7 Quick Takes Friday

Happy Friday everyone! It's been a fun week around here, so here are some of the highlights!

**1**

Sunday was our 1 year wedding anniversary, and we celebrated several ways! Our dear friend Josh who is about to marry one of my best friends, Jenn, works for Dreamworks movies, and was one of the main layout and camera guys for their new movie How to Train Your Dragon. The film opens today in theaters all over the country, but last weekend was the Friends and Family premiere for the crew to bring 3 people with them to see the film. Josh wanted to take us! It was crazy!! We skipped church, met Josh at Dreamworks and rode over to Universal Studios to their huge movie theater they use for special events. It seats 6000 people! We got free popcorn and hot tamales (cuz dragons breathe fire, duh!) and found seats. The film was awesome. They said on the Today show that it was one of the best animated films they have ever seen. I agree. You will laugh, you will want to cry, and you will definitely be entertained as you join the protagonist, Hiccup and his new friend Toothless, the dragon he isn't able to kill, even though he is a Viking and that's what Vikings do. If you have kids over the age of 4 or 5, they'll love it. I would be hesitant to take a kid much younger if they have a tough time with the "scarier" scenes in some of the animated movies with over-active imaginations, but otherwise your kids will love it! And when you go you can look for Joshua Gunther's name under the Rough Layout section of the credits :)

**2**
We also continued our anniversary celebration by enjoying a great lunch with Jenn and Josh after the film on Sunday, and then going out to a meal together that night at California Pizza Kitchen which was delicious :) Tuesday we left in the morning and drove north several hours to the seaside town of Cambria for a great night there. We visited Hearst Castle, enjoyed the spectacular views of the Pacific and ate great food at a restaurant in Cambria. Here are a couple highlights:

Our picnic lunch on Pismo BeachHearst Castle

The "Neptune Pool" at Hearst CastleThe most amazing bruschetta!Hiking Wednesday morning
**3**
My new cookbook finally arrived and oh my word it is amazing! Seriously, this is an incredible cookbook! It's broken into seasons, and then has foods you can cook for each season using things that are naturally in season during that time of year. And not just fruits/veggies, but things like maple syrup which is in season in the spring (so you can make Maple Walnut scones). It has breakfasts, breads, salads, soups, main dishes, desserts etc for each season (and then a section of things that are in season all year round). And it's definitely not just vegetarian meals, it has meat dishes as well, just healthy ones :)

**4**
Babies, babies, everywhere! I am not sure I have permission to make news public yet, since it is still really early for people, so I won't mention names yet, but we have found out that there are a ton of new babies about to crop up in our lives in this next year! SO exciting!

**5**
Yesterday we had the frustrating experience of dealing with someone hacking into my apple itunes account, using our debit card to buy a couple hundred dollars worth of music and games, and then changing my user name and password while they were somehow in my account, so that we couldn't access our account any longer. And Apple didn't have record of us even having an account with them since the user name had been changed. It was a long and frustrating day of dealing with that situation but I think everything is sorted out.

**6**
Two new favorite things. One, a blog created by a family friend of ours, Alison. Her Clatter from the Kitchen is funny, includes great recipes from this aspiring chef, and a delightful read :)

Two, the Martha Stewart magazine publication Body + Soul and the accompanying website wholeliving.com which is a wealth of information, recipes, tips & tricks about everything from exercise to spring cleaning to making your home and life a "greener" space. I love it, check it out!

**7**
This week was my Papa's 80th birthday! Happy birthday to a man who taught me SO much--about how real men don't just sit on the sidelines, but take time to play, laugh, talk with, and experience life with their grandkids. He has set a huge example for me and I am so blessed to have the most amazing Papa in the world!