Sand in the City

The last weekend in August here in Olympia features “Sand in the City” where local businesses sponsor sand sculptures for the benefit of the Hands-On Children’s Museum. Kole and Kamden received a free book from a book bus and were able to do various crafts as well as a touch ‘n feel sea creatures exhibit that featured a lobster, crab, starfish, and geoducks (these are native to the Sound). The boys had a great time playing with the bubbles, play-doh, and making boats to race in the rain gutters and getting acquainted with some alpacas. They especially enjoyed the snow cones.

Too much stimulation for Kamden.

New Recipe

So I guess the think to do is post recipes..anyway, the other night while Bryan was out-of-town I had to come up with something for dinner. I was going to make some spaghetti because its easy and the kids like it. I started on the noodles thinking that we had some spaghetti sauce but when I went to get it I couldn't find any! I started looking around in the pantry and there was this recipe on the back of a can of diced tomatoes. It is basically like baked spaghetti with a kick. I thought is was really good and the kids liked it too.

Chili Pasta Bake

10 oz. penne pasta (I actually used the bow-tie cause thats what I had)
1 lb. ground beef
1 c. chopped onion
2 Tbsp. chili powder (I only put in 1 Tbsp. and it was plenty spicy)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup salsa
1 can diced green chiles
1-2 cups shredded Mexican cheese

1. Cook pasta according to the directions.
2. Cook meat and onion in large skillet; drain. Add chili powder, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa and chiles. Cook 5 minutes.
3. Toss pasta and sauce. Spoon into 13x9 inch baking dish. Top with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Camping with the Hodos

Kole has been bothering Bryan since the beginning of the summer to go camping since he goes once a month with the Scouts. We were finally able to find a night that was available on Thursday and were able to go with our friends, the Hodos. The weekend before, Bryan and the Scouts went to Anderson Island for their campout and he said it would be really nice for the family as well since it had showers for Michelle. So when Bryan got home from work on Thursday, we loaded up the car and headed for the island. Michelle and Kole were very excited because it was their first time on a ferry. Kole enjoyed looking over the railing for jellyfish in the Puget Sound while Kamden never got too close to the edge.

When we arrived at the campsite, we were the only ones there and had the pick of the entire campground as to where we would set up our tent. We settled on a grass field next to the childrens play area where we could watch the boys playing from the comfort of our camping chairs. Kole and Kamden had a great time playing on the equipment and Kamden and Ethan enjoyed throwing sand at each other. For supper, we had tin foil dinners. Yummmm! For dessert ... smores. Kamden was covered from head to toe with sand. Due to the proximity of the showers and that we had only been gone from our home for 5 hours, Michelle had to take a shower to clean off all of that grime that had accumulated from the grass.

On Saturday morning, we had danishes for breakfast and headed over to the lake for some swimming. Kole didn't like the "deep" water, so he enjoyed the kiddie area with a maximum depth of two feet. Kamden didn't know how he felt about the water at first, but warmed up and actually swam out to a floating dock on Bryan's back.

Overall, we had a great time with the Hodos and would call our first camping excursion as a family since Kole was Kamden's age a success. Check out the pics below.

What's next? The car does not do it for me.

It's A ....

BOY!!!-yes...another boy. Due December 21st.

Michelle, Sarah, and Brandi tubin'

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Elders Quorum Day at the Lake

We had our annual EQ day at the lake on Saturday. We had so much fun! Every year the Burbidge family hosts a boating day for the Elders Quorum. This year we didn't have as many turn out which is a good and a bad thing. Good because it means more time on the boat and in the tubes for us...and bad because we love so many people in our ward and miss them when they're not there. We decided to leave Kamden home with a babysitter and he even got to have his best friend Ethan come over to spend the day with him. The babysitter said that they had a great time and I don't think he missed us one bit. The day was especially monumental for Kole because he actually got on the boat this year! For some reason he has had a fear of falling off the boat and has not ridden on the boat or in a tube until this year. After a lot of convincing he finally got over his fear and even rode on a 3-seater tube with 2 of his friends. He was most excited about having control of the speed by giving a "thumbs up to go faster" and a "thumbs down to go slower." We were very proud of him. Bryan and I both had a great time riding the tubes together and with friends. My friend Heather made both of us laugh so hard when on the 3-seater tube she screamed like I have never heard anyone scream before. She tried to play it off like she was just kidding around but it didn't take us long to figure out she was really terrified of falling off the tube. My tummy hurt from laughing when we were done. Can't wait until next year!

Bryan's Surprise Party

Through a lot of sneakiness, I was able to pull off a surprise party for Bryan's 30th birthday. A friend of ours had offered to host a few weeks ago and I excitedly took her up on it. I even went as far as to prepare lasagnas for the party the day before and had a friend keep them in her fridge. I told him that I had something planned for the 2 of us on Friday night and that he was going to be picked up to meet me at the "romantic location." Much to his surprise it did not turn out to be a romantic evening with just us, but a fun night partying with friends. We had a great time!

Happy Birthday Bryan!

Bryan is 30 years old today! I don't know how ecstatic he is about it but I guess theres nothing you can do, right? He keeps reminding me that I am now married to a 30-year-old, which I guess is supposed to be a bad thing for me or something. (I laugh because it's not my turn yet.) Anyway, of course Bryan has scouts tonight so we won't be celebrating until Sunday, but if you have the chance to give him a call or send an email his way..I'm sure he'd love it!

7 Years Together!

We celebrated our 7th Anniversary on July 29th, 2007. We started the evening by going to see a wonderful movie, called "Rescue Dawn." It is this amazing true story of a soldier who gets captured in Vietnam and plans a daring escape for himself and the other prisoners. I highly recommend this film! Next we went down to Tacoma so we could dine at the Melting Pot which has been one of our favorite places. We unfortunately haven't been back in a very long time because it is definitely a "special occasion" type of place. I had forgotten how wonderful the food is there. Everything from the salad, to the cheese fondue, to the main course and finally..the best part-the chocolate was so yummy! We had such a great time! I felt like such a spoiled wife!

This is the main course. You get all these different kinds of meat cut into small chunks. We had ahi tuna, shrimp, tender sirloin steak, sesame teriyaki steak, curried chicken, and a bowl with red potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms and zucchini. Everything was wonderful!

This is all the fun stuff we got to dip in our chocolate.

Mmmm...yummy chocolate fondue!

Movie Review: Rescue Dawn

Rescue Dawn was an entertaining movie with great acting. I thought Steve Zahn was better than Christian Bale (don't tell Michelle that though). It was an inspiring story of a soldier that was captured and tortured for information. The movie told this true story featuring his will to live no matter the circumstances he found himself in. This is a highly recommended, entertaining movie.