"Oh the places we'll go..."

Since arriving in Hollister we have been keeping busy. We have tried to take pictures of most of our outings. Though we haven't captured our jeep ride or us swimming in the pool in pictures, we did get some pictures of Madison graduating from Kindergarten, Monterey, and Carmel. We also went to the the First Annual Hollister Airshow but you will have to wait until tomorrow to see those pictures since it took forever to get these pictures in here. I know this post is longer than my normal ones but I hope you still enjoy!

The graduate looking cute in her new pink dress

We love the Wharf in Monterey

(we had the best carmel apples there!!)

Ben and Mom being goofy

Us :)

Ok, so we went to dinner on the Wharf and Ben ordered "Calamari and Chips"

The only part that grossed me out was the one in the middle...sick huh!?

Ben acted like he was going to eat it...

He told me he would buy me something if I ate it. I got all the way to putting it in my mouth and chewing slightly, until he said think of all the tentacles and I spit it out.

Dad made some friends

We then drove over to the Carmel beach...which we love

Where we goofed around a bit

I like this picture. Ben turned around after we were walking for a bit and said "look...foot prints in the sand, haha" so we took a picture

We stuck around and watched the sunset, which as you can see was beautiful!

Bowling

Last week for Family Home Evening we went bowling with Jeff and Laura. We had a blast and took some pictures so I thought I would share how much fun we had with you. I also concluded that the boys need to work on their bowling skills before we go again...Laura and I had the top scores both games :)

The Sparks!

The Kirks!

There are no words to explain my brother. But I love him still.


Dear Little Laura

My cute husband

Does Anyone Know The Answer!?!?!

So in case any of you don't know what these are...they are creme brulee torches. They are used in the last step of the process to make the top all crunchy. Well...here is where our question comes in. Twice on separate weekends Ben has made creme brulee to take to my brother and sister-in-laws apartment for dessert. Our torch will light and work just fine in our apartment and even on the car ride over (Ben likes to play with it :) ) Well...dessert time rolls around at Jeff and Laura's apartment and the torch will not stay on. The first weekend we thought maybe it was our torch and we needed a new one. Yet when we got home it worked. Weird huh? So we decided to make creme brulee the day before Mother's Day. Before starting the process we thought it would be best to check the torch to make sure it worked... it did. So we drive over to Jeff and Laura's and what do you know? It doesn't stay on. So...we make a qucik drive to Bed Bath and Beyond. We buy a new torch (hence the second one in the picture with the label still on) and go to our apt and check to make sure it works. It does. We drive to Jeff and Laura's and guess what? It struggles to stay on. We finally finally got it to stay on and the creme brulee turned out great. So our question is...why does it work at our apartment and not at Jeff and Laura's?!? This has happened twice so we are bound and determined to figure out why. If anyone has any ideas let us know!

Gold's Gym

So when most people hear I just graduated in exercise science they probably assume that I exercise..regularly. Well, hate to break it to you but I haven't been the best. Being married can also help many young men and women plump up a bit...so as we just passed our 9 month anniversary...we got a Gold's Gym membership. I know some people prefer 24 over Gold's but this is close and the facility is great. We got a good deal and thought it would be the best for us.

We are setting goals, making a schedule, and we are going to stick to it! So beware world, a soon to be fit Ben and Megan Sparks are going to emerge. We are going to lose the extra weight we have gained, tone the muscles we haven't used in a while, and help our bodies live longer.

So wish us luck! And if you ever feel the urge to check up on us to make sure we are going feel free! We need all the motivation we can get!

Color Me Mine

So as promised we posted some pictures of what we made at Color Me Mine. We have had this idea for a long time and finally had time to go make these plates. I don't know if you guys had a birthday plate growing up but we did, and when it was your birthday you got to eat off of it. So...we made one for our family to have. Ben told me it was too girlie but hopefully someday our boys will enjoy it too. So...if any of you are ever luck enought to be around here on your birthday you get to eat off of this lovely plate:) And then of course we had to make a Santa's Plate so each Christmas we can put cookies on it for Santa. We thought that it would be fun to make these plates instead of just buy them so that they would be unique and special to our family. I made the birthday one and Ben made the Santa's Plate. I love them both!

birthday plate

Santa's Plate

Ribs and Camping

We love grilling. Today we tried something new. Ben made this amazing rub for the ribs and spent 5 hour cooking them. They were SOOOO good! And in case you are wondering, that is cran-grape juice in the glasses....and no it is not fermented :) These are the rib before....


And these are the ribs after



We finished off our gourmet meal with some lovely smores

Camping season is coming up and we decided to break out our awesome tent we got for our wedding. We figured if we are going to be camping soon, we should probably know how our tent works before we get out there. So...we went camping in our living room. Good thing we have vaulted ceilings :)