Family time is the best

This weekend was kind of a blur.  I just spent about 4 minutes trying to think of what I did this weekend.  My parents drove through down on their way home and pretty much their visit is dominating my memory.  I'm sure something else happened over the weekend, but I just remember hanging out with them.

They arrived on Saturday and we met them at the Italian restaurant I used to work out when I was a kid.  It's delicious but it was a crazy dinner because we met my sister's family there too.  So, picture a nice Italian restaurant with four adults (my parents, my BIL, and me - my sister was working and my hubs was at the Ravens game) and a 5 years old, 3 year old, almost 2 year old, and a 1 year old.  It went surprisingly well!  No cups were spilled, no food was flung across the restaurant, and only one child cried the entire time.  Success.

Before my parents arrived on Saturday I went to the grocery store and coached golf.  I amazingly spent less than $100 at the grocery store!!!  Except on Friday we went to Costco and spent $145...so I'm not sure if that's really a success.  On Friday we also went to the playground and for a four mile run.  Normal stuff.

On Sunday I woke up and Evan and I ran to my sister's house.  We were promised pancakes for breakfast but then when we arrived (five miles later), they had changed their minds and there were no pancakes.  :-)  We had oatmeal instead.  It was kind of chilly out and I wore capris instead of shorts.

Ok, so it was a bad choice because it was like 65 degrees so 2 minutes into my run I was really hot.  I even put Evan in pants and long sleeves. 

I'm not sure why I was thinking it was so cold!  It ended up being a beautiful day.  Notice how Evan insisted on bringing his golf club and a ball to my sister's.  He actually held on to both of those the entire stroller ride.  We went up to the golf course to watch my nieces in their golf classes and Evan played golf in the grass the entire hour.  He really does love his golf.

He also loves his Mimi and Papa.  He work up Sunday morning and the first thing he said was "Mas (more)  Mimi Papa".  Yup, before he even opened is eyes.  And my dad bought him a new John Deere tractor for his birthday and he happily played with that all day too.  He loves his tractors.

We just hung out all day chatting, playing Jewelry Store (my mom got stuck playing that with the girls), cooking, and eating.  Good times.

I brought my camera to take pics of Evan with his grandparents but then I snapped those two pictures above and the camera battery died.  Nice.

Have a great Monday!!!  It's my last week of work - I'm gonna soak it all up!

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Favorite food to eat for breakfast?

Grocery shopping: love or hate?
  -- I LOVE grocery shopping.  If I had a plethora of money it'd become my hobby!

Rocks in the water

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday because I was at an orientation for school.  It was fun getting to meet some new people and hearing more about what my schedule will be like and stuff.  The schedule does not look fun.  At all. I met and hung out mostly with two girls who happened to be twenty.  That makes me 14 years older than them.  I could practically be there mother.  Nice thought, huh.  It was fine though.  I guess all thrown together we are similar enough since we are all going to nursing school.  I did meet another girl who has three step-kids, but only on the weekends.  

This past weekend the weather was beautiful so I tried to get outside.  Evan and I went for a run and then met a friend from TNT for coffee and a walk to the playground. I hadn't seen her since the winter and then I barely got to catch up with her so it was really great spending the afternoon chatting.  I had to walk to the coffee place because the hubs was golfing and I thought I would have time to get a four mile run in before we were supposed to meet...but I forgot to account for the fact that I run much slower with the BOB so I ended up being 15 minutes late.  Yikes.  I felt badly.  I really need to work on my punctuality.  At one point Evan was playing at the playground and pointed at her and said bye-bye.  I don't think he was thrilled about sharing my attention.  

Saturday was the normal golf and grocery shopping.  Nothing too exciting.  I didn't get a chance to do my PiYo workout because Evan was really clingy and fussy and wouldn't let me leave the bed (I noticed that he has his two canine teeth pushing through so that would explain that).  I surprised myself by coming home from golf, putting Evan down for a nap, and then breaking out the PiYo Sweat DVD.  Usually I am not motivated to do anything in the middle of the day but I actually got it done.  Score!

On Sunday we went to breakfast with the other golf coach I work with. She had watched Evan on Thursday so we wanted to thank her.  Evan was a hoot on breakfast and kept stacking the creamers and then knocking them down.  It was hilarious...until one burst open and drenched the hubs in creamer.  Haha!  After breakfast we ran to the outlet mall to look for scrubs for me.  It turned into a disaster.  I tried some scrubs on and that was fine but then I made the mistake of letting Evan ride one of those little rides that you pay a quarter for (or 3 since this one was $0.75) and he decided he wanted to ride every single one.  Of course he could only ride the one (because there was no way I was going to let him ride all of them) so then he threw a Disney-style fit.  It was huge.  And it reminded me of why we shouldn't go places that are over stimulating and have too many things catered to little guys.  We barey made it out alive.  Evan proceeded to cry the entire way home until about 5 minutes before we got home.  I quickly put him to bed. 

When he woke up, in a better mood, we decided to go throw rocks in the river.  His favorite thing!  Although I didn't feel badly about not letting him ride the rides, I did want to take him somewhere where he could do whatever he wanted and fully enjoy himself.  Even the hubs decided to come and we had SO much fun.

Ivan was less into the hiking and kept asking where the river was, but Evan and I forced him to be patient so Evan could pick up every rock he found and jump on the tree stumps.

 His hand is blurry because he was waving it so ferociously telling me which stump I should stand on.

We finally made it to the water and the hubs gave Evan a lesson on how to throw rocks into the river.

Then the hubs got really into it and took his shoes off so they could walk across the river together to the "beach" on the other side.

They were really cute together walking through the water and throwing rocks.  Evan eventually decided to sit down in the river so he got all wet, but oh well.  Then it was my turn.

I forced Ivan to take pictures of me so that I had some memory of Evan and me throwing rocks.  Usually it is me taking all the pictures and there are only selfies of me.

Evan wanted to walk down the river, which was a bit painful barefoot because it was all rocks and no sand.  I survived though.  Then we started on our way back and "raced" back to the car.  Evan ran the entire way again, with Ivan chasing behind him yelling to be careful and not fall.  The hubs hates seeing Evan in pain and is always telling him to be careful.  It's funny actually...I just figure Evan will fall every once in a while and survive.

Then Evan found a big stick and took it back to the car, but we made him leave it there.

Overall, it was super fun!  I am really hoping that Evan develops a love of the outdoors...especially a love that is bigger than his love of iPad games and indoor mall rides.  :-)

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Other moms out there - how do you deal with temptations like rides and food when you are out and about?

Favorite time to exercise?  Morning, mid-day, night?
     - I prefer to run in the evening, but I tend to get it done more often if I schedule it in the morning.

Lots of Tractors and Livestock

Last night I had the most terrifying dream.  I don't have nightmares too often but this one made up for all the nights I didn't have one.  It was filled with serial killers, tortured murder victims, and all those other fun things.  I am blaming it on the fact that I read an excerpt from a book called Heartbreaker and the beginning was all about a guy who was confessing to torturing and murdering a bunch of women in a small town.   Ironically, I think the book is supposed to be a romance novel...and I think I've actually read it, back in my romance novel days of high school.  That theme of psychopathic killers transferred nicely to my dreams.  I was actually very happy when my alarm went off this morning and I could escape my dreams.  Then I remembered I had to get up and do a PiYo workout and I couldn't decide which was better: nightmare or workout.  Haha - actually it was an easy and short 20 minute PiYo workout so I was happy about that.

This past weekend was BUSY.  We haven't had such a busy weekend in months.  It was filled with good stuff though.  I actually think the rest of August is going to be really busy because I am trying to fit every fun activity in between now and the start of school.  I am terrified that I won't have a free minute (or a free dollar) once school starts so want to get in every bit of fun possible. 

Friday afternoon was our regular routine of a run with Evan followed by a stop at the playground.

There I am, ready to head out.  Ivan makes fun of me when I take "selfies" and says no one wants to see me that close up except him - haha.  However, my arms aren't long enough to take photos farther away than that, so you will continue to get a nice close-up of my face!

Surprisingly when I asked Evan if he wanted to go for a run, he looked excited too.  I think he is realizing that I always make a stop at the playground when we go for runs, so he's not too upset about sitting in the stroller for an hour.

He brought his tractor along with him too.  I was thrilled that he didn't try and pitch it overboard while we were running.  Occasionally he has taken a shoe off and thrown it into the street.  Running into the street after a shoe or ball is not my idea of a fun sprinting drill.  Before heading to the park we took a small detour to the doctor to get my final TB test read.  Still no TB, thank goodness!

Saturday I had golf in the morning and then my friend Sarah came over from the Easter Shore to spend the afternoon together.  Good times!  She is one of my best friends from college and now that she moved far away I don't see her as often.  The county fair was going on, so we decided to spend the afternoon there.  I hadn't been for years, like 20, so it was fun to go back.  My husband and Evan thought it was great!  

Although he looks super serious, he was having a good time.  Promise!

I can tell you I am a lot older now because hanging out in the midway with barely-there clothes did not appeal to me.  What did appeal to me??

Fried dough and fried Berger cookies.  Berger cookies are a Baltimore specialty and they were extra delicious fried.  We had plans to try the fried Oreos, but when we saw the friend Berger cookies, we changed our mind.  Don't worry, that wasn't all I had for dinner.  I also ate French fries.  Haha.  My cholesterol may not have been thrilled but my taste buds were in heaven.  On the topic of cholesterol, I went for a physical a few weeks ago and my cholesterol was 136.  Umm, maybe it's because I am a health dork, but I was so incredibly proud of that.  I wanted to tattoo it on my forehead (not really).  High cholesterol runs in my family so I am always excited when I "beat" my genetics.

The rest of our fair experience consisted of cows and tractors.  Evan was in tractor heaven.  He took a picture on every tractor possible.

He really acted like he was driving them.  He moved the steering wheel and pretended to honk the horn and change the gears.  It was adorable.

The hubs was pretty excited too, climbing on big machines was pretty fun for him too.

And notice how the hubs put on his "farmer" wardrobe.  Shirt, jeans, and boots.  If he had a cowboy hat, he would have worn that too.

Yes, Evan was trying to eat this tractor.  I guess it was time for a food break....

I couldn't go without sitting on one tractor, so I made sure to climbed on one too.

The air seat was pretty fun, but I didn't get the urge to drive around and cut the grass or anything.

Then we went to visit the animals.  Evan practiced milking a cow.

The hubs showed him how it's done.  In Honduras, the hubs milked cows by hand for years.  He's a milking expert and huge fan of cows.

They had the cutest kiddie barn with these rocking horses and animals to pet and barley pits (instead of sand pits). Evan had a blast!

All in all, it was a great time.  Ivan can't wait for next year.

Sunday we did the unbelievable.  Hubs and I went on a double date and played golf!  

I know, it's a miracle.  My sister watched Evan for a few hours and Ivan and I played nine holes with the couple we used to play with all the time before.  It was so fun.  It helped that my golf game was totally on and I got two pars and two bogies...it's definitely more fun when I'm playing well.  And since I haven 't played since Memorial Day, it's pretty shocking that I did so well.  It must be because I spend every weekend concentrating on improving the golf game of 7-12 year olds that some of the instruction gets branded into my brain!

Later in the afternoon we headed to our old neighbor's house and played a couple rounds of bocci ball and ate some flank steak.  It was quite yummy and we had such a good time.  I am always so thankful for the amazing friends we have here.  I feel like adult friends can be hard to come by, so I am very thankful that we have made good friends in the area.  Evan ran around in their yard playing with balls and moving rocks from the garden to the grass.  He had a blast.  We got home pretty late so quickly got ready for the week and then headed to bed.  

So, that was our weekend!  

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Do you have a county fair?  What fried foods have you tried???  Favorite fair food?

Any other female golfers out there??

Eating more veggies and Evan's favorite place

One of my goals these days is to eat more vegetables.  I scarf so much fruit down (last week I ate 2 pounds of grapes in two days), which I don't think is bad, but I hardly ever eat any veggies.  Like none.  Sometimes I eat carrots and I eat cabbage in my eggs, but that's about it.  I'd really like to start incorporating more veggies into my meals, particularly lunch and dinner.  Maybe eventually I'll get veggies into my breakfast, but I'm not quite ready to go that far yet.  So, my first step in this plan was to actually buy vegetables!  On Friday, Evan and I walked (or ran, since I tend to turn any opportunity into a running opportunity) to my doctor's office so I could get my TB test read (I got a TB test last week but then totally forgot to actually get it read - so this was actually my second test).  On the way out, I spotted a Farmer's Market in the parking lot.  Perfect!  Since I had been at the doctor's and needed ID, I had my money with me (normally I don't carry my wallet on runs) so I could actually buy things.

This is what I ended up with:

Instagram: @mapleandmud

Some carrots, really, really sweet tomatoes, and string beans.  I also bought an Australian Crystal Apple Cucumber, which is a rare heirloom seed.  The guy selling it said that it tastes similar to honeydew.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know what it's like.

The string beans are purple and green, but when you cook them the purple ones turn green.  It's funny, but at least lets me know when they are done cooking.

Instagram: @mapleandmud

I sauteed the string beans in coconut oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.  They were pretty tasty.  I even cooked extra and brought some in my lunch today.  The tomatoes are good to snack on because they are so sweet, but I've also been eating them in salads too.

After the farmer's market we headed to the playground, of course.  The playground is always on our agenda when we are out for a run.  I feel like it's only fair that after sitting for an hour in the stroller Evan gets a bit of time to run around.  He loves the playground, until someone else shows up.  It's funny really - he'll be playing and running around and then the second someone else shows up he wants me to pick him up.  Randomly, our friends came to the playground while we were there and he totally clammed up.  After about 15 minutes he got enough courage to go play though, so that was good.  He loves this little yellow car.

He rocks it back and forth so fast.  I love this playground because it's fairly simple without too many large structures that he could fall off of.  Plus, it's often completely empty.

The see-saw or teeter-totter (not sure what the appropriate name is) is a great thigh workout for me because Evan likes to go up and down but I have to be sitting on the seat or he gets mad.  I tried to just push one side down, but that didn't work.  Of course not.  I need to be sitting and working my thighs.

The rest of the weekend was spent teaching golf, watching my nieces again, and getting household chores done.  While watching my nieces we made Power Packed Fruit and Veggie Muffins.  I found the recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it out.  They turned out really good and all the kids liked them, even though they saw me put broccoli and zucchini in the batter.  The only problem was they really stuck to the muffin baking cups.  The recipe noted this and suggested using parchment muffin baking cups, but the girls really, really wanted to use pretty baking cups.  So, we used the pretty ones and all the muffins stuck.  I did notice that when I put all the muffins in a zip lock baggie and the moisture kind of built up a little, the paper got damp and peeled off much easier.

Yesterday I didn't get a run in because it was pouring out in the morning.  I may have gone in the rain, but I wasn't going to make Evan go in the rain.  I was bummed because on top of running, the hubs and I had a date to go golfing together.  Oh well, hopefully we'll go next week instead.  Instead we put our bed back together, cleaned out a few closets, and did a lot of laundry.  Fun times people!

That was my weekend - nothing spectacular but still a good time.  This morning I got up to do PiYo Sweat but the DVD machine wasn't working very well so I only go 15 minutes of it done.  I guess better than nothing - but, I could have used those extra 15 minutes of sleep!

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What was your best moment this weekend?

Do you say see-saw or teeter-totter?

A Weekend of Food and Running and Food, of course

Every weekend I think maybe I'll blog so that Monday isn't just a recap of my weekend.  But then I can't find time to do anything on the weekends, so it never happens.  So then I am left recapping the last three days on Monday.  Oh well.  I'll get back to my Vermont recap soon.  Maybe tomorrow.  I did remember to take a few pictures this weekend, so at least you don't have to just read a bunch of text.

On Fridays I work from home most of the time and Evan hangs out with me.  Usually he plays by himself while I get work done until my husband gets home around 10am.  This past Friday I decided rather than just eat our lunch together we would take it outside and have a nice picnic.  So, I packed our lunch into a picnic basket and we put a blanket out in the grass on the side of our apartment building.  It was so fun!

Evan had pizza (his new favorite food) and rice.  He ate his pizza and then my yogurt, but wasn't so into the rice. 

Then he was up and running around.

He's really into throwing sticks these days and was so excited to find a bunch hiding in the grass.

Then he realized that he could wander around and I'd stay sitting on the blanket.  He was thrilled not to have me following him around.

He kept walking around and looking to see if I was coming.  Then he'd come back and eat some yogurt and pizza and then go for another "walk".  I was fine as long as he didn't try to go into the street.  It turned out to be a great lunch.  I think we'll do these little picnics more often - it beats sitting inside all day while I work on the computer.  Plus, it tired him out so he went down for his nap really easily!

I usually try and get a run in Friday evening, but Ivan wanted to go out to eat.  Ivan and I have had a few "talks" about how I veto all his ideas without considering them...like when he suggests we go out to eat.  It's not like I don't like his ideas, it's just that I'm cheap and don't like wasting our money on going out to eat. However, when he suggested we head to his favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner...I agreed instead of saying no right away.  That definitely doesn't make me wife of the year or anything, but I'm trying!  So we called up some friends and met them for dinner.  We hadn't been there in over six months or so.  A long time.  We really don't eat out much anymore (probably because I veto the idea all the time).  It was fun though.

Saturday I was back at golf, after two weeks off.  Summer classes are always a lot smaller and I enjoy them a lot more.  The girls are so adorable.  And sweet.  It does make my weekends go faster though because by the time I get home it's the afternoon already.  I made it to the grocery store though and even made it for a short three mile run with a stop at the playground.

instagram: @mapleandmud

We got home really late (well, late for Evan).  Sometimes I feel like the only mom that has no schedule for their child.  I left for a run around 6:30pm and texted my friend to see if she wanted to meet me at the park and she said they were eating dinner, then it was bath time, and then bed time (for her daughter, obviously, not for herself).  I had a twinge of guilt because here Evan and I were heading out for a run, then a playground trip, and we still hadn't dinner yet.  We got home around 8pm and I gave Evan some of the spaghetti Ivan made.

He loved it.  Ivan makes "Honduran" spaghetti - which means he melts a stick of butter into his sauce.  I tend to not eat it because I don't like a bunch of butter in my spaghetti.  However, Evan loves it...probably because he LOVES butter!  He was shoving spaghetti into his mouth like crazy.  After dinner, he took a shower with Daddy and was in bed by 9pm.  Not too horrible, right?  And we had a fun playground date.

Sunday was a bit hectic, like it usually is.  I woke up and made 5-Ingredient Peanut Butter and Banana muffins.  It was a Pinterest find and I thought they would be good muffins to take to LA this week.  They aren't good muffins to send with Evan to daycare because my niece is severely allergic to peanuts, but it didn't make too many.  They were super easy and quick.  I had them mixed and made before Evan even woke up. 

After he did wake up, we changed and headed out for a five mile stroller run.  It was around 9am and it was already HOT and HUMID.  Ugg.  We did about four miles and then stopped at the playground.  We had brought Evan's new tractor that his Papa had bought him (Evan calls it Tractor-Papa) and I thought it would be fun to play in the sand pit.  Unfortunately, the sandpit was filled with a million bees.  Boo.  So, we just put the tractor down the slide and played with it on the ground.

Evan thought it was fun to just push the tractor around.

And yes, Evan went to the park in his jammies.  No one was at the park anyway.  We stayed for an entire hour and not a single other person showed up.  I think people sleep in on Sundays or go to early Sunday church services or something.  Evan loved having the playground to himself (except for having to share with the bees)!  Then we ran the last mile home.

After we got home it was cooking, cooking, cooking.  I had a lot of things on the menu to make: vegan lasagna, zucchini tots, shrimp-stuffed shells, tres leches cake, shredded chicken, and black bean burgers.  I didn't get all of it made - just some of it.

I wanted to make Vegan Spaghetti Squash Pesto Lasagna for my friend Allyson.  She was doing a crazy big two-day bike ride in Colorado (like 130 miles each day, over three mountains) and I thought she'd like something in her fridge when she got back.  In Honduras, when I'd go out of town my neighbors would clean my house the day before I returned.  It was so nice arriving home to a super clean house.  I used to do the same thing for my sister - I'd always scrub the floors and toilets and vacuum, etc. before she came home.  I feel weird cleaning my friend's house though (and it looks pretty clean anyway), so I figured food was the better way to go.  So, I whipped up this crazy complicated lasagna.  I am not vegan and had never made vegan cream sauce.  I've made lasagna with tofu before, but nutritional yeast was not really in my pantry.  All in all, it turned out pretty tasty.  I hope she likes it! 

I also made zucchini tots for Evan - they were delicious and Evan ate three of them after dinner.  I wanted something new to put in his lunches and saw these on Pinterest.  They were super easy to make and turned out to be a winner.  I got the shrimp-stuffed shells made for Ivan - I've made them many times before and he always loves them.  They are a bit time consuming, but I felt like I was making a bunch of other complicated things, so why not add something to it.  I also got the chicken cooked - I just put it in the slow cooker with some water for four hours and then shredded it.  I don't need it until Wednesday to make Easy Chicken Flautas (another Pinterest find), but wanted to have it already done so that the cooking process didn't take as long.

I ran out of time to make the tres leches cake and black bean burgers though.  Maybe I'll have time this week before I head to LA.  Otherwise they'll have to wait until I get back.  I can only make so many things in one day!

I crawled into bed around 12am - yikes!  I seriously need an extra weekend day to get all my stuff done!!

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Did you cook anything fun this weekend?

What types of things do you "pin" the most, if you use Pinterest? 
      - I mostly pin food and clothes (for my Stitch Fix stylists)

4 Kids and an Aquarium

Friday was a great day.  I can't remember why now, but I remember thinking that it was a great day.  At work I had helped to organize a Thunderclap for National HIV Testing Day and we needed 100 supporters in order to "release" it.  You would think that would be fairly easy, but no, it wasn't. I think it was a new concept and people were nervousness or something.  And then people are apathetic and like to ignore you.  I posted it on my Facebook page numerous time pleading with friends and family to sign up and I got three friends to sign on.  That's it.  I have hundreds of friends and lots of family members on Facebook and I got three people to help me out.  There was no cost to it...you just had to agree to have an HIV prevention message posted on your wall at the exact same time as everyone else who signed up.  I really thought I might get a few more people, especially when I was pleading and desperate sounding.  But no.  Everyone ignored me.

I think I got off track because that paragraph above is very negative sounding and I started out saying that I had an amazing Friday.  After a few personal phone calls I finally got 100 supporters and the message went out!! That was really exciting.  We also had a success at the car shop.  I took my car in for an oil change and its 60,000 mile check-up - scary stuff.  Since the life of the car, we've never walked out of the car shop for less than $600 (even when it should be cheap there are things wrong, like I backed into a snow bank and ruined some tire thing that costs a lot of money).  This time we only owed $300!!!  It felt amazing!!  Yeah - I realize that $300 is still a ton of money and I really shouldn't be celebrating, but when you are expecting $600-$1200 and it's only half of that, you get really excited.

Then that evening I went on a short three mile run (while Evan slept) before heading over to a friend's house for a BBQ.  Yum!!  I love BBQing.  They have a daughter Evan's age but Evan is too shy and won't play with her.  It's possible we were two hours late for the BBQ because I underestimated how long I thought it would take me to run and shower, but oh well.  I was really happy that I got a run in when I was swamped at work and then had the BBQ a short time later.

Saturday was filled with lots of exercise.  I went on a 9 mile run/walk with TNT.  I didn't have golf because it's an in-between week so I met up with friends and did a long run.  Everyone else was doing ten miles but I had to run 2 miles there and 2 miles home so I just did five with the group.  And we walked up most hills.  Evan is getting heavy in his stroller so it is a lot of work running with him and my friend wanted to walk the hills so who was I to argue???  We stopped at the playground on our way home so that was fun.  It was completely empty so that's a plus.  Evan had a blast in the sand box.   I used to hate those things because I thought they were disgusting but now I don't really care.

After the park we went home, showered, and headed to the pool.  Yeah...right during nap time.  Evan slept the entire time at the pool and didn't want to play in the water.  He snuggle up next to me and promptly fell asleep while I was sitting in the water.  Very adorable.  That night Ivan decided that he wanted to go on a family bike rike - completely ignoring the fact that I had already run 9 miles.  I agreed anyway.  We rode our bikes around the neighborhood and to the park so Evan could play.  He loves the bikes and I do too...even more so when I am not already exhausted from my run in the morning....

And Sunday was a crazy day.  It started out with chocolate chip, banana, strawberry pancakes.  And some maple syrup.

Look what happens when you give a toddle maple syrup.  First, he glows (haha - not sure why the photo turned out so weird)!!  And then he stops dipping his pancake in the syrup and just licks it straight from the plate.  He was in sugar heaven.  This boy loves his maple syrup.

Then we took all the nieces to the Aquarium.

Yup - Ivan and me and four kids all 5 and under and a huge, crowded aquarium.  We had a blast though.  Or at least I did.  Ivan had to carry Evan and the heavy diaper bag the entire time and started complaining about his back hurting, so he was not as patient towards the end of the visit as he could have been.  And I got a bit impatient with the girls when they were trying to pick out their items from the gift shop - but mainly because I knew that Ivan was annoyed.  But all in all, I thought it was so much fun.

When we got home my sister and her husband were still at the movies so we made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and played outside.

Evan loves this play structure.  And his shorts are so short because we have to roll the waist band or else they fall off.  He's just a skinny-minny.

So that was my busy, fun weekend.  How about you?

Real maple syrup or the fake stuff?  

Sandboxes - yes or no?

Splashing in the Stream

This is going to be a long week.  On Wednesday, rather than working from home, I have some kind of Summer Success Immersion program for school.  What does that mean?  Not exactly sure except that we are going to be reviewing Anatomy & Physiology stuff and learning drug calculations.  Something about how these things will help us be successful during the first semester and beyond.  That means that I won't get my extra hour of sleep though.  Or a relaxing evening after work where I don't have to stress about a commute and arrive home at 7pm.  Of course, there was a time when I went to the office five days a week, so I shouldn't be such a baby about it.

This weekend was like all the others: it went too fast but it was filled with fun times. On Friday Evan and I made it back to the Nature Center.  It wasn't too hot out and I felt like a mini hike was in order.

We didn't get too far because he found this little stream and wanted to play in it the entire time.

I ignored all rational thought and let him get his pants and tennis shoes soaked.  I had made him wear pants to try and avoid ticks.  And Lyme disease, a huge fear of mine.  He really had a fun time and was throwing rocks in the water, digging in the dirt, etc.

He also enjoyed playing on the stumps.  

And, best of all?  He didn't pitch a fit when we had to leave.  

After a fun time in nature we then headed out for a run.  The stroller is really starting to weigh a lot.  Or I am really weak.  I felt like it was so heavy and that I was really shuffling along.  Especially on the up-hills.  We stopped at mile 3 to play at the playground for an hour and then headed back home.  

Evan was pretty good sitting in the stroller but did start saying "All done" on the way back home...like he was all done in the stroller and please remove him.  It was cute but he was stuck in there until we got home.

Sunday was a busy, busy day.  We got up and went for another run.  This time we took a shorter route because we had made pancakes first and were on the late side.  Of course our run took us to a playground and we played for about 40 minutes before heading back home.  Again, super heavy stroller!  We survived though.  Then we showered and headed to Costco.  I have decided that Costco is really like Target.  Your go for one thing and come out $100 poorer. I love Costco though and they are a really great company (unlike Target), so at least that part makes me feel better.  There were a ton of samples and Evan and I enjoyed sampling sausage, salmon cakes, wantons, perogies, quesadillas, coffee (I sampled this alone), and Belvita cookies.  Evan really liked the salmon burgers so we bought those (he will probably change his mind and I'll have 20 salmon burgers to eat alone).  Along with a million other things even though we just wnet for coke, eggs, and chips.  Oh well, at least our fridge is stocked now.

There is no room for anything else!  Ivan keeps saying that we better enjoy it now because pretty soon we'll only be able to eat eggs, beans, and tortillas.  We had some cubed steak this weekend and Ivan was like...pretty soon we won't be able to afford meat so we better enjoy every last taste.  I said we could probably buy cubed steak every once in a while since it is only $2.55 a package.

Evan and I also made sure to put on our USA jerseys for the game on Sunday.

We were very excited.  Ivan invited our golf friend over to watch the game too so I made 7-layer dip (of course because Ivan LOVES this and asks for it as often as possible) and tacos.  Everything turned out and I even managed to do the laundry, fold the clothes, and clean the bathrooms.  Nothing short of a miracle.

Now it's back to work and off to sleep for a bit.  Hope you had a fabulous weekend too and didn't look this pathetically tired when you work up this morning (we are both looking pretty rough)!

My Old Stomping Ground

This past week I headed back to Atlanta - my home for the two years I was in grad school.  I remember when I was trying to decide where to go for grad school and I was nervous about heading so far south and to a place completely unknown to me.  However, Atlanta turned out to be a great city and I loved everything about it.  I don't love it enough to move there for the rest of my life, but it was, and is, a fabulous city.

Evan and I headed there for a work trip (probably my last work trip to Atlanta ever) and so the first few days were spent in grantee meetings.  My wonderful mother was able to make the trip to Atlanta this time and take care of Evan (thanks Mom!!!), which was awesome because I pretty much spent the first couple days in meetings.  The meetings started at 8am and ended around 5pm and then we had evening events that went from 5:30pm-9pm.  Yup - long, long days.  I stopped in around lunch to eat with my mom and nurse Evan to sleep and then I banana split again.  Since I've been on the same grant since it started and everyone remembers when I was pregnant and I've brought Evan on every work trip - people were very excited to see him again.

Evan was an angel and behaved perfectly for my mom. 

They got to spend so much time together and did lots of exciting things: hanging out at the pool, kicking pine cones in abandoned parking lots, walking around the hotel property numerous times, playing the "dancing farmer" app, and putting stickers all over the hotel room.

Evan loved the pool and kept pointing outside and saying "agua" numerous times a day.  I think a ton of pool days are in our future.  Like all photos, he looks like he's a bit iffy about the entire situation, but really he just isn't into smiling for the camera.

After the work meeting, I stayed a few extra days to see some Atlanta friends.  I stayed the remaining nights with my Peace Corps friend Sarah (for some reason we didn't take any pictures).  Fun fact: she married a Honduran also!  She is now pregnant with her first child (a little boy) and is due in November.  We moved from the hotel to her house on Friday and then headed over to my old roommate's house to see her and her three kids.  I hadn't seen them in about 4 years so it was nice to catch up.

Back at Sarah's house we had a traditional Honduran meal: Pollo Campero!  Ok, so Pollo Campero is actually a Guatemalan chain, but it was all over Honduras too and it's pretty yummy fried chicken.  It was fun eating it and remembering all our Honduran times.  Sarah used to live in the city near my town and when I'd go into the city I'd often hang out with her and sometimes spend the night at her place.  When I first moved to my town she was the person who really helped me adjust to life in Honduras and showed me around the city.  She was starting her third year when I started my first so she left about 10 months after I got there, but we had a lot of great times together.

My mom left the next morning so Evan and I took her to the airport.

Evan was very sad to see her go.  I don't pay attention to him nearly as much as his Mimi does! 

Here we all are together.  I'm not sure what is going on with my leg there, but oh well.  And I swear this outfit looked better when I looked in the mirror than it does on camera...but again, oh well.  It was so much fun seeing my mom and watching Evan and her bond.  After she left he kept saying "Bye Mimi" all day.  And when I'd say "Te amo Evan" he'd respond "Te amo Mimi" rather than "Te amo Mami".  I realize that Mimi and Mami are very similar so he's probably just confused, but I thought it was cute.

After dropping my mom off Evan and I headed to my friend Kelly's house.  I met her in grad school and then she moved to the DC area and then recently just moved back to Atlanta.  From her house we walked to downtown Decatur where we were going to meet another friend Nancy for lunch.  We got there early so played at a very awesome playground for about 40 minutes.  This playground not only had playground equipment, but people also donated a ton of old toys so it also had trucks, cars, fun riding things, those plastic play equipment things, kitchens, etc.  Evan LOVED it and didn't even really go on the playground stuff - he mostly pushed around plastic lawn mowers, road cars, and went in and out of plastic houses.  He was in playground heaven.

When our other friend arrived with her three kids we headed to farm burger for lunch.  It was a bit  crazy because I had Evan, Kelly had her son (two months older than Evan), and Nancy had her three kids (two boys aged 6 and 4 and a girl aged 10 months).  It made for a constantly moving meal, but we still managed to catch up and talk a bit.  After lunch we headed back to the playground for a while and then Kelly and I walked back to her house.  Evan fell asleep on the way so Kelly and I got some quiet time to catch up before she brought me back to Sarah's house (Sarah was working on Saturday - which is why we didn't hang out).

Sunday we slept in a bit and then headed to the Renaissance Festival.  I really lucked out because I didn't have a ticket and just as I was heading over to buy one (for $20), a nice family asked if I needed a ticket and handed me their extra one.  What a blessing!  We really just walked around the festival, ate some food, played some games, and people-watched (very entertaining since so many people dress up).  It was a fun day.  Then we headed home, packed up our suitcases, and made our way to the airport.  Our flight was delayed 1.5 hours so Evan and I entertained ourselves for about three hours (since I like to arrive a bit early when I'm traveling with Evan) before getting on a completely packed flight.

Yesterday I took the day off to catch up, unpack our suitcase, wash some clothes, go to the grocery store, and rest a bit.  Evan found his bird while I was unpacking and it made him think of Mimi.

My mom made this bird for him (and one for herself too) and they play with their birds when they Skype.  This is one way they play - they put the birds in their mouth and then shake their heads around.  So, when Evan sees his bird, he usually does this and wants to talk to Mimi on Skype.  It's adorable.

So, that was my long week/weekend!  What have you been up to since I've been gone???