A date in Payson, AZ

I found a few more pictures from the cabin, so I figured I'd share them before moving on to our time here in Mesa.  Admittedly, we have taken A LOT of pictures since we've been in Mesa, and I'm a little overwhelmed just thinking about sorting through them.

Anyway, on Saturday morning at the cabin, Glenn's parents offered to watch Violet while Glenn and I went on a date!  We drove to Payson, and did the only thing we know of to do on a date in Payson:  went bowling!  We actually both love to bowl, and honestly almost only do it when we are at the cabin.

We got to the bowling alley right when it opened, at 10, and we were literally the only people there.  Like even the sole employee kept going outside to talk on his cell phone, so we really had the whole place to ourselves.  We had a great time; it was one of the best dates we've been on it ages.  And as a cherry on top, I broke 100 on all three games!  I'm the score on top.  You'll notice I beat Glenn on the first game!  

He normally is much, much better than me, so that was a shock.  He made up for the second game.  The scores for the other two games were Glenn: 146 - Afton: 107, and Glenn: 145 - Afton: 123.  (123!!! That is the best score I've ever gotten by far!)

Of course we were happy to see Violet when we got home.  She picked me these flowers!

And she was obsessed with these blocks for basically the rest of the time we were at the cabin.  I don't blame her, they are pretty awesome.

Weekend at the cabin

We are in AZ visiting our families for a couple of weeks, and instead of driving to Mesa when we came from LA on Thursday evening, we drove straight to the LeSueur's family cabin in Pine, AZ!  The cabin is one of my favorite places in the world, so I loved getting to start our trip there!

The drive here was horrible.  I won't complain too much, but let's just say I will never drive here on the same day Coachella starts again.  We were literally in traffic from LA to Coachella.   It tacked on about two hours to our drive, and we were already driving two hour farther than we usually do to make it to the cabin, so we were in the car for 9.5 hours and VIOLET NEVER SLEPT.  Ugh, it was a long night, and no one was in bed until 1 in the morning.  Violet is still catching up on sleep (which is kind of awesome because she has slept through the night for three nights in a row!)

Despite being awake the whole time, Violet was actually a really good sport in the car.

I love this video. (She is snapping along to the Muse song Glenn and I are belting):

Getting there was a relief, and the next morning we all went fishing!  Violet spent most of the time in Grandma's lap, of course.  Touching the fish grandpa caught gave her a thrill though!

The creek wasn't as well stocked as usual, but Glenn and his dad still caught these three fish.

Now we are back in Mesa, and having a great time!

Success: Veggie Burgers

I have tried making veggie burgers in the past.  As you may remember, they were ok, but not great.  They always just tasted too bean-y, like I was eating a bean burrito instead of a burger.  Well, then Glenn got me this book for Easter:

And I found a recipe in it for the most delicious looking mushroom-brown rice burger.  The recipe was definitely more involved than other bean burger recipes I have tried, but I was hoping the extra work would pay off.  Well it did!  These burgers were awesome!

We ate them on English muffins with spinach and tons of avocado.  The recipe made six huge patties, and as proof that they really were good, Violet ate a whole patty all by herself!  The texture was perfect; they didn't fall apart at all, which is an issue I've had with bean burgers in the past.  

(Note to Annie [because she has this cookbook and might actually make these soon]: don't skimp on the fennel seeds.  It makes it taste like sausage!)

French Braids

The last few days I have successfully FRENCH BRAIDED Violet's hair!  Which is an amazing feat, not because french braiding is so hard, but because Violet never stops moving.  Behold:

(so. much. sass.)

At the park with our new camera

We go to the park downtown at least once a week.  We have a few friends that we met at story time at the library that live downtown, and we usually meet them there.  Yesterday I brought our new camera and took pictures like crazy!  

(Also, I have included another video of Violet climbing a pretty tricky ladder.  I really took the video just to show Glenn what she could do, but I figured my mom and Courtney might like to see it too.  So if that sounds really boring to you, feel free to skip the video)

(hanging like a monkey is Violet's favorite way to show off right now)

Eleanor's mom actually took this picture, but I think it is hilarious.  Poor Eleanor; She REALLY didn't want to be in this picture :)

And here's the video:

Violet the Smarty-Pants Counts to Five

Before you watch the video, I should tell you that this was the first time I ever touched our new camera, so also the first video I ever took.  Therefore, there is plenty of "Afton figuring out how to use the camera" at the beginning and end of this video.  But there is also a lot of cuteness and smartness in between, courtesy of Violet!

Our new camera is here!

We were so excited when the UPS guy came to our door today with our new camera!  Glenn got right to trying it out when he got home from school.  So far so good!

Glenn tried out some of the features, like the one above, and the one where it only shows one color.  It is going to be so nice to have a nice camera and NOT use my cell phone camera for everything!

Also, Violet can now count to five, we got it on video, and you better believe I'm posting it tomorrow.