flowers, cupcakes, and an island

Another day in California brought another vineyard!  We went to the Bernardo Winery, which is the oldest continuously operating winery in Southern California.  We were able to try many different wines and have chocolates paired with them!  Byron loved the Sparkling Orange Muscat.  Bernardo was a different than the other wineries I've been too; it was like a little town, with cafes and shops surrounded by the rows of grapes.  It was a neat place!

The following day we headed to Balboa Park for the afternoon.  There are so many beautiful flowers and plants in this park.  [Look how big the roses were!!]  It was fun to walk around and people watch, as there were small bands playing on the sides of the walkways and groups filming projects.

I'm not a huge fan of roses, but how could I not love these?!  They are gorgeous!

such a pretty place!

Our final day in sunny California began with a trip to the Elizabethan Bakery for cupcakes and other delicious-goodness.  They sell mini cupcakes, so it was great to try multiple cupcakes -- I didn't take a time for a picture, whoops.  My favorite was their passionfruit cupcake; so different than anything I've had, and sooo yummy!

After getting hyped-up on icing, we drove to Coronado Island.   We spent the afternoon walking the beach, browsing the Hotel del Coronado, and window shopping.

Before departing from San Diego, we enjoyed our last meal with Travis and Leanne at Hash House a Go Go.  The restaurant is unlike any restaurant I've ever been.  The meals are large enough for two, or even three people and delicious.  The plates have some interesting food paired together, but it's very tasty!  Byron and I split ribs, served with some potatoes, asparagus, and chili, while Travis and Leanne shared crab cakes.  We stopped at Seaport Village after dinner to walk through the shops and let our food settle before boarding our plane back to Atlanta.

love this man!  [& traveling with him!]

Byron and I had a wonderful trip to San Diego.  We both loved how different it is than Atlanta and how beautiful it is there.  Travis and Leanne were wonderful hosts and it was great to spend time with them in their home.  Until next time, California....

{Here's a map of [most of the places] where we traveled, ate, and drank 

while we were on the West Coast}

View

Banana Pudding

My dad and me before walking down the aisle.

Of all the desserts out there, Banana Pudding is my dad's absolute favorite.  For his birthday, Father's Day, and any other day I want to show him some love, I make it specially for him.  Banana Pudding is great because you can pick up tasty bananas year-round at the grocery, so it's a perfect go-to dessert.  We're all born and raised in Georgia, so you better believe it has lots of bananas and vanilla wafers to accompany the homemade vanilla pudding!

[If you have bananas left over when you finish this sweet treat, since they're nice and ripe you'll want to use them in something immediately.  They'll be perfect in Banana Nut Muffins or Banana Blueberry Muffins!]

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups of 2% milk
5 egg yolks, beaten
4 tbs butter (1/2 stick), at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 ripe bananas
Nilla Wafers -- I use about 1 1/2 12 oz. boxes in the pudding & save a few for garnishing
Whipped Cream [for serving]

Directions:
For the Pudding:
In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the sugar, flour, salt, and milk.  As it is heating, stir it until the mixture is completely blended and there are no lumps!  [Be patient -- it takes a little while!] *Keep the heat on medium-low!  Otherwise the pudding will burn and stick to the pan!*  Stir the mixture every couple of minutes until it begins to bubble.

While the pudding mixture is warming up, combine the 5 egg yolks a measuring cup with a spout and whisk the yolks.

Once the pudding mixture is bubbling, cook it for 2 more minutes, stirring continuously as it thickens.  After 2 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and scoop about a 1/2 cup of the pudding mixture to the beaten egg yolks.  Stir the egg/pudding mixture until the ingredients are combined.  Place the pudding mixture back on the stove over medium heat and pour the egg/pudding mixture back into the pan.  Continue to cook, stirring continuously for about 3 minutes.

After 3 minutes, reduce the heat to Low and add the butter [Rather than adding the half-stick in one large chunk, it melts much better if you slice it!] and vanilla.  Stir it until all of the butter has melted and been blended with the pudding.  Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for about 10 minutes before building the banana pudding.

Now it's time to slice those bananas!  Slice the bananas into about 1/4 inch medallions.  You have 10 minutes, GO!

Building the Banana Pudding:
You can build your Banana Pudding in a regular baking dish, a large trifle bowl, individual trifle bowls, or just a regular bowl -- however you wanna do it!  First, cover the bottom of your dish in a nice layer of Nilla Wafers.  Next, add a layer of bananas.  After that, pour over a nice layer of the pudding, using a spoon to spread the pudding evenly.  Repeat these steps until you've used all of your pudding.  You will want to finish with a pudding layer on top.  Cover your pudding and place it in the fridge to cool for about 2 hours.  When you're ready to serve it, add a top layer of whipped cream.  Eat it with a spoon and a glass of milk.  Mmmmmm!

Banana - Blueberry Muffins

I stood in the kitchen last night contemplating whether to use the bananas left over from the Banana Pudding I made on Father's Day for Banana Nut Muffins or to use the fresh blueberries in Blueberry Muffins.  I love them both so much, so I decided to combine my two recipes.  Andddd....I think I found my new favorite muffin.  They are delicious.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp baking soda OR 3 tsp baking powder
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
1 large egg
1 vanilla Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup fresh blueberries + some for garnish

(makes 12 muffins)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º and place muffin liners in muffin pan.

In a small bowl (cereal sized will do!), sift together the flour and baking soda/flour.  In another small bowl, whisk together the egg and the vanilla extract.  Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar.  Once they are blended, pour in the egg mixture and continue mixing.  The batter will look lumpy and curdled -- that's okay!  Add the Greek yogurt.  Once the yogurt is blended into the batter, add the flour mixture in three parts, mixing along the way.  When all of the ingredients are mixed together, add the bananas.  After the bananas a even spread, turn the mixer off, and fold in the cup of blueberries.

Even pour the mixture amongst the 12 muffin cups.  Press the extra blueberries into the tops of the muffins and place in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until they've reach a nice, golden color.  Remove the muffins from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes before serving.  Happy breakfast!

Variation: Add chopped pecans or almonds!

reaping a harvest

I look forward to and pray for middle school camp all year.  [I'm pretty sure I anticipate it as much as more than the campers.]  It's week away from home spent with middle schoolers and adult staff at Woodland Christian Camp, where we sweat through the hot temperatures of June in a variety of activities and delve into God's truth about how great He is, how much He loves us, and how to better serve Him.

Above all, love each other deeply, 

because love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

During my quiet time on the first day of camp I read 1 Peter 4:8, which reminded me of Romans 12:9 -- Don't pretend to love others.  Really love them.  Those verses immediately became my prayer for myself and fellow staff for the week.  It's hard to fathom that some children arrive at camp unknowing what it means to be loved, and then there's other kids who can tell you exactly what it means to love and be loved.  Regardless of the students' understandings of love though, they're middle schoolers who we shared cabins with, sat at the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table with, brushed our teeth with, tossed frisbees with, worshiped and prayed with, followed everywhere, and were followed everywhere by for a week.  It'd be easy to pretend to love them as our patience grew thin, which is exactly why my prayer was for our love to be deep and genuine for these children.  After all, if the kids can't understand what it means to be loved by another human, how can they begin to grasp the love the Lord has for them?

Working with kids can be difficult, especially when they're stubborn and already know everything there is to be known. [haha] It'd be easy to wave your white towel in surrender, thinking that all the camp food, lack of sleep, and moody pre-teens are just too much to handle.  On Wednesday, Craig shared a verse he'd been praying over us:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time 

we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

God works in wonderful, miraculous ways, and sometimes the campers get worn down, too. They let their guards fall for just enough time for God to work in them.  He's able to get into their hearts and minds, and then through conversations and prayer, the students are able to make confident decisions about their lives.  Deciding to accept Christ as Lord.  Deciding to rededicate their lives to Christ.  Deciding make changes in the ways they're living and how they're loving others.

10 middle school students were baptized by the end of the week [and many, many more were interested and making plans for baptisms when they returned home] -- Talk about reaping a harvest!  Praise God!

we made it a year!

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:7

How has a year already passed since Byron and I got married?  When we talk about our first year of marriage, in some ways it's like we've been married much longer than that, and in others it seems as though we were saying our vows just yesterday.  We've had a crazy 365 days and it's funny to think about all that's changed for us in that time.

Our first year of marriage was busy, filled with the uncertainty of jobs, and provided us countless opportunities for us to trust that the Lord had something greater in store for us.  Byron and I have grown closer and stronger than we were a year ago as we've supported and encouraged each other in difficulties, prayed through the ups and downs, and praised God for the wonderful blessings we've received.  

I've been blessed with one of the best man in the world to call my husband.  A man who loves me when I'm completely undeserving and better than I've ever dreamt.  Someone with an uncanny ability to make me laugh when a smile hadn't surfaced all day.  He writes sweet notes with Scripture and hides them in my lunchbox.  How did I ever get lucky enough the snag this guy? 

Our anniversary began with a brunch of strawberry french toast and cafe au laits.  And bacon.  Of course there was bacon.  Byron surprised me with a new wakeboard vest -- I'm a lucky girl!

We went to Three Blind Mice for dinner, of course.  We discussed quite a few other places, but no where else is as perfect for us as Three Blind Mice.  Not everyone can go back to the place they celebrated their marriage for each anniversary, so why not take advantage of that?!  Not the mention, it's our favorite place anyway!

We sipped on celebratory champagne after dinner, then shared a slice of our original wedding cake, which had made itself quite comfortable for the past year in my parents' freezer!  Surprisingly, the cake was incredible.  Seriously, you never would've known it'd been frozen. Sugar Kneads gave us a top layer of our wedding cake as an anniversary gift.  They say, "Who wants to eat year-old cake?" [but they must not have tasted their own!] Naturally we wrapped the cake from our wedding back up and put it back in the freezer til next year!

The rain stopped long enough for us to make it to dinner.

This is the fresh cake...but the one from the freezer doesn't look too different!

I thank God every day for blessing me with such an incredible husband and I look forward to many, many more years together!

Byron turns 25

I'm not sure what Byron and I were thinking when we got married in May!  As if it weren't busy enough already with Mother's Day, Byron's birthday, the end of the school year, and Memorial Day we thought we'd add an anniversary into the mix!  That being said - in the midst of all the craziness, Byron's birthday was Thursday!  When we were planning the wedding, Byron always joked [and still does] that his birthday will be forgotten since our anniversary is only 3 days after, so I gave my best effort to make his birthday special.  This year, because I love him so much, we celebrated for 2 days!

We celebrated his birthday [on his birthday] with dinner with his parents and Nick followed by some red velvet cupcakes.  Yum!  After his first full day being a quarter of a century old, we got dressed up and went to a fancy steak dinner {no pictures, whoops!}.  

Happy 25th, Byron!  Wishing you a wonderful year with many blessings!

the 6 miles that almost killed me

Let me preface this entry with: I've never said so many curse words in a two hour period.

Before.  When we were dry and clean and nervous. 

Earlier this year Byron registered us for the Savage Race.  We thought, it's a 6ish-mile course with 25 obstacles . . . that'll be fun, right? Challenging, dirty, and insane, yes, but 'fun' may not be the word I'd choose to describe it.  I am not stretching the truth one bit when I say that the Savage Race was legitimately one of the hardest things I've ever done.  Even without the ridiculous obstacles, the running alone was incredibly difficult.

I feel like nowadays we sign our lives away on waivers all the time, but the three page waiver for this race was no joke.  I wish I'd mentally prepared myself better because it was a lot tougher and rougher than I'd expected.

Less than a mile in, we met our first obstacle, 'Shriveled Richard,' which was a dumpster filled with ice water.  I'm not exaggerating, it was ice with a little water, that we had to fully submerge in and swim through.  After conquering it, nothing seemed too terrible [probably because my legs were frozen for a good mile and lost some brain cells in the process!].  Climbing walls, barbed wires, mud, a 3-story jump into a pit a muddy water, balance beams, mud, a pyramid of hay, climbing walls, more mud, and a giant slide led us to my least favorite obstacle.  'Tazed' was it's name and it involved crawling under livewires [while soaking wet].  Three zaps from those terrible wires and I was done.  What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad obstacle.

This is what happened right before getting 'tazed' . . .
quite the strategic planning!

almost thereeeeee.

crossing the finish line.

we made it alive.  whew.

Byron and I did actually have fun finish!  It was more of a marriage-builder than anything else.  I wouldn't have attempted it or survived it without him.  I know he had a great time and I'm glad we experienced it together, but I'd like to keep my ice in my drinks and the electricity away from my body from here on out!  I've never worked so hard for a Miller Lite.