Easter Weekend

Brad and I started our Easter weekend on Saturday by coloring eggs and going to Wicked. Okay, so Wicked really had nothing to do with Easter, except we happened to get tickets for that day. But it was amazing and deserved an entire post to itself (see below).

I have to apologize to the rest of the Hardcastles for being a party pooper this year. Our colored eggs were just that: colored. Brad was a little disappointed, and I promised him next year I would be more on top of things and we’d make the family proud! For those of you who aren't familiar with how Brad's family decorates eggs, please see this post. They go all out and are always so creative. I think being creative is dipping an egg into two colors instead of one. Yes, I know, I have a lot to learn!

Brad and his inner "Iron Chef"

Monster eyes

Go Cougars!

Sunday, we found the Easter baskets that we had made for each other. Brad surprised me with some gardening tools (which have already been put to good use... stay tuned for more info), a bundt pan (for monkey bread... ulterior motive on his part), and some other cute things.

That night we invited some friends from the ward over and had a yummy Easter dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, string beans (from Grandpa’s garden- yum!), and salad. Dessert was covered by the massive amounts of Cadbury eggs, and Reeses peanut butter eggs we got earlier that morning.

The best part of the day was being able to attend church and give thanks to my Heavenly Father for His Son, who sacrificed so much for all of us. As I reflect upon His life, death, and resurrection I am overwhelmed with how much love He has for each and every one of us. I am truly grateful for the knowledge I have that He lives, and we will all be able to live with Him again.

Happy Easter to all!

That was totally WICKED!

Okay, cheesy title... but I couldn't resist! When else will I be able to use that? The long awaited day finally came! Saturday the 11th Brad and I went into San Francisco to the Orpheum Theatre and saw the musical Wicked.


The first thing we noticed was how beautiful the theatre was! It is based off of 12th century Spanish architecture and the details and carvings were so incredible. And then, of course, the show was absolutely amazing! I have known the songs for about 4 years, but to finally see the show and how everything falls into place made it that much better.

I was just a *tad* more excited than Brad (okay, a little more than a tad) to see the show. I had been giving him pep talks that whole week and trying to get him excited about it. In the end he came around and ended up really enjoying it! Just how much did he like it? Well, let me just say that it wasn't me singing "Popular" for the next week....

Battle of the Bay

Last Friday night Brad and I BARTed into the city for the "Battle of the Bay". What exactly is the Battle of the Bay? It's the series between the Giants and A's... San Francisco's two baseball teams. This was our first time to AT&T park, and it is so cool! It's right on the harbor and has an awesome view of the bay. We got to watch the "Big Unit" (Randy Johnson) pitch, and enjoy ever-so-healthy baseball snacks. It was a pretty chilly night, and there weren't any homeruns, but we had a fun time nonetheless. (Probably due to those previously mentioned baseball snacks.)

Look at the bay! Oh, and the Coca Cola bottle in left field is actually a HUGE slide, for both kids and adults. From what we could see, the adults were enjoying it more than the kids. Or they were just a little tipsy... probably that actually.

Notice the glove on his hand? He insisted we bring it... just in case we got a foul ball our way. He never got to actually use the glove, but it somehow made its way into the picture.

Brad decided that he is an A's fan... and I'm still holding onto my hometown team. I can't wait for the Padres to come into town so I can cheer them on! Did I mention how much I love baseball season??

Girls Weekend!

A couple weeks ago, Brad went to Chicago for work training. He was gone for 11 days, which was a bummer for me since I was home alone, but more of a bummer for him since he had to sit in training from 8-6 M-F with homework on weekends... boo. Anyways, my mom and sister came up for a long weekend in the middle of his trip, to help me pass the time. We had a wonderful girls weekend!

They flew up on Thursday night and then took the BART into Walnut Creek. Taryn sure thought that she was hot stuff getting to ride in an airplane with her very own TV and pink earphones. It was a full flight, so she sat in the middle seat and made conversation with a perfect stranger the entire flight. He was a middle-aged guy that had carried on his dog. He was so sweet to Taryn and listened to her chatter the entire 1 1/2 hours. What a nice guy! And then, as if her trip couldn't get any better, she got to ride in a "fast train" for another hour! She was on top of the world... and she hadn't even gotten to my house yet!

I was able to take Friday off of work, so we had the entire day to play. We went to Color Me Mine in Lafayette and painted our own ceramic mugs. They all turned out really cute! I didn't get any pictures of us painting, but here is Taryn's final product:

(With a little help from Mom!)

After, we went to lunch at a yummy salad place called Buckhorn Grill. I knew my mom would love it because she absolutely loves salads. (We ended up going back there for lunch on Monday because she liked it so much!)

At lunch

Then we went home and gave each other pedicures and watched Enchanted. Even though I picked the movie because I thought Taryn would enjoy it... I think my mom and I enjoyed it even more than she did!

Drying her nails out on the porch

On Saturday morning we visited "PixieLand" where Taryn got to ride rides made "just for her". She was in 7th heaven.

Riding the airplane

Carousel

With mom on the roller coaster

With me on the teacups (wish her eyes were open!)

The rest of the weekend was full of shopping, Chipotle, making homemade bread, movies, walks, naps, and relaxing!

Taryn looking so stylish!

They flew back on Monday afternoon, and I had to work for a half-day before they left for the airport. During the morning while I was at work, my mom cleaned my entire house (ok, it's only a 2 bedroom, but still!) and reorganized my linen closet. It looked so much better! Aren't moms the greatest?

With they could have stayed longer, but I'm so glad they came! Can't wait to see them and the rest of the family in May when I got home for Janelle's wedding!

Oakland Temple

A few weekends ago, Brad and I volunteered to chaperone Youth Conference for a few hours. It was at the Inter-Stake Center, which is a large multi-use building on the temple grounds. During lunch we walked around for a bit and Brad took some pictures of the temple. It is so beautiful!

Iron Chef Walnut Creek

A couple weekends ago, Brad and I were having "one of those" Saturdays where we were feeling *blah* and NOTHING sounded fun to do. Nothing. Well, that was until we decided to have our own Iron Chef competition.

We gave ourselves a $20.00 price limit, walked to Trader Joes and picked out a 3-course meal full of food we wouldn't "normally" choose.

Checking out the goods

The "secret" ingredient? ....um....we skipped that rule

Only 30 minutes to prepare everything

There were some tense moments... "An artichoke? How do I cook an artichoke?"

But we quickly figured out what to do... and it was smooth sailing from there on!

30 minutes later, we had a delicious dinner of ricotta stuffed chicken, steamed artichokes, and tomato and basil bruschetta

Followed by a scrumptious fruit tart

Overall, a very successful, fun, and yummy (but mostly yummy) date!

Blessings of the Temple

Missionary work at Color me Mine... and other weekend activities

Saturday morning came pretty early, with me dragging Brad up a little before 8:00 so we could get to the grand opening of Color Me Mine in Lafayette.

Color Me Mine is a fun pottery store where you paint your own pottery (we always pick the oversized ice cream mugs). The store fires it in their kiln, and you get to take it home a few days later. There is one of these in Provo and Brad and I visited it a few times for a fun Friday night date. It was actually one of the very first dates that we went on! Needless to say, I was pretty excited when I heard they were opening one out here because our mug collection had only made it to two mugs when we left Provo! I was even more excited when I heard they were giving out gift certificates to the first 100 customers. What’s better than a fun date? A FREE fun date! I was all over that.

While standing in line waiting for the store to open (yes, it was full of parents and children, but we didn’t care) (and yes, we were first in line, thank you very much) we met a mother and daughter from Orinda. We got to talking and she found out we were from Utah. Right there we knew the questions would be coming. She found out that Brad served a mission in Korea, we found out she had been to temple square over 20 years ago. We talked about temples, churches, and how sad it is that people don’t seem to find a time for God and religion in their lives anymore. The conversation came to a close when the store opened and we all went to paint and collect our goodies. Before we parted ways, Brad gave her our names and numbers and invited them to come to church with us sometime.

Ever since Brad and I have moved out to Walnut Creek, we have found ourselves surrounded with so many missionary opportunities. It is amazing to see that as we have been looking and praying for these opportunities that they really are out there. From Costco to work colleagues to Color me Mine... we have had some great experiences!

The rest of Saturday was spent visiting an outdoor “How-to” Fair in Pleasanton and then chaperoning the Priest/Laurel ball. We were only told twice that we looked too young to be chaperones... so we didn’t quite make it to 5 like I had guessed. The theme of the night was “A Night in the Orient” so Brad decided it was the perfect opportunity to wear his Korean suit. Lucky for us, we were the couple that got to stand in while the photographer figured out the best lighting. Unfortunately, after the bazillion pictures that were taken, there still wasn't a very decent one of both of us. Sorry, no pictures.

Sunday came a little early, as we didn’t get home from the dance until 2:00 am (chaperones get clean up duty!) and I got up early to make cinnamon rolls and cupcakes for our respective classes (Beehives and Sunday School). For my Beehives, I was teaching a lesson on our divine roles so I decided to make some “divine rolls” for a yummy object lesson. For my first time, they turned out pretty good and very yummy!

The weekend went by way too fast, as always, but it was a good one! Only 9 days until my mom and Taryn come to visit! Brad’s mom decided to get in on the fun too, so she just booked a flight to come visit in April! We are so excited for our moms to come and see us!

Missionary Work at Harvard!

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Welcome back!

Do you ever feel too behind to blog? Like you have too much to update, so where do you start? Or it happened so long ago, so you've forgotten all the details? If so, you know what I've been thinking the last few weeks. This post is definitely a "catch up" post, but will hopefully help jump-start my updating.

First things first: Brad is home from Utah! (And has been for about 3 weeks!) After 3 weeks of commuting back and forth, the project focus shifted from Utah and he was given another assignment back in San Fran. I was soooo glad for him to come home. My sweet neighbors took great care of me while he was gone: feeding me dinner, taking out my trash cans, making me yummy peanut butter shakes! (That was my favorite!) Thanks Andrews- you guys are the best!

I got a new church calling in January (has it really been that long since an update?) I am the Beehive Advisor, meaning I teach the lesson each Sunday to the 12-13 year old girls in my ward. I also get to participate in really fun mutual activities on Wednesday nights. Another perk with being in the youth program, is that I get to volunteer Brad for fun activities too. This Saturday we are chaperoning a multi-stake Priest/Laurel ball from 7-11 pm. Brad is so excited! Actually, we both love our callings with the youth (Brad in Sunday School, me in Young Womens) and enjoy all activities with them.

We are currently placing bets to see how many people think that we are a Priest/Laurel couple and not chaperones. I'm guessing five.

Over President’s Day weekend we took a quick trip down to visit my family in San Diego. It was a great trip, and we were able to see all of my grandparents as well. The weather didn’t cooperate too much, and some of the family was sick, but we still managed to have a good time! We always get taken care of when we go home! I convinced my mom and sister to come up and stay with me for 4 days while Brad is in Chicago for work. They are coming out in a little over 2 weeks and we are going to have a fun girls weekend!

And lastly, but certainly not least, I am very excited for this:

This beauty just opened up last week and I can hardly wait to try it out. A couple people from work have already been and say it is amazing and I believe it! We tried to go last weekend, but the wait was over 2 hours and I was too hungry to wait. Maybe this weekend? We shall see!