Fifty Shades of Brown

Posted on August 31, 2012 by casadeberry

We had a blast on our camping trip – but let’s face it, there were less-than-glamorous aspects that we had to contend with for four days. The first one was the aforementioned wasps; they got a couple of the kids, so we had to designate off-limits areas. The second one, or rather, uh, number two, was a most odorous situation. Meaning, no-flush toilets. Our friend P, who, along with my husband, decided to aim their headlight down the long-drop toilet to have a look, christened it Fifty Shades of Brown. That’s boys for ya, because I used those toilets as much as they did and not once, NOT ONCE, did I feel the compulsion to aim my headlight so I could see better. Bleargh.

ANYWAY, on to better things now.

The man tackling the wasp situation

The day before we came home we went to a river, it was such fun – the boys busied themselves with building a dam.

Friendly river duck

Our youngest enjoys a jam session with our friend J:

See? This is proof that I was cleaning those boys up whenever I could ;D

The next morning, it was time to pack up and head home:

“Thank you very much, good night!”

And that was our four-day adventure at Yosemite. The boys love camping, playing around in the woods, and being manly men with their buddies. We love hanging out with friends and family and having great food. And wine. Wine is good.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Our trip to Disneyland: part 3

Posted on May 4, 2012 by casadeberry

Our last day at Disneyland brought us back full circle – Dumbo was the first ride my boys ever rode. They were obsessed with elephants at the time and I think we went on this a good dozen times. Each day.

Alex chose to wear one of his pajama tops (made by me) for the day:

The carousel is always a favorite!

The boys tried their best to pry the Sword from the Stone:

In the end, my husband told them, “maybe next time”.

On Thursday, we started the drive back home, with a stop at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History — more specifically, their Dinosaur Hall:

The boys loved seeing all the skeletons and interactive features — their interest in dinosaurs is not as strong as it was a couple of years ago; now Godzilla and superheroes have taken higher places of importance, but still, dinos continue to fascinate them.

We drove home after our brief visit, with a few stops for nourishment and bathroom breaks — the sky looked like this for most of our drive back:

But it wasn’t too bad, even when it did rain. We got home late, tired, happy, the boys eager to play with new toys, us adults eager to fall into bed, but all of us very, very grateful to Gran and Grandpa for taking us to Disneyland. Again. My little man did so well this time around, he was very clear when it was all getting too overwhelming for him and he and I would go back to the hotel room so he could spend some time in more calm surroundings. My big boy is such a good big brother, always looking out for Alex and such a delight to hang out with. There were a few moments of crankiness, but hello, some of them were mine, too.

Good-bye for now, Disneyland — I am sure we will see you again!

Our trip to Disneyland, part 2

Posted on May 2, 2012 by casadeberry

Our trip to Disneyland continues with some collages I made of the boys:

My boys LOVE Tarzan’s Treehouse – I went up that thing once and decided that was the last of it for me. My back started to kill me and it took two rides of the Indiana Jones Adventure to fix it. That thing is better than a chiropractor, I swear. I went on it once when my back was pretty locked up, and when it was done I swear half the pain was gone, so of course I went on it again. It worked like a charm. Worth the price of admission right there ;D

Ssshhh – don’t tell them it used to be the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

If you liked Cars, you will love the new Cars Land opening in June, they’ve recreated Radiator Springs and have several attractions and shops almost ready to go – a friend of my husband’s is an Imagineer working on this project and s/he showed us the preview room (open to everyone) which includes some of his/her work. Don’t want to get anyone in trouble so that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Alex decided he was getting overwhelmed by it all so he and I went back to the hotel room after lunch and we just hung out, played on my laptop, and I caught up on a new cookbook I got.

More about our trip in the next post!

Our trip to Disneyland!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by casadeberry

We were gone last week, and for a very good reason – Gran and Grandpa decided to take us all on a vacation to Disneyland!

My oldest made it clear upon arriving at the hotel room that he meant to have a ferociously good time!

He was also very happy to see the many Avengers posters around D’land and Downtown Disney

Waiting in line for the Jungle Cruise – the boys’ all-time favorite!

My youngest loved looking out the hotel room window — we were on the third floor and he thought it was awesome being able to look down at all the cars and people

My little guy wasn’t tall enough for Star Tours so Grandpa kept him entertained.

(yes, we are totally getting lots of ideas for a future birthday party or room makeover!)

More on our trip to D’Land in my next post!

5 Places to Go

Posted on August 29, 2011 by casadeberry

When you dream of going somewhere, where does your mind take you? What places would you love to visit? What countries call to you?

I’ve been very lucky to have traveled throughout Western Europe a few times, I took my first Caribbean cruise last year and I am originally from South America — here is a map of places I have visited so far:

But of course, the wanderlust is always there and as my boys grow, there are more and more places I would love for them to discover. Off the top of my head, here are five places I would love to visit:

Source: google.ca via Freezi on Pinterest

Paris, of course, always Paris, beloved Paris, my someday-home, my favorite city in the world, the place I’d most like to retire to. Both my husband and I have been to Paris but not together, so it is #1 in our travel list. Some side trips to the Loire castle area would be included, bien sur, and I would bring an empty suitcase just to fill it up with various food and cooking utensils to bring home!

Source: blog.hotelclub.com via Dawn on Pinterest

Being a history lover, I would love to go to Russia someday. The museums, the palaces, I want to see it all. The Hermitage alone would keep me busy for a couple of days. I love to buy museum postcards and prints, frame them up at home, and remember all the gorgeous things I saw.

Source: travel.nationalgeographic.com via Leslie on Pinterest

This one would be for the boys – they love elephants and all sorts of big animals. A safari (not for hunting!) would be the trip of a lifetime. To see these majestic beasts in a more natural setting would be an amazing experience.

Source: google.com via Julie on Pinterest

Wales – Like the original pic caption says, I would LOVE to go to Cardiff because I am a Torchwood fan (waaaa, Ianto!) but also this would be part of our British Isles trip. I’ve been to England, Ireland and Scotland, but my husband hasn’t, and neither of us has been to Wales, so it’s definitely on the list. I love to explore the smaller towns and rural areas as well as the main cities, so I think Wales would be a wonderful all-around destination.

Source: google.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Last but most certainly not least, Japan. I would absolutely love to visit Japan and I know my oldest wants to go because “that’s where Godzilla is from.” The culture, the food, the customs, all so different from my upbringing and my daily life – again, I would want to visit the main cities and the small villages.

Someday, I hope.

What places outside the US would you love to visit?

Where we were . . .

Posted on June 23, 2011 by casadeberry

was Santa Cruz, California, a short drive from our home but about 25 degrees cooler. We had planned this trip a couple of months ago because Tuesday was our wedding anniversary. We have been married 8 years now and decided a quick getaway was just what we needed.

I’m sorry to say, I did not take a single photo. We brought the camera but decided to just enjoy every moment instead of scouting for photo opportunities, so all these pics belong to the talented people who took them – if you’re one of them and don’t want me to use your photo, let me know and I will take it down. All of them are linked to their original accounts.

On Monday, the first thing we did upon leaving our house and our kids, was buy some shirts for my oldest – isn’t that the sign of parenthood? You stop looking for stuff for yourself and it’s all for the kids. Anyway, my oldest loves collared shirts so we got a couple of really cute ones for $4.99 each at the mall, then popped in to see X-Men: First Class. It was ok, but the best thing about it was the eye candy.

After checking in, we had an early dinner at Kianti’s

my original pasta dish had meat sauce that was way too spicy for me so the server graciously offered a garlicky cream sauce instead which was super yummy. Both my husband and I were happy with our meal. We decided to call it an early night and then he got me hooked on Master Chef.

The next day we had one of the best breakfasts EVER at a place nearby called Zachary’s.

I loved that everything was locally produced, fair-trade, organic, etc. and the prices were totally reasonable. See, restaurant owners, it CAN be done! I am totally going to try to recreate their home fries with my homegrown potatoes. After breakfast we walked around downtown for a bit:

There are so many cute stores as well as some severely overpriced boutiques. I saw some cute sequined lace-trimmed tank tops for $5 at one shop and didn’t pick up any but then made my husband take me back on Wednesday. Yeah, I know, he’s really patient. Anyway, we saw Bridesmaids, it was so funny, I loved it.

What happens in this scene at the bridal salon is just hilarious, I couldn’t catch my breath I was laughing so hard! Afterward, we headed over to the wharf and stopped by Marini’s for some chocolate fudge. YUM! I nearly emptied the sample dish, it was so good.

We had some awesome seafood dinner down by the wharf, then went back to the hotel for some more Master Chef and to gorge on the fudge.

On Wednesday morning, we had ourselves some Starbucks (we’re such capitalists!) and then went back to the little shop with the cute tank tops. I got two, one in a marigold shade and one in – of course – turquoise, some NYX gloss, cheapie eyeshadows and nail polish.

At a cooking store we found an entire collection of dinosaur cookie cutters and of course, got them all for our pancake- and cookie-loving boys.

Back home, we ran to Toys ‘R Us because our Spidey Sense was telling us we needed to get things for the boys and we found some serious loot – three huge Godzilla figures, I am telling you the boys were jumping up and down in glee when they saw them. My awesome mother-in-law then gave the three men some haircuts before she left.

That was our first half of the week: relaxing, laughing, sleeping in, strolling around, and just generally enjoying each other’s company. But we missed our squirrelly monkeys!!! Now I am home, and I am content.

Where in the world . . .

Posted on June 20, 2011 by casadeberry

am I going to be for the next couple of days?

I wish it were going to be this cloudy but it’s not. Still, I’ll tell you all about it when I return ;D

Did you know?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by casadeberry

the Print Shop section here at Casa de Berry offers you affordable prints for your home. Just select your prints, Paypal the ridiculously low prices and in less than 48 hours you will get a hi-res digital file with the prints of your choice. How easy is that?

Here are some examples of what’s in the Print Shop – of course, your files will not have the watermark on them.

La Brea Tar Pits

Posted on May 7, 2011 by casadeberry

Knowing that we would be making several pit stops on the way home, we got an early start (8am) and packed the van full of clothes, souvenirs, and us.

Given our boys’ love of all things prehistoric, we decided to stop at the La Brea Tar Pits on the way home.This is a recreation of some animals that got trapped in the tar pits tens of thousands of years ago.

There was also an enclosed area where you can see what some of the scientists who work there are doing – they each have a sign saying what they are currently working on.I asked my oldest if that’s what he wanted to do and he said no, he wants to be the guy who finds the animal fossils, not the guy who analyzes them ;D

We made a couple more stops for food and leg-stretching, and got home around dinner time. It was a lovely trip, but like my mother-in-law said, it’s nice to sleep in your own bed!

Have a great weekend!

San Diego Zoo

Posted on May 6, 2011 by casadeberry

This is truly the best zoo I have ever been to, not just because of the sheer amount variety of animals they have but also for the way it was set up: tons of benches all over, lots of shade, and lots of interactive things for the boys:
My oldest pretending to be a ferocious bear.