sandy, sunny, food-y family holiday weekend

after a busy week getting things checked off our sweden ttd list we had a fabulous respite with our visitors from the northwest--ryan, jenni and hans. i've posted the slideshow to the right and you can see where we spent most of our time--the beach!

saturday we got up early and went down to aliso creek in laguna beach. it's my favorite easy-access beach, and since they've renovated the bathrooms and demolished the grungy snack shack it's especially family-friendly. plus, parking is $4 for the day! we brought all the good gear--sand toys, soccer goals and ball, football, boogie boards, and a picnic lunch. we headed out after morning coffee and camped out on our beach chairs while the morning fog slowly dissipated.

we came home late afternoon to a fragrant dinner waiting for us--i made the southern pulled pork recipe from jasmine's wonderful picnic menu and it was a huge hit! michael seared the brown sugar and cayenne rub in the morning and we used the crock put to slow simmer all day. easy, inexpensive (8 lbs of pork shoulder at costco for $10!) and so tasty! we toasted some cibatta rolls and drizzled with tj's smoky bbq sauce. instead of baked beans i made a summery bean salad--also easy and tasty and worth the trader joe's trip! i followed the directions for one bag of trader joe's harvest grain mix (you'll find it with the rice--loaded with israeli cous cous, quinoa and lentils among other goodies) and right before i covered to simmer added the full bag of their dried fruit medley (golden raisins, dried blueberries and cranberries). after it cooled i simply drizzled my favorite blood orange olive oil and added some toasted walnuts. yum. for dessert i was inspired by jasmine's strawberry shortcake splurge and once again relied on my friend joe for their frozen biscuit/shortcake--also worth the trip!--with some freshly whipped cream (a bit of vanilla bean for decadence) and fresh strawberries (so sweet, no sugar needed!).

sunday ryan flew back but the rest of us decided that the weather demanded nothing less than another beach trip. we decided to leave the gear behind and stroll down to crystal cove. it's my favorite strolling beach--while the steep trails and low tide don't make for good sand play the steep cliffs and silty sand are perfect for breathing in ocean air and walking barefoot. we then headed over to the swanky crystal cove promenade and had a lovely al fresco lunch at bristol farms and then dessert and coffee at sprinkles and peets. really, a perfect oc afternoon. we then headed back to ladera for a neighborhood "throw your stuff on the grill" bbq--jenni had picked up some shrimp and i did a quick ponzu-style marinade and brought out the picnic leftovers.

after tucking in a tuckered-out owen we watched bottleshock--a film documenting the 1976 "judgement of paris": california's emergence in the french-dominated wine world. it's a great story with some great actors (alan rickman and bill pullman to name two) but the overall delivery was disappointing--perhaps it was bad editing as there were potential subplots (freddy rodriguez as gustavo brambila to name one) that were untapped and the love triangle was just silly. but it did give me another reason to be thankful for our california sun.

this morning we had a wonderfully lazy morning with our coffee and finally turned on the laptops (check out the boys' office below). we realized we couldn't let jenni & hans leave without having some tacos so we walked over to jalapenos (michael and ryan went on friday)--owen razored on the way there and then crashed out for a much needed nap in the stroller (good foresight mom! wink) on the walk home.

the house is quiet now, but the weather's still lovely and we have all the doors and windows open. i only wish we could share more of these moments with michael's family--casual dinners, shared beers (i didn't even mention all the microbrews those boys enjoyed: honeymoon, metoulis, wingwalker, and sierra nevada torpedo), and just laughing over a good IT crowd episode. until then we're just thankful for these indulgent, restful weekends. . .