Sausage!

We headed up to Whidbey a couple weeks ago with our friends, and fellow meat aficionados, the Crawfords. The weather was beautiful, the view was perfect and the house was comfy. And then there was meat. 35 pounds of it to be exact. Our freezers are full. And our bellies were happy. Breakfast sausage, Merguez (spicy lamb), Sweet Italian and fresh Kielbasa. But the surprising hit of the weekend was when we ground up the beef short ribs (boneless) we brought for a braise and instead turned them into burgers. OMG. We will now only be grinding our own burgers. Amazing. 

Onto the slideshow...

Looking out at Pt. Townsend and beyond.

Pork. Lots of pork.

Leo and Mom taking a walk on the beach.

Contemplating life's big mysteries.

The Maestro and his Merguez.

There really is no way to talk about
making sausage without giggling. 

Pretty links.

Leo and Daisy exploring.

Best. Burger. Ever.

Relaxin Mommas.

Jay and Steven...and the KitchenAid of kings.

It's important to balance out the 35 pounds of meat with some fresh fruit. And sugar.

Happy Birthday!

Leo is 2! Well he turned two on 3/23. Yes, I'm late. Oh where has the time gone. Just kidding, I totally know where the time has gone. So for birthday this year we did a combo party for Grandpa and Leo. Grandpa turned 72 and Leo turned 2, pretty cute.

Here are all of the things Leo is doing as he begins his third year on this earth.

1. Crawling. For realz now! He's speeding all over the house.

2. Pulling up. Onto everything.

3. Talking. If I had to guess I'd say he's got around 50 words or so. Though, to be fair, many of his words sound the same, enunciation isn't his strong suit right now. Plenty of two-word combos too. TONS of repeating. He's also reciting chunks of the alphabet and counting numbers. In the correct order! I know!

4. Being 2. Um, this just surfaced in the last couple weeks but he will, at times, sit on his feet and scream. Or just sit regularly and scream. Or be crawling and scream. Or be eating and scream. You get the idea. Good times.

5. Reading. Well, not really. But he does know when Dad gets to the key parts in A Snowy Day and he interjects with the correct words.

And now...birthday photos. He loved the cake, didn't quite understand the concept of blowing out the candles. And he REALLY loved his presents, in particular the Star Wars lunch box. He's all set for school.