One Word Wednesday - Kindergarten

(a belated) This Week's Eats

I was a wee bit busy yesterday running the Labor Day 4 Miler, drinking beers and commiserating with fellow Oiselle teammates over some good grub at Redhook.  Since it's a holiday week, I'm going to pretend today is Monday!  We ended up getting take out for dinner last night, as the morning took quite a bit out of me and I just didn't feel like cooking.  Love having an excuse for some Pad Thai.

• Tuesday - Angel Hair with Pomodoro sauce (saute garlic and onion with olive oil in a large pan, add a 28oz can of whole san marzano tomatoes and mash with a potato masher, season w/salt, pepper and crushed red pepper, cook about 15 minutes/until it thickens and add LOTS of fresh basil and fresh grated Parmesan cheese to finish)
• Wednesday - Out for pizza to celebrate big brother's first day of Kindergarten!
• Thursday - goin' to a little Oiselle potluck party, and I'm thinking about bringing the very popular quinoa salad
• Friday - enchiladas with Frontera Grill red enchilada sauce (We tried the fajita sauce and it was gooooood! Now we're working our way through the others.)
• Saturday - Beer braised beef with marsala mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes
• Sunday - Cobb salad (chicken, bacon, egg, red onion, avocado and blue cheese with homemade dijon vinaigrette: olive oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, honey, salt and pepper)

Friday Things - Chicago Here I Come!

Aaaaaieeeeee!  I can't believe I just pulled the trigger on a lil' Chi-town visit.  It's my High School 20 year reunion at the end of September.  I hadn't planned on going because we really don't have access to an overnight sitter for the kids and I'm not paying to schlep our whole family out for my reunion.  (Disney one day?  Mexico?  Yes. Reunion? No.)  Also, it's the weekend of our 10 year wedding anniversary and my husband and I had plans for a nice dinner, since our ploy to get my sister in law out here to babysit while we escaped for a night or two didn't pan out.  However, my bestest friends in the world (who are all in the Chicago 'burbs, waaah) decided on making it a girls night and are going to leave their husbands at home.  Well that changes thing considerably; I ADORE all their husbands, but I'm very much on board with a single airline ticket, hours alone on a plane to read, and one awesome weekend of girl time!  I'm planning my Kindle content now and moving our anniversary plans back a week: it'll just be our 9 years and 358 day anniversary dinner. 

Also, the runner in me is contemplating the idea of doing a race while I'm at home...  Anyone have a good Chicago race suggestion for the morning of September 29th?

Um, what else is going on...  I'm having a hard time concentrating on anything else.  Oh, this was distracting me the other morning. 



Photo from this post at www.wearnotmartha.com


I'm really glad that Eggs Benedict is a pain in the ass to make because I'd probably gain 20 pounds if I had the patience to make it for myself.  I found this gem through the Foodlush Blog's weekly recipe roundup.  You should check it out.  Yes, I'm a huge fan of weekly recipe posts. 

If you'll be at the Super Jock n' Jill Labor Day Run on Monday please say hello!  I should be running the Half Marathon as a training run, but I think I'd rather skip my long run this week (gasp! crazy for me, the type-A rule follower) and do the 4 miler with my friend and have more time to drink beer and chat.  Happy Labor Day weekend!


Song I'm loving right now: Space Invaders by Mark Norman.
Beautiful People - Chris Brown feat. Benny Benassi (8/23/12)
Ass Back Home - Gym Class Heroes (8/23/12)
The Veldt - Cover Pop tribute to Deadmau5 & Chris James (8/23/12)
Without You - David Guetta feat. Usher (8/23/12)
Good Time - Owl City feat. Carly Rae Jepsen (8/17/12)
Addiction - Medina (8/3/12)
We Run the Night - Havana Brown feat. Pitbull (7/27/12)
The Night Out - Martin Solveig (7/20/12)
Tell 'Em - Sleigh Bells (7/13/12)
Sun is Up - Two Times (7/06/12)
Steam Machine - Daft Punk (6/29/12)
Arguru - Deadmau5 (6/22/12)
Now or Never - Outasight (6/15/12)
Major Tom - Shiny Toy Guns Remix (6/08/12)
Young Blood - The Naked and Famous remixed by Tiesto (5/18/12)
Call me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen (4/6/12)

Lazy Day in Picutres

Our beloved Y closes one week every year for maintenance, and it's always the week before school starts.  Blargh.  We've gone over to another Y a few times, but it isn't in a good neighborhood for running; plus I don't think they have the same lenient policy about leaving the building as our Y does.  So, yeah, I'm sick of the treadmill and my legs are, too.  Therefore, I'm declaring it an easy week and took an extra rest day today to be lazy with the kids before the early morning alarm days of school start next week...

After a late wake up around 7:30, we lounged on the couch with cartoons until 8:30 and I made pancakes (usually a weekend only deal).  And we finally ventured out of the house by 10am - crazy late for us!

First a trip to the library.

 

Then we hit our favorite lunch spot: Jimmy John's headquartered in Champaign, IL - the hometown of my Alma Mater, fyi. Go Illini!

Fed some crazy ducks.

Got dessert.

And then we spotted a tall ship at the marina that was giving free tours.  WIN.

Never know what fun might be lurking on an unplanned rest day, perhaps the Lady Washington and hopefully fresh legs...

One Word Wednesday - Overwhelming!

Hike with the Kids - Big Four Ice Caves

This is a hike that my husband and son have done together for the last two summers and it was finally time for me and baby girl to join in the fun.  It's a perfect hike with little ones: just two miles round trip and only 200 feet of elevation gain.  I would say that it's also nice that a good portion of the trail is made up of boardwalks, but boardwalks on trails tend to make my kids go sloooooow.  They either peer down through the slats as they walk or make a game of walking on each board without touching the gaps.  Also slowing us down: there are TONS of dogs on this trail.  But, since it is such a short hike, we weren't in any kind of rush and we all love to stop and pet cute dogs.

Once we wound our way through the forest, the view that opens up on Big Four Mountain is pretty cool.  You can walk down to the rocky flats and feel freezing cold breezes coming from the caves, which is nice on a warm summer day.  It's also fun for the kids to play with snow in the middle of August. 

It should go without saying, but if you go on this hike - don't go in the caves or walk on top of them.  Lots of idiots, FAMILIES even, going inside.  GAH. 

We found a nice flat rock for our special 'hiking snack' (which I recommend bringing to keep the kids happy) and then we headed back toward the trailhead.  The views of Mount Dickerman and Devils Peak are pretty stunning as you turn away from the ice caves.

Devils Peak on the left, Mt. Dickerman on the right

Right by the parking lot is a nice picnic area with bathrooms, lots of picnic tables and space to spread out a blanket for a post hike lunch.  Perfect summer outing with kids, just over an hour away from Seattle.  Highly recommend.

Here's the official info from the Washington Trails Association.

This Weeks Eats

This week is riddled with back to school meetings.  Hard to believe that in just nine days I'll be bringing my oldest to the bus stop for the first time.  I'm a weeee bit excited about the kids getting back to school, but I'm unsure how I'll feel emotionally on that first day of, what is essentially, the rest of his life.  Saw this on Facebook today and it gave me a chuckle.

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - I have my first meeting for baby girl's co-op preschool - a potluck.  I'm assigned a dip appetizer, so I thought it'd be a perfect way to try one of those sinful recipes that always make the rounds on Pinterest - like this one or this one...
• Wednesday - Paninis with turkey, mozzarella, spinach and artichoke (ANOTHER school meeting, this one for big brother who's starting Kindergarten (!), so we're gonna break out the old panini press for a favorite combo I can wolf down before the meeting.)
• Thursday - grilled chicken with spicy honey marinade (equal parts honey/olive oil, hot sauce to taste), rice and salad
• Friday - stovetop mac and cheese I've been in the mood for comfort foods, as the weather is starting to change and thought it'd be fun to try a stovetop version
• Saturday - Top sirloin steaks with herb butter, baked potatoes and wedge salads (iceberg lettuce, blue cheese, tomatoes, red onion and bacon).  This was moved back from last week because we forgot to order the steaks in a timely fashion and surprised the kids with a trip to Red Robin for burgers instead.  Mmmmmm - how I love the Blue Ribbon Burger!
• Sunday - tequila lime turkey chili yep, another comfort food dinner, and Sunday is always chili or some sort of 'couch food' for football viewing.