More Salad, Please?

Today I whipped up a salad to be proud of - all on my own accord! And this is a BIG deal to me!

I've never felt like I had the knack at green salads - probably because a typical garden salad doesn't wow me and those are usually the ingredients I have on hand (tomato, carrot, even cucumber). Thus I feel like a failure at putting together an exciting salad. I've decided that to fix my problem, I must start having more exciting ingredients on hand - even if it means buying expensive cheese. And by that, I mean: feta. Yes, I'm really branching out, I know.

So today for dinner we had barbecued beef on rolls and this salad. Can you guess what Brian wanted seconds of??? THE SALAD!!! I was completely floored! I usually have to force Brian to eat vegetables, but this time I had to make him leave some more for me!

This is what I put in my salad:

green leaf lettuce

spinach

apple

avocado

green onion

feta cheese

sunflower seeds

homemade poppyseed dressing

A day with the kids

Making a bird feeder

 "Going to school"

Boulder

This past weekend, we accompanied Brian on a work-related trip to Boulder, Colorado! It was very fun, and the 7-hour drive each way wasn't bad. Boulder is such a beautiful place and very outdoor oriented. I think we would have done very well living there. :) (I still love Los Alamos though!)

Friday we got a personal tour of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). It's the place where they collect all sorts of weather data around the world and space to do research and report! Pretty much any place you go to get weather, the info originates from them. It was a very interesting place!!

The historic downtown was really neat and had a fun atmosphere with neat shops and street performers (which Brian cared for neither). Saturday morning, Brian stayed with sleeping Aspen at the hotel while Avery and I went thrift shopping downtown. It's my favorite thing to do! We had a great time. Brian and Aspen joined us later.

 The hotel was great with an entire kitchenette!

 Ice cream- oh yeah!

Boulder happened to be having a fairy parade that day and little girls dressed up and paraded! 

Avery liked to blow the magic fairy dust (glitter).

Deer Trap Trail

One of the many trails in Los Alamos; at the end of Barranca Mesa. We are exploring them one by one! We went out the mesa on the lower trail closer to the edge which was tough with the kids and Nala but very beautiful. We went back on the top which was easier, but the trail was vague near the end and you climb up and down big rocks and guess where the trail is, which was actually much fun! It was about 2 hours round trip, including our sack dinner stop.

 Brian trying out his new ipod nano and laughing at Avery's funny faces.

Eleventeen

Some funny sayings from Avery...

On our way home from Colorado, we had to stop in no-man's-land for Avery to pee by a bush. An hour later, Avery says "I need to poop by a bush!"

Also in the car from Colorado, Brian was making fun of me driving over the outside white line by saying, "Avery, should I drive like mom?" and Avery's response, "No, don't drive fast." (A week earlier I was pulled over for going too fast and got a warning).

How Avery counts: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 14, 18, Eleventeen, 14, 18, Eleventeen...