I really appreciate travel reviews and read a lot before booking a hotel,so I am hoping to write one for the places we travel.  Priorities have changed significantly sincewe now have 2 kids.  A pool is pretty much a must in a getaway and a nice place to hang out since the kids need naps and we will be around the property a lot.  Suncadia about 1.5 hours outside of Seattle, WA in the Cascade Mountains delivered on a great weekend getaway with kids.

One of the highlights of the resort is that it was built in 2008 and everything is in pristine condition.  I love the lodge decor with pieces like a cast iron pine cone lamp, large

tribal drum table, and twig table and chairs.  The resort had an onsite restaurant with awesome food. We loved the Lobster Mac N Cheese, Green Curry Sea Bass, andDelmonico Steak.  It was fine dining but they catered to kids and made it very comfortable with a high chair and crayons for toddlers.

 

The pool was first class, but the downside was a shuttle or short walk to the fitness center.   During the summer seas

on there is an onsite outdoor pool and hottub.   We enjoyed the water slides, although Wyatt raised his arms increasing velocity and slamming him into the grate at the end of it causing injury.  The stream room, sauna, and outdoor very large hot tub were my favorite.  Wyatt can watch two kids using a water papasan for Z and holding A while I enjoy the other amenities.

The grounds were peaceful and had stunning views of the Cascade Mountains.  I spent some moments of solitude in the forest with mountain views while the kids napped. You could easily spend a few days here and not leave the property.   We like to venture out and checked out Cle Elum and Rosyln within a few miles.  Rosyln had more charm and was the site of the filming of the TV show Northern Exposure.  We were able to pick up a few supplies at a Safeway in Cle Elem to use with our nice kitchenette in our room, definitely a perk with kids…think toaster and microwave and pb and j.

A few minor criticisms would be the super slow internet and extra fee.  The internet was free, but so slow that even checking email was arduous. A resort fee was unexpectedly added for around $20/day.  It was listed in the fine print I didn’t read, but annoying.  I would rather hotels just include this in the rate, but that is my pet peeve. They do have excellent shuttle service around the grounds to the fitness center, winery, golf course, etc, so I can see where the fee goes.

The weather was sunny since its on the East side of the Cascades although windy.  The drive through Snoqualmie Pass is always beautiful.  Walls of snow lined the road for a few miles at the top of the pass.  We didn’t visit the onsite winery, Swiftwater Cellars, however it looked like a great menu for dining and something to try out on our next visit.

In conclusion, a 2-3 night stay here is recommended especially with kids.  It is a restful retreat with upscale amenities. The proximity to Seattle makes is especially appealing for a few night getaway.  We look forward to exploring more in this region.

I thought I would try out the new blog site with a quick post on kale. My full blog will be migrated here eventually and renamed. I discovered kale in the raw form this year after a friend brought me a meal of raw kale salad after Augustine was born.  The recipe is from PCC and called the Emerald City Salad. I have modified the recipe for a quick version:

• 1 bunch of kale (any type tastes great)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 clove garlic (grated through microplane)
• 1 lemon

1. Wisk oil, lemon and garlic together and dress the kale.

Thats it!  The beauty of this salad is that you can dress it and it will not wilt.  Make it on Monday and eat it for the whole week! You can also saute the salad and then it works as a side dish with dinner. A mix of different types of kale is a great way to go, then use the extra in smoothies, soups, or kale chips.

This past week I picked up a yummy rotisserie chicken from Costco and chopped it up cold and added it to the salad.  My guilty pleasure is to melt a pat of butter and stir in a pinch of garlic powder, paprika and salt then pour it on top of the chicken before eating the salad.  Its a little addicting and also a great topper for popcorn : )

I am hoping to drop some baby weight still…so I am trying to make little changes in my diet to help out.  I pick up kale pretty much every time I go into a grocery store.  Fred Meyer has it for under 2.50 per bunch for organic kale.  Kale is part of the dirty dozen for pesticides, so I would recommend going organic.  Additionally, I am juicing it and making green smoothies with it and trying to swap that for a lunch or breakfast occasionally.

Kale Chip Recipe

Tear kale leaves into chip size pieces and spread out of baking sheet.  Make sure the kale is dry from washing and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on a little salt. Bake for roughly 15 minutes at 350.  You want to make sure its crispy but not in the oven too long because it can get bitter.

 

Cyber Monday has come to a close. My adrenaline started flowing yesterday around 8 pm when I saw Half Price Books Marketplace would be offering free shipping on everything. I pulled up my Amazon Wishlist and started searching. I was delighted to find many books for 99 cents!

The endless possibilities of books I could get for thrift store prices shipped to my home started flowing...was this really going to work. When the deal went live at 9 pm I had 15 books in my cart and clicked BUY. The deal cleared and I think I uttered to Wyatt I can't believe it and I will probably be up all night searching. Alas the dream was short lived and as I continued to search all the prices that should have been 99 cents were 4.99. (they had added the shipping cost to the book prices making the deal a scam in my opinion)

Wyatt said I should be thankful for getting the 15 books at rock bottom prices. I am giddy thinking about all these books currently in route to my house from around the country, but I can't help but be disappointed about all the ones that got away.

On another book related note, Zoraida and I have gathered all our Christmas books together in baskets for this month. I have amassed quite a few mostly from thrifting. Here is the list:

• Messiah: The Wordbook for the Oratorio, George Frideric Handel
• A Christmas Testament, Phillip Kopper
• The Christmas Day Kitten, James Herriot
• The Snow Tree, Caroline Repchuk
• Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-up, Robert Sabuda
• Lift the Flap Nativity, Allia Zobel-Nolan
• The Newborn King, Cindy Robertson
• The Christmas Cross, Max Lucado
• Frosty the Snowman, Hallmark book read by grandma
• The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
• Journey to Bethlehem: the story of the first Christmas, Dorothy Van Woerkom
• One Wintry Night, Ruth Bell Graham
• Religious Christmas Stories for Children, an Ideals publication
• The Carols of Christmas, an Ideals publication
• Nativity, Winston Press
• A Child's Book of Christmas Carols, Illustrated by Masha
• The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories, selected by Ian Whybrow
• Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book
• Usborne Lift-the-flap Nativity

Do you have a favorite Christmas book?

Its been about three years since we stuffed a van cab with a handful of boxes, dropped them off at curbside checkin and flew to Seattle to find an apartment, buy a car and start new jobs in a few days. Out of those few boxes, 2 were full of books. After 3 years, we have gone from a couple hundred books to 1287. The number is probably 70 higher, but I didn't count each volume of our 1953 Encyclopedia Britannica, Tyndale commentaries, and Calvin commentaries as separate books in the catalog.

Being 30 plus weeks pregnant, I decided it was the perfect time to channel my organizational energy into cataloging our growing library. I kept it pretty simple to start by using Excel to record the title, author, year, awards, and category. Wyatt has grand ambitions to now alphabetize the books in each category.

The majority of our books fell into Christian (537 books) and Childrens (349 books) categories. I plan to further refine these later into subcategories. Our oldest book is an 1879 New Devotional and Explanatory Pictorial Family Bible. Wyatt acquired it for $25 at a Half Price Books using a 50% off coupon. I found an 1884 book titled Historical Records Concerning Jesus the "Christ" Messiah at a Woodinville library book sale. I will pick up anything older than 100 years just to have it as a piece of history. We do buy new books too, the most recent a Father's Day present for Wyatt entitled, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (2011) by Michael Horton.

The most prolific author we have is Dr. Seuss with 27 entries. Wyatt thought it would be one of his favorite theologians, which I guess if you count Calvin's commentaries as separate books he would win with 30 books. Other authors with more than 10 books include Graeme Base, F.F. Bruce, Eric Carle, C.S. Lewis, John Piper, Plato, R.C. Sproul, and B.B. Warfield. We also 32 Bibles, so you could say God is our most prolific author.

We had 41 duplicates, so I may be selling some on Ebay to free up bookshelf space. Having gone through them all, the duplicate buying should decrease since my memory is pretty solid, ha! Right now we have bookcases scattered throughout our home. We have dreams to have a dedicated library someday when we are homeowners.

Thought for the Day: You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C.S. Lewis

Summer is the perfect time to do some simple cooking with the help of kitchen appliances. I ended with two extra racks of ribs after making oven roasted bbq pork ribs for father's day, so I searched for an easy recipe on Crockpot 365 blog and found this recipe. Since I already had some kalbi sauce in the fridge I substituted it for the sauce she uses. The jalapenos added a really nice amount of heat and the ribs were really tender and delicious!

Wyatt and I were craving bubble tea the other day and reminiscing about the amazing Joy Yee's tea in Chicago's chinatown. I loved riding the El down to Chinatown with some girlfriends on the weekend to get my favorite avocado bubble tea at Penang. It then dawned on me I could make this at home. We actually would make bubble tea at home in Chicago, but I never have made the avocado. I bought bubble tea straws and tapioca pearls at wonderful new Uwajimaya in Bellevue.


Slow Cooked Asian Pork Spareribs

2 racks spareribs
1/2 cup kalbi sauce
2 jalapeno peppers

1. Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
2. Turn ribs over half way through cooking.


Avocado Smoothie

1 ripe avocado
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3 Tbs Honey
4 ice cubes

1. Scoop out avocado into blender and combine with all ingredients until smooth.
2. Add more or less ice depending on preferred consistency.

I am currently cataloging all our books, so I added these to the list today. Today's entries make the total 756 with about one room left to do. A blog with all the statistics will be coming shortly. We happened to be near a Half Price Books today and took a peek. Of course, we both walked out with a few finds.

Tracy's Cart: (All from the Clearance Sections)

• Illustrated Robinson Crusoe ($1) - I already have a nice copy of this book, but the illustrations are really well done in a Japanese print-like style by artist Felix Lorioux, so I couldn't resist.
  
• Galapagos: Discovery on Darwin's Island ($2) - I was slightly obsessed with the Galapagos Islands in my teen years and had a really hard time finding books about it back then. Now they are prolific and this one has beautiful watercolors of many of the unique animals found here.
• The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization ($3) - I actually had the Timechart of World History and Biblical Times on my book list to buy, so I got this one to check out the series more closely. The fold out time line looks will hopefully help me get dates straight!
  
• Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago ($3) - Wyatt and I have many fond memories of this museum from our time in Chicago, so this was a nice find to reminisce.
  

Wyatt's cart: I am proud to say he actually stayed around $3 a book.

• Jesus the Jew : A Historians's Reading of the Gospels by Geza Vermes
• The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich
  
• For All God's Worth by N.T. Wright
  
• The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach
  

What will today's era be called? In terms of my decor, I would go with the Craigslistian period. Happenstance has again weaved together my interests. I think that shopping at thrift stores, following rabbit trails from books, and reading an array of blogs lends itself to these wonderful coincidences.

The Edwardian period is where my latest trail has led. The all knowing Wikipedia labels the Edwardian era as the time covering the rule of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910.

I recently read Teaching the Trivium by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn. By the way, the authors also have a blog Trivium Pursuit that is quite helpful. One recommendation the Bluedorns make for teaching young kids science is keeping a nature notebook. They recommended the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden as a great example of a nature notebook.

Whenever a book is recommended in my reading, I immediately stop and go add it to my library hold list and amazon wishlist, so I do not forget it. The Diary came in from KCLS and I was blown away by the talented illustrations in it and inspired by the monthly notes that Edith Holden made. I then ordered Edith Holden's The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady used from Amazon and The Country Diary Book of Days is currently in route to our home. Zoraida and I go on nature walks near our home, so I started a notebook myself. I am working on identifying and illustrating everything we see thanks to the wonderful wildlife guide provided by the city here.

I have been spring cleaning and recently dropped off some bags at the local Goodwill and of course did a little browsing myself. I came across an Edwardian Dollhouse: A Three-Dimensional Book in the kid's book section. It was in mint condition with all the paper dolls still not punched out. Zoraida has really enjoyed the house especially using staircase as you can see from the photo above. A portable dollhouse that folds into a book is a genius idea.

We do not have a TV or Netflix, which I have blogged about before, but I do love film. I get my contemporary film recommendations from a little podcast called Filmspotting (see earlier blog for more details). We primarily get our movies for free from the library, where I manage a queue of them on our hold lists. A blog I follow recently listed their top 10 movies most of which are suitable for kids and one was Miss Potter, a movie about the life of Beatrix Potter. And of course Beatrix Potter lived during the Edwardian period, so it was another glimpse into the era.



Thought for the day: From The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady ~"Saw a little grey Lizard come out of a hole in a wall, he didn't seem frightened but sat on a stone blinking his eyes at me and basking in the sunshine. The bogs here are full of small white Water-Crowfoot; but I have seen no signs of Bog-bean, nor Butterwort nor Sundews, such as you find in the Welsh and Scotch marshes." Edith Holden, May 8, 1905.

I may be addicted to deals which would include shopping at thrift, second hand, and consignment stores. We may have gone to a few Goodwills on our honeymoon for instance. My regular list of places I treasure hunt at include Value Village, Goodwill, Half Price Books, Forget-Me-Not Consignment, and Treetop Consignment.

I hope to blog about some of my finds. Today I am featuring wall hangings from the kid's room. Admittedly, I am not much of an interior designer. My childhood room by design had the iconic picture of Seinfeld's Kramer on teal green walls with metallic foil vintage butterflies flying out of it.

One thing I love about thrifting is you often find out of print materials. I am in love with maps and will buy about any book that has interesting maps in them. At the Bellevue Goodwill, I found this over sized (3' by 2') cardboard Atlas of all the countries of the world called, It's a Big Big World Atlas. It goes for $42 new on Amazon or $12 used and I snagged it for 99 cents in the kid's book section. It is easy to hang and flip on a daily basis. I like to keep it on the map of area we praying for from the Operation World book that day. April has been focused on regions of China, so Asia has been the focus lately.

We are doing some rearranging in preparation for baby boy Houtz. We got a twin bed for Zoraida to free up the crib. Coincidentally, Zoraida climbed out of her crib for the first time on Sunday announcing when we opened the rattling door "I got out!". She now is now able to reach my alphabet prints from Graeme Base's book Animalia, another reason to have cheap art in a kid's room! I found an extra copy of this book at Value Village for 69 cents. Not only are their children's books super cheap, they are buy 4 get 1 free. I cut the pages out and mounted them on free foam core I recycled (took out of the trash) from the architecture firm downstairs.

Black and white are the only colors babies can focus on for about the first 2 months. I read about these Wee Gallery Flash Cards for babies in a recent baby magazine. They retail for $13, so I was surprised to find them on clearance at Half Price Books for $1. I doubt if I will ever be using them as flash cards for a 2 month old, but they make a great temporary gallery installment.

Click on any of the pictures for a closer view and happy hunting!

One of my fond food memories is from an Alaskan cruise Wyatt and I took in 2008. Our tour included passing through Glacier Bay National Park. Icebergs float along in the water and hump back whales breach alongside the boat while you are surrounded by breathtaking glaciers. Holland America chooses this moment to serve Dutch pea soup deck side. You find yourself enveloped by beauty sipping delicious soup while it is cold enough to see your breath.

I soon after tried making split pea soup and it was a disaster. It just tasted of sweetness and I could hardly eat a few spoonfuls. Our Best Bites, one of my favorite food blogs, recently featured a split pea soup recipe. Their recipes are usually dead on, so I decided to give it another go. I was intrigued by the malt vinegar in the recipe and indeed that was key! I love malt vinegar and dose my fish n chips and fries in it. I suggest adding more to top your bowl if you are a fan of it as well. The soup is savory and smokey and using my homemade chicken stock gave it extra depth of flavor.

The recipe calls for using a slow cooker. I had gone without a slow cooker for years, since I have a Dutch Oven. Dutch Ovens are so versatile since they will brown your food and go between stove top and oven for slow cooking perfection. The downside is mine weighs about 15 lbs and I was looking for a more transportable dish to bring to monthly potlucks at our small group. I have been happy so far with the 6 quart Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker with clip tight lid.

Also check out these gluten free Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls, which are super simple and yummy. A great side for the soup!