Tag: Andi

The 3rd of July

Lauren1 Comment

Right now, my brain is a jumble of thoughts like, “wait, what day is it??”  “Which member of the family has a teeth cleaning today??”  “Will I have this headache forever??”  “Were the past three days real or just a perfect dream??”  We spent two days in a tiny house village and it was the most entertaining!  Bobby and Becca got married and the wedding was SO perfect!   The 4th of July was low key, with spur of the moment dessert plans and our dog didn’t give a $&!% about firework noises.  So despite how discombobulated I feel, everything is actually very fine and good.

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The wedding was in Lyons, so Joey and I decided to make a mini-vacation of it and spend a few nights up there.  We headed up Monday night, where we proceeded to check into our tiny house and were SO delighted by it!  I think we’d been there all of two minutes when I proclaimed “I live here now!”  In all seriousness, staying here was the most fun… but only for two nights 😛

Afterwards, we walked to dinner.  We had our hearts SET on this taqueria for WEEKS but found out that morning that it’s closed on Mondays!  WHY?!  But it was okay because Oskar Blues was our back up and despite it’s mediocre star rating on Yelp, it was actually really great.  I loved my beer and the fish tacos were perfectly fried and had an amazing buttermilk sauce.  Only acted slightly like children when we got back to our tiny house but to be fair, any space with a ladder, is a space not to take yourself too seriously in.

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Saturday morning, we walked over to The Stone Cup and had an impressive-for-a-coffee-shop breakfast of Huevos Rancheros x2 then did a little bit of exploring at the LaVern M. Johnson Park.  That water was FRIGID, but it was very hot outside and we could not bear the thought of walking all the way back to our village so we forded the river, like the true adventurers we are.  We also walked into town so Joey could eat a triple scoop of ice cream (“you only let me have three scoops yesterday!” is a real thing he said to me the next day…) but mostly the day was really low-key and I even finished Order of the Phoenix and moved onto Half-Blood Prince!

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The wedding started at 4 PM and what can I say except that it was PERFECT ♥  So well organized, so pretty (The Lyons Farmette is just lovely!) and just so full of love.  Not to be too sappy, but witnessing this couple’s love for each other and all their family and friends’ love for them was truly incredible.  I felt so honored to be a part of it and just so happy for the two of them.  Also drank approximately 50 glasses of wine, danced to Backstreet Boys, petted an alpaca and just had thee most fun.

Also, Marriage Advice: Find someone who wants to act a fool on the dance floor as much as you do!

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Honestly, this 4th of July felt so weird!  Everyone on was out celebrating and I just felt like “but the big celebration was yesterday!”  Our 4th of July felt like a haphazardly thrown together afterthought, but that being said, it was actually really great.  A couple of weeks ago I was considering prepping some ribs ahead of time so we could grill but then Joey told me he’d round up a few meal options and we could just decide day-of what we felt like.  HE’S A GODSEND.

We ended up feeling like pizza so, after picking up breakfast burritos for the road, retrieving Andi from my parents, inspecting our garden (snap peas looking good!) and resting for a bit, we headed to Whole Foods for pizza ingredients and made the spontaneous decision to try no-churn ice cream for dessert.  It all turned out even better than expected!  We did one red sauce/mozzarella/roasted garlic/black olive/basil pizza and one olive oil/mozzarella/fig/goat cheese/arugula/walnut pizza (+ shishitos grilled to perfection) and I loved both so much.  Plus, the ice cream turned out SO GOOD.  It was MEGA-CREAMY and we threw some peppermint extract (1 teaspoon) and mini chocolate chips in.  This feels life-changing!  Also, our neighbors set off fireworks late into the night but Andi didn’t even lift his head at any of them.  THANK GOD.

I hope you all had the best 4th of July but for me, it was all about the 3rd 🙂

Weekend Things

Lauren2 Comments

So out with June and in with July!  This month is a celebratory one, what with a wedding, 4th of July, birthdays galore (including mine!) and just that peak summer spirit going on.  I’m all for it!  We had no plans for Friday and I’m not going to lie, I was VERY into the idea of cooking dinner at home, vegging out on the couch and probably falling asleep early.  We did all of that and I loved every second!

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Orzo Salad from The Kitchen made thee biggest bowl of food and we will have leftovers forever!

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Saturday started with a trip to the Farmers’ Market but I’m happy to report we finally invested in bike helmets so our brains were nice and safe on the way there.  Shh, don’t think about how many times I told you we biked someplace now that you know we weren’t wearing helmets till now.  We grabbed breakfast tacos at a stand in the market and I was NOT impressed.  But I went home with peaches and shishitos and feel only happiness about that!!!

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The rest of the day was spent preparing for and enjoying (or if you’re my mom and sister, SUFFERING THROUGH) the Shakespeare Festival.  Friday was in the 90s, Sunday was in the 90s and Saturday was seriously in the 60s.  WHY?!  I think my sister referred to my insistence that we still picnic before the play as inflexibility, but I’m calling it perseverance, okay?  We had a spread of sausage, cheese, crackers, dates, figs, cherries, shrimp, potstickers, marcona almonds and olives that was only slightly excessive for three people.  And we maybe ate our macarons in the car because we needed a quick warm up before sitting outside for 2+ hours.

I seriously loved the production of Love’s Labour’s Lost but my sister’s review was “just a bunch of old men spitting” (and okay, all the male actors did seem to be emitting a bit too much spray while delivering their lines) and my mom thought it was dull.  To each their own!

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And now, a representation of Sunday via every meal I ate.  Ha!  We made our very favorite egg-free French toast with miso-date butter, using some challah we bought at the Farmers’ Market and it was amazing!  Between that and my lunch salad, I got my hair cut and returned a bunch of things at the mall, then my parents came over to pick up Andi.  They’re watching him for a couple of days while we stay in Lyons for Bobby and Becca’s wedding and Joey and I very dramatically fake cried about letting go of him.  Also, I took my dad to American Cultures to fill up growlers of kombucha and I was very happy to hear how much he liked the place!

Got a mani/pedi later on and then, since my hair was nice and curled, my nails were pretty and pink and it felt like holiday weekend time, we went out to dinner at Bamboo Sushi.  They have a lovely shaded patio out back and is there anything better than fresh sushi on a hot summer evening?  I say no.   The Green Machine is a veggie roll but it is seriously my favorite ever.  Between Cart-Driver last Sunday and Bamboo Sushi this Sunday, I could get used to this chill Sunday dinner out thing ♥  Last but not least, major shout out to Joey, who whipped the backyard into shape this weekend so it feels like our little oasis again.  I am so very thankful for his hard work!