Cooking with Gas.

Ellie started oceanography camp this week, which is coming at the perfect time.  We've had a great summer so far, but she definitely complains every step of the way. Oh, we went out to lunch? Why can't we have ice cream? Spent the afternoon with friends? Heavy sigh, why can't we do something fun! That sort of nonsense, so it's good that she's out and about to do her own thing. She's had a good week so far, though she mentioned that it's a lot of LEARNING. And Monday was a little lackluster because Gigi picked her up for an afternoon of fun, and then we spent two hours crying (her) and searching for a lost Spike (the rest of us, including Adam canvassing the neighborhood on his big wheel, yelling "Spikey DOODLE! Where ARE you!") Turns out, that fluffy bastard was upstairs, hiding in a super secret location. 

Ellie's favorite part of camp, of course, is getting to go with Lexi. Those two are quite the pair, and surprise surprise, are each other's buddy at camp. They even get to use the bathroom together! (which they would do anyways, please.)

Meanwhile, Adam and I are sticking to our usual routine of going to the YMCA, farting around, and going swimming in Grizz's pool. He did offer this beautiful song on the drive this morning (I was parked when I recorded)

The other thing both kids have been doing is watching American Ninja Warrior, nonstop. They LOVE it. The best part is that then they go and play American Ninja Warrior, bouncing around Ellie's room in their costumes. American Ninja Warrior boy wears no shirt, American Ninja Warrior girl wears no pants. Sometimes she even changes into her bathing suit in case she falls off the obstacle and into the water!

We also had some real big fun this weekend doing cooking class with Don and Eileen, Jake and Karen. It was the Christmas present for all of us, having the experience of making and sharing a meal. I recommended the cooking school down in San Juan, TSpoons, and we had a great time. We had a French chef who yelled at all of us and goofed around ("eat the pan! Eat the pan to eye!" - heat the pan to high, yelled at us "what are you doing!?" and told me to shut up, at which point I took my name tag off, turned it around and wrote Beyonce on the other side, so if he was going to tell me off, he had to call me Beyonce.) And the food was great! It was bacon night, so we made carbonara, fried chicken with a bacon gravy and bacon buttermilk biscuits, a flatbread with caramelized onions and bacon, and chocolate chip bacon brownies. YUM. 

The great part is they do all of the measuring and cutting and prep work and clean up, and while you cook the vast majority of the dishes, they do the finishing up - you don't have to watch the oven or check temperatures, while we sat down with our carbonara, they plated the last items and brought them to us. Sipped wine, all chatted together (the six of us crammed into a little table because they were short a seat at the big table, and by the time they brought over another chair, we would have been interspersed between a bunch of other patrons, instead of getting to talk to one another.) And then I made everyone go two step at the Swallows, because the best thing to do with a full stomach is swing around the dance floor!