Seattle.

Excuse the back log here for a moment. Before I became completely neurotic about pie, I was stewing all the options in my mind. Writing a business plan and price matching all sorts of ingredients, including the testing and perfecting recipes. While I was letting everything settle in my mind I ran away with my mom and sister to Seattle. Happy Birthday Mom! A surprise trip from my dad to a city she'd never been too. It was just a quick get away, but the loveliest long weekends. We stayed up way to late, ate way to much, walked everywhere, and were nothing but inspired by the sights of Seattle. The weather was, dare I say, perfect and the company even better.
I was constantly dreaming of pie and wandering Pikes Place feeling all sorts of inspired. This trip couldn't have come at a better time!

Thanks Dad for giving Mom a weekend with Micall and I, best birthday present ever!
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Say Cheese

Before Kevin and I were sealed we had a few family photos taken. I mean if I'm going to go through all the trouble of making sure everyone is dressed in their very best and showered, I should have it documented to say the least.
I got all the photos back last week and as it turns out, those kids of mine are pretty freakin' cute.

I'm so glad I have this beautiful day captured; it just makes me so happy. The problem is now deciding which ones I love the most.

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Ya know, just Giverny

Since arriving home from vacation life, everyone asks what was your favorite thing about Paris? Well, besides the snacks and company, it was our day in Giverny. Hands down.

We took the metro to the train station, then a train to the city of Vernon. We stumbled out of the train station and smiled at a sort of grumpy set of men and rented bicycles. We took off with our map and rode the 5km to the city of Giverny; to Monet's water lilies, to Monet's gardens. To the greatest day of our adventure.

I added the rest of the photos after the page break, since well there are a few. Click "The rest of the story"!

Croissants

**I interrupt my vacation blog posts for croissants. It seems appropriate. Plus you are tired of looking at buildings anyway.**

Alright. You ready? Really ready? Cause I've finally done it. I've made croissants with my camera in hand. And a recipe! I never thought I would actually blog these things. They are amazing don't get me wrong, but they take a lot of time and instructions for the first time. And my general rule for recipes on the world wide web is my sister has to willingly want to make them. Meaning they are under 10 ingredients and 6 steps. These are not those. But they will change your life. I bet I could get my brother to move all the furniture out of my house and back inside just for a batch. These are not difficult per se, they are time consuming. But the time is spent with the dough resting and chilling. I usually bake two batches at a time and then freeze the second. Oh they freeze beautifully. Then you can wake up pre-heat your oven while they are thawing slightly and bake for a mere 20 minutes and you have a fresh warm croissant that makes any day amazing. Throw some chocolate inside or ham and cheese and I could settle world peace.
I took notes of all my tricks and a million pictures so you too can bribe your siblings to do anything. And seriously, after you make them once, you feel like a rock star and you will want to make them all the time. I would if I had the ability to just each one, but I can't. I eat 4. Ok, 5.

Find the recipe after the page jump!

Don't be a Westminster Crabby

When we got to Paris my mom spoke Spanish. When we went to London for the day, she spoke French. Turns out if you are cute, smile pretty and nod a lot they will always bring you a Coca Light. Always.
We played up our tourist cards in London very nicely. We hopped on a double decker bus so we could make sure to fit in the most amount of tourist things. It was pretty perfect actually.

 We stumbled upon the changing of the guard. It's too bad there were to many people around, I could have wandered the park and taken a million photos of the palace.

 

 We take colored skinny jeans very seriously, apparently.

 I'd be pretty gloom about the weather too...

 BUBBLES!!!!

 Anyone else get kinda sick on London Eye?

 The horses are as stoic as the guards. It's amazing.

 Turns out you can buy your shotguns here, for a quarter of million. But you would get to purchase them with the royal family. So that's pretty fantastic.

We could have spent days in London, wandering the streets, the shops and seeing shows. But they don't have crepes on every corner so we had to go back to Paris. 

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