Kansas

Time for some more stories. This time we will travel to a small town in Kansas called Liberal. Here is where Elias' family resides and where his little sister recently graduated from high school. This is also where I got to learn how to cook real, good Mexican food. I have never seen a bucket of lard so large but yet oh-so-tasty. My low calorie, light meal, hot weather thoughts were thrown out for pure delicious cheesey-fried goodness! I have never had better Mexican food and I promise I am not saying this because my possibly, maybe future mother-in-law made the majority of the food. ;)

This picture needs to be clicked on to see larger because HELL-OOO, this is a beautiful thing. Fresh homemade tortillas (like fresh meaning just before the meal was served, they were made), homemade Mac N' Cheese and the main event - Chile Rellenos. Lord have mercy these were good... I don't know if you can see but there is also a homemade salsa on top of the relleno. I swear this woman would just put things in her pan or her blender and they would come out tasting like pure delicious wonderful. The chiles were filled with Mennonite cheese that yours truly stuffed in there. In fact, that tortilla is possible one of the ones I made.

That's right!! I can make tortillas! The real deal people! haha... I obviously feel very special in this picture.

So I had to cover the food portion first and these two pictures really only hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the food we ate.  There was roasted pork (for the meat eater), salsa de aguacate (no not guacamole), beans, rice, etc. etc. SO the reason we were out there (besides the food ;)) was for his little sister's graduation.

This is Marina (little sister and graduate) and the momma. You can see Abel in the background which is Elias' nephew. The guy in the cowboy hat is Julio, the man of the family. :)

Marina hugging Julio. On the left there is again Abel and on the right, the momma.

Myself hugging Marina and you can see to the right of her (and Elias') sister Veronica (also called Vero). Vero is holding Marina's baby, AJ who is fricken' ADORABLE. To the left in the background there is Frey and Mareli.

Here are some pictures highlighting some of the other fun times we had out there...

Elias and I all ready for graduation on the front porch.

The cute little baby AJ taking a snooze while we were out on a walk around town.

Elias and his sister, Marina.

The storm moving in. There was really cool lighting, so we took a couple of pics.

Hail. 

It was pretty decent size hail too!

Reading and snuggling in the heat and rain.

Elias' mom lit this candle when we first arrived and let it burn the whole time apparently. I think Elias told me this is to bless our trip or make our trip a good one. Not sure. He is not home right now but if I am wrong I will let you all know. 

Grandma and happy baby!!

His mom whipped out some of the old pics. Check out Elias looking so put together! You can't see it in the shot but he is wearing cowboy boots. I guess this is one of his teachers from elementary school and then his mom is on the right.

I swear this is how he still sleeps - on his belly with his mouth wide open! ha!

I love this one. He was called a "cry baby" when is was a kid. The outfit he is sporting is actually his older sister's graduation gown from like the fifth grade. Elias was so upset that he didn't get a "gown" to wear that he cried until they gave it to him to put on. This is too funny! :)

Scrub-a-dub-dub. Always have to have a naked baby shot.

The ice cream man! He went around the neighborhoods selling delicious fruit/ice cream bars of all different flavors. Some were pretty exotic, kind of reminded me of my time in South America.

Saying goodbye to the madre. :(

The flight to Denver where we caught our connection back to Seattle. Pretty. I miss those Midwestern storms!

Since we were just hopping from Denver, CO to Liberal, KS we took a propeller plane.

We just walked right off and then into the airport. Fun!

Finally home and relaxing!

Can't wait to see his fam again! We had a great time but it is always good to be back home on the couch drinking beer. Amen!

Next story and pics: our first camping trip in Washington! Stay tuned!

A & E

You thought I gave up but no, I'm not done bloggin' yet!

Oh lordy there is so much to say. I will try to keep the descriptions brief and let the pictures do most of the talkin'! I have a lot to share.


So I will start with my mom, dad and aunt Camille visiting Seattle WAY back in April. My dad had a Microsoft conference for work and decided to  take advantage of the opportunity and come see Elias and I. This is our house to the right... well... not really our house, the only part of "our" place you can see is the top right windows into our living room.

 If you were to walk along the path that goes along the left side of the house you would come to our front door which is pictured to the left here. Currently there are a bunch of plants on our little patio. Hopefully I will get those pics up soon.

This is me trying to raise some seedlings into adult plants. As you can see I am crazy about my plants. Today I was actually talking to my plants like they were my pet dog or something. Oh what I wouldn't do for a pet dog. :/

My ma, pa and aunt stayed at a great Bed and Breakfast called Shafer Baillie Mansion. This is just the front door... the place was huge and very nice.

My dad was unable to play for the first couple of days so we had a girl's day where we went to the spa and got pampered. Afterwards we checked out Poppy Restaurant in Capitol Hill. The Chef for the restaurant was on Bravo's Top Chef which is way coolio. 

Now this to the left is a picture of Poppy's food. It is called Indian Thali but the food isn't necessarily Indian. In fact it is considered Pacific Northwest foods. Anyway there is one larger portion and then a variety of small dishes to go with it. The cocktails (as pictured above) are interesting and delicious as well!

Oh this was earlier in the afternoon right after the spa. My ma and me rockin' it out. Check out her mod squad glasses. Just another 50-year-old trying to be fashionable! ha! Sorry madre.

Dad finally shows up and we head out for some good Mexican food in Ballard: La Carta de Oaxaca. They have some pretty delish selections. Elias says that it is pretty traditional too although maybe more Southern Mexican. It really doesn't matter though, as long as there are good margaritas.

Out on the town tasting vodkas and whiskeys. This was a beer festival in Fremont (Hop Scotch?). We weren't that impressed. Once you have lived in a place like Colorado there is a certain expectation (not to sound snobby but it is true!).

Finally getting a chance to show my dad around our place! I was pretty excited to see what he thought. It is always fun to show your 'rents how you have settled into your own place. This is kind of like my "first" place since Elias is a little more than a rommate.

This is our dinner table all nicely set for the first time. Elias and I always stand up and eat our food, don't know why but we do. Probably because we are always seemingly in a hurry.

And actually we ended up not sitting at the table either. I think we had all eaten sooo much that we didn't want to sit straight up in a regular chair!! The face I am making is because I have a HUGE food baby and I am hugely uncomfortable. :(



It was a great time though. Always love seeing my family and hanging out with them. There are not enough pictures of my aunt Camille but it was awesome having her with us too!

Soon to come: pics and stories from Kansas when we went to see Elias' fam, from our first camping trip in Washington, of our plants, of delicious food we have made and eaten, and a lot more!!

Much love from the West Coast!