Chicago Vacation 2013

So happy to be able to write that title!  McKay, Jensen and I just got back from a very fun trip to Chicago.  We left Adalyn at Grandma's house in SLC, and I will talk about her fun there in another post. 

We really aren't traveling kind of people, we are mostly just content to stay close to home (as in within driving distance) but I have always had this desire to see Chicago.  After all it is tons of movies, one of the biggest cities in the U.S., and another bonus for this trip was that we have family in Chicago to visit.  So when McKay told me that he would be heading there for work this June (so work would be paying for EVERYTHING for him) it was too good of an opportunity for me to pass up.  Of course I am still nursing Jensen full time and since he is only 6 months (didn't want him to be done yet) he got to come too.  But honestly I NEVER want to have to take a toddler on a plane so Adalyn was not welcome to come too.  But don't worry she had lots of fun still. :)

The plan for McKay was to leave Sunday June 24th from SLC to be there for work (His company needed him to do an audit on a company out there for a project they are working on) on Monday.  Unfortunately his flight got canceled and he ended up not leaving until Monday morning, so he missed the first full day of the Audit, but it seemed to have turned out ok.

I just hung out at my parents house for a few days (Sunday until Wednesday) and then met up with him Wednesday evening in Chicago.  My first flight with a baby was not that great.  Nothing went wrong per say, but I was just so darn nervous that I think I made it worse for myself.  Nursing Jensen in a busy airport and on a small plane was terrible.  He is so wiggly and hates the nursing cover over him so it was crazy trying to keep myself covered up.  :P  I think I tried to feed him like 3 times before he was actually able to fully eat.  Can you say stressed out mama?!  The second time around (meaning on the way home) I decided to just go in the family restroom at the airport (they really should have nursing rooms), lock the door, and nurse him standing up (gross germs right?  you do what you have to).  That worked tons better because I was able to just relax and actually get some milk out :)  He also is the type of kid that does not love being held all the time so he was SO done being in my arms by the time our 3 hour flight was over and fell asleep fast in his car seat on the way to the hotel.  In the end we survived and got to Chicago safely. 

Now I am going to break our adventures up by days just to keep things in order. 

Thursday:

Thursday may have been one of my favorite days.  Why?  Because I didn't HAVE to do anything.  I got up with McKay in the morning and ate breakfast with him (I didn't even half to cook it) and then sent him off to work.  Then Jensen and I slept on and off until 2 pm.  Crazy nice right?!  Loved it!  We then watched a little TV, did a little shopping, and then went out to dinner with McKay and his work buddies.  After dinner McKay and I headed out on our own to drive around town.  We were a ways from the actual city at this point so we didn't do anything too big.  In the end we found this cute little part of town that had benches decorated with characters from different movies and nursery rhymes.  Here are a few pictures...

 

After our little scenic walk we went to Culvers because I had heard on a blog that they had good frozen custard (we had never been there before).  OH BOY I am an ice cream lover so I was in heaven!  It was SO delicious.  We loved it so much that we made sure to go to one again on the last night we were there.  So wish that we had a Culvers in Idaho...  If you have one near you, go and get a Turtle sundae.  You can thank me later.  :)

 

Friday:

McKay had his last day of work so I spent the morning packing us up to leave the hotel then I went and met up with him at a Chicago pizza buffet for lunch.  I definitely got lost on the way to the restaurant, but thanks to the GPS I finally made it there to meet him.  The pizza was yummy and I am glad that we got to have a Chicago deep dish pizza while in Chicago.  I also got to try my first hush puppy, another delicious creation.  :)

 

That afternoon we drove to my cousins, Brian and Holly's house.  They live north of Chicago so we got to drive through the city on our way there.  Unfortunately we only got to spend Friday evening WITH them because they were leaving Saturday for Connecticut for a family reunion.  But they were very kind and let us stay at their house while they were gone.  Staying at their house was MUCH nicer then staying in a hotel.  They have twin boys that are Adalyn's age so they already had all of the baby gear/stuff that we needed for Jensen.  Also Jensen was able to sleep in his own room for his naps so that we didn't have to be super quiet while he slept.  Thank you Thank you Brian and Holly for letting us stay at your house!  They were so kind to us and holly can make some delicious pizza!  Since Friday night was the only time we would see them we had a fun little party.  McKay's cousin Jennie also lives in Chicago with her husband and two little girls.  They used to be in Brian and Holly's ward so Holly was kind and invited them over Friday night too so that we could all get together.  Talk about a small world!  It was such a fun night chatting and catching up with each other's lives.  I was a little sad that Adalyn couldn't be there that night because she would have loved playing with all of the kids.  Here are all of the "cousins"

 

From left to right- Clare, Emily (holding Jensen), Carter, Owen

Don't mind that they are all half dressed, it was late

 

 

Here is McKay with his cousin Jennie.  We think she is a pretty amazing woman so we were really excited to be able to spend some time with her and her girls.  Her husband had to work so he wasn't able to come. 

 

The girls (and Brian and Holly's baby boy #3)

 

 

 

Saturday:

 

 Holly made us a yummy breakfast (we were spoiled), and then we headed out for the city.  Our first stop was Millennium Park and Michigan Ave.  We walked around Millennium Park for a while and looked at the fountains and made sure to get our picture with "the Bean"  or I think it is called the cloud. 

 

 

Can you see us in that last picture?

 

After the park we window shopped through Michigan Ave and stopped at a little soup/sandwich place for lunch.  We wished we would have had time for the museums but we had tickets for a White Sox game that afternoon that we had to get to.  So we loaded up after lunch and headed to the south side of Chicago for the game.  Definitely different feel to the south side than the north side, but everything went great and we loved the game.  Jensen even got a soft baseball to remember his first major leagues baseball game by.  The White Sox played the Cleavland Indians that night, but we aren't sure who ended up winning because we had to leave in the 8th inning because Jensen was done.  They were tied when we left so it could have gone either way. 

 

Also, I must also take just a moment and say the weather while we were in Chicago was perfect.  While the west was having a major heat wave we were enjoying lovely weather in Chicago.  Not too hot with a small breeze most of the time.  The night of the game I wished that I had packed a jacket, but in the end it wasn't super cold so I was fine.  Seriously it was SO nice each day as we went sight seeing.  I feel like the weather can sometimes make or break a trip and this weather definitely made this trip.  :)

 

 

Saturday night after the game we just watched a movie and relaxed at the house so that Jensen could get a good night's sleep. 

 

Sunday:

 

While visiting with Jennie on Friday night she invited us to her house on Sunday for church and dinner.  It happened to also be her birthday so it was super nice that she let us crash their Birthday party and she even made US dinner.  Thank you Jennie and Devin we had a ton of fun!  Their daughter Emily is SO funny and cute and Clare is so sweet.  It was their first week at their new ward in church so I am sure people were confused about who was who and if we were just visiting or staying. 

Jennie and I follow each others blogs and we both write fairly often so we felt like we already knew each other pretty well so it was fun to talk more in person.  This was only my 4th time visiting with her and my first time meeting Devin but we all clicked right away and had fun talking about Pace family memories and our lives. (sorry I didn't grab any pictures on Sunday)

 

 

Monday:

 

Our last full day in Chicago :(  We started out our day by heading to the Hancock Observatory for some lunch.  This is dorky but on our way there we saw the American Girl Doll store (and the millions of little girls in there with their parents) and I forced McKay to go in there with me.  I loved playing with the American girl dolls as a kid.  My friend Courtney had almost all of the historical dolls (Molly, Samantha, Kit, etc.) and I love their books and magazines.  So fun to watch the excitement in the little girls eyes and they shopped around and took their doll to the doll beauty palor (yes there was a doll beauty Parlor).  I was SO close to breaking down and buy a look-a-like doll for Adalyn.  But in the end I talked myself out of it since she is still so little and really loves any doll (doesn't have to cost $100+) .  Maybe in the future... 

Once we finally made it to the Observatory we rode up in an elevator to the 96th floor and enjoyed a lovely lunch with fantastic views of the city. 

 

The restaurant was a fun way to relax and enjoy the city.  Yes I was a little nervous to be up that high, reminded me of when we climbed to the top of the Statue of Liberty.   

 

After lunch we headed to Navy Pier to see what all of the fun was about.  :)  On our way we ran into a small beach area for lake Michigan so we stopped and enjoyed the view.  McKay had wanted to walk along the shore the whole trip so I was glad that he got his chance.  Jensen slept the whole time on the beach so it was relaxing for us.

 

 

Once we got over to Navy pier we were pretty tired and we knew that we still wanted to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo (we parked by the zoo) so we only walked around for a little while and didn't end up riding any of the rides.  We both get motion sickness so it didn't sound appealing to either of us.  

 

It was still worth the trip over to the pier to see Lake Michigan up close and personal.  We even took the scenic route back to the zoo so that we could enjoy it more.  There were tons of people out biking and running on the path.  Seriously a runners dream.  I kept wishing that I had brought my running clothes. :)  But alas I hadn't and had just stuffed my face with a steak sandwich so we stuck to walking. 

 

Our last tourist stop was the zoo.  It is a free zoo that they have there and so that fact alone made it awesome.  The animals were pretty tired by the time we showed up so we just saw a few.  My favorites were the apes.  There were darling baby apes that were SO interested in all of the people so they kept looking at you with these big curious eyes.  Melt.my.heart.

 

Here is McKay at the entrance posing :) 

 

 Mama Ape hanging out by the babies through the wall...

 

That night we headed back to the house and ate more custard.  mmmm...

 

Tuesday:

 

Big travel day.  We started out not flying on the same flight, but ended up being together in the end (yay!).  The flight home went perfectly and I even got to start my book on the plane since McKay was there to help wrestle Jensen.

 

Once we landed in SLC we got to see Adalyn again.  She was really excited to see us as was I to see her.  She learned a million new words while we were gone and grew up tons (longest we had been apart) and I was happy to spend my days with her again.  Thank you thank you mom for watching her!  We ate dinner at my parents house and then headed home to Idaho.  LONG day, but we were happy to be in our own beds for a night or two.  (we headed to Island Park two days later). 

 So grateful that we got the chance to visit Chicago.  Never could be a big city girl though.  After we got home we realized just how small town Idaho is, but we are happy to be here.  :)  Well, bonus points if you read that whole thing!  Hope you are all having a great summer!  Good night! 

Mexican Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Hello there!  Been awhile.  We had a crazy busy June and I am just starting to get caught back up on blogging.  Currently I am in the middle of writing a lengthy post all about our fun trip to Chicago for our private family blog (email me if you want an invite) but today I felt like taking a break from that post and writing something a little simpler and shorter.   

Recently I made a few meals for my family when we were visiting Salt Lake and they loved them so I thought I would share one of them with you today. 

I made this at their house because they have air conditioning and this recipe involves leaving on the oven for a few hours.   Currently we are in crock pot or raw food mode since the oven is not allowed to be on if the house is over 73 degrees.  lol ok so maybe I just made up that rule... but really we try to not turn the oven on at all these days. 

The recipe is Twice baked Sweet Potatoes Yummy!

We LOVE sweet potatoes at our house and they are SO good for you.  Even though we live in Idaho (potato central) we have almost given up on regular potatoes in exchange for sweet potatoes.  Here are a few facts about why we choose sweet potatoes. We most commonly just bake them in the oven and then put cinnamon and butter on top and use them as a side dish, but this recipe gives a little kick of spicy and sweet that is delicious! 

Ok one last thing before we get started...  Before last year I had never bought a raw sweet potato (had only seem them in cans with little marshmallows on top hehe!) so I was a little clueless when I headed to the store for the first time to buy one.  After a little trial and error I have found that instead of buying an actual sweet potato, which is lighter in color then the "sweet potatoes" that I am used to, I buy a JEWEL YAM.  It has the darker orange color and tastes really good.
  
I saw a few different recipes for twice baked sweet potatoes so I decided to just kind of combine the things that I liked from each of the recipes into one.  This meal IS a little spicy so if you have kids (Adalyn really likes it) I would leave to pepper jack cheese off of their potato and they should be good to go. 

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

(Adapted from this recipe.  you can see a picture of what they look like there too.)  

 

Ingredients:

4 Sweet Potatoes (I buy Jewel yams)

1 cup Frozen corn

1 can Black Beans

1/4-1/2 yellow onion chopped

olive oil

1/2 tsp Red pepper flakes

1/4 cup full fat greek yogurt

1 ounce cream cheese

3/4ish cup Pepper Jack Cheese (to sprinkle on top)

 

Directions:

Cook your sweet potato in the oven or maybe you could do the crock pot (haven't tried it yet).  I bake mine at 350 degrees for about 1 hour, sometimes longer depending on the size of the potato.  After they are done, let them cool for a few minutes.

-While sweet potatoes cook roast corn with some salt on stove. let corn roast for about 10 minutes and then add diced onions and 1 TBSP Olive oil to the pan.  Sauté onions until they turn translucent.  Place onions, corn, and black beans in a bowl. 

-Carefully slice cooled sweet potato horizontally and scrap out flesh into bowl with black beans, roasted corn and sautéed onions.   (save the skins for later!)

-Add Cream cheese, greek yogurt, and red pepper flakes to potato/corn mixture and stir gently. 

-Once everything is mixed together.  Carefully scoop the mixture back into the skins.  Filling each one. 

-Top each potato with Pepper Jack cheese. 

-Put potatoes back in the over for about 10 minutes or until cheese is fully melted. 

-Enjoy!  

 

Hope you like it!  And since no post is ever complete without a picture.  Here are the kiddos in their 4th of July cuteness!  Look for more posts, hopefully I will update stuff soon!  Have a great day!

 

 

   

Great Example

I love to blog.  I like sharing my life with others and in turn reading about other people's lives.  I feel uplifted and encouraged by sharing my struggles and victories with others, so thank you for reading my blog :) 

With that being said I don't really feel like I am a great writer/blogger.  There are lots of things that I could do better... like take better pictures.  I often think of a blog topic in my head, maybe even write a few things down about it, but then never really post it because I can't quite come up with the words to explain myself correctly. 

Awhile ago I opened up about my struggles with my post baby weight and then utimately my successes with losing that weight after having my second child.  I STRUGGLED for days with that post about what I should say, how I should word it, and questioned if I was truely explaining myself correctly.  It was pretty draining since I was so emotionally attached to the topic.  By the time I finally published the post I was fairly happy with what I had come up. 

But almost a year later after writing that post I have learned SO much more.  I feel like a completely different person than I was when I started researching food and health.  I am learning new things everyday and sometimes I am amazed that I used to put so little thought into what I was feeding my body.  The food we eat affects EVERYTHING.  It affects how we feel emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I truely believe this statement...

source

 

When I am eating healthy and nourishing foods I feel great.  This may sound weird but I have not felt this mentally healthy in a long time (McKay sure loves this part.  I have been much less emotional and hormonal this past year, even while I was pregnant) .  My body is in balence and I am able to deal with life's daily stresses.  Such a good feeling. 

 

Ofcourse I have wanted to share all of the little things that I have been learning with all of you (lucky you right?  ok please stop rolling your eyes...) But my lack of talent and abilty to clearly write my thoughts down has stopped me.  Fortunetly tonight I ran across this lovely blog post by a woman who has a very similar story to mine (although she is farther down the "real" food trail than I am) and so I thought would pass her story along to you. 

 

-Her idea of the 80/20 rule (read it to find out what I am talking about) is exactly what we do at our house.  

-Listening to YOUR body is the key to finding out what YOU need.

-NO counting calories.  Ok I have a secret to tell you all.  I don't even know how to count calories.  Never done...never will.  Calories are not the important part.

-Butter is good, healthy, and nessessary in our diets.  eat it.

-Don't cut a food group out.  They are all good in a well balenced diet.

 

These are a few tidbits that she discovered/shared and that I completely agree with. 

 

 

I hope you all enjoy reading her story.  Food is a very complicated topic, honestly don't know if I will ever comepletely understand just how much it can/does affect us.  But I have really enjoyed reading and learning more about it, but still quite often get overwhelmed by all of the different information out there about what is best for us.  When I do get overwhelmed I just have to remind myself to not get in over my head and just take it one step at a time.  So grateful for all of the great examples that I have to help me along in this process.  Love learning from others and so happy that this blogger has shared her experience. 

 

Hope you are all having a great summer!   

 

 

 

 

  

Mykelti's High School Graduation

My youngest sister graduated from Alta high School on June 6th (promise this is the last graduation post for awhile).  This is big for my parents who will soon be somewhat empty nesters this fall when she goes to college.  Lucky them right? 

The weekend started off with the graduation ceremony at UVU and then we used the rest of the weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) as a somewhat mini vacation with my family.  It was our last real weekend for a long time that we will ALL be together since Larissa is moving to Connecticut in less than a month.  I love weekends with my family!

Here are a few pictures from the Graduation.  McKay and I spent the majority of the actual ceremony taking turns standing in the back or changes poppy diapers with the kids.  (why they both decided to poop then I have no idea?)

 

After graduation we went out to eat and then McKay went to his mom's to help her with a few projects and the rest of us went back to my parents house to relax.  Apparently this is how Adalyn wanted to relax.  Surprisingly Jensen is ok with it...

 

On Friday McKay and I went to my aunt's house for some family pictures, Jensen's 6 month photos, and Adalyn's 2 year old photos.  Talk about multi tasking.  I am excited to see the pictures soon!  That evening we headed to the canyon for a family cook out around the fire.  Much easier then trying to camp over night.  We had tin foil dinners and played games.

 

 

Saturday we went swimming.  Adalyn is becoming quite the fish unlike her mother who just tolerates swimming. 

 

Saturday night I didn't get any pictures but it is a night to be remembered.  My parents threw a party with BOTH sides of their families to celebrate the June/May birthdays, 5 graduations, and it was a good bye party for Larissa.  There were lots of cousins there with their families and it was SO fun to catch up with everyone.  I love my families! 

 

Sunday we went to church and then headed home.  So grateful to have such a fun and loving family. 

McKay's Birthday Pie

Thank you for the encouragement that you gave me on my last post.  We are in full swing with all of our fun summer plans so we haven't done too much about many of the things that I talked about, except for the birthday plans for McKay. 

As you may recall McKay said that he wanted lasagna and a pie for his "birthday dinner".  In the end we went out to eat on his actual birthday.  We went out to eat because his birthday was on a Monday and we had just gotten home from a trip LATE Saturday night and I was babysitting on Monday early in the morning.  So there just wasn't time for me to go grocery shopping and make everything and watch three kids under two.  So we headed to our first Thai restaurant on his birthday.  We both liked and have the potential to love it, but I think that we just didn't know what to get.  So there will probably be a round two of Thai food in the future. 

On Tuesday we finally got around to the birthday dinner.  McKay ended up taking a half day at work that day because we needed  new tires.  So while he was busy picking up tires and getting them put on (we bought brand new tires off Craig's list for less than half price.  Score!) I was busy making dinner.  Ok guys I have avoided making Lasagna for 3 years now because of how 'hard' I thought it was going to be, but in reality it is SUPER simple.  Yes you may laugh at me....  Mine did end up a little dry so next time I will add more water.  But seriously it is SO easy!  McKay loves Lasagna and apparently Adalyn does too so it was a hit all around. 

After dinner we had pie.  It was my very first time making pie and it turned out delicious if I do say so myself.  I made this Fresh Blueberry pie.  I just found it online after he requested a blueberry pie and prayed that it would turn out.  We topped it with fresh Whipped Cream.  And in the end it was super good! 

Random side note-  Lately we have started making our own whipped cream instead of buying cool whip and it tastes 10 times better.  Seriously cool whip will start to taste like metal after you have had the real stuff a few times.  We put it on lots of different things like fresh fruit, pancakes, brownies, and pies.  It is cheaper than the real maple syrup that we buy and healthier for you.

Here is proof of the pie-

So in the end I think his birthday dinner was a success!  Happy Birthday McKay we love you!

P.S. Random question.  As I have researched food I have discovered that fat is not bad.  It is a necessary thing in our diet and as long as it comes from the right source.  ie-  Natural foods  it is really good for you.  So we switched to full fat yogurt, Whole milk, and love whipped cream.  Anyone else made that switch?  Such a different mind set than the usual low fat diet, but we LOVE it.