Dotzour Family.com

I’m writing with a smile on my face.  I’ve just got back from a wonderful weekend in Chicago with the company of my siblings and friends (photos gallery here).  Michael turned 30 on March 19, and on Thursday, Joe flew in from Washington DC to surprise him.  Dad picked up Joe at the Milwaukee airport and delivered him to Michael’s house.  I wish I’d been there to see Michael’s expression when Joe appeared at his door.

On Friday, Sylvia was at Donna’s house, so I had the opportunity to meet Joe and Dad and Michael for lunch at Hubbard Street Diner.  (Lisa had convinced Michael to take Friday off work as she knew that Joe was going to be in town…sneaky sneaky!)  Joe and Michael went to an arcade to do Dance Dance Revolution, just like they did in the old days.

Andrew and Sylvia were delighted to see their uncles after their days at school and daycare.  Then we all came back to our place were we enjoyed homemade pizza for dinner.  Later that evening, Josh (Michael’s friend from high school) arrived from the Twin Cities.  A few minutes later, there was another knock at the door, and Maretta walked in.  She’d driven down with Josh to surprise Michael.  Kyle wasn’t able to join us due to a heavy workload, so we (especially Michael and Bryan!) missed seeing him.

On Saturday morning, we drove down to Chicago.

I took lots of sibling pictures throughout the weekend.  We were all together for about three hours on Christmas Eve, and then we were together at Joe’s graduation last May.  Since our times together have been few and far between, I wanted to photo-document it:)

Here’s Michael and Lisa at the Oasis where we stopped for lunch.

After picking up Michael’s friend Matt in Chicago, we all headed to Chicago’s Science and Industry Museum.

I hadn’t been to the Museum of Science and Industry since I was a young kid, and there were only a couple exhibits that I recognized.  We all enjoyed the chick hatchery where we saw some baby chickens coming out of their eggs.  They have the same birthday as Michael!

The train section was pretty cool and made us all think of Terry.  He’s in Death Valley with Jack and Tom and Peter this week (you can see his pictures here), so sadly, he missed our Chicago outing.  We took this photo (standing in front a of a large steam locomotive) for him:)

There were some incredible exhibits on avalanches, tornadoes, tidal waves, and lightening in the Science of storms area.  Andrew got pretty nervous, so he and Michael and Lisa peeled off and explored on their own.  Word was that Andrew was a big fan of the climbing wall.

Sylvia had a fun time at the museum.  Her favorite exhibit was the “Fairy Castle.”  Here’s a pic of my ballerina girl looking at a ballerina bear.  They match!

After the museum, we headed over to Ron of Japan, our family’s first place to eat in Chicago.  Here’s Michael with his gift from Maretta: a Ghost Buster’s costume…just like the one Mom made him when he was about six.

We had a group of 10, so it was a little cozy at our table (made for 8), but we’re all friends!

Maretta and Joe get a little sibling cuddle.

Andrew loves Uncle Joe!

So does Sylvia.

After dinner on Saturday night, we headed back to Matt’s apartment to play games and hang out.

Maretta knitting (two socks at once…toe-up).

There’s the birthday boy!

While we played a game called Bang, I played with my camera and flash.  Thanks to everyone for being accommodating and patient with me while I played with the remote external flash!

What a great day!  Our bellies were full, and the room was full of laughter.  Plus, we were looking forward to brunch at the Four Seasons the next morning:)  Ahh, as Matt said, the Babler crew is about Art and Food and Family.  Makes me smile.

Over the weekend, I decided to try out some self-portraits.  I had a few minutes while the kids were occupied, and I’d been meaning to take self-portraits as it was a suggested assignment in one of the photography books I’ve been reading.

I propped my camera (no time to pull out the tripod…the kids would be out any minute), put it on auto-timer, and tried to figure out how to focus it.

After guessing at the focus point and failing several times, I moved the kids’ rocking horse to the spot where I would be.  Then after pressing she shutter, I hopped into position, shoved the rocking horse out of the way, and smiled.

It worked alright!  I think it would be fun to try a variety of self-portraits over the next year to see what I can do:)

On Saturday, we met up with some of Bryan’s Widen co-workers at the Hilldale Great Dane’s Kid Disco.

Bryan had taken Sylvia once before, but this was my first time going, and it really was like a crazy disco party…for the 2-8 year old set.  There was loud music, a bubble machine, a magician, and Tami, our favorite face painter from Funny Faces Family Entertainment.  Between that and the much-beloved “dino nuggets” and mac & cheese, Andrew and Sylvie were in 7th heaven.

I have an album of pics from the event.  Here’s a few favs.

Andrew was a dancing man.  Off  the wall!  His hair was full of bubbles when he took a break:)

Sylv had fun too:)

Here’s lovely Tami hard at work painting kids.

The disco dance floor.

We waited in line to get Andrew and Sylvie’s faces painted.  Here’s some of the pretty paint pallet.

Sylvia asked for rainbow flowers.

And Andrew requested a rainbow right across his forehead.

Here’s Dad admiring his new artwork.

A view from the balcony.

I’ll leave you with the view from behind the bubble machine.  What a great event!  We’ll have to try to go again if they do it next winter!

St. Patrick’s Day is my favorite holiday.  I love it!  I’ve written in the past about some of the joys that St. Patrick’s Day brings me, so I won’t do that again (today).  Suffice to say that it’s a jolly holiday.  A splash of green just when we need it most.  A smile and a story and a bit o’ fun.

This year, we kicked of the week of St. Patrick’s Day with a 5K run (the Shamrock Shuffle) and then Madison’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.  This morning I met up with a group of friends from Bootcamp, and we joined up in our green gear to run.  Here’s a pic of us from after the race (I’m second on the right).

I’d (accidentally) signed up for the 10K, and I had been thinking about running it, but between sickness and vacation, I did almost no running this last month, so I decided against the longer distance.  In fact, I was pretty on the fence about running at all as my cough has returned.  I was sick with the respiratory flu in mid-February, coughed through Jamacia, coughed for a week, and then after four days of being on asthma inhalers, my cough was gone.  Delight!  That was Friday, March 4.  For five lovely days, I was cough-free.  Then, it either came back or I got something new.  I’ve been coughing a lot again. Gonna talk to the doctor on Monday.  Geesh.  Spring can’t come soon enough.  So the point of that ramble was that I wasn’t sure if I should go out in 25 degree weather running today.  But I did.  And it was a lot of fun.  And during the race…I didn’t cough once.

Because of my lung gimpy-ness and the fact that I hadn’t gone for a run in a month, I decided to run fast but not to try to make my best time.  Mission accomplished. Here’s my results.

My best 5K time was 24:50, so this is a few minutes slower than that, but it’ll give me room to improve through the season:)

After the race, I went home and picked up the kids, and we went down to the square for Madison’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  Here are my own little sweet leprechauns.

While I was watching the parade, I took off one of my clogs.  Next thing I knew, Sylvia had removed one of her shoes too.  Such a cutie.  She can’t wait to be “a big mommy.”

The kids gathered so much candy.  I couldn’t believe it.  As much as we get at Halloween!  Andrew was the primary gatherer and then he’d turn it over to Sylvie who would deliver it back to me.

It was a fun way to start our St. Patrick’s Day week.  I’m planning a green pie or cake for Thursday.  Andrew asked how we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and I said that mostly you could be really happy.  You could make shamrocks for your friends and wear green and keep your eyes peeled for leprechauns.  Andrew decided he would make confetti out of green paper and throw it up in the air.  He started his confetti stash today:)

Hope your week is full ‘o shamrocks!

I sent Bryan to work this morning with a pan of brownies.  The thing is, he’s not supposed to bring them in to work.

My Aunt Kate sent us a box of William Sonoma brownie mix for Valentine’s Day, and last night after the kids were in bed, I whipped them up.  “Add two sticks of butter and four eggs to the included bag of chocolate chips and the bag of brownie mix.”  ohhhh yeahhh

I’ve never actually made brownies from a mix.  My mom’s recipe and the King Arthur brownie recipe are about all I’ve ever needed in life.  This box of brownie mix goodness was pretty incredible.  This morning as we had brownies for breakfast, I asked Bryan if he liked these better than other brownie recipes.  “Well, I don’t think I’ve ever had a brownie better than this,” he said.  I might agree.

He then smiled and noted that I was going to be home alone today.  Just me and a 9×13 pan of the best brownies ever.  So I instructed him to put them into his car and to drive to work with them.  At the end of the day, he’s to bring them home.  I’m not done indulging.  But I daren’t be left alone with me and a pan of brownies that would whisper sweet nothings to me from their perch atop the refrigerator.  I just know that wouldn’t end well:)

The mix is made by the folks at Baked NYC.  After doing a little hunting around online, I found the recipe for one of their brownies (I’ve copied it below).  I’m not sure that this is the recipe for the “Deep dark chocolate brownie” mix that we have, but I’ll think I’ll have to try it out!  Also, if I ever want to put on some weight, I think I’ll have to check out their cookbook: Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.  Yum!

 

THE Baked Brownie

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 11 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder; set aside.
3. In a large bowl set over simmering water, stir together chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder until completely melted and smooth. Keeping the bowl over the water, turn off the heat and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined. Remove the bowl from the pan and cool to room temperature.
4. Once the chocolate mixture is cool, add 3 eggs and whisk until combined. Add the remaining two eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla; stir until combined. Be sure not to overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula, fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just combined. (a bit of the flour mixture should still be visible).
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through baking time, in the center of the oven for 27-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Place the pan on a wire rack and let the brownies cool completely. Cut into squares and serve.

Source: Baked: New Frontiers In Baking

I wasn’t necessarily planning to do a post on my recent trip to Jamaica.  Seems a little like rubbing it in when I’m quite aware that most of my friends and family are working away in dark, cold northern climes.  But I did post photos to Flickr.  I didn’t take my camera with me at the request of my husband who thought our vacation might be significantly more fun if I wasn’t in PhotoAlthea mode.  However my phone works pretty well as a camera, and all the images we took I was able to upload to Flickr from the hotel lobby.

So here’s the deal.  If you don’t want to hear about someone else’s warm-weather, ocean-oriented vacation, click away now.  No hard feelings.  Come back later for more regularly scheduled Dotzour news.

But for today, at the request of my sister and a couple friends, I have a little debrief of our wonderful trip to Jamaica.  Yeah Mon.

Speaking of Yeah Mon, there was a sign in the Montego Bay airport for an iPhone app called Yeah Mon that would translate from Jamacian for you.  Here’s a screen shot.  Pretty silly stuff.

 

Bryan and I got to travel to Jamaica sans kids thanks to the generosity of Bryan’s mom, who flew up from the sunny and beautiful Texas weather to the frigid north to watch Andrew and Sylvia while we were gone.  Bryan’s dad joined her for the weekend.  THANK YOU guys!!!

We left Madison in the wee hours on Wednesday morning, drove to Milwaukee, flew to Atlanta, and went from there to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Alterra vanilla latte and a good book.  A nice way to start out!

And here’s a picture of a happy Bryan and Althea as we set off together.

Here’s a gate that I was pretty excited to call my own.

As we flew over the ocean, I was just so in awe.  As a Midwest girl, I just haven’t been near the ocean that much in my life.  Then we started flying over an island.  Turns out it was Cuba!  Look at the color of the water down there.  From the air we could see from one side of Cuba to the other.  And apart from the coast, the ground looked much like Wisconsin to us.  Could have been Sun Prairie down there:)

We’re not in Kansas, Toto!

We woke up at 3:30am in Wisconsin, and at 3pm, we arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Our hotel was near Ochos Rios, and the bus ride there took about 2 hours.  We were a little weary and felt so happy to find that our hotel – the Jewel Dunns River Beach Resort, a couples all-inclusive, was lovely.  I’d been reading about it on Trip Adviser, but you never know what it’ll be like until you see it.  Here’s the view from our bedroom.

I almost fell asleep at dinner that first night.  Could have been that the cold medicine I took wasn’t supposed to be combined with a couple glasses of wine.

The next day, we explored the grounds and found a good spot by the beach to relax.

Yay!  We’re on vacation!!

I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and started in on the second book in the series.  Every hour or so one of us would get up and get (free!) drinks from the bar or some (free!) food from the grill.  One of my favorite drinks was called a Jamaican Smile.  If you want to make it at home, combine rum cream, coconut rum, 1 small banana, strawberry daiquiri mix, pina colada mix, strawberry syrup, and ice.  So sweet and sooo yummy!

Ahhh, memories.

The hotel has six restaurants, and we enjoyed them all.

Day 2: Back on the beach.  Agenda: read, nap, drink, eat, stare at the ocean, swim in the ocean, return to beach chair, repeat.

Look at that color!!  I couldn’t get enough of that turquoise and blue.

This is down in the courtyard looking up at our room.  We were on the floor in the middle with the projecting balcony.  Hi room!

Here’s the pool with a waterfall.  The swim-up bar is on the right.  I’d been happily anticipating a swim-up bar.  On our third day, we floated around in the pool on mats while drinking piña coladas.  Rough stuff.

I loved watching the waves wash up on the beach.  I am so amazed at the tides and the salty water.  Here are my footprints on the beach.

And here is a little beach scene.

There’s me on the beach!

Reading material – day 2 and 3.

On the third day, we went on a morning expedition to Dunn’s River Falls.  I didn’t bring my phone, so I have no photos, but here are a bunch so you can see what it looks like. We signed up through the hotel and took a bus to the falls.  From there we were assigned a guide, and we started at the bottom of the falls and climbed them holding hands.  It’s about 800 vertical feet from the ocean to the top of the falls, and there are lots of lagoons and pools along the way.  It was a lot of fun!

Here we are on Day 3.  After our trip to the falls, we spent the afternoon on the beach or at the pool.  Then we got cleaned up for our last dinner.  We had reservations at the Jade Samurai and were excited about enjoying some Japanese food.

Bryan volunteered to catch some flying shrimp, and here he is about to have shrimp thrown right at him!

On Sunday morning, we woke up early to watch the sun rise.  There is is, coming up.  Ahhh, our last hours in Jamaica.  It was lovely…and I want to be there still!

Here’s the two of us as we’re waiting for the bus to pick us up.  Adios warm and sunny Jamaica!

If you’re like me (it took me a while to learn how to spell Jamaica), you don’t have a good sense for where Jamaica is.  Here’s a map to orient you (the “A” is pointing to Ochos Rios). Click on the map to see a larger version.

That’s our trip in a nutshell!  We got home late on Sunday night.  I’m so glad that Bryan and I got to get away together for a little escape.  <happy sigh>  It was lovely.

Welcome to March everyone!  I put up a new theme on my blog to celebrate.  I think all the snowmen decorations are going to come down pretty quickly here.  I do love winter, but I think January and February are the appropriate time to celebrate wintery-ness.  March is the home to my favorite holiday – St. Patrick’s Day!  It’s the perfect month to clothe ourselves in shades of green and to put rainbows and shamrocks all around.

I’ve been getting Cricket magazine non-stop since 1985, and I love pulling out past March issues to read some of the great stories of leprechauns and magic.  Andrew declares with much conviction that St. Patrick’s Day is also his favorite holiday.

Speaking of the kids, I have a couple things I’ve been meaning to share about them.

1.  As far as I can tell, Andrew and Sylvia really don’t know which of our cats is Bowser and which is Spooky.  They are bothers, and they are cats, but Bowser is black and while while Spooky is all black.  Yesterday, Sylvia looked at Spook and said, “Hi Bowser!”  “That’s the black kitty,” I said.  “I know,” she replied, “hi Bowser.”  Andrew also seems to just say whichever name comes to mind first.  Makes me shake my head and laugh.

2. Along the same lines, Sylvia doesn’t name her dolls/toys.  People we meet will often ask her the name of the doll she is carrying.  She gives them a blank look.  I’ve named several of them, and she’ll use those names sometimes.  And recently she’s been naming dolls Ellie because Celia’s doll is Ellie.  But that’s only when she’s prompted for a name.  This also makes me smile and laugh.

3.  Andrew is a Yahtzee-playing machine.  The last couple days I think he’s played 20 games.  Fortunately, it’s a game that can be played solo.  And he’s getting great at adding.  He’s now learned how to use his new cash register calculator to add all the numbers, and with some prompting, he’s also learning how to add the ones/tens/and hundreds columns and how to carry when adding.  That boy of mine gets interested in something and there is no stopping him.  At least until he stops at some point on his own.  If you see him in the future, you may refer to him as Andrew Yahtzee Dotzour.  That boy gets an unnatural number of Yahtzees.

4.  Do you like the game Angry Birds?  Andrew would play it constantly if he had an iPod/Pad/Phone of his own.  Michael sent me the following video of a family who made their kid an Angry Birds cake for his 6th birthday.  Looks like the kind of thing that Andrew would definitely get behind!

OK, those are my random thoughts for today. I’ve recovered from whatever horrible virus I had back in mid-February, but I’ve still got an intense, hacking cough. Hopefully in another couple weeks I’ll be 100%! I’d love to get to run and work-out again!