3 Weeks in CALI!!!

While Dallas was on his trip to China, Lincoln and I decided to go be a part of the Simmons Craze for 3 weeks. I've never had that much fun without Dallas!! (Sorry babe (:). It all started with our delirious airport fiasco...

Dallas was leaving for China the same morning we were flying to CA, so we drove together to the airport. I was completely packed the night before and ready to go because anyone who knows me, knows that I am useless when I am half awake. So 4:30am, I wake Lincoln up, feed him, change him, get him ready to go. Dallas packs up the car, I grab my last minute stuff and we're off!!

We get to the airport, the first bus to the terminal is full, so we wait for the next one, and by the time we get to the Sky Cap it's 6:20 and Dallas' flight leaves at 7:00. I tell him to leave me with my stuff at that Sky Cap so I can get checked in without him and GOOOOO! I get all checked in and get to the mile long security checkpoint and start putting my things through the conveyer belt like a Pro (I've now traveled with Lincoln at least 3 times alone, so it's cake now!!) I take Lincoln out of his carseat to put it through the conveyer and realize he's sopping wet. Awesome. Of course I forgot to put the ginormous baby shampoo and lotion in my checked luggage, so they have to check my bag. After this it's 7:00am, my flight leaves at 7:15. We rush to the bathroom for the finale. I'm quickly unzipping Lincoln to change him and guess what?! (Okay for all you high strung moms that are ready to give me a lecture...RELAX. We all do stupid things at times....although this one is awesome, it won't happen again.) I unzip Lincoln and guess who is just sitting there in his birthday suit without a diaper? Mommy didn't put a diaper back on Lincoln after she took it off at 4:30am. All I could do was laugh. HILARIOUS. I'm sitting there at 7 in the morning, laughing my head off in the airport bathroom while Lincoln is smiling kicking his naked body around and LOVING it, and people are looking at me like I'm crazy. I was! For the life of me, I couldn't remember NOT putting a diaper on him. I swear I did it. Well, I've learned my lesson from being on autopilot...poor little man. We got him all cleaned up and he was happy as a clam. He travels amazingly well and was happy to have a diaper on! :)

So the REAL fun begins now!!

I wanted Dallas to see Lincoln's Halloween costume, so I took a short video of him in it. Good thing I did, because I didn't take ANY pictures on Halloween. Lame, I know.

The same day I arrived in Cali, my family was welcoming a foreign exchange student for two weeks, so Brookie and I got to work on an Apple Crisp for the welcome dinner. This is Brooke showing how well she can use an apple corer. :)

All the foreign exchange students. Diego is in there somewhere. Brie is also in there somewhere. Diego was from France and lives on the border close to Spain. He is fluent in 5 languages, including English. It was quite fun having him around! I'm sure dad welcomed the testosterone since the house included my mom, me, Brie, Brooke and my two GIRL cousins that stayed with us for that first week.

Brooke turned 14 on the 23rd. Crazy how time flies!! This girl is hilarious. She is in love with Transformers and so her birthday included several Transformers paraphernalia. She's not really the type that is too concerned with what other people think of her, so I took advantage of that fact and made her a Tshirt to wear to school on her birthday that said, "My big sister thinks I ROCK. Because I do...obviously!" And sure enough, she wore it! :)

Brooke's birthday was also the day of the Homecoming game, so beforehand we had some people over to sing happy birthday and Grandma Geri brought over a yummy angel food cake to help celebrate!!

After the game, I took Brooke and several of her friends to see a late showing of The Stepfather. I forgot what it was like to be 14 and watch a scary movie in a movie theater late at night. :) The above picture was at the 76 station stocking up on candy to shove in my purse before the movie.

The busy weekend continues...Saturday was the Homecoming dance and Brie had several of her friends over beforehand for dinner. Mom and I made Alredo from scratch to serve with chicken and pasta. (Never done that before...suuuuuuper rich in taste AND calories...YUM!)

The Simmons Girls with Brie before the dance

Brie and Trevor. Aww.

These videos are from our trip to see Great Grandpa Simmons and Great Great Grandma Boyer. Like father like son... Lincoln's Great Grandpa Simmons is trying to feed him ice, and his Grandpa Simmons (my dad) is trying to feed him ice cream. AWESOME...:)

Lincoln with his Great Great Grandma Boyer!

Linc with Aunt Brookie

One of the best parts of Visiting CALI....Getting to see JAZZ and meet Adalena!!! Haven't seen the girl since we moved from Utah 3 years ago. Lena was born 3 days after Lincoln. They are going to get married, we've already discussed it. Love you Jazz!

Lincoln getting ready to barf all over Brooke's Transformers blanket...lol.

Home and Reunited with Mommy and Daddy. 3 weeks is a long time to be away from each other, but we were so grateful to have family and friends to share the time with. It was great to be home for a longer period of time and get to be part of the whole every day life experience of the Simmons family again!

Boaing Jiaozi!! Also known as Wrapping Dumplings!

So while I was in China, I had some great experiences. My last Sunday there, my good friend Fish Yu and his Girlfriend Xiao Fang invited me to their home to learn the art of wrapping dumplings or "bao jiaozi".

It's definitely an art that I need some practice at. But at the same time, it's very easy to do and fun. The Chinese make 3 different types of dumplings (commonly called potstickers in the States). There are zengjiao (steamed), jianjiao (fried), and shuijiao (boiled). There are actually many ways to refer to these, but these are the easiest way to explain it here.

Fish took lots of pictures for us because he wanted everyone to know how "good" I was at making jiaozi :) He also made a little video, but I can't get it to work now for some reason. It only has the audio. I'll try to get another copy from Fish, so you can see the process easier.

The first thing you do, is create a filling of some sort to put in the jiaozi. This usually includes all types of meats, veggies, mushrooms, spices. Really whatever you like to eat is what you can put in. We made 4 different flavors.

After you make the fillings, you take little dumpling skins (just a round piece of dough), and add water to the inside surface. This is how you get it to stick together after adding the filling. Take a spoonful of filling and put in in the middle of the skin.

Next you'll want to pinch the middle together and then fold the sides to create a dumpling. Now, this is where the art part comes in. You can see that I'm not that artistic and I usually resorted to just sealing the seams without folding the skin.

Here's a picture of the finished product. The one on the left is my example made by Fish and Xiao Fang. The rest are what I ended up making. I couldn't get the folds very good, so I ended up making half moon looking dumplings. Click on the picture to see an enlarged view with more detail.

After we finished wrapping the dumplings, we boiled them and ate them!! They tasted really good, even though they looked... like a foreigner had made them :) Xiao Fang is holding up one of my jiaozi. It's not supposed to look like that! Not enough filling in that one and see how it stretched? That's because I didn't get the folding art down. Either way, it still tasted good!

Here is the meal we ate with them. Some soup with egg and tomato, very yummy, and our dumplings with garlic, soy sauce and other spices.

Here's a picture we took after dinner to remember our fun evening. Thanks again Fish and Xiao Fang for the great evening and teaching me how to "Bao jiaozi!!"

**Update** Here's the video of me making jiaozi. Enjoy.

A quick post from China!

So while I'm in China, I decided I could spend a few minutes and do a post since it's been ages since I contributed to this blog. I know all my peeps have been missing me (actually, I only have one peep. Thanks Mom!!), and the rest of you are all Ashley and Link's peeps (So don't mind my rambling).

So before I began my month long travels, I did a little more recreational traveling with my fellow Sons of Anarchy. We went across Eastern Oregon, into Hell's Canyon, then back up through Pendelton, OR before heading back to good ole Portland. It was beautiful.

The above picture was taken above Hell's Canyon. The one below is in Hell's Canyon.

But because I sold my motorcycle the day before the trip, I ended up borrowing Pete's super, freakin, awesome, super-dooper, fast Honda Magna for the trip! Thanks again Pete, it was an awesome bike. The trip was simply great. Here's a pic below. This is one of the best trips I do every year and can't wait till next year to go again.

But since I'm weak in the flesh, I've already purchased a new bike. You can see below :)

The week before I went on my motorcycle trip, I was able to take Ashley and Lincoln to Texas for Labor Day weekend. It was such a great trip and the highlight was NOT the football game. It was seeing my family of course... BUT I'm still going to talk about the game a little bit.

First of all, Link is a diehard BYU fan! Look at him cheering after BYU scored the game winning touchdown! I couldn't get him to sit down, so I could see what was going on. So I just took a picture of him instead :)

He was such a trooper throughout the game. He did not cry once, and took a nap at halftime. I was blown away that he would understand how important this game was too me, and he decided not to ruin it for me by crying! Thanks Little Man, you're my hero.

Anyway, after we had won the game, and tried to leave. Lincoln starts to cry that he doesn't want to go home yet! His first sign of stubbornness! I guess I can't complain that he wanted to stay all night and celebrate the Cougar victory. But I had to put my foot down and tell him he can't always have what he wants. So we got in the car and he went to sleep instead. Great kid I tell you!

And with that tradition ingrained in Lincoln, here is a picture of us watching another Cougar game at the Stock's home this season. As you can see, Link insists that he wears his Cougar gear. The only times this season that BYU has lost a game are when his Mother would not let him wear his game gear! All this despite the insistence of Lincoln AND his understanding Father who even pleaded with his wife from China to listen to our son. Link was not a happy camper for a few days after this last loss. It so easily could have been avoided... (I know, I know... please file all complaints in the comments below. I promise to pass them on.)

While I'm sitting in China trying to not miss my family, Ashley likes to send me these adorable pictures of the two of them playing in California. Look at how Lincoln loves his Mommy. He's holding her face close to his. This is the hardest part about traveling. Being away from the 2 things that bring me the most joy and happiness in the world. I can't imagine life without them and I miss them so much. Thank you Ashley and Lincoln for giving me everything in the world and the happiest life any man could ever have. I love you both.