Outside

Aiden is even more obsessed with being outside lately. In the morning he gets out of bed, runs to the door and says "outside". After nap time, he gets out of bed, runs to the door and says "outside". After his bath, he gets out of the tub, runs to the door and says "outside". You get the idea. He loves it out there and can say "outside" perfectly clear now. So, a vast majority of the day is spent - yep - outside with Aiden, sitting on a blanket watching him play.

He plays very independently out there. It's like his own big boy world where he can run on the grass, throw pebbles, drive his trucks on the patio, play in his little climber/slide and run around with his little watering can (although lately he has been handing me the little watering can and then taking my big watering can to use). I think he likes it so much because he can pretty much do whatever he wants out there - I don't tell him no very often and he can be as messy as he wants to.

Here are some of his outdoor adventures...

 Climbing on the retaining wall, pushing his red car all over the lawn

 Fascinated that I let him pick a raspberry, in hopes that he would eat it. He did put it in his mouth.

 Playing in the dirt and bark. Please note above his hand to the left is where he put the above uneaten berry.

 Trucks. Trucks. Trucks.

 And more trucks.

 

 Oh, yes, and even more trucks.

He loves these 2 in particular.

 

 Oh, and somewhere along the way he learned the "oh crap, she has that camera again" pose.

Little Moments

Yes, I have been on a blog hiatus of sorts. I have so many posts to do, so little time. Been a little stressed out lately. Anyway, Jeremy and I went on our first overnight getaway without Mr. A to celebrate our anniversary this week (more on that later). We came home yesterday evening, saying things on the car ride home like "I miss Aiden" and "we get to see Aiden in a few minutes".

Last night, after dinner and bath time, we laid in bed watching a baby lullaby show. Aiden was cuddly and sweet - happy to see us, happy to be in his favorite place - in bed between mom and dad. It hit me that THIS was the best part of our little trip. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time and it was wonderful to get a full nights sleep and I really enjoyed having no responsibility for over 24 hours. But, when it comes down to it, the trips and the birthday parties and all the fun activities are not the important things in life - THIS is. The little moments that happen that aren't planned, that aren't "a big deal".

Sitting with Aiden, listening to him talk and point things out on the TV (oh goodness, does my heart melt when he says the word yellow - that's right not Mama, but yellow!), giving him arm scratchies and playing with his soft little hair, while he smiles and sings to the music is the best way to spend an evening. These are the moments that really make memories and really make families. These are the moments that form the strongest bonds between parents and children. These are the little moments that I don't want to forget...

 

(so yes, I grabbed my phone and snapped a few poor quality pictures, but to me, they are perfect)

37 Years

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad who have been married for 37 years today!

Thank you for sticking out the tough times, embracing the crazy times, enjoying all the good times and teaching your family how to do the same. You are both wonderful people and wonderful role models. 

Have a fantastic anniversary! We love you!

Dad, you better take her somewhere nice. Mom, you better not make him take you to a quilt store.

Keeps him entertained...

Aiden discovered my box-o-makeup the other day. I walked into my bedroom to find this...

He was surprised to see me there just watching him and proceeded to show me all the treasures he had found. Like hair ties and lip gloss and one yellow shoe.

Did I stop him? Nope, I got a good 20 minutes all to myself. Make-up really keeps him entertained.

By the way, out of this box, I really only use about 6 things. And there is another box under the sink, which is full of the really crazy stuff that I have not used in 10 years. I think I might be a make-up hoarder, I never throw anything out. Because what if one day I really, really need that bright pink eyeshadow/glitter eyeliner combo or nude lipstick and purple lip liner ;)

4th of July Festivities

We celebrated the long 4th of July weekend with a couple of warm days outside, playing in the water and enjoying some good food. Monday we had a little barbeque at our place with Chris and Lisa and the babies. We spent most of the time outside in the shade sipping on cold margaritas and the kids spent most of the time in their bathing suits.

 fourth of July Pinwheels, strawberry margaritas with blue swirly straws and a bucket of chips with homemade salsa - yum!

 Thank goodness Addison will pose for me, those boys want nothing to do with my camera

Ryan and Addison

 

 The boys staying cool

 Addison crawling around in the pool

 Lisa pushing Aiden in his car, Ryan um...fishing?

 I forgot to take pictures of dinner, but I got plenty of our ice cream sundaes

We ended the night by lighting a few sparklers for the kids, maybe next year we will go for the bigger fireworks :) Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Yummy Summer Dinner

One of my favorite summer dinners is a big green salad with farmers market veggies topped with grilled chicken - easy, quick and no need to heat up my house by turning on the stove or oven. The only thing is, the green salad starts to get old after a while and I feel like I need to switch it up now and again. I was happy when I found this recipe for a yummy looking salad with avocado, corn, cucumber and tomato the other day and decided it would probably work for dinner if I topped it with chicken. Boy did it work, it was sooooo good. The cold salad with warm chicken was perfect on a hot day.

Even carb-a-holic Jeremy, after looking sadly at dinner and asking if there was tortillas or something to go with it, liked it. His exact words were "Wow, this is actually really good". And it was filling. I changed the original recipe up, because I didn't have some of the ingredients, I hate measuring, didn't want to take time to actually grill corn myself and also, I am not a HUGE cilantro person. So here is my version - but definitely check out the original also.

Avocado and Grilled Corn Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette
1/2 bag of Trader Joe's Frozen Fire Roasted Corn
2 Avocados, diced and sprinkled with lemon juice (keeps em' green)
1 pint Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 Small red onion, finely diced
1 cup Crumbled Goat Cheese
1 English cucumber, skin on and diced
1 tbls. Fresh cilantro, chopped

Add all ingredients to a large bowl and refrigerate while you make the dressing:

5 tbls. Olive oil

2 tbls. Rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. Garlic powder
3/4 tsp. Salt
Lots of fresh ground pepper

Add all of the above ingredients in a canning jar and shake well. When ready to serve, toss dressing with the salad. Divide into bowls and top each bowl with sliced grilled chicken (all I did was salt and pepper a couple chicken breasts and throw em' on the BBQ for a few minutes). So easy, and so good! Tastes particularly good paired with iced tea and eaten outdoors ;)

First Trip to the River

Sunday we decided to go for a walk by the river in old Folsom, which turned into "hey, what's out Salmon Falls road?", which turned into "Hey, was that the only river access?", which turned into "I guess we are on our way to Coloma."

So, after a rather windy (as in lots of turns, not bad weather) drive we ended up in Lotus. Which is swamped with little hippie kids. Which I think is cool, but reminded me that, yes, I am old. Walking around in my bikini, smoking cigarettes and being all drunk in public is not something I am into anymore. Oh, the sadness in the realization that I am (gasp), more mature now. Anyway, Aiden really dug the hippie kid bongo music and danced accordingly. It was pretty darn cute.

We walked along the river, which was high and fast and we dubbed "death". Between Jeremy and I we have spent many summers at that river and neither one of us have ever seen the river look that dangerous (could be another sign that we are old, or it could be the cold, wet spring this year).

We finally found a calm little beach (along with about 150 other people). 

The water was freezing, and not the kind of freezing that you got used to if you stayed in it. I stuck it out, up to my knees, just so I could get some pictures of Aiden's first experience in the river.

Jeremy put Aiden's little feet in the freezing water, he lasted a couple minutes.

 

Until this.

And then this.

But, once he realized there was sand to throw he sat down at the edge of the water quite happily, throwing rocks and sand. At me.

Then we packed it up, and went on our way home, and we ended up in Placerville, and then at Big 5 to say "hi" to my brother, and then finally, home for dinner. 

Not a bad afternoon, if you ask me.

Saturday Night

Saturday night with a toddler is different than Saturday nights used to be. Jeremy and I haven't had a date night since our anniversary. 2 years ago. Last night we got as close as we can. I call it date night with Aiden.

We had a lovely dinner. At home, made by me, since Aiden + restaurant = nightmare for mom.

Then we went to the batting cages for an hour or so. Jeremy got to hit some balls. Aiden watched and played with a little ball of his own, I think at this point he prefers playing soccer to baseball. Even I hit a couple rounds of balls.

Wait, let me rephrase that, I swung at a couple rounds of balls.

Please excuse the bad photos - they were taken with my phone. FYI, now that I know more about photography, the iPhone uses some really odd settings for taking pictures.

After we were sufficiently tired from chasing Aiden around the sports complex, we went out for ice cream. Cold Stone now has Sinless cheesecake and cake batter flavors.

Yum. 

A tough choice, but I went with my fav - cheesecake with raspberries and graham cracker crumbs. Jeremy went for his usual, chocolate with a brownie and chocolate syrup.

Guess which one Aiden ate?  Of course it was his daddy's chocolate - do you really think I would ever feed Aiden LIGHT ice cream?!?! Ha. Actually, given Aiden's eating habits, we were beyond thrilled to see him eat something cold. With a spoon. By himself. Oh how I wish it was always that easy.

After ice cream we watched a movie on the couch and enjoyed a couple adult beverages. Which since once again, Saturday nights are not like they used to be, just leads to sleep. 

Ahhhh, a nice family night :)