The Bacon Maple Bar

Somehow this photo got deleted from the post below. So here it is, the bacon maple bar from Voodoo Doughnuts. If you like bacon with pancakes and maple syrup you'll love this!

Quick Trip to Portland

On Friday I flew to Portland, Oregon to see my dear friend Julie Peterson. I arrived at 8:15am and after a stop at Starbucks we headed over to the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

We had a tour of the gardens and buildings.

Had orange and cranberry tea in the tea house where this man was performing.

Then on to lunch at Andina a Peruvian restaurant that was AMAZING! Here's the bread and 3 dipping sauces.

We started with conchas a la parilla: grilled diver scallops with garlic lime butter sauce and crispy onions, empanadas caseras de carne: flaky pastry filled with slow-cooked beef, raisens and Botija olives and my favorite palta rellena de cangrejo y langostinos: avocado stuffed with crab and prawns.

For round 2 we had yuca rellena: cheese-stuffed yuca with an amarillo and cheese sauce and pimiento piquillo relleno: piquillo peppers stuffed with cheese, quinoa and serrano ham.

Then we went and relaxed and got manicures and stopped by Julie's house to say hi to the family. After that we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts where there was an impromptu concert.

These doughnuts are legendary and have been featured on tons of food shows.

It's pretty seedy inside and always packed.

Their most famous doughnut is the voodoo doll with pretzel stake and yes if you get there early they will put any name on it that you request! My favorite doughnut was the maple bar topped with bacon! It was divine.

Next stop: Nicholas for dinner. It was middle eastern/labanese food. The servings were huge and very reasonable.

After dinner there was more talking and eating doughnuts and then Julie dropped me off at the airport. My flight was delayed, but I managed to caught an earlier flight home and was back to my house by 9:30pm. What a fabulous day! I love you Julie! Let's make this an annual tradition!

Sky High Jump

We took the kids back to Sky High Jump on President's Day. We had a blast. Here's Jim doing a front flip! It's awesome to see a 6'6" guy doing front flips!

Here's me landing a back flip.

Jumping fun!

And our new favorite snack "Raisels". The tart orange taste like sour patch kids. We love them!

Valentine's Day!

We started the day with the traditional pink pancake breakfast.
I left Valentine's all over Jim's office, bathroom and car.

Emma made this cake to take to school. Needless to say, it was a hit!

Jim gave me See's chocolates- my favorite.

For dinner we invited the Teuschers over for a seafood feast: Salmon, shrimp and mussels. We also had bread, green beans and mashed potatoes.

It was a very fun (and very loud) dinner!

After dinner we decorated sugar cookies.

Then delivered them to some people in our Ward. It was kind of late and we woke most of them up!

Jim really came through with these gorgeous roses!

And a Galaxy Tab! I've already loaded my favorite games and movies!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!