Disneyland

Vacation time! When Kenny and I moved out to Idaho I told him that this would be the end of our vacations because from now on time off would be spent visiting our family.... well, true to our word that is what happened. Now, don't get me wrong, I love all of you family members a great deal and miss you terribly, but here's a secret I didn't even fully realize, I miss Kenny more. So after over two years of vacations with family, to see family, about family, we took off on our own and headed down to Disneyland... to spend time with other people's families :). We understand that since we now live far from our own family, its always a vacation from the Redding clan, still it was great to spend time with each other and not worry about the dogs or the laundry or work or anything except getting to space mountain when the wait was less then 70 minutes.

I've decided to grace you all with a couple photos from our trip and while the iphone is an incredible phone, since I hate asking other people to take all the touristy photos, the quality of self photos is not amazing. Please excuse the fuzzyness, especially embarassing when the family is now full of incredible photographers.

Our one shot at asking someone else to take a photo. We took turns, "you take a picture of us, we'll take a picture of you." They couldn't figure out how to work our phone, we couldn't figure out how to work their camera, awkward all around.
Getting completely drenched on Splash Mountain, head to toe soaked. The best thing about our visit to Southern California? The massive heat wave that struck while we were there. I feel as though God must just really love me, because He tends to enjoy my love of high temps, you all remember our wedding day correct?
Captain EO tribute!! Kenny is a good and dutiful husband, allowing himself to be dragged to all the shows when I'm sure he would have rather camped out at California Screamin' and Tower of Terror. I only wish Captian EO was as incredible as I remembered from when I was 10. I waited 14 years for Disneyland to bring back Michael Jackson in all his 3D glory, too bad special effects have grown by leaps and bounds and left him in the dust.So there it is, a summary of our Disneyland trip. Despite the 100 degree weather, 7 am flight, terrible hotel room, last minute hotel change, getting stuck on Indiana Jones (behind the scenes tour!), blistered feet and missed shuttles we had a great time; after all, we have never been a smooth sailing couple, why should vacation be any different? Crazy to think that we aren't planning to be back until we have kids in tow, can't wait to pass on the love of Disney to another generation!

Cookie Club

We have asked for hours upon hours of help and support from our family and friends as we undertake the starting of our own bakery, and we are now going to ask for it once again, but you get free cookies for this one! As some of you may know, Lovin from the Oven will be offering three different cookie of the month club memberships: Cookie Club, Deluxe Cookie Club and Biscotti Club. Cookie Club: 12 different varieties of classic cookies, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, peanut butter, shortbread, etc. a bakers dozen of each cookie will arrive between the first and fourth of every month for a year $15/month. Deluxe Cookie Club: Cookie Club plus 12 different varieties of cookies such as smores in hand, rocky road, etc. a bakers dozen that will arrive between the fifteenth and nineteenth of each month for a year $30/month. Biscotti Club: 12 different varieties of biscotti such as chai spice, lemon pistachio, chocolate dipped, etc. a bakers dozen that will arrive between the seventh and eleventh of every month $15/dozen.

We need help with testing our shipping and shelf life of all 36 varieties. I need friends and family to sign up to receive cookies and be our test group. This is not just a way to get free cookies. This is a very important step in our bakery and there are certain rules that will need to be followed to be a part of this test audience.

Testers will need to:

-have a refined palate, if you don't like something, please be able to describe and pinpoint what it is, you must be able to pick up on nuances and slight differences in taste and texture.

-test two cookies, one biscotti, to cut down on shipping costs, we will ship three varieties in one box, this means you must taste test one of every variety cookie every day for seven days, in other words three cookies a day. You may choose to have different members of your household test different cookies, whomever fills out the questionnaire must taste the chocolate chip cookie every day for seven days. By no means do you need to eat three whole cookies every day, but you do need to have a bite.

-have the time to fill out a brief questionnaire every day.

-Be able to stick with this for seven days.

A sample questionnaire: Write the date of arrival on the questionnaire.

1. How did the box look upon arrival? Any large dents, stains, peeling labels, etc. on the box?

2. How did the cookies and cookie bag look? Are any cookies broken or smashed? Does the bag have cookie smeared on it?

3. Taste the cookie. How is the texture, how does it compare to the description on the questionnaire of what the cookie should be like?

Days 2-7: same question as #3: with addition of how does the cookie compare to the day before?

To be a part of this cookie test audience, please send me your address and any allergies that you may have that have to do with nuts to lovinfromtheovenbakery@yahoo.com

Welcome

Welcome to our blog! We've created this blog as a way to keep up with all the family and friends that are flung out across the western United States. I'm hoping it will also force me to take some more pictures of our lives together so that when my kids ask to see family albums I don't have to send them to someone else's family.

So... what's new with us you may ask? Lots and lots. The bakery has finished completion and has its first major client. In about two weeks you can find our chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cup cookies and sugar cookies at Dutch Bros. in Caldwell. Our website is in the middle of being constructed, hopefully another two week thing. This weekend we also have a cake tasting appointment for a wedding in October.

On a more personal note, we are headed to the happiest place on earth in 10 days and I could not be more excited. If I am to discount the cake decorating, bridesmaid role playing, political "discussion" (I have a flair for the dramatic) Redding trip, then my last vacation was to beautiful McCall in July, much too long ago. This is going to be our last Disney trip for a couple years, seeing as how next summer will be the five year mark for our marriage and that means time to start our own little family that moves beyond a menagerie of cats and dogs. In other words, we aren't such Disney crazed fans that we will be traveling the 1500 miles to Anaheim with either a giant pregnant belly or a crying infant, so we need to make this trip count, i.e. fill up on the corn dogs and churros.