Future Bake Shop Owners?

Ashley and her friend Madi have been dreaming for quite some time now about owning a Bakery some day. They both love to bake and enjoy finding recipes together to test some of their future menu items.

One particular day I was feeling like it would be fun to let them choose a few recipes, make a shopping list and then go to the store and buy everything they needed. Once home again I would let them take over the kitchen while I supervised from a distance. I was thinking it would be a nice way to go over all that is involved in the process.

I think I may have supervised from a little too far of a distance, because after we got back from the store and they started making things, we realized quickly that they had forgotten some items and not bought enough of others. I also didn’t realize until that point how many recipes they had each chosen.

But, hey, we decided we could turn it into more of a lesson on resourcefulness than anything else. I sent them off to the neighbors to try and come up with all they were short by. By the end of their time together that day, they successfully completed two recipes and had started on two others. Madi came back a few days later a they finished it all up.

I have to say I’m impressed with their drive. I’m thinking they just might do it – open a bakery together some day. If they do, I will be one of their best customers for sure!

Kurt’s Birthday

We kept things simple for Kurt’s birthday this year. We just stayed in for a dinner together as family. Lauren played some tether-ball with him while I grilled up some steak fajitas for him. Rather than cake, he asked for Mrs. Smith’s Apple Pie… a-la-mode.

Winter Camping at Confluence

We love being able to camp in all seasons of the year. We were a little antsy to get away as a family and leave the pressures of life behind for a bit, so we took a quick trip over to Wenatchee and stayed at Confluence state park. We have camped here before in the summer time, but this would be completely different in the winter and with no boat, etc.

There was hardly anyone there – we had the whole park to ourselves it seemed. A few other die-hards were around, too, but we were able to all have some space between us.

Ashley & Lauren were bummed that it wasn’t nearly the same experience as in the summer. There was a ton of goose poop all over the grass (making the girls not really want to explore outdoors much) and it was super COLD!! We still did get out for a few walks. We ended up running into town to get movies a few times and even stopped for Starbucks one day, too. Boy were we roughing it or what! ;)

We even celebrated Valentine’s Day in our humble little camper (rather than going out to a restaurant like we normally do), but I say it was good trip. Why? Because we were together and we weren’t focused on a bunch of other people or other responsibilities. We talked a lot and spent time together. That’s what family is supposed to do!!

Maui – Day 8 , the last day :(

On our last day, we wanted to make the most of the time we had left. Since we didn’t have to time to go to the beach, we decided to go on a sunrise whale watching tour!

It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We saw so many whales. The boat isn’t allowed to get closer than 100 yards, but we had one whale actually swim right under our boat! We saw his belly and everything.

It was really hard to take good pictures of the whales with our camera, but we did manage to get a few. Plus the sunrise was amazing and we got awesome shots of that.

At the end when we were coming back in there was a mom and her calf and the calf kept jumping (breeching) out of the water over and over again. It was so amazing!

 

After the whale watching tour we went back to our condo and packed up, checked out, returned our snorkel gear and said our goodbyes.

Maui was the most amazing vacation. I hope we can return someday. We missed the girls but it was so good for us to get away – just the two of us. Someday maybe we will bring the whole family here. Or… better yet, maybe we’ll retire here. :)

Maui – Day 7

In the morning on Friday we went out and took a stroll along the beach. It was already so warm out – I loved the weather there so much! It was a pretty morning and we found a nice man who was willing to take our picture for us.

After going back and having breakfast in the condo, we wanted to go to Kapalua beach again and do some more snorkeling there. We packed our chair packs again and headed over.

We returned to our condo for lunch and then headed right back out to our beach – Napili Bay. Since this was our last full day and the last day on the beach we made the most of it. We went swimming a few times and we snorkeled some more. This time we saw some huge sea turtles again. There was one that was swimming with a surfer. It kept on poking it’s head out of the water to look around. It was so cute!

After getting our fill of the beach, we went back to the condo and got cleaned up and ready to go out for dinks and pupus to watch the sunset and then out to dinner in Lahaina.

We went for pupus at the Seahouse Restaurant at the Napili Kai resort. We had a great seat and watched the most amazing sunset! We even got to see the guy come out and light the tiki torches after they blew the conch shell – signaling sunset. There was even a couple getting married on the beach right then.

After pupus, we went into Lahaina to Aloha Mixed Plate for dinner. Kurt really loved the food there and I had the yummiest drink – a Sassy Wahini!

Before we retired for the night we took a moon walk on the beach at Napili. It was nearing the end of the trip and we didn’t want to go home. :(