June Celebrations

We went out yesterday and bought ourselves a new grill! We've been without one for two years (we gave our old one away before we moved) and it was time! We just got a little cheap one, it does the trick so that's all that matters:-)

We cooked up some portobello mushrooms, onions, sweet corn on the cob (NOT in the husk) some ciabatta bread, pineapple and a cilantro/lime marinated flank steak. I can't attest to the steak, but the rest of it turned out so very good (K.C. said the steak was the best I've ever made - it was totally by accident I assure you! Hmmm, maybe that wasn't a compliment.)!

A couple of side stories for ya.

I was totally in the mood for a beer to have with this inaugural cookout. When we did the Tillicum Village cruise, K.C. got me a Kaliber beer on the boat (it's non-alcoholic). It's made by the makers of Guiness so I really didn't think that I would like it. But I did! So I was on the hunt for it while we were out shopping. I finally found a 6 pack at Fred Meyer - already cold mind you - and when I went to grab it, I noticed that someone had taken one. So it was only a 5 pack. CRAP! That totally sucked but I knew we already had some 'wine' (non-alcoholic) chilling in the fridge since this was our celebration dinner so, reluctantly, I left those five delicious looking COLD bottles of beer behind. ~sigh~

Quinn was so excited about this cookout. I couldn't figure out why. She kept asking if we were having a cookout and I kept telling her yes and she would say "oh goody" and then proceed to tell K.C. and Sydney and Buffy and Storm and Jagr all about how we were going to have a cookout. When it was getting time to eat I told her to get ready for dinner and she looked at me a little confused and asked where we were going to sit. I, in turn, looked at her a little confused and told her we were sitting at the table. Apparently the most exciting thing about having a cookout to a three year old is eating outside! I guess the patio table and chairs is the next purchase (also given away when we moved).

Anyway, our celebratory cake was Chocolate Beet Cake. It has steamed beets, unsweetened cocoa, sucanat (which is dehydrated cane juice) eggs, and other stuff in it. The frosting was a little rich - unsweetened cocoa, butter and powdered sucanat. I thought, at room temperature, the frosting was way too, I don't know....buttery. But after it was refrigerated it was way good. K.C.'s not a big fan, but hey, that just means more for the girls!

And here is who we are celebrating this month (**disclaimer: my outlook calendar totally disappeared so I'm very sorry if I've left anyone out!)

Birthdays:

Uncle Jim

Erin, our niece

Miranda, our niece

K.C. - of course!

Adam, our nephew

Shannon, our dear friend

Annika, our little friend

Orion, our nephew

Tina, our sister

Jesse, Shannon's son

Anniversary:

Tami & Craig - 9 years! - our sister and brother-in-law

Brian & Dennise - 9 years! - our sister and brother-in-law

...okay, I have to stop there for a minute. Check this out. Tami (my sister) and Dennise (K.C.'s sister) are the same age. They were both married in June of the same year. They both had a son first and both were born in June (three years apart). They both then had a daughter and both of them were born in June (two years apart). How weird is that?! By the way, Brian & Dennise share their anniversary with K.C.'s birthday.

Ben & Kendra - 3 years, also share their anniversary with K.C.'s birthday. Kendra is our cousin.

Tina and Scott - 5 years, Tina is our sister and they share their anniversary with Tina's birthday

In memory of:

Since we like to celebrate life, we have to remember our big 'ol boy Caesar, whom we had to put down this month. He was 11 years old (almost 12) and was a gentle giant. He was a good dog and we'll miss him.

If you celebrated a birthday, anniversary or other event this month then we hope it was happy and fun and created lots of great memories for you!