I heart Yosemite :)

Whew what a week, (more to come on this later) I can't believe I am just now finding time to sit down and blog about what an incredible weekend this past weekend was.

I'm not sure that words could express just how soul satisfying spending a weekend in nature with 3 amazing people can be.

I spent 100 % of the weekend either in awe of the physical beauty we were surrounded by or inspired by the wonderful people I was with.

Everywhere I looked there were bright fiery red, orange and yellow fall colors, massive rock walls that you can't help feeling humbled by, cascading waterfalls that seem to be dancing towards the earth and big black bears shredding your camper neighbors day pack.

Yes, that's right, you read correctly, big black bears shredding your camper neighbors day pack to smithereens! Way to leave your day pack, probably with some sort of food in it outside of your bear locker neighbors! Geez louise, nothing like being woken up at some ungodly morning hour by a girly man scream and the petrifying noise of a bear tearing something apart. Makes for a good story I suppose-- since we survived :).

And as if being surrounded by the beauty of nature isn't enough, the trip was made even more memorable because of the 3 lovely friends I got to share it with.

PREPARE FOR CHEEZINESS!
Kat, Lindsey and Nate - you guys made Yosemite's beauty even sweeter and you made sleeping with bears much less scary!

In no particular order Enjoy the pics...
I'm off to make some Pumpkin bread for tomorrow night's Halloween Kick off festivities.

With the birthday Girl! Nice shot Nate!

Oh the Girls:)

The weekend warrior Yosemite crew.

Kat and our awesome breakfast spread....loved our Trader Joe's Lemon Cake!!

In our heated tent - I may never go back to regular tent camping again:).

Awesome...did I say AWESOME? breakfast at the Awahnee! Man we were knee deep in the glory of Yosemite here!

Breakfast!

Our long awaited hot chocolate!

Pretty darn close to perfection.

Awahnee brunch room.

Half Dome at dusk. I have about a million and one of these shots.

Yosemite Falls.

Jumping for joy!

Again!

Yummy Pumpkin and Potatoe Bolani Lunch!

Next summer's destination -- Half Dome!

The crazy staircase to Vernal Falls.

Vernal Falls.

The girls :).

Yosemite Sneak Peak

I am sleepy and super excited about not having a bear sleeping/feasting outside my window tonight, so I'll leave you with just a little teaser from a wonderful weekend, with wonderful friends in beautiful nature and I'll be back later this week for a longer post :).

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
John Muir

more simple pleasures...

1) seeing an huge rainbow this morning on my way into work -- cute story -- I was driving into work and a man was crossing the street, looking up into the sky and smiling--I thought, this guy looks kind of crazy, what is he doing, I turned around, and there was a beeeautiful rainbow!

2) hearing Stephen Dubner co-author of Superfreakonomics talk about the relationship between the percent of men who wash their hands after they go to the bathroom and global climate change.

3) rocking some hot black fall boots :) They were a little painful, but man they looked good.

4) Pretty walk and park/car dinner picnic with Lindsey.

5) Pumpkin scented candles...love em!

6) Coupa Hot Chocolate - next time I am trying the spicy version.

7) being surrounded by idea thinking in the ecosystem of design.

8) the sound of rain on rooftops.

9) blog comments :)

10) Retreat lunch @ work - filet empanadas and mini cheesecakes!

Simple Pleasures...

A nice, relatively low key couple of days around these parts this weekend. I've been in a little bit of a bummer of a mood for the past week or so and I am not even PMSing so I thought it would be a good time for a simple pleasure list to remind me of all the little blessings I have.....

1) Supportive co-workers :) - I had a little unexpected tear fest at work on Thursday morning. I was just chatting with a co-worker that I am not that close with, but for some reason as we were talking, all these emotions inside of me just kind of bubbled up and I just got teary. I had been feeling kind of blah all week and it actually felt nice to shed a couple of tears and to have the support and understanding of this co-worker.

1) Lovely Saturday Brunch with Kat and Lindsey at Cafe Barrones :)

2) Purchase of our first book club book - The Omnivore's Dilemma (Thanks for the image Amazon).

3) deeeelish Pumpkin Pancakes for dinner----mmmmm....little bisquick, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger and voila..



4) Shedding tears inspired by Harvey Milk

5) TWO yoga classes :)

6) Fancy schmancy fake eyelashes for Halloween :)

7) Roasted Red Pepper Soup and Hand mixers---these things are brilliant...Joey Altman was right! I love the color of this soup!




7) Leaves changing colors

Watch out people, I'm on a roll!

So, today's kitchen project (funny, I turned this weekend into a big cooking fest! Lindsey didn't I tell you that I just wanted to watch movies? Oh me.)....Tomato Sauce with yummy meatballs! It's been a long while since I've tackled Tomato Sauce, and I've never really done it solo, but it came out just beeeeautifully (hehe way to pat yourself on the shoulder Sarah:)) and it made the whole house smell like parsely, onion, garlic, tomatoes, rosemary, basil and oregano. Man, those Italians sure do know how to pick and combine spices! I used a Sunset recipe, a little bit of my own style, and as much of my memory as I could from making it with a true Italian.

More lovely spices.

Some parsley, garlic and onion....this took a LONG time people.

Not sure if this is exactly what you're supposed to used, but it worked well today.

mmmmmmmmmm parmesean.

Meatball mixins.
Cute little guys aren't they?!

I wanted some mushrooms too.

The final product.

Song of the day...

Don't read too far into this people, I just think it's a sweet song :). Happy Sunday :). Oh and I love the guy's name...Griffin...good one :). (Kat, I may not name a child of mine Kat, but Griffin has a good chance :).)

Salmon Chowder

So I am a big space cadet this weekend. Totally thought that the comedy show that is TOMORROW night was Tonight and planned my day around it. I got home from the grocery store and started cooking like a mad woman because I thought I was going up to the city. Checked my email late afternoon and realized the show is tomorrow! What a dummy!! Anyways, needless to say I finished my salmon chowder with plenty of time....and even got some fall boot shopping in .

Take a little salmon, add a little, salt, pepper and dill.

Round up some parsley, tj's genius soup starter combo of pre-chopped celery, onion and carrot and two potatoes.

Chop it all up and add some chicken broth.

Add the baked salmon, parsley, whole milk, and half and half.

Let it simmer for an hour and there you have it.

Recipe called for bacon, which I regret leaving out!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Finally got to do the baking I have been craving to do tonight and it was just lovely :).

Found this recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate chip cookies and couldn't resist making it! Check out this blog if you want to make some too... Spork or Foon.

How beautiful is this!?! Nutmeg, Ginger, Cloves, Cinnamon and Vanilla---oh fall spices, I heart you!

Not just chocolate chips, chocolate Chunks

Went for the canned pumpkin.

All the spices mixed up.

Little egg and shuga.

Pumpkin!

Chocolate Chunks!

Love the contrasting color of the pumpkin and chocolate here.----so fall-y.

Baking away.

Voila!

coooookies :).

and more cooookies :).

And you know what the second best part of baking cookies is (the first being eating them fresh out of the oven of course)....the SMELL, man I wish I could take a picture of the smell filling up the kitchen right now...lots of pumpkiny, cinnamony, nutmeggy, chocolaty goodness.

Happy Fall Baking!

This recipe is going on my to make list...

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies