.

 And that was our weekend!  It was over much too soon, but...Dave's last day at his old firm was actually yesterday!  So it's going to be perpetual weekends for us from now til September 4th.  We're planning to live it up before I send Dave off again and become an E&Y widow.  San Fran and Utah trips here we come!

nemrow date night

This past weekend we had a particularly fun date night.  After a day of cleaning the house and preparing lessons for Sunday, Dave and I headed down into LA to eat at a cafe called The Pie Hole...and oh baby, we were two happy campers.  First of all, I instantly loved this place per its name because it made me think of this beloved show, and secondly, David is an avid fan of all and any things pie.  We were basically made for this place.

It was 

So. 

Stinkin'.

Yummy. 

Dave got himself a cheeseburger pie (which was way better than it sounds, I promise), and I got a cornbread and chicken pot pie (melt in your mouth deliciousness with green chilies).  And we, of course, shared a decadent dessert of maple custard pie, which basically tasted like creme brulee in pie form.  We were so enthralled we almost bought their overly priced t-shirts.

Now when it comes to pie, Dave is pretty partial to those of the berry variety, which they had none of this past Saturday.  Upon inquiry we found out that they were going to start rolling out their seasonal berry pies the very next day!! Blast you timing.  I guess we'll have to go back.  (oh darn)

After so much good food we strolled a little around LA's art district, which we quickly found out wasn't very strollable.  So back in the car and off to Griffith Observatory we went.

The observatory is up on a hill that looks over the whole LA basin and the drive up is no mean feat.  First we had to get past the crowd thronging to see Barry Manilo at the Greek Theatre, and then there were a million other cars looking for parking...what??  Seriously, when did so many people go hang out at the observatory?  Turns out the LA Sidewalk Astronomers and Planetary Society were holding their monthly public Star Party that night and people were flocking in throngs up the hill.

The guy that took this last picture of us was kind of my favorite.  I saw him and his wife struggling with the tricky conundrum of trying to take a good picture of yourselves without having to ask someone awkwardly to take it for you because no one is making eye contact and you will just be fine with this sub par photo of the two of you.  It's a conundrum I often find myself in as well.  So I offered to snap one for them if they'd do one for us.  When I gave him my phone I told him I was sure he had mad photo skills and his wife laughed and said he's a professional photographer!  He got all down in front of us all serious like and snapped three or four pictures which were all framed so nicely.  And then I felt all self conscious about the few pictures I took for them...

It was a really fun date night, but I think I'll have to take Dave back when a) there are not so many people there and b) we weren't so pooped.  Somehow right when we walked into the museum we both looked at each other and sighed in exhaustion.  I didn't really read a single exhibit, but we did watch a presentation narrated by Lenard Nimoy, and if that doesn't make the trip up there worth it I don't know what does.

date night

Friday night was a simple night.

And it was the best.  

It started out with a happy discovery in the kitchen.  I found this new food blog the other day.  Her recipes were well reviewed, pretty simple, and looked delicious - a triple threat.  For dinner I decided to go out on a limb and try her grilled veggie and humus pizza...

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

It was SO good!!!

Honestly I had to stop us from eating the whole thing so I could take a few pictures.  It was that delicious.  I made homemade humus for the first time for this recipe and have already made it twice again over the weekend.  It's a new favorite around here (and so stinkin' easy).  Chickpeas have now become an overnight pantry staple.

After gorging ourselves it was 7:20ish and I had a hankering for a walk (and to burn a few pizza calories...).  Dave was sceptical because it was a little late, but I've been watching the sun lately and it definitely doesn't get full dark til 8:30 or so around here.

I won.  We walked :)

There is a darling little community sort of close to us that has a man-made lake in the middle of it and just a bunch of charming homes to wonder around that back up right next to the water.  We chose to meander around there with the rest of Valencia and all their dogs.  It was so fun to see everyone out  walking and enjoying the summer night.  

It was refreshing to get out of the house and take an evening stroll.  And on our way home we stopped by RedBox and picked up Hitchcock (which I've been wanting to see since it came out) and ate fresh strawberries for dessert.  

It was the loveliest, simplest night.  I'm down for spending an evening like this anytime.

weekending

After spending Memorial Day weekend with my family, we rolled into our garage Monday night and David realized he had left his suit at my parent's house.  Oops.  I told my mom to which she replied, "Wonderful!  We'll bring it up to you on Saturday!"  Any excuse to get together right?

We took them out for burgers and all sorts of friend vegetables at Bricks for lunch and headed to our favorite shaved ice joint for dessert.  It was a scorcher in the 100's, but we made do.

 Turning 24 and 18...or 42 and 81...?

It's always a treat to hang with the fam.  Never complaining about that.

Later that afternoon Dave and I decided to head down to the LA temple.  We were very happily surprised by the coastal Santa Monica breeze that was MUCH cooler than up by our home.

We were finally able to finish up some family names we've been helping my cousin to complete (after like 10 months  - sorry Christa!), and spent a good three hours in the temple just enjoying.  We were in no hurry and that was nice for a change.

We topped off the night with chocolate chip cookies (ohmygosh this was a really good batch, ask Dave) and Inception...during which we fell asleep.  Which feels appropriate somehow...and a good excuse to watch it again.

Now that it's officially June I've gotten the summer bug and can't wait to get out and about doing all the summery things southern California has to offer...let the fun begin!