Big Accomplishments - Half Dome

Accomplishments...today is a big day for Foxy's Domestic Side, it's my 100th post! I can't believe I've been blogging long enough to have 100 posts, wow! In lieu of this, I thought I would blog about one of my big accomplishments, besides Baby Fox of course.

The time that Curtis and I hiked this guy, also known as Half Dome:

We took this picture the day before when we went for a drive, we couldn't believe we were going to hike that!

So how this came about, I saw a picture of Half Dome on my cube-mates wall and asked what it was, I said, I'm going to hike that, I wrote Mr. and email and said, we're hiking Half Dome, he said..."Okay", not knowing what it was just that I wanted to do it. What a guy!

So we reserved our camping space 5 months in advance and we were set, besides the fact that we had never hiked anything before. My training...consisted of walking with an incline on the treadmill...and we took a small hike when we got to Yosemite two days before the BIG hike.

In case you didn't know Half Dome is a 16 mile hike round trip, with an elevation gain of 4500 ft.

We were going to leave about 4am so that we could have plenty of light to get back. We woke up about 2am and it was POURING rain...we thought, great, but went back to sleep in hopes that it would stop raining before we started. We didn't really sleep and just listened to the rain coming down. Our alarm went off at 4am and it was STILL raining...so we sat and tried to sleep, around 7am it's still raining but it's just drizzling. We figured let's just go for it and see what happens.



Waiting in the tent for the rain to stop

So got our rain ponchos on and started hiking...no one else was out there, we were the only crazy people enough to try it! So let's get this show started!

The rain eventually stopped and we kept on going, running into people here and there, but mostly it was just us and nature. It was pretty awesome. At time we weren't really sure we were on the right path, but we just walking and we would eventually find signs that said we were.

At Nevada falls, most people turn around cause the hard part is after this, but we felt great and wanted to keep going.

We kept seeing these signs. We'd run into some rangers and they would tell us that we should turn around that the Half Dome is probably wet and it's super dangerous to climb up when it's wet. But we kept on going. Figuring lets at least get to where we really can't go any further.

We're getting closer!

 

Right before you get to the top, you have to climb these switch backs...so hard and really narrow, especially for someone afrad of heights!

 

Yep no railings

 

 

We finally make it and have to take the cables...I don't know if I can do this!

 

Yep we climbed up that!

 

I was resting and Mr. said he was going to go check it out, I look down to get something and look back up and he's half way up the cables...a few choice words came out and I thought, well I wasn't sure I could do it, but he is NOT going to leave me behind! Another guy that was there said that he had already gone up and back down and he would go up with me, his friend came along.

 

We made it! Remember that little point jetting out in the first picture? Yep that's where we are standing!

 

 

What made this trip so amazing was that usually there are hundreds of people hiking this and you can sometimes wait hours to get up the cables...but us, there were about 10 people there because most people did even start the hike because of the rain. We took the longer less steep way back to camp...

 

We made it! Still smiling and ready for some dinner!

 

It took us about 11 hours to finish the whole hike and it was worth every single sore muscle I had the next few days. I don't think this experience can ever be repeated just based off of the fact that there was only 5 people on the top of Half Dome with us, which will probably never happen again.

 

On our way back home, we got a call from our realtor who told us that we had gotten the house we put an offer in on!

 

Want to read some more about hiking? Check out Amy's blog, the Dirt Life, she hiked both the Appalacian Train and the Pacific Crest Trail for about a years worth of time, different trips though. Talk about amazing!

So that is one of my big accomplishments along with of course blog post #100! Have a great weekend, our weekend is jammed packed and of course I forgot my camera!

Butternut Squash Puree

Back with another baby recipe*. Okay so this one is SUPER easy, so it won't take long. I promise.

What You'll Need:

Butternut Squash
9x13 casserole dish
Water

What To Do:

Tip: Use gloves if you have them, I find that the squash is really hard to wash off your hands, at least for me, so I use gloves.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400°F

Step 2: Cut the squash down the middle

I like to cut it down one side, then flip it around and cut the other side, then bring the knife all the way through to the bottom once I have that initial cut, if that makes sense.

Step 3: Scrape out the seeds

I find a large spoon works best.

Step 4: Place cut side down in pan and add water till it's about an inch or so up the squash

Step 5: Cook for about 45 minutes to a hour. When you poke the squash with a fork it should give easy. This is the tricky part, I find that if you let the squash cool cut side down that it tends to absorb all of the water left in the pan, so I try to flip them as soon as they come out of the oven with some tongs and a fork so prevent a lot of water from seeping in the squash and making it a little more watery.

Step 6: Scrap out the "meat" and put in a bowl

Step 7: Blend

I use an immersion blender to do this

And of course having helpers is always welcome, especially when it comes to using things that make loud noises.

And that's it, butternut squash puree for your family or your baby. You can always put it in a pastry bag and do those fancy swirly things that fancy restaurants do.

Next week: Something yummy that uses this recipe and the butternut squash recipe you just made.

* I got this recipe from the Baby and Toddlers cookbook from William Sonoma

Random Wednesday

Another week gone by and we're already here at Random Wednesday again. It's funny now that I have started blogging, when something happens, I always think, oh that would make a good post, or that would be good for random Wednesday, anyone else do that? Or do I just think too much?

Here's an outfit from this week, typical work outfit, nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.

Sometimes Mr. has problems taking my picture, not really sure. No matter how many times I tell him to take a full length shot, sometimes he just doesn't want to? Not sure what it is, but all the pictures of me with the jacket buttoned up are half shots of me and doesn't even really get the full closed jacket in, so just pretend that I have that picture :)

Jacket - H&M, Shirt - Ann Taylor Loft, Pants - Ann Taylor Loft, Shoes - DSW, Necklace - White House Black Market, Belt - Target (it's on sale right now only $6.98)

 How can you not love a shirt that has strips and polka dots all in one?! I saw it and snatched it up and paid full price. Okay not really, there was a 50% off the entire store, but it was still full price and not on the sale rack, that's how much I loved it.

Colton decided he wanted an outfit post too...sneaky little guy.

So what did I do? I asked him to pose, he's learning.

White Onsie - Carters, T-shirt - Target, Skull Pants - Baby Gap (when Mr. saw these he HAD to have them for Baby Fox, like it was a NEED not a want type of thing, we paid full price and I almost died a little, but we're definitely getting our moneys worth), Shoes - Stride Rite via Nordstrom's Rack

And now onto some Random Things:
 
The display case in the lobby has a mirror in the back. But not a real one, one of those fake ones like you see at Edwards movie theater, you know the ones I'm talking about, it looks like a mirror, but it's really shiny plastic material? Anyway, this display case is placed so you have to look at yourself while you're walking to exit the building. So you're staring and a morphed (larger) version of yourself and wanting to hide in hole, knowing you don't really look like that, but can't seem to look away.

You know you love your husband when he says he's not going to be home for dinner, so you pick up one of your favorite dinners (Persian food), so you can eat half for dinner and save half for lunch another day, to have him come home early and hungry. How can I not offer those puppy dog eyes half of my food...just means I get to get more next week to make up right? Now that's love.

So our microwave broke (2 days ago)...can I tell you how much we use our microwave?! And of course it broke when we were planning left overs for the next two days. So now instead of heating up those enchiladas I made the other day in 2 minutes, it takes 35 minutes, awesome. Just think of how many times you use yours...yep ours is gone, done, finished. One day it was working and then the next it doesn't heat anything. We called the company it was from, Dacor, and they said that it might be the motor and that costs $400-$500 to fix, I almost choked! I told Mr. and being the great guy he is did a LOT of research and he discovered that Dacor has their convection ovens made by another company, Sharp, bottom line he found this one from Sharp that is the same exact thing for half the price, score! Bad news? It will take at least 2 weeks to get here. Bummer, we are considering buying a really cheap one off of Craigslist...Mr. said, is this what camping is like? haha, kidding, we go camping, it's way worse! I guess Baby Fox is going to get his juice cold along with his milk (we might spoil him and heat up his juice and milk when asked). Wish us luck for the next 2 weeks, I'm having to make dinner more often now, since we can't really heat up left overs easily, might as well make the whole dinner again instead of waiting for it to heat up in the oven. I'll give you one last quote from Mr., right when we realized that we were going to have to heat up our dinner in the oven and it taking 35 minutes, he says "we got to get this stuff situated, it's like medieval times in here". Funny guy, I couldn't stop laughing.

Of course when it broke Mr. had to take the trim kit off to see if he could "fix" it (typical guy), and we find that our microwave convection oven is sitting on 2x4's, what? Is that normal? Please excuse me being in the picture.

Bye-Bye Convection Oven, nice knowing you, but you are getting replaced STAT!


Linking up with Shanna at Because Shanna Said So for So Random Wednesday
And The Pleated Poppy for What I Wore Wednesday

What Baby Wore

So this weekend I tried to get Baby Fox to pose for a picture, hard to get a 2 year old to stand still. I tired on several different occasions with different outfits, but this one came out the best. I think bribing him with going to the park afterwards really helped my cause. We don't really have a smile face yet, so this is as close as it's going to get. Yep those pink flowers are really blooming right now in the 35° weather! Nature at it's best. This outfit was given to us as a baby shower gift back in 2010, it's just now fitting him! Yay!

Sweater/pants - Naartjie Kids, Shoes - Stride Rite via Nordstroms Rack

Don't let the collar fool you, it's attached to the sweater, Mr. was shocked it wasn't too pieces when he was undressing Baby Fox that night

Yes I put his hands like that, thought an outfit posted needed the obligatory hands on hips pose

Linking up with:

Megan at The Mrs. 

Sarah at The Not Quite Military Wife,

and Tiffany at Little Gems

for Mommy Moments Blog Hop
"What Baby Wore Theme"

Weekend Recap - Lazy Days

Happy Monday! Okay maybe not happy, but another Monday has rolled around WAY too fast...again. We didn't do much this weekend, we were semi-lazy and tried to stay warm.

Have you ever read the book If you give a Pig a Pancake, it's a whole series of books with different animals and different foods. We've been reading these books non-stop since we got them for Christmas. Anyway, Baby Fox said he wanted pancakes for breakfast. Who am I to deny him something he wants that he's NEVER EVER asked for before. He chowed down on the first one, as you can see, it was fairly small, but he ate that thing like I've never seen him eat. And just as fast as he started, he was done and wanted an egg.

Then we decided to take Baby Fox on a bike ride, up to Starbucks and let him run around, blow off some steam. He loves bike rides and jumps at the chance any time we ask.

He loves walking around the fountain area and jumping off the random statue in the middle of the courtyard.

 Chasing the birds, he thought this was SO funny! Don't worry, it wasn't that cold out, that guy on the right is wearing WAY too many layers, weirdo.

While Baby Fox was chaaing birds, three of them decided to keep me company while the boys ran around.

It was so nice out that we decided to get some lunch instead of going home for lunch, I ordered the food and we were waiting for our food. Baby Fox wanted to help, so he held up our number until the food arrived, luckily it was only a minute or so before the food came.

Saturday night we went to visit one of my junior high friends (yep we're still friends after 20 years), they live about 20 minutes from us. Baby Fox was so cute! The kids ate quick and Baby L was in her jumperoo while Baby Fox watched Finding Nemo (for the 100th time), and he kept getting off the couch to go to the jumperoo to give Baby L kisses and hugs, and she would stop jumping long enough to get the kiss and then she would continue jumping. MELT MY HEART! Of course we were too wrapped up in cuteness to take pictures, but did get a cute kiss when we were leaving.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, the boys went to the park for an hour or so, while I cleaned up the breakfast dishes and some left over Christmas stuff that I forgot to put away, took a shower then I met up with them, until lunch time. This boy can play at the park for forever if we let him.

And to round out our weekend? We made enchiladas for dinner, yum! Easiest recipe EVER! Here ya go:

For both: Flour Tortillas*, green onions, olives, enchilada sauce
For Him: Cheese, Ortega Green Chilies, Shredded Chicken
For Her: Steak, beans

Mr. mixes all of his ingredients together in a bowl, adds some of the sauce to make it wet and starts putting the filling in, then sprinkled some cheese on top (I added the green onions and some extra sauce on top)

I have different ingredients because I can't have cheese or chicken, so I make mine with steak and beans and the other fillings. I put his in front of mine, because, we'll his just looks better :)

*have to use flour tortillas becasue I can't eat corn ones, it's just easier to buy one kind of tortilla

Before cooking

After cooking

It really was a great way to end the weekend, and we have left overs for a couple more nights too! Score for me!

Linking up with: 

Sami at Sami's Shenanigan's 

and Leeann at Join the Gossip

for "Weekend Update"

and
 Molly at Still Being [Molly]
and Carly @ Lipgloss and Crayons
for "YOLO Mondays"

Sunday Social - My First one

I've been seeing this Sunday Social, on blogs that I read, but I never had time to do the question. I usually don't blog on the weekends, so by the time Monday rolls around I've already started to recap my weekend, and Sunday Social goes out the window. But not today! I figured I would make an effort and do this, because it's a great get to know you sort of questions.

1. What is the name of your blog? How long have you been blogging?
Foxy's Domestic Side - I've been blogging since we found out I was pregnant back in early 2010, but that's a private family blog. I decided to start Foxy's Domestic Side when I finally joined the pinterest world and thought, well I do DIY projects, why not put it out there. 

2. Why do you blog?
I blog because I really love it. I started our family blog and loved keeping it up. It keeps great records of Baby Fox, and helps my family see the masses of pictures I take of him. I started Foxy's Domestic Side because I had more to say. I do a lot of projects and felt that my family doesn't want to see my projects, outfits and random things I have to say. I love having an outlet for the little bit of creative side I have.

3. What is the first blog you ever followed?
First blog I discovered and continually kept going back to was Audrey at Putting me Together
She has a fashion blog with a series of how to build a remixable wardrobe, made me really start to think about how I put my clothes together and how to think when I buy them.

4. What is your favorite post you wrote in 2012?
I think my favorite post was about my half marathon. I didn't think I could ever run that far, ever! I am not a runner and will probably never do it again, but it meant something. The support I got from my family and now it's something I can cross off the bucket list.

5. What are your blogging goals for 2013?
Blogging goals for 2013? Hmm.....good question.  I would have to say that I want to try and have a few more meaningful posts, I am not a writter, which is why I went into enginnering in the first place, everything is scientic and not touchy, feely stuff. So I hope to let people see the real me. And to get 50 followers! I'm almost halfway there!

6. Top 3 favorite blogs to follow?

But the first blog that I followed publicly was Tiffany from The Coffeehouse - she's hilarious, and I love her dog Sherman and his antics.

One of the other first blogs I started to follow was Yi-Chia at Always Maylee. Maylee is "beautiful" in Manderin, how perfect is that? She's a fashion blogger, with bits of life sprinkled in, but she's awesome, and I love seeing what outfits she's being wearing, I want her whole closet, seriously!

I love Shay @ Red Lipstick and Melodies and and her Best Friend Amy @ The Dirt Life. They met through blogging, they were featured together on the same blog. They click on each other and the rest is history. Shay is funny and always posts funny videos, and Amy has hiked both the Appalacian Trail and the Pacfic Crest Trail, that's almost a year of being in the wilderness people. Here stories will almost make you feel like you are right there hiking, when in reality you're cozy in your bed. I'm going to to count them as one, as they often like to talk about the same things, like when they went dumpster diving together, one of Shay's versions, Amy's Version. I'll let their blogs do the rest of the talking, what are you waiting for, go check them out!

So that's a little about me and my Foxy's Domestic Side

Linking up to Neely @ A Complete Waste of Makeup

and Ashely @ Ashley's Carinval Ride

For Sunday Social

Disapline is Hard When They're This Cute

I don't have much to post today, but I thought I would post a picture of Baby Fox in his first time out from last night. He kept turning off the kitchen light when I was trying to make dinner. He did it three times, after the third time I told him if he did it again he was going to go in a time out. Of course he gave me that devilish look and turned the lights off. I said okay you're going to go in a time out. I put him right by the refrigerator, so I could keep an eye on him. I set the timer for 2 minutes* and told him to stay. He was good for the first 30 seconds, then started to wander away, I put him back, then he tried to run away, I put him back again. He tried to walk to me one more time and I put him back, now he's crying and confused. The timer could not go off quick enough! As soon as it went off, I got down on the floor and told him that I put him in time out because he continued to turn off the light when I told him not to. He looked at me, said "hug, hug" we hugged and kissed it out and he hasn't turned off the lights since. We'll see what happens tonight, or I guess I'll be looking forward to the day when he's tall enough to reach the "on" part of the rocker switch.

*I only sent the timer once, I didn't start the time over every time he tried to escape.

It was really hard for me to stay strong, but I knew that it would set a bad precedent if I just let him out.