YFU Beach Party

Host families in the Santa Cruz area put together a beach party for Saturday night.

Kit explored the beach.

The water is a bit cold.

But not too cold.

I took Inga on a walk. She's very sweet.

Kit approached her and gave her a pat on the back.

Inga is the first big dog Kit allowed to get close to her. Kit was very comfortable. Inga is slow and gentle, never actually touching Kit.

Thai girl gang.

Pepe, Dream and Nut with Kit.

I'm the YFU rep for Pepe and Nut.
Pepe
Kit
Nut
Dream




Kit with P'Nut.

Nut's host family couldn't make it so she went with us.





Nut, Pepe and Dream at sunset.

Sailboat returning home.

Crescent moon at sunset.

Enjoying a BBQ dinner. We grilled sausages and corn.

Only girls this year. 3 Thai, 3 German and 1 Austrian.

Anja

Today Anja visited us. She was an exchange student from Germany about 5 years ago. We used to take her hiking and camping with us. She has been very busy volunteering around the world for humanitarian causes.

We walked around downtown Palo Alto, enjoying gelato and pizza.

The firemen were out showing off their new truck.

Kit ran around and around this egg.

And we saw this nice car.

Dream posing on a bench.

Spaghetti Tacos and Coconut Cookies

Today I read an article about spaghetti tacos. I often wonder how food combinations get created and this one just makes perfect sense.


Now you can eat spaghetti without a plate, or even in your car!

Why did it take so long to discover this? We'll have to try it sometime.

Dream has been learning how to bake. The other day we baked the now famous chocolate-chip cookies with coconut, sans chocolate chips, for a friend's birthday. Her friends declared them the best cookies ever. Last night Dream made a batch of the coconut cookies all by herself. They are delicious.

We keep experimenting with the recipe to make it better and better. While the ingredients are standard the techniques are quite different from your typical cookie recipe. A mixer is not used. Instead we carefully brown the butter solids to give it a more nutty, butterscotch flavor. Sugar and salt are dissolved into the melted butter, egg and vanilla mixture. We let it sit for a few minutes, stirring occassionally, until everything is well dissolved. Flour and baking soda are stirred in along with anything else you wish to add, like coconut, chocolate chips, nuts, whatever you like.

Recipe coming soon...

Kit likes them.



She also considered being a witch for Halloween.

Soufflé

Last night we had fun making a delicious orange soufflé.

It was fun to make and was something new for Kit and Dream to taste.

Tarantula Festival at Henry Coe Park with Sophia

Kit helped me pass out programs for the tarantula festival. Visiting Calfire truck arrived. Sophia and Kit getting together. Matching pink tarantula shirts! Auntie Bora helped the girls make tarantulas. Libby lead our walk in search of tarantulas.

Being Silly & Football

Kit played with Yutaro. He needed some medical treatment that required lots of animals and pillows.

Oh no. I guess it didn't work.

Yutaro has moved to his host family... in Texas!

Dream was also being silly.

We went to another football game.

Kit loves them.

She enjoyed explaining all there is to know about football to Tuk.

It's quite fun.