Happy 100th Post!

Well, well, well... this is my 100th post!  

I hope you like my updated blog.  I've had fun tweaking it the last few days and it's finally complete!



What better way to celebrate than with some of my favorites.... and perhaps a giveaway??

Favorite breakfast as of late:


spinach, green pepper, feta and mushroom omelet with salsa and toast with apricot pineapple preserves.

Favorite pet:


Ok, this is really just an excuse to post a picture of Hunter.

Favorite comfort food:


LOVE yellow curry!!  This has chicken, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onions.  I could eat this every single night.  I really wish I could make this dish but am a little afraid to try to recreate it.



I get it with a cucumber salad and "golden bags" basically crab and cheese deef fried in wontons, with sweet chili sauce.


*drool*

I have been on a 3 going on 4 year quest: you see, ever since Jeremy and I got married I have tried and failed to make chocolate chip cookies that don't go pancake flat.


I've finally succeded.  Finally.


Eat, Live, Run's favorite recipe.  It's easy to see why!!

After waiting a long time, I finally tried spinning!  This is my new favorite class, upsetting BodyPump.  It's so much fun!  Despite a sore hiney for a few days afterwards.  *Ow*


At least I'm used to the same sensation from dirtbiking.  I miss it.  When's spring?

Anyways, I recently discovered another local blogger Linzi and it turns out we go to the same gym so I decided to join in on this stationary bike riding madness!  Thanks for getting crazy with me, Linzi!!


Nice and schweaty!  Can't wait until next Monday to go again! :)

Speaking of muscle soreness, I have a secret weapon.  And I'm not only going to tell you what it is, I'm giving it away!  I've been using these for over a year now and they are a welcome relief to sore muscles.


Muscle Soak Bath Salts
Epsom salts infused with essential oils Eucalyptus and Peppermint.  Soothe and revive tired and aching muscles to bring your stiff, overworked body back to life.  


One lucky reader will win a 16 oz. jar of the muscle soak salts from San Francisco Bath Salt Company!  If you're in the San Francisco area, they also have a flagship store at Pier 39!


This giveaway is 100% funded by me as a special thank you for just coming along for the ride of my blog!  I just love this company and their products. 


Here's up to three ways to enter:
     -Leave a comment telling me what your favorite workout or comfort food is.
     -Mention the giveaway on your blog
     -Follow me on twitter and leave me a comment!

I'll draw a winner April 14th.  Good luck everyone!  :)

Hawaii: Day 3.

Next up on our busy to do list was to visit Hickam AFB (air force base) to pick up some discounted tickets for snorkeling and the polynesian cultural center (PCC).  

I don't have many pictures from the actual base, because photography is largely forbidden.  After picking up our tickets, we went to the actual Pearl Harbor base (since we both had military ID for them to let us in) and looked around at the navy ships and submarines.  I even saw some Canadian naval ships!


Here's a picture I borrowed of the HCMS Vancouver. (source)

We spend the next hour driving out to Pearl Harbor... only to discover my not-so-great Google maps on my iPhone had directed us to the wrong side of the harbor!  Oops.  We had to laugh, because really, what else could we do?

Late in the afternoon, we finally found the Pearl Harbor we were looking for (embarrassingly enough, it was right next to Hickam AFB).




Unfortunately, we'd missed the last tour for the day.  We got up to the ticket counter and she said "the last tour was at 4:00 so that means..." and we got our hopes up "...you missed it by 40 minutes".  Jeez, thanks for the useful information lady.  >:(


But we still toured the USS Bowfin (nicknamed the Pear Harbor avenger) which was a lot of fun.  They gave us headsets with MP3 players that would explain about different parts of the submarine.  This one was quite small compared to some of the ones today, I suppose.






I could hardly believe how small everything was.  Being only 5'4" I don't know how a bunch of full grown men could manage in there!





There was a tour guide in there and she was ushering us around the engine room taking a million pictures for us!


Dive! Dive! Dive!


Here's the "Christmas tree" all the lights on this have to be green before the sub can dive.  If there is one red light, some part of the sub was not ready for the dive.


The anchors were HUGE.  There was one on each side of the USS Bowfin.

Next, we visited the museum for the USS Bowfin.  There was so much to see!


An old school navy uniform.


The "first" submarines were these little one person capsules and they'd paddle up to an enemy ship and literally drill a hole into the ship!  This was incredibly funny to me!

I loved all the 40's era artifacts!








I LOVE the smashed pennies.


Everywhere we went, I couldn't get over the palm trees!  Those don't exist in Idaho!  If you look really closely, you can see the darker green rows and rows of birds of paradise on the right side.

After coming back to our hotel and cleaning up, we went to the Prince Hotel for a very fancy buffet.






I felt bad wasting food but pretty much could only eat a bite or two of each thing since there was so much!  My eyes are always bigger than my stomach!


Of course there was room for dessert.  I chose a fruit tart and key lime pie.



Reliving all these Hawaii pictures is so fun!  I don't know what I'll do when the recaps are over.  Another vacation maybe?  Just kidding. (kind of)

Recently, Nicole gave me the Versatile Blogger Award.  She is such a doll!



I'm supposed to tell you 7 random things about myself... easy enough because I'm pretty random!

1. I canNOT wear mismatched socks.  It would drive me crazy!
2. I'm a big list maker and sometimes I'll write down things I've already done so I can see how much I've accomplished.
3. My all time favorite movie is The Little Princess, the one with Shirley Temple.  I can (and have) watch it over and over.
4. I don't particularly care for nuts or nut butter.
5. I HATE lunges (but do them anyways) but I LOVE squats.
6. I recently read a book called House Rules by Jodi Picoult.  I'd highly recommend it.
7. I am fairly certain I could eat Thai food everyday.  Unfortunately, I'm convinced I'm too white to make it right.

I'm also supposed to pass this on, but truly all of your blogs are so wonderful, I'd hate to leave anyone out, so consider yourself tagged!

Tell me, what's one random thing about you?


I'm looking for a new read, any good book recommendations?

Whew.

I made it back from Oregon tonight.  How is it that driving for 8 hours is so exhausting?!  But let's rewind to a few more highlights of the trip... ...this might get lengthy.

Look how hunter is holding his toy.


Mom and I did a little bit of shopping...


and had lunch at a cute little coffee shop/deli.  My mom got a mocha and I got an iced herbal tea.


We both half a chicken pesto garlic panini and put together salads at the salad bar.


Sorry for the iPhone pictures, I forgot my camera!

Hunter and I took lots of walks despite the drizzle.


It actually even got sunny for a little bit!

It looked more like spring than it does back home.  Everything was blooming...











Yesterday we went to a great Thai place in Portland for lunch with my mom's good friend, Greta.

We all started with a brothy soup with cabbage, green beans, tomato, chicken and onions.


I got the pad thai.  Yummm.

Afterwards, we peeked into a bakery...




Resisted ordering one of everything...

But did leave with a few treats.  I got something called a Danish crispy.

It was like a flattened cinnamon roll and a croissant had a baby.

And baby, it was goood.  Yum.

We shopped at Crate and Barrel.


I forgot my camera again and took some dim iPhone pictures anyways.

I saw lots of green things and thought of Christina.

And stopped on the way home for some gelato.

Mom got a scoop of mocha and a scoop of sweet cream.


I got a scoop of chocolate hazelnut (it was EXACTLY like Nutella in gelato form) and a scoop of banana.


Needless to say it's been a whirlwind of a few days!  Now back to life and homework... ;)