Merry marry 1st birthday weekend

Parties all around this weekend!  And lots of driving to get to them all!

 

This was the only thing I took a picture of on Thursday.  Clearly it was the highlight of my eating day (the highlight in the non-food realm was Peyton Manning scoring a million points for my fantasy team). 

Dove dark chocolate is crazy good.  My mom gave us two bars as a part of a wedding anniversary present and I had been saving them…for what I don’t know.  I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did though.  Not that I’m a chocolate snob, but I usually buy the fancy stuff at the Co-op or Whole Foods.  Dove is better.  Sorry scharffen berger, valrhona, and green & black’s. 

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for Thurs.  We woke up early early on Friday to hit the road by 6 am.

 

Poor patty-cakes was very confused when we roused him from his slumber at 5 am.  No sunlight?  What gives?

Kyle went to the Bucks while I nursed him (decafs for us both) and then we were off! 

Here are the breakfast sandos I packed us.

 

His: egg, cheddar, and avocado on Dave’s Killer Bread
Hers: egg and avocado on Udi’s GF plain bagel

In case you were wondering other car snacks included:

• trail mix
• banana chips
• ALT peanut butter bar
• banana
• apple
• sahale crunchers
• chocolate

By noon we arrived in Paso Robles, where we picked up Kyle’s parents (who had taken the train up from the OC for a night of wine tasting). 

After that we were off to San Luis Obispo (our final destination) for the wedding later that night.

 

Because it was already 1 pm, we didn’t bother going to the hotel first, and instead went straight to downtown SLO for lunch.

Natural Cafe is a so cal chain.  I’ve been to the one in Santa Barbara several times, so I was already familiar with the menu.

 

Banana for this guy.

 

Black bean enchiladas.

 

Salmon Caesar.

 

Tempeh tacos.

 

My parents and sister met us for lunch too.  All the fam bam!  Happy full bellies all around. 🙂

 

After lunch we checked into the hotel and basically lounged around for the next hour until it was time to get ready for the wedding.  Kyle took the shuttle from the hotel to the venue with my family while I stayed back to put P down.  Once he was bathed and fed and semi-asleep, I got dressed and met up with the wedding gang to par-tay.  Lucky us, we had Kyle’s parents to babysit our little man and a shuttle ride home, so Kyle and I could get our drink on.  Pour the champs!

 

I don’t have much in the way of photos from the wedding.  I stole these pics from my mom.  [Please note the flip flop situation going on above]

My sister and the bride are besties (since elementary school), so I’ve known Lar and her family for all of eternity.

 

Dancing shoes.

Sisters.

Mom & Dad.

 

The barn had lights strung across the lofted ceiling.  There was home-made cookies and ice cream for dessert.  And the bride and groom were beaming all night long.

 

It was definitely a fun fun night.

 

The next morning we swung by my sister’s hotel so she could get more time with the little one. 

 

The rest of the girlies joined to shower P with kisses.  What a ladies man.  Pimpin from such a young age. 

 

He could hardly contain his excitement with all the long hair to pull. 

Side note: It is SO COOL that my son will know these girls from his infancy since I’ve known them my whole life.  They’re basically my little sisters.  And now they’ll be Aunties to my kiddo.

 

For brunch we walked a block over to a place called Bliss Cafe.

I ordered a carob date shake for me and Kyle but neither of us was super into it.  It was made with coconut milk, banana, carob, maca, dates, and vanilla.

My entree, on the other hand, was deeeelicious. 

I got the green energy bowl which had rice with grilled strips of seitan, white cabbage, nori, shredded carrots, beets, cilantro & an almond/nutritional yeast sauce.  It sounded on the simple side and yet it made my mouth so so happy.  The almond nooch sauce was bomb and I was so stoked to get seitan since I haven’t had it in forever.  Mmmmm… 

I like yellow rice!  I should remember to make it more often.  Same with seitan.  I haven’t bought vital wheat gluten since moving to Davis so I need to re-stock my pantry to remedy that asap. 

I usually don’t order such non-traditionally savory things for breakfast.  I mean eggs and potatoes, sure.  But unless you’ve been up since 4 am, salad is a not 10 am fare (in my opinion). 

Kyle got the baja chipotle burger, which had a seitan patty with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, chipotle dressing & veganaise on a multi grain bun. With a side of split pea soup.

He said it was good, and since he’s a harsh honest critic of veg places (he won’t go to raw restaurants with me anymore), I feel confident recommending Bliss to others. 

Kyle’s parents both got the bhakti bowl with rice, curry vegetables & chutney.  Seemed to be a winner as well.  Kyle took his mom’s leftovers for the car ride home.

 

Oh car rides.  How fun you are.  [Not]

P used to sleep through them, but he’s definitely past that newborn phase.  He’s now way too curious and inquisitive to sleep through foreign travel/environments. 

As you can see, we had to get creative with the entertainment, hence the tupperware of candied ginger (aka baby rattle).

 

This is another gem. 

Five + hours later we were home.  Bath time.  Story time.  Bed time.  Unpacking.  Laundry. 

Dinner! 

 

Two fried eggs, carrots, goat’s milk camellia cheese, and ketchup for the baked potato fries.

 

I had an already baked potato leftover in the fridge (I made a bunch in the crock pot last week) so I cut it into wedges and to bake while I showered, broiling them for the last few minutes.

 

For dessert I had more Dove chocolate and figs.  More than shown for the record.  The chocolate is gone.

Sunday morning I did Jillian Michaels’ 30 day shred.  I definitely love/hate her.  Oof.  So sore.

 

I made breakfast after nursing P.  Then it was football time 🙂

Breakfast was the above fried egg with Udi’s GF bagel toasted and topped in peanut butter.  I’m not super impressed with the new Costco brand that replaced the previous brand I bought.  It doesn’t have salt so I end up adding salt to it.  And sometimes sugar and cinnamon too.  😛

 

We meant to leave for Chico by 10, but didn’t end up getting out the door til 11.  It’s slow moving with a kiddo, but it’s all good.  By the time we got there the party was just getting going.  Happy first birthday Kev! 

I don’t have pics of the food, but I had lots of figs and goat cheese.  Patty-cakes tried figs for the first time and practically sucked them down whole!  Guess he likes them! 

 

Sadly the time it took to drive to and from was longer than the actual party.

I wish we could have spent more time hanging out with our friends, but the stupid work week is freakin’ always breathing down my neck.  Sheesh.

So guess what we had to do on the way home?  Ugh.  Costco.  I hate grocery shopping nowadays, but I’m heading into a crazy stretch of shifts…and we kinda need food.  Why do I hate something I used to love?  I think it all comes down to the fact that shopping for food is no longer a leisurely activity.  It’s a time crunch.  And thanks to P, it has to happen between certain hours (that are shockingly narrow) and both adults are needed (great, let’s add more filters).  Now you see why Costco trips are such a pain.  I cannot wait til he can sit in the front of a grocery cart (so sooooon) so I can go by myself because we won’t need the stroller.  No stroller equals both hands on the cart!  So until then, I’ll continue to drag the whole family with me to Costco and the Co-op.  Anyway, we got a ton of stuff so even though it sucked in the moment, it’s done and we are set for a while.

Due to the side trip, we didn’t get home til after P’s usual bedtime.  But because he’d been in the car so much we didn’t want to put him right down right away (I feel guilty when he’s strapped down for so much time) so we played with him and made sure he got plenty of stimulation that didn’t involve peek-a-boo with the sun shade. 

I don’t have pics of any of the rest of my food.  I had a Clif bar in the car before shopping.  A big salad for dinner with veggie chips on the side.  And a couple of home-made cookies for dessert.  And tea.