Naples 2019

Fossil Rim & Dinosaur Park

Spring Break 2020

Cooking with Marietta in Italy

That time we rode the train to Pompeii like lost puppies and got picked up by the most beautiful Italian woman with a cigarette in her hand who drove us to her home and welcomed us with cappuccinos and croissants. She taught us how to make pasta from scratch and fill raviolis with ricotta and how to correctly make pesto and a lasagne with bechamel. The language barrier was no more, we communicated with smiles and laughs and devoured our delicious meal together with wine and finished off the afternoon with homemade limoncello. This was the most beautiful and authentic Italian experience and I will treasure it forever.

So Close, Yet So Far Out

Disclaimer: This was written like over a year ago and never got posted til now! Enjoy!

Last Summer Fred and I celebrated our Anniversary in Austin TX. About a 4 hour drive from Dallas, felt close enough to drive but far enough to call it a getaway. Although only 4 hours apart from each other Dallas and Austin could not be any more different from one another.

See what we love about Austin is that it’s funky, its different, its weird, which is to no surprise why the city’s slogan is, “Keep Austin Weird.” after all. So when we decided to spend the weekend in Austin I knew I wanted to embrace all it had to offer a vibrant, eclectic, artsy, hip vibe so we booked our stay in a motel, not just any motel, Austin Motel!

What drew me to this place was it’s modern sleek colors combined with vintage architecture and a slight Spanish villa feel. The outdoor corridors are adorned with beautiful greenery and dreamy cacti. If you look into Bunkhouse, they have a whole line of hotels that are all so well designed, I’m dying to stay in a teepee at El Cosmico in Marfa or their hotel in Cabo is beautiful too!

While I highly recommend Austin Motel for its design, great location, lots of great food places around, be forewarned, the innuendos through out this place might leave you blushing at the least or might just completely crack you up, I chose the latter. So if you’re heading to Austin ditch that boring hotel with the waffle maker and the basic vibe and stay at Austin Motel, So Close Yet So Far Out.

 

International Travel Is In Our Future!

Our 10 Year anniversary is in a few weeks, passports are in, flights are booked and where else would these pizza making, pasta eating, cheese and carb lovers go? No other place than, ITALY!

Dream come true.

Italy has been the top of my bucket list for years and my amazing Fred is making it happen for us. He’s worked so hard, for this, taken on a lot of side jobs and we’re actually doing this! GAHHH! So you can only imagine what this obsessive meticulous itinerary creator has been up to for the last couple of weeks, I’ve spent countless nights staying up researching dreamy beaches in the Amalfi coast. I know poor me…

After much research we decided that 9 days would be ideal, 2 days of that would be travel and 7 of them would be our favorites things, for Fred: pizza, for me: beach! As much as we wanted to hit up every landmark in Italy we just knew that 7 days would not give us enough time to do that. So since we couldn’t have our cake and eat it too we decided to go for the best part, the icing on the cake! That being Naples, the birth place of pizza, and the most beautiful place on earth, the Amalfi Coast!

So in just a few weeks my mom and my little sister will be flying in from California to stay with the boys, we’ve been prepping them for months and they’re excited, they love California Grandma and Jiji, I know they’re going to have a blast being spoiled!

I’m so grateful Fred and I will get to have time away together, alone to celebrate and praise God for how faithful he’s been these last 10 years in our marriage.

Italia, we’re coming for you!

Bread Adventures

Hey, how was your weekend?

Saturday, Fred spent all day baking, made us waffles, he made sourdough bread, french rolls, he’s amazing, he even sold a few breads to some friends. I’m loving this new bread hobby he’s into because I freakin love bread!

So after eating bread all day Saturday what did we do Sunday after church? Went to a bake sale!

Yea, the bread obsession is real.

Patina Green our favorite sandwich spot in McKinney was having a pop up bake sale and we had to go. Pamela and Brock, the bakers selling their bread could not have been sweeter despite our wiggly and chatty children, also their array of breads was fab.

After picking out our baked goods we grabbed some sandwiches and sat down for lunch, sliced right into the freshly baked bread and my heart soaked it all in, family and good food are some of my favorite joys.

Totally recommend Patina Green if you have not been there and check out Pamela and Brock their bread was everything you would want bread to be!

Hope you have a great week! Eat something delicious.

Go, eat your bread in joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart… Ecc 9:7