Summer Trip: Mother Daughter Date

Have you ever been on a date with mom? She's so much fun. And I love that she doesn't mind taking pictures...as you can see. Awesome!

 The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento had an exhibit by HiFructose Magazine I wanted to see and mom was up for it. So down to Sacramento we went. "Fructose showcases an amalgamation of new contemporary, emerging, as well as distinguished artists, with a spotlight on awe inspiring spectacles from around the world."

Mom will now show you the installation by Marc Dean Veca at the entrance of the exhibit:

And now will will attempt a photo before going in:

Below is from one of my favorite artists—this one is "Unrequited" by Beth Cavener whose style, colors and creatures I very much enjoy. 

Below: "It Was You" by Audrey Kawasaki. I enjoy that most of her work is done on panels of wood, that that she let's it show through. It's quite beautiful.

 Rather fun and featuring a wonderful color palette, this one is called "The Abyss Stares Back" by AJ Fosik.

 The two below are out of a series of four called "Asylum" and then numbered 1-4 by Tim Biskup. You can see what he's going for and I think it's a fun exercise.

 The artist below was one of Mom's favorites. Each character in his illustrations comes with a back story. And the technique is lovely too. The title of this is "Miss Lila and Her Black Fish" by Travis Louie.

Here is Miss Lila's story: When Miss Lila had black days, her 'worry fish' increased in size. On those really harsh days, it was as big as an average elephant. On days filled with pleasant thoughts and overall well-being, the fish was the size of a moth and white as snow."

And though this wasn't part of the HiFructose collection, I'm just going to put it in anyway. It was slightly larger than life and is perfectly relatable. "Wallflower" by Tip Toland.

Summer Trip: Apple Hill

One of the places on our agenda while I was at home this summer was Apple Hill. A shop owner there wanted to sell Mom's quilts and hot-pads. So Mom and Dad loaded up the car with her goods and we drove up to see what the owner wanted to display in her store.

 Of course while there we had to grab some fresh apple turnovers. Then visit the red barn for hot apple cider donuts.

We ate our brunch and celebrated Mom's future success under the apple trees.

Then my parents humored me and let us drive around the Apple Hill circuit so I could see the scenery. I haven't been up there during my adult years to appreciate it. And for some reason never quite get up to the hill while the "season" is in session. (Still missed it by two weeks this time. Grrr.)

 But what a lovely place...full of orchards and Christmas tree farms and cute barns. I can see why people drive up the hill from the city every year. I would too.

The Great American Eclipse

On August 21st, 2017 we saw the Great American Eclipse. Here in Texas we weren't in the path of totality, but were lucky enough to see a partial eclipse.

Adam came home from work to experience it with me, and we searched news radio for live coverage of the event in areas where people were experiencing the full eclipse.  I listened to it for the rest of the afternoon while I worked. Quite awesome.

We cut holes in all kinds of things and brought out other objects (like a strainer) that already had holes in them to see if we could get the crescent to show. In the end, this hole punched card worked the best.

No matter which way we turned or titled the card, the shape of the shadow stayed the same...which was surreal. 

 You know what else was surreal? While we were playing around watching the ground...our back neighbor was mowing his lawn. MOWING HIS LAWN? How could anyone be missing this to mow one's lawn?!? "Hey, where did you view the eclipse?" "Oh, I was just mowing the lawn." Jaw drop.

I am grateful for not having anything else to do at the moment this was happening. And I love that Adam came home so we could have the experience together. Shared moments, that's what some of the best parts of life are made of.

Adam's Birthday

No worries, we didn't forget Adam's birthday a few months ago. We've been having trouble getting into Hiem BBQ in Fort Worth. Either we've waited in a long line only to find out they've just run out of meat OR they're closed for some random reason. It was about to make our S#%& list, until we gave it one last try on Adam's birthday. Fancy that, they were open.

Most of the meat was fine, but the crispy burnt bacon ends below...Mwah! Excellent. Quite delicious. 

Adam's sister put this up on the family message page to wish him a good one. That's him and her circa 2004 outside the house where we met in Provo.

Then that evening we had a small celebration.

Adam was served his epic birthday cake, which I've had you drooling over a few years now. We had our groupies over and sang and played a few games. It was a good evening.

And now that I've finally posted—I'm ready for more BBQ and cake. Totally craving that right now. Sigh.