Week in photos: Dr. Ben, Out with Hilary, and My New Office is ALMOST READY

My mom picked up this amazing play road tape for Ben that he absolutely loves.  He has recently gotten back into his cars and has enjoyed playing with them on it (sometimes for hours all by himself).

I returned from Hawaii with a terrible cold/sinus thing and spent the entire weekend in bed.  Ben came in one afternoon and told me to get into his bed so he could make me feel better.  It definitely helped.

Under our window seat, we stash away a selection of toys so that every so often, we can open it up and discover "new" things to play with.  The other day Ben pulled out his walkie-talkies - and now he actually understands the concept of pushing the button down when you need to talk. 

Bath buddies.

Jaxon (our friend Chris and Emily's boy) turned 4 and had a fun party at his house.  We recently learned that Ben and Jaxon will be going to the same kindergarten - which is so fun since I've known Chris since the 1st grade and went to school with him for so many years. And yes, Ben is a giant.  (Beckett, left is 2 and Jaxon, right is 4).

This cracked me up.  Emily put Chris in charge of helping Jaxon open his presents, but soon after I snapped this photo, all of the kids grabbed their own presents to bring over and everyone started opening them and Chris shouted out "Emily, help!  I've lost control!!".  I think everything was opened within 3 minutes and all the kids started playing with the new stuff.

Hilary is in town this week, so we headed out to Woodinville for wine, snacks and a nice long catch-up!  Hilary just finished school for her Nurse Practitioner degree and it was so fun to hear about her graduation and interview process for new jobs!

Grandma Wednesdays are definitely a highlight of Ben's week.  Last week, they went to library story time and picked up a book where the family makes a berry pie.  Ben asked Grandma if they could make one, so of course, they did!  He got to help cut up strawberries (those child-safe knives I bought him for Christmas have really come in handy)!

And finally, we are moving this weekend!  This has been a great experience learning what it takes to move a business - and I hope to never have to do it again :) 

My empty office.  My work home for the past 11+ years.  While I'm very much looking forward to the newer, nicer, closer to home office (with windows), I sure learned a lot in this space and feel a little sad leaving. 

New space coming together!

Meal Planning: Week of May 30th

Review from last week: 

If you haven't made this gyro meat yet, please do it.  It is soooooo great on salads.

 

Blue Apron Meal: Steak tartines (beef on bread), toasted with cheese and an arugula pesto.  

Callie, Mira and Maylee came over for a pizza party!

 

The other Blue Apron meal we made last week wasn't the most beautiful, but it was still super good.  Chicken Steam Buns with a radish and cucumber kimchi.

Plan for next week:

Sunday: Summer Cabbage Slaw Salad

Monday:  Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

Tuesday: Leftover Carnitas

Wednesday: Spinach Pesto Gnocchi (blue apron meal we didn't make last week - had to replace the Spinach and asparagus with fresh ingredients).

Thursday: Callie and the girls came over for pizza last week, and she brought me some soup she had made!  Since we already had a fridge full, I froze it to reheat this week on a busy night.

Friday: Something from the freezer (I've been making my way through Trader Joe's frozen section choosing something new to try each time I go there.  I picked up some dumplings that looked interesting).

Saturday: Out to eat

Sunday: Tomato Soup

Meal Planning: Week of May 23rd

Review from last week:

This rosemary chicken salad was SO delicious.  I'm making it again next week.

Miracle of all miracles - Ben ATE SOMETHING I MADE.  He has gotten into such a rut with what he is willing to eat (at least happily willing to eat), that it made my day week when he grabbed the fork and dug into the pasta with meat sauce I placed in front of him.  He has had an aversion to pasta (including macaroni and cheese) but suddenly, he is interested in both these past few weeks.  And I love it. 

This is not my cooking, but I wanted to point out that Trader Joe's actually had some decent frozen Indian Food.  I love having something like this in the freezer (that is a fraction of the price of ordering take out) on a night when I don't feel like cooking.

I had forgotten about this recipe - black bean tacos with feta and cabbage slaw.

Plan for next week:

Sunday: Leftover gyros

Monday: Rosemary Chicken Salad

Tuesday: Papa Murphy's

Wednesday: Blue Apron Meal: Steak Tartines with Zucchini au Pistou

Thursday: Blue Apron Meal: Chicken Steam Buns with French Breakfast Radish & Cucumber Kimchi

Friday: Blue Apron Meal: Spinach Pesto Gnocchi with Sauteed Asparagus & Brown Butter

Saturday: Memorial Day (Weekend) BBQ at Dan and Jeannette's

Sunday: Out to dinner :)

Hawaii Day 6: Last Day in Paradise

Greg started his day with another round of golf, so Ben and I had the morning together.  Snapped this picture of the pool on our way to breakfast.

After we ate, we went down to the beach.

We played hide-and-go-seek in the trees.

Some pictures of the cottage area.

The lobby.

This was a big interactive map for the hotel "guidepost" staff to be able to show you various things they offer at the resort and what is available nearby.  If you used a certain hashtag on instagram, your photo would appear on the main screen:

Greg scooped Ben up to take him with him on his next round of golf.  While they were gone, he sent me this picture.  Ben hit the ball SUPER far (it's yellow and you can barely see it it's so far away)!

I sent Greg this picture, luring him back to the room :)

The boys upon their return:

We hit the pool once more to enjoy lunch and some more cocktails.  Greg opted for Mai Tai's while I had a Bloody Mary, a Lava Flow and this Coco-Margarit-o.

That evening, we had the most delicious dinner at sunset.  Rare Ahi Tuni, Crab Cakes and Asparagus.

We finished the evening watching the sunset and enjoying some music poolside.  The perfect ending to a perfect vacation.

 

* In reality, the not-so-perfect ending to our vacation was me coming down with a cold as I was packing things up the last night, suffering through the longest, slowest security line of our lives at the Honolulu airport, and experiencing the most painful ear plugging/pressure during landing back in Seattle.   I'm SO happy that this cold waited until the very last day and that we flew home on a Friday night to no plans this weekend :)  MAHALO.

Hawaii Day 4: Exploring the North Shore

The next day, Greg didn't have golf so we all had breakfast together.  

Breakfast views:

After breakfast we decided to drive around a bit to check out different parts of the North Shore.  We found a big, beautiful beach to explore for a bit.

We also drove to Waimea Valley, a spot we kept passing, near our hotel, to see what was all about. It turned out to be a beautiful spot full of botanical gardens and waterfalls (where they filmed LOST and Joe vs. the Volcano and a zillion other things).  Since you had to pay to get in and because Ben was already ready to go back to the pool, we opted not to go.  I took one picture.

When we got back, I hit the gym.  THIS is the view from the treadmill.

We went back out to visit Turtle Beach and grab some lunch:

Then we spent the rest of the day doing this: