Rest In Peace

We just lost another great friend, Natalya. We will miss her so much. She was a great dog and very sweet and patient. It's heartbreaking.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo Opportunity of the Day!

Cambria decided to get in our donation box and wrap "Num Num" in a pink bridesmaid dress today! I just had to take a picture....it was too cute!

Our Swimmer

One great thing about having a dad that is a coach is getting access to the facilities...in this case it's an awesome indoor pool in the heat and rain of summer! Todd's been teaching lessons for NCAT Club Swimming this summer and so we started all going with him. This pool has a beach entrance so it's perfect for Cambria. She got over her fears of being in the water alone very fast and was already neck high by week two! She had so much fun playing around and these are a few pictures I took one day...when I had forgotten her swimsuit!! She really enjoyed throwing my sandals and going to get them since they float. We did move on to rings so she would put her face in the water and it worked like a charm. She is now jumping off the sides of the pool into the water...sometimes without even counting! She just goes! It's been fun seeing her skills develop and it's nice to have a daddy that can give her "private" lessons!

Culinary Conference

I love love love my job. It seems to just keep getting better! One of the perks of my job was this really cool Culinary Conference at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin. It was an amazing and fun weekend. I learned so much and met some really great people.

Above is the Bleu River Grille, this is their grab and go restaurant and since we had only 30 minutes to eat before the conference started we decided to try it out. It is their casual bistro and it was very good. I had the Southwest Chicken Salad but was so hungry and rushing...I didn't get a picture! Above is one of the many really cool quotes all over the school.

Friday night we had a SteakOut at the Ranch courtesy of the Texas Beef Council. The menu was above and is was just amazing! We also walked out of there with great materials and posters that are very nice and usable.

Here is our dinner. I was already stuffed with the nice appetizers and salad but definitely found room for this! I was all so good!

Here is my chef jacket from the weekend...really helped for learning everyone's names.

On Saturday at our group work seminar they announced that they were putting us in groups to have a Culinary Competition on Sunday. I was in group 2 and so we named ourselves the "Deuces Wild". I truly believe that I couldn't have picked a better group! These ladies were amazing and several had won competitions with their students so their knowledge was awesome! We didn't win anything but we had so much fun working together and talking.
Our menu was
Two Toned Strawberry Cantaloupe Soup
Flat Iron Steak with balsamic carrot rounds
Twice Baked Potatoes
Double Down Dessert (Creme Brulee and Chocolate Almond Cake Balls)

Summer Fun

Fourth of July pictures

Watching the rain

Grateful for American freedom and ice cream!!

After dinner, we headed to the theater for Toy Story 3D. Cambria did not like the 3D images at all! Luckily some of it doesn't really need 3D so she could enjoy it just the same!

Potty training...is not fun! We are working on that this summer...she's interested in sitting on it and on the big potty and has gone on the little potty but it's so far just a "toy".
This picture was taken at the NCHS Natatorium locker room...she finally decided she had to go potty and wanted to use this potty! Ugh...I was changing her so she had no shoes on...GROSS! I had to let her go, though. I just scrubbed her hard after that!

Last, I felt I had to add in this guy...he's from Cambria's favorite iPhone game...Elmo's Monster Maker. She loves this game and it's so cool to see how she knows how to do everything will little to no help! So I have a bunch of these monster pictures on my phone. Yay!

We love Incredible Pizza!

**Edit** Here are a few pictures Kendra had on her camera!


Yesterday, we met my good friend Kendra and her children, who were in Houston, at Incredible Pizza. She has a 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter. It was a great place to take all the kids! They could choose from a huge buffet what they wanted to eat. It was great! The game room was also a lot of fun! They loved the skee ball, basketball and bowling. Cambria and Laney had a lot of fun throwing the balls and watching each other. I have a feeling all Todd's future birthday parties will be there! Ha ha!
Here are a few pictures of our adventure...I brought my camera minus the card and batteries....so these are from my phone! Kendra took some so I'll add those later.