Auf Wiedersehen!

We are moving to Zurich next week!  The exciting day is almost here!  Right now we are waiting for the movers to show up, but they are late.  Our visas still haven't arrived, but Darren needs to start his new job, so we are moving anyways and will have to go up to Germany to get our visas when they are ready.  So many things are still up in the air, but I'm sure it will all work out.  One year ago tomorrow Darren moved down to California and one year later we will be moving again.  So goodbye for now!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Trip to Texas

At the beginning of October, I was able to fly to Texas to visit family since I found a sweet deal on a flight and I had a lot of free time.  My mom and step-dad live in Dallas and my dad and step-mom just moved to Austin.  It has been a long time since both parents have lived within a couple hours of driving distance from each other.  Now visiting family will be much easier!

I flew to Austin and my brother and my sister-in-law drove down from Dallas the day my dad and step-mom moved into their new home.  Us big kids helped them move in and tried to do as much of the heavy lifting as possible since my step-mom is six-months pregnant!  We did manage to do some fun things in between moving boxes, though.  First, we went to this awesome barbecue place called Rudy's.

"Country Store" and Bar-B-Q

This is definitely not a fancy place.  They give you your food on wax paper and styrofoam cups, but that does not mean it's not delicious.

I had the brisket and it was amazing.  I usually do not like creamed corn, but I would definitely recommend this kind.  This place is now on the top of the list of my favorite barbecue places along with Firefly's in Framingham, MA.

Another day, we tried out the Austin food cart fare.  This is not just some guy with a fryer in the back of his trailer serving greasy crap.  This stuff is good.  One cart we went to called The Mighty Cone was created by chefs from high-end restaurants.  Another great food cart was Cutie Pies, which was chosen for best pies in the South by both Martha Stewart and Southern Living.

Another great gem in Austin we explored was Zilker Park, which has tons of activities including a free science and nature center and botanical garden.  At the science and nature center, my two brothers dug for "dinosaur" bones.

One brother was kind of just pouring the sand on himself

The botanical garden was nice, though I'm sure it will be great to go to in the spring.  Instead I took pictures of the awesome people I was with.

I didn't know much about Austin before the trip even though I applied and was admitted to UT for college, but after our great adventures, I am a fan.  After a great weekend down in Austin, the big kids drove back up to Dallas.  I was lucky enough to be there for my sister-in-law's first week of being a 5th grade teacher.

Her classroom

The teacher before her had been promoted to teach gifted and talented kids, so my sister-in-law started after the school year had already began.  That meant she had zero time to get her classroom set up the way she wanted it.  My whole family went in a couple of times while I was there to help her get things organized.  It was great to be around for all these big events and to be able to help out when I had so much free time.

The Texas State Fair was also going on while I was there.  I had never been, so it was a treat to go with my brother, my mom, and my step-dad.  Here are the highlights:

Took a picture with Big Tex

Rode the ferris wheel

View from the ferris wheel

Saw the model train and greenhouse exhibit

Ate a fried snickers

I was apprehensive about the snickers, but yes it was good, in small doses, of course.  It was a really fun trip and it was great to see everyone before we become expats.  I will post soon about that! :)

My birthday

We have an update on our move to Zurich.  It looks like we will be leaving around two weeks from now!  Moving plans are starting to pick up around here, so I should hurry up and get these posts done about our adventures here.

My 24th birthday was on the 17th of September and I was lucky enough to celebrate with Darren, my aunt and uncle and their kids, and my mom who was in town for business.  I started the day by opening my present from Darren, which was Halo: Reach!  Yes, I'm a video game nerd.  It's something I usually keep to myself.  I made the mistake though of telling a lady in my ward that I liked to play video games when she asked me about my hobbies.  She just kind of stared at me for a second before I recovered by saying something more girl-appropriate like music.  It was petty awkward and Darren rightfully makes fun of me for it.

Anyway, my aunt and my little cousins came down in the afternoon and we started the festivities off right by going to Togo's!  It's one of my favorite sandwich places.  Then we took the kids to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose.  It was fun to play with my cousins in all of the exhibits.

Me and my cousins playing dress-up

After that we met everyone for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.  I really like pizza, but I get tired of the boring cheese or pepperoni, so CPK is the place for me.  They told the restaurant it was my birthday, so I got a free dessert.  Even though I got a free dessert, I still shared another one with Darren.  Hey, it's my birthday, I don't skimp on desserts on the birthday.

Mom and me

It was an awesome birthday!  Thanks everyone for celebrating with me!

We really are bakers

I have never been one to bake.  Something about having to precisely measure things and perform steps in an specific order just spells trouble for me.  Furthermore, I have a hearty appetite and so I would rather spend my cooking effort on main dishes than desserts and/or bread.  That's where Darren comes in.  Yes, friends, it's my husband who does the baking, not me.  Actually, this isn't really a rare occurrence in this day and age, but I still think it's pretty cool.  And here is some proof:

Darren making bread

I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but let me just say that the breads he makes are delicious.  We did some calculations to understand if home-made bread is more economical than store-bought bread and found that is it probably around the same price.  However, it is still a fun activity and the bread fresh from the oven is awesome.

I finally ventured into the baking world by finding a main dish that required some dough: chicken pot pies.  For my first attempt, things actually went really well!  My sister-in-law gave me her super simple pie crust recipe and the rest of the directions I found online.  After two hours, here is the final result:

Perfect pot pies

They tasted good too!  Now I know a lot of people out there grind their own wheat, make their own chicken broth, grow their own vegetables, etc., so these forays into homemaking may seem like child's play, but I'm pretty proud of us.  We really are Bakers!

Picnic Lunch and Red Sox Game

I have always loved being outside on a warm sunny day and so I am always looking for an excuse to have some adventure outside.  I especially like picnics and so one beautiful Saturday in September, Darren and I drove over to Los Gatos (which is becoming our new favorite hangout, more on this in a later post) for a picnic at Vasona Lake County Park.  This was a great place to picnic.

The view from our picnic spot

Later on in the day I was fortunate enough to attend an Oakland A's versus Boson Red Sox game!  Not only did I get to go to a game, but I sat in the third row!  Right behind home plate!  One of my good friends scored these amazing tickets from her boss.  If you don't believe me, here's proof:

This was the view from my seat!

I seriously could not even think straight for tens of minutes because I was so overwhelmed with how awesome these seats were.

My awesome friends

Lowell was so close we could talk to him!  I was too nervous though.

Action shot!  The bat broke into a bunch of pieces.

The Red Sox have had a tough year and most of the well-known players were injured, so I was disappointed I didn't get to see all of my favorites.  But at the end of the game, I finally got to see Big Papi!

Big Papi up to bat!

Unfortunately, the Red Sox blew their lead and ended up losing, but it was still a great game!  How do I always get so lucky to see the Red Sox?