The All-American Pastime...

Last night Richard and I went to a Mariners game. It was fun to go and have the experience, but it really reminded me just how boring baseball is. Once upon a time I enjoyed it but baseball really is no longer my sport. I'm trying to look back at what it was that I enjoyed about going and watching baseball. How was it that I enjoyed seeing someone throw the ball and every few minutes watching someone swing at it, and if lucky seeing someone actually hit the ball. I think the reason baseball lost it's enjoyment is because I met hockey. How could you possibly enjoy watching paint dry after experiencing nonstop action?

So we went to the game, ate food, enjoyed sitting in some good seats (with super convenient parking), I do believed I watched people more then the game. At one point I became completely bored with the game and decided to take pictures of the pitcher to see how contorted I could catch them. I had fun, but I would go watch a Silvertips game over the Mariners any day.

Our Hot Air Balloon Ride...

Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for our hot air balloon ride, they were able to move us to the next day!

After arriving at the office we signed a lovely little waiver saying we understand things could go wrong, blah blah blah. The company Richard chose has never had an accident, but I suppose they make us fill out the forms just in case. We then waited around until everyone got there and they had everything ready to go. They sent up a few pilot balloons to verify what the wind was up to and then we headed off in the van to go to a launch site.

Upon getting to the launch site that they were planning on using there was a little more wind then they wanted so we ended up getting back in the van and driving a couple fields away. After deciding that the launch site would work they rolled out the balloon and Richard and one of the other people going in our basket held onto the edges so that the fan could blow air in to get the balloon started. The chaser held a rope that goes from the top of the balloon and the captain ran around unrolling the balloon, he even ran under it at one point which looked rather amusing. Once the balloon was mostly filled the captain started blasting hot air in to get it to lift off the ground. When the balloon was floating we all climbed in, took a quick picture and then they untied us and off we went!

The view from the balloon is amazing! There are some very expensive looking houses in the Snohomish area with horse jumps and such, they were really neat looking from above. Funny enough we could hear what people are saying from the balloon even though we were about 2500 feet up at our highest. Someone offered us a beer, our captain yelled back that he would have to come back later, which then prompted a very surprised "They can hear us". We went over some flower fields, saw Bob's corn maze from above and got to watch the sunset from the air. I took pictures the whole way. I can only imagine how awesome it would be on a less hazy day. The haze really did cut down how far we could see, I know there are mountains out there but we could barely make out the outline of them. I hope to go on another hot air balloon ride on a clean air day as well! Haze or no haze, it was absolutely amazing!

When it came time to land the winds weren't quite cooperating with us so instead of landing at the air field we ended up a little east of there. We were heading towards a field and the wind quit going all together so we just floated over a corn field for awhile, it was rather peaceful. We then went up again and came back down towards a motocross course. The captain found that the wind was going such that we could go back towards where he had wanted to land so we went back up again. We had a nice soft landing and then we just had to wait in the balloon until the chaser arrived. After the chaser arrived the captain pulled the valve out of the top of the balloon and it slowly floated down. We all climbed out and they proceeded to work on rolling up the balloon and shoved it back in a giant bag. By the time we left it was getting dark and the moon was rising.

After the balloon ride we headed back to the place we started and had the traditional champagne toast that follows all balloon rides. The toast was followed by a spaghetti and meatball dinner with salad, watermelon and garlic bread. It was quite tasty. We sat around in the gazebo eating and chatting with the people who went up in the two balloons. One of the couples in our basket were from Indiana, they told us about this neat sounding City Museum in St. Louis, I want to go there sometime for our annual anniversary vacation. They then brought out a little cake for me with a hot air balloon on it, this completely caught me off guard, what a lovely surprise at the end of a lovely evening!

High Winds...

For my birthday Richard told me to get home by 5pm from work so I knew he had something planned for me, I just didn't know what exactly. I got off work about an hour early and got home right around 5pm. When Richard got here he gave me a card for my birthday with a flier for a Hot Air Balloon ride, what an amazing surprise! He then had to tell me the bad news, my birthday balloon ride had been canceled due to high winds. Bummer! Richard looked so incredibly sad that we weren't able to go that I had a hard time feeling disappointed we weren't going, I just wanted to make him feel better about it.

Since weren't going on the planned surprise we improvised and had a fun evening as well. We decided dinner and a movie would be a good idea. So I got online to see what was playing nearby. Turns out nothing too exciting is playing in the theaters right now other then the newest Harry Potter and I still needed to watch the fifth movie before seeing it (I have been trying to reread the books before watching the movies). Then I saw that the new Ice Age and Harry Potter were playing as a double feature at the drive in, I haven't been to the drive in in years and it turns out Richard had never gone and seen a movie at the drive in. It seemed like a much better deal to go watch the movies at the drive in, much more worth the money to me. Which brings us back to the problem of me being behind on the Harry Potter movies. So, I decided Richard would run and get food while I watched the fifth movie so I could be done watching it in time to get to the drive in.

For dinner I decided on Famous Dave's BBQ, it's located in Everett and quite tasty. I got the brisket again, I quite enjoyed it, it's nice and moist and makes a good left over sandwich the next day. Though next time we go there I am going to have to get the ribs! Here is the link to there website: http://www.famousdaves.com/

After eatting dinner and finishing up watching the fifth Harry Potter we headed out to Puget Park Drive In. I hadn't been to a drive in for years, apparently longer then I thought if Richard has never been there. Can you believe we have been together for eleven and a half years already; it is crazy how time flies! I found the new Ice Age to be amusing for what it was and Peaches is adorable. The latest Harry Potter movie was great I think it's my favorite one yet. The books are certainly better then the movies, but they are growing on me as well. Here is a link to the drive in: http://www.sterlingrealty.com/drivein.asp

As for the hot air balloon ride, it is going to be rescheduled as soon as possible. I'm super excited for the trip, it's something I've always wanted to do! Richard picked the perfect gift for me for my 30th birthday! Hard to believe I'm 30 already, time just keeps going by! And another link this one is for the hot air balloon company we are going with: http://www.airialballoon.com/

I had a wonderful birthday, even if I didn't get to do what was planned. And to make it even better; I got dinner and a movie and I still get to do the planned trip soon!

German Chocolate anyone?

Every year at work we pull someones name out of a "hat" and then we put together all the things for their birthday (cake, card, flowers). This year I pulled Karen's name out of the hat. Karen's favorite kind of cake just so happens to be German Chocolate. If you've ever had a homemade German Chocolate cake you will know that the ones they sell in the store are not an acceptable substitute. I've never really been a huge fan of coconut, but this cake made me forget that all together; kind of like those girl scout cookies with the coconut, they are my favorite!

Here is the link to the recipe I followed:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/09/german_chocolat_1.html

So, I don't recall ever having made a cake from scratch, they have these ones that come in a box that are way easier nowadays, and they don't create nearly as many dirty dishes. But, I must say this cake was certainly worth the effort and might just have me rethinking the whole boxed cake thing. The fact that the recipe looked like it had so many steps didn't really bother me, I've always been pretty good about following directions, it's when I have to improvise that recipes go wrong, hence I'm much better at baking then cooking. It was a long night but well worth it, here are my posts from facebook while baking the cake (did I forget to mention I made this cake on the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle). Notice the time I started and finished this thing... yikes!

Amy Davis is toasting coconut and pecans... it's way to hot for this... July 29 at 6:34pm

Amy Davis isn't sure how to make things "room temperature"... everything is just hot... the temp in my kitchen is 88.8 degrees.... not exactly room temperature for baking. July 29 at 7:25pm ·

Amy Davis has all the pieces to the cake done... now for them to cool down so I can put it all together. :) July 29 at 10:03pm ·

Amy Davis doesn't think the icing will ever be room temperature enough to ice with... ugh. I put it in the fridge, hopefully that'll help... now I have to figure out how to put the cake in the fridge. July 30 at 1:13am ·

Amy Davis Lets hope it tastes good... but it was so worth making on the hottest day EVER in Seattle. :) July 30 at 1:30am ·

P.S. This cake tasted amazing! There wasn't a piece left at the end of the day other then the two Karen was taking home. Long story short, if you like German Chocolate cake or if you know someone that does; make this cake, it's amazing!

Watermelon, Jello Cake, Water Balloons and Fire(works)

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, and for the second year in a row we decided to host the family at our place for a BBQ and to watch the Fireworks that our neighbors light off (and maybe to light some off as well). I started the day off doing a bit of last minute cleaning, running by the store and attempting to cut the tip of my thumb off. Unintentionally of course, thank goodness for nails that's all I have to say! I suppose there just might be a good reason Dani always takes the knife away from me when I cut potatoes, to bad she wasn't here yet when I was preparing them for the BBQ. No worries though, it'll be awhile before the nail grows out enough to not have a cut there, but it'll heal up fairly well I'm guessing, though I'll probably have to keep a bandaid over it for awhile to keep from catching things on it.

We had said, show up between 3 and 4pm, being my family the first person got here around 4pm and they trickled in from there. In the end we had nine people here including ourselves, nothing huge but it was great having people over to celebrate with. Before people started showing up I had been thinking how the Fourth at my house is nothing like it was at the lake growing up. It's sad to think that we won't have another Fourth at the lake with Grandma, as the lake is just not the same without her there.

After sitting around for awhile talking and catching up with each other we finally decided to start the food! And the Fourth of July food is always the best summer food! We had watermelon, grilled corn, potatoes, hamburgers, hotdogs and various other snacks. Richard grilled up the stuff on the grill while the rest of us proceeded to dowse each other with water balloons. With as hot as the day was the water felt wonderful!

Following the food we moved out to the front to watch fireworks, and light off a few as well. I'm not big on lighting them off myself, my neighbors do such a good job of it there really isn't a huge point, my neighborhood sounds like a war zone on the 4th. Cassandra brought a few fireworks however so we did have a few to light off. In the process of lighting various things they managed to light my front yard on fire, nothing major but it really did remind us just how dry it is out there. We also had a firework tip over and shoot right into our neighbors yard and start a tiny fire there as well (it also went flying into our yard right at the cars as it spun around launching explosions up and down the street).

All in all it was a fun filled day! I quite enjoyed myself!