I went out of town Friday through Sunday and left both kiddos behind with Kyle. I have never left V for longer than a few hours – definitely not overnight. To say I had anxiety…would be a ridiculously tame way of putting it.
Guess how it went? Swimmingly! I won’t dismiss Kyle’s fantastic parenting with qualifiers, but I did prep every single little thing to make his life run as smoothly as possible. All my fears (that she wouldn’t take a bottle and I’d come home to a weaned baby who didn’t want anymore milk for instance) were for naught. Figures. Classic catastrophizing move on my part.
Here are some pics of my time with the women in my life.
Road trip!!!!!!
I got WF hot bar to go for lunch on the road. I got sesame EVERYTHING to put on top of my greens, carrots, beets, and tofu. Plus sunflower seeds, smoked almonds, and miso thai dressing galore since the allergic one wasn’t present.
We stopped for dinner somewhere along the way.
This beast of a kale salad was quite nice, but the real star were the fries.
This was an order for just me. Ha! The spicy mayo dip was where my face planted most of the meal.
The next day was the bridal shower for my middle sissie. She is part of the photo bombing couple in the back. There were better photos taken by my mom, obvs, but I’m too lazy to track them down.
Hawaiian themed because it’s only one week until we are off to watch her hula down the aisle. This was the main reason I wanted to clear macadamia nuts with P, FYI. WHICH WE DID. HEYOOOOO. We also got new bloodwork done for a Stanford study (which he didn’t get into) but it was good info to have nonethless, since he hasn’t been retested for IgE responses since he was 9 months old. Lots of downward trending, which is thrilling (!!!) but peanuts and sesame are still rock solid in the Class III and dairy actually jumped up to join them too. Womp womp.
ANYWAY.
The shower was perfect and I had a blast conversing with people in full – no children to distract me whatsoever.
Kyle texted me this photo on Saturday. I baked (and hid) a double decker chocolate cake with home-made buttercream frosting for him to enjoy while I was away. It was his birthday, so P and I set up a surprise scavenger hunt for his presents, too. The map was drawn by P but I facetimed in to help decode it. 😉
Here are the sneaky photos I took while baking it. I hid it in the fridge in the garage covered in foil and he had no idea. He is terrible about looking in the fridge – even for things I’m telling him to get for me – so I wasn’t really worried that he’d stumble across it before I told him it was there.
Back to my Saturday night out of town…
Chipotle for all.
What sweetness I have in my family.
Since I’m the dessert-aholic of the group (and not on a pre-wedding diet whatsoever) I took home ALL THE CANDY and seven layer bars. Winner winner mother freakin’ winner.
Kyle finished his cake in 5 nights (all by himself) and I took down the nuts and chocolate and bars in about an equal time frame. We are a perfect match! Also, I’m obsessed with macadamia nuts in my kale salads. I keep waiting to OD but I haven’t tired of them in over two weeks.
WON’T.
EVER.
GET.
OLD.
Avocado, macadamia, repeat. Avocado, macadamia, repeat.
Not very glam pics, but I don’t have bowls big enough to hold my portion sizes so the multi gallon tupperware is the default container.
Gonna try to get the weekly menus up soon so stay tuned.
Your kale salads always look so good!! What do you massage them with and do you add any extra dressing? Trying to get myself into kale ☺️
I do both depending on my mood. I either massage with plain olive oil (when I prep in advance in bulk) and then add dressing later (per individual serving when I eat it) or I massage with the dressing from the get go in a huge portion.
I’m so glad you were able to get away for some fun for the weekend- looks like a wonderful celebration for your sister!
What a clever idea to make Kyle a birthday scavenger hunt, that cake looks totally amazing. And I’m sure that after the weekend he now has a renewed appreciation for your daily multitasking skills 🙂
Your family always puts a huge smile on my face and the warmest feeling in my heart!!! Reminds me exactly of mine. Your mm’s beautiful smile says it all always. Last night my daughter and her boyfriend asked me to come over for a second and they had baked me a tray of homemade carrot, raisin muffins for my bday, which is coming on Friday, because their version is the kind I love and can eat. Happy bday Kyle. Your salads and cake look yum!
Your salads always look bomb. I, too, have a just 1 year old and was wondering what your fitness routine is? I work weekends, so no childcare during the week while my husband works. Usually run with jogging stroller, but I really need to include some strengthening! Thanks!
I love it. Everything you tell me about your family makes me agree and think we are kindred spirits. <3
I eat my salads out of the huge salad spinner bowl 🙂 Your salads always make me crave them–they always look so good!
It depends on Kyle’s work schedule in the morning…this morning he left super early so I didn’t have alone time, so I did a random workout I found on pinterest (searched hotel workout) with the kids playing around me. That’s rare though. But basically my morning routine is determined the night before when Kyle and I discuss his am (is he working in Davis or Richmond/ is he taking the train or driving or riding his bike / when is his first meeting or call / etc). Based on that he tells me when he has to leave the house by and then we schedule in his and my workouts accordingly. He usually leaves between 730-745 and V wakes up to nurse around 6 am, so we have 1.5ish hours to play around with. He typically works out first (so he starts when she’s nursing and then I play w V until he’s done). Then he showers and takes her while I work out. Neither of us does anything longer than 30 minutes so it’s not super strenuous but it’s something. I alternate activities based on how much time I have but I try to equally rotate strength training (I do Jillian Michaels DVDs) and running and cycling. We have a little gym set up in the garage with a tiny TV that allows us to get quick strength training/weight stuff in without gym memberships or anything. Hope that helps!!