Weekend of Food, Fun, and Friends!

Moose, Amber, Renna, Reagan, and myself at the Zoo.
Renna, Reagan, and Natalie at the Park.

Twincesses...ess...sss..err, wait how do you spell that?




The beirox in all its glory!



Renna doing her Shiloh Pitt impression (you know..Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's daughter)

Lately, as many of you know, we have been trying to quarantine ourselves from the rest of the world due to this little virus running around called H1N1. Every time I turn on the news I hear about another unfortunate child has either been hospitalized or died due to this dreaded influenza variant. With the history we've had with hospitals and our girls, we are in no hurry to return there anytime soon. Therefore, we've been having less visitors over and have only been taking the girls out to their doctor's appointments, and to Sonic (they never get to leave the car on these trips of course, nor do they get to order off the menu, purely selfish on our part). So after about two months of this we have gone a little stir crazy, and have decided to branch out a little and take the girls out to the park for a little stroll in their carriers. We even got to enjoy some time with our friends Sonya and Darran during this outing, and got a great picture of the their daughter Natalie and our girls together. We really enjoyed our time out of the house and thought "lets try this again!", tempting fate of course. So on Sunday, we made a trip to the Zoo and our first restaurant with our good friends Moose and Amber. So the task in one of these outings is to first and foremost keep all potential H1N1 carriers out of reach, even if this means running and screaming from people as if they have the plague. Outdoor spaces are a must, as "dilution is the solution to pollution". Potential H1N1 carriers include, but are not limited to: young people, old people, everyone in between, and anyone who coughs, sneezes, has watery eyes, runny nose, or looks like they might be thinking of getting sick. So pretty much everyone falls under this category. So if you see us out and want to chat, but we seem very awkward and almost antisocial, now you know why. Secondly, you must at all times keep your hand sanitizer handy, and not be afraid to use it even if you look ridiculous, even if all your friends laugh at you and think you are a "germ-a-phobe". That being said, we feel so much better having been able to get out and enjoy the great weather this weekend though. We did have a "scare" though at the restaurant, when twin girls (no joke what are the odds?) at the table behind us started coughing like 3 times while we were there. If I could only get a picture of Mendy and I after every time they coughed. You would have thought they tried to throw flaming hatchets at our daughters! The audacity of the girls, to cough and possibly spread infection so close to their own kind! But, I digress. One of the other exciting events this weekend was the making of the infamous bierox by my lovely wife. Now I know a lot of you are saying "big deal Mendy made some fancy German dish", but there is a little back story to this that will explain why it's such a monumental event for her to make, and me to eat, bierox. This is apparently a "German hamburger" that Mendy and her college roommate (thanks Michelle) made during their wild and crazy college years. While Mendy and I were dating in undergrad, she would often tell me about this elusive bierox and how great it was with its' warm crispy homemade bread exterior and its zesty hamburger, cheese, and cabbage interior. She would always end one of these tongue titillating tales with "I'll have to make that for you some day". So the days passed, and then the months, and pretty soon we were out of that "we're dating and I'll do anything for you phase", and moving swiftly into the "we're married and I just don't have time to do that right now, but I promise I'll get around to it" stage. Every time Mendy would say "what do you want for dinner?", what was my reply? Bierox please! And she would retort "I don't have time tonight", or "I have to get the ingredients for that first honey". So the years passed, and no sign of the elusive bierox to be found. Then we had the girls, and Mendy's mothering instinct kicked in. So what do I do? I planted the seed of "Sure would love to come home from work one day and try some of that bierox" and BAM! this Friday was the day I had hoped and dreamed of. And let me tell you, those Germans got it right, nothing like it in the world. It sounds like it really shouldn't taste that good; bread exterior filled with a warm mash of hamburger, cheese, and boiled cabbage, but let me tell you I couldn't get enough of them. So I've included a picture of a couple of fine specimens right before I ate 'em. I've got to thank Mendy's mom, Debbie, for coming out every week not only to help with the girls, but also for helping with the bierox undertaking. Good times!