Mr. and Mrs. Escamilla

On Saturday, August 9th, our dear friends Lisa and Evan got married!!  This was such a special, beautiful day and we felt so lucky we all got to share it with them!  

We got up early Saturday morning and managed to get on the ferry as planned (always a question mark, especially in the summer on a weekend).  We grabbed coffee and pastries on the ferry and enjoyed the ride over.

"Sit still and take a picture with your mama"!!!

The drive from Kingston to Lake Crescent Lodge went much quicker than I had anticipated.  Ben is seriously such a trooper during car rides.  We stopped once to stretch our legs and get more coffee and arrived at this BEAUTIFUL destination around noon:

It was beyond stunning.  I went to find Lisa while Greg and Ben enjoyed all that this location had to offer :)

I should have been taking more pictures before the wedding, but instead I enjoyed spending time with Lisa, her parents (Shirley and Fred, who I feel are a second set of parents to me), Lisa and Evan's friends, checking out the location site, watching Crystal put the cake together), hanging out with Lisa and Evan in their last moment before becoming husband and wife (seriously, such a third wheel, LOL), drinking champagne, and watching Lisa get ready. :)

Before the ceremony started, I met back up with my 2 handsome dates and helped get Ben ready.  I still cannot get over how adorable he looked.

Lisa arrived at the ceremony by BOAT!  So fun.  Fred met her on shore :)

After the ceremony, pictures and cocktail hour, we moved into the tent!  Ben opted out of his nap ALL day.  (We knew it might not happen but hoped he would get a quick snooze in if Greg drove him around in the car).  He and Vinnie enjoyed a little Monsters on the iPad....

...but then it was time to DANCE!  After being a little shy earlier in the evening, Natalie, Crystal's adorable little 3 year old warmed up to him and the two of them danced the night away!  

I'm hoping to get my hands on some of the other photos taking throughout the night from some of the other camera's floating around!  It was such a beautiful day and night - and we know just how happy Lisa and Evan are going to be sharing their life together!!

Meal Planning: Week of August 11th

Review from last week:

I had Friday off from work, so Ben and I had a really fun morning at the Children's Museum followed by him taking a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNG nap!  I took that time to clean and bake a peach/raspberry crisp.  Yum.

Friday night I made chicken Parmesan. 

 

I made a Blue Apron recipe we had had awhile ago, salmon roll sandwiches - and Greg liked them even more this time because I left out the celery.  We actually had this twice last week because the salmon filet I pulled from the freezer was ENORMOUS.  I had mine over cabbage instead of on a bun because, CRISP.

I also made a recipe that I had seen online for High Protein Quiona Almond Berry Salad.  Had it for lunches and a few snacks this week.

Since my Blue Apron delivery didn't arrive until 6pm on Tuesday, we had frozen pizza instead with the zoodle dish.

The beef and rice-stuffed pepper was good, but the lime crema sauce was AMAZING.  Definitely a sauce we will be making with several dishes in the future.  Yum.

Finally, we had the chicken skewers (Blue Apron) and I thought they were really good.  I'm mostly a fan of the peanut sauce they have featured on many of their dishes in the past.

We have a super busy and fun weekend and week ahead of us!  Lisa and Evan are getting married on Saturday at Lake Crescent Lodge, so we will be boarding a ferry bright and early on Saturday morning to travel there and we cannot WAIT to celebrate with them!

On Sunday we are spending the day in Seattle with Hilary and John who are in town visiting!  Wahoo!

ANDDDDD Greg and I are on vacation all next week!  Very much looking forward to having some time off all together!

This is how our week is shaping up:

Friday: Blue Apron Meal from last week - Pan-Seared Salmon with Fennel and Heirloom Potato Salad.

Saturday: Lisa and Evan's Wedding!!

Sunday:  Out with Hilary and John while Ben is at home with Grandma.  I'll make some tomato basil soup in the crockpot for them to have for dinner.

Monday: Family day in Seattle with Hil, John and Violet.  Planning to throw together a picnic lunch at Pike Place and then spending some time on a sailboat in the afternoon.  Perfect.  If the kids aren't passed out yet, I would imagine we will have dinner out.  If they are dunzo, we will grab take out on the way home. (Read: Quesaritos).

Tuesday: Summer Gazpacho with Shrimp - my friend Shauna posted this recipe somewhere and it looked like the perfect thing for a hot summer night.

Wednesday: Hilary, John and Violet are coming to hang out and spend the night.  We are thinking of mahi mahi fish tacos with chipolte cream and I am going to make Lemon Bar Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches for dessert.

Thursday: Crave crave CRAVING this chili.  Oh how I wish I could enjoy it on a cold, Fall evening with a glass bottle of red.  But instead I'll have it with a cold beer, I guess.  And made with ground sirloin, not turkey.

Layered Chili (from the cookbook, Kitchen Revelry)

3T chili powder
2T ground cumin
1/2t dried red chili flakes
1/4 cup EVOO
3 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped seeded green bell peppers
6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced - (or if you are like me, buy an enormous jar of minced garlic from Costco and forget about mincing your own.  1t = 1 garlic clove)
2 lbs ground turkey meat (or ground beef)
1T dried oregano
1T cocoa powder or 1 ounce dark chocolate, chopped
1 12 ounce bottle lager beer
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 15.5 ounce cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Mix the chili powder, cumin and chili flakes in a small bowl.  Heat a heavy large nonstick pot over med-high heat.  Add the chili powder mixture to the pot and stir for 30 seconds to 1 minute until fragrant.

Add the oil to the pot, then the onions, bell peppers, and garlic and saute until beginning to soften (about 5 min).  Add the meat and saute until no longer pink (about 5 min).  Add the oregano, then the tomato paste, salt and cocoa powder; stir 1 min.  Add the beer and simmer 5 min.  Add the diced tomatoes and the beans.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to med-low and simmer slightly covered until the flavors develop, (about 30 min).

Friday: Leftover chili

Saturday: Another wedding!

Sunday: Grilled Flank steak with corn, tomato and asparagus salad.

Photos

Another photo roundup before our STAYCATION week :)

We have had some BLAZING hot days lately, so we cooled off in the back yard on a blanket for awhile and took some selfies.

The 7th Annual SeaFair party was so much fun!  Ben was not quite as scared by the Blue Angels as he was 2 years ago, but he still buried his face in my legs when it was too loud for him.

Otherwise, he was distracted by little miss Olivia who was also in attendance - she kept reaching for his hand, and being that he has a thing for little blonde girls, he had no problem with this at all.  <3



On the same street corner as we stood 2 years ago (best view of the air show in their 'hood).



A few recent pictures Callie sent me: Ben and Maylee enjoying a snack:



Ben at the park:

A few outtakes from his big boy bed photo shoot ;)

And on the subject of Ben's room, I picked up some art that I thought would go with the new bright colors of his room.  I really love it - I feel like we spend so much more time in there playing lately.  Ben is a big fan of driving trucks all over his bed :)

Playing outside in the front yard while I worked on my laptop on the porch.  Pretty sure he was falling backwards as I snapped this pic:

Meal Planning: Week of August 4th

Review from last week:

On Sunday, after returning home from our weekend away, we went to play at the park in Redmond and then had dinner at Hugo's.  Greg had purchased a Groupon after being told it was good.  The food is all organic, gluten free, etc. etc. etc., and the food tasted...pretty good.  It was super clean eating which was nice, but I think we both felt that we could have made something more delicious at home.  I did, however, LOVE the zucchini noodles I had there, so I'll be making that again this week at home!  They had a nice patio where Ben enjoyed some coloring....and by coloring, I mean 1 scribble followed by dumping all the crayons onto the table and trying to dump them on the floor and then freaking out that we wouldn't let him and then finally settling down when I offered him my phone to watch videos on.  Dining out - ALWAYS A TREAT.

On Monday evening we ate our dinner at home (chicken, mashed sweet potatoes and sauteed snap peas - one of my new favorite meals):

We were in a serious negotiation with Ben over how many more bites he needed to eat before he got to have a cake pop.  Spoiler alert: he didn't achieve his goal, so the cake pop was postponed until the next day.  

On Tuesday, I came across a picture of this Summer Cabbage Slaw Salad while scrolling through Instagram and I simply HAD to make it.  (It always helps when you have almost everything needed to make something already in the fridge)!  It was delicious and made enough for me to have for lunch the next day.  I even forgot the avocado and it was still filling and delicious.

On Wednesday, Greg cooked up some Costco smoked shredded pork and sauteed it with some BBQ sauce.  It was so delicious.  Apparently they have a smoked shredded chicken that we will be trying next time.  I made a simple salad of tomato/oregano/lime juice and roasted some Brussels sprouts and we enjoyed it on the deck with a couple margaritas.  Perfect.  Ben ate his pork with some shredded cheese in a taco shell and devoured the entire thing.

Plan for next week:

Friday:  Since I never made the chicken Parmesan last week, I'll make this on Friday with some roasted vegetables (asparagus or brussels I'm sure).

Saturday:  Saturday is the 7th annual SeaFair party at Jamie and Collin's house.  We are looking forward to a few mimosas in the morning, some sunshine in the afternoon and hanging out with all of their fun friends at their beautiful home!  We are both quite curious how Ben will handle the Blue Angels this year.  In terms of food, they always make a bunch of delicious snacks and I'm planning to bring a batch of this black bean and corn salad (new obsession, clearly).  That night, we will either be too full to eat much, or we will make the BLT chopped salad with corn, feta and avocado with grilled chicken or shrimp.

Sunday:  Salmon Roll Sandwiches and a big salad.

Monday: Last week when we went out to dinner, I had the most amazing "Zoodle" dish: raw zucchini noodles, tossed in truffle oil infused olive oil, with black olives, sunflower seeds, and tomatoes.  I'm going to make some to go with chicken tarragon.

Tuesday: Blue Apron Meal - Pan-Seared Salmon with Fennel and Heirloom Tomato Salad

Wednesday: Blue Apron Meal - Rice and Beef Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Lime-Crema Sauce 

Thursday: Blue Apron Meal - Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce and Marinated Green Tomatoes

Big Boy Bed

Well, it's official this time.  After a weekend trial run in February that resulted in a momentary "he is growing up way too fast" mommy panic, we officially made the transition to the BIG BOY BED yesterday!!!  Having cute bedding and the desire to crawl in bed and read books with my little guy gave me the final push to make it happen, and I'm really glad we did.

The bed was delivered right before nap time, so after several rounds of jumping on and off of his new bed, he was very ready to take a nap.

I explained to him that playing/jumping on his bed was fine, but that during nap and bed time, he needed to lay down and sleep.  I asked him to stay in bed and let me know he was ready to get up after he slept, and he seemed to understand that well enough.

I had the monitor with me constantly and was so.freaking.excited that after 1.5 hours, he was still happily snoozing!

Horrible monitor pictures:

I was on a conference call when suddenly, after 2 hours, Ben apparently fell out of his bed in the middle of a DEEP SLEEP.  He cried the most panic-filled what-the-FFFFF-just-happened-to-me cry I have ever heard.  I rushed to get him and it, sadly, took awhile to calm him down.  We agreed that I would move his bed to a wall and make it more safe for night time.  (OOPS!)

New layout:  

I also immediately ordered these so we should have total peace of mind very soon.

But I'm happy to report that he went down to bed with zero problems last night and even slept in this morning - hooray!! 

So proud of my big boy.

Cougle Family Vacation 2014

Another annual (except for last year, when Rachel was pregnant and I was sicccccccccccck so we decided to cancel) is in the books!  We were so fortunate to be able to spend the weekend at the cabin we stayed at two years ago - a family friend of the Cougans - and it was just as relaxing and fun as it was the last time!

We got on the road at nap time, which worked out perfectly!  Ben slept pretty much the entire way there.

Upon arrival, Ben spotted a big dump truck on the front porch - SCORE!  He had about a zillion trucks and cars to play with all weekend - it was pretty much all he did the 48 hours that we were there.

On Friday evening after we made dinner, we took a walk down to the water and Ben and Greg enjoyed throwing some rocks in.

The rest of our time there was spent eating, snacking drinking, lounging, hanging on the porch, going for walks/runs and for some of us, runs up the hill carrying a boulder - Peter is such a caveman when he works out ;)

I think my favorite part of the trip (aside from spending time with the people I love) was being entirely disconnected from our phones.  It was refreshing to not have anything to check (mostly out of habit) and it's something I'm trying to incorporate more into my daily life at home.