To clarify, this is a recap of her birthday party, a day before her actual birthday, but close enough. Low key and no frills was the objective, and I’d say we mostly succeeded with our mission. A few friends and family came over to wish our growing girl happy 2nd birthday and we avoided any kind of major drama.
Just like the format of my Roller Coaster Recap of August, I am going to recap her birthday in High-Low fashion. And, just as before, the plan is to end on a high note!
High – Just the fact that we’re celebrating the 2nd birthday of our beautiful, smart, healthy, and happy (most of the time) little girl is awesome! It’s cliche, but true, they really do grow so fast!
High – Opening a gift from G-Ma in bag with polkadots. Gasp, and her shirt has polkadots!
Low – Avery was overwhelmed by so many people giving her so much attention all at once. So I helped matters by sticking a camera in her face to capture the moment.
Can I just eat with my turtle in peace?!
High – Going Mom kept decorations simple yet elegant, and the food was placed for easy access.
Low – We had a nice assortment of Beanitos Black Bean Chips, crudites, hummus, and cupcakes homemade by a neighbor laid out for our guests. Unfortunately, we completely forgot about the giant bowl of fresh strawberries in the fridge and Costco-sized peanuts we were going to set out too.
High – Avery loved her trampoline birthday gift and got to jumping right away! Hellloooo, nap time!
Low – Nap time never happened.
Why sleep when I can jump? It’s my party afterall!
High – I made chocolate protein pancakes with a banana, NuttZo and chia seed frosting for her birthday cake.
Low – My decoration skills fall somewhere between 0 and a negative number. That’s supposed to be a “2” on top.
Low – Damn teething took no pity on the birthday girl, or so that’s what we’re going with.
High – Singing “Happy Birthday” to our sweet girl. She kept clapping for herself after everyone had finished 30 seconds earlier. She really likes clapping.
Low – Oops, too much attention on her again!
High – Mommy makes everything better and even helps blow out the double bonfire on her cake.
High – Avery had no issue with my cake construction and tore right into her healthy confection.
High – She even saved a bite for me and flew it first class into my mouth on Air Fork One.
Low – Crazy demon parents (that’s us) put her back in the highchair to recreate a picture from her first birthday. Not a fan.
High – Holding two fingers to show her age in a fun family photo. She’s much happier when being held.
Other than the several meltdowns resulting from too much in-your-face attention and teething, the part went fairly smooth and it was nice to see everyone. We’ll be the first to admit that we’re not great entertainers, but it seemed as if everyone was pleased. Either way, we appreciate everyone who came by to wish our sweetheart a Happy 2nd Birthday.
Hey guys, welcome to Monday! Or should it be Muuunnnnddaaaaaayyy? Whatever your feelings towards the beginning of the week, it’s the last day of August and boy has it been a wild ride!
Much like a roller coaster (hence the post title), we’ve had plenty of highs and lows in August. Inspired by Tina from Carrots N Cake (she has a handsome 15 month old boy and talks everything from food and fitness), who I’ve been following since the days of my healthy food blog, Just Add Cayenne, I thought I’d do a recap of August by sharing our highs and lows of the month.
I just need to make sure, like her, we end on a high note! Lets get to it, shall we?
High – Meeting with my mom and little brother for a wonderful brunch at Brewed.
Low – The major change in routine coupled with lack of food and sleep made for a crazy first night. We support co-sleeping, but not under these conditions.
High – An anniversary surprise for my wife at the Vail Farmers’ Market that almost went Awry, but turned out perfectly!
Low – Eating at Sweet Basil in Vail and all of us receiving very poor service. We had to resort to feeding Avery a watermelon and red onion salad that we made!
High – Nana and Papa obviously have good taste by keeping several jars of NuttZo in stock. Avery may or may not of finished one jar by herself while we were there. Thanks, Steve and Kathy!
High – I could make a whole post with the Highs from our trip, but I’ll wrap it up and say it was just great spending time with family and getting out in the fresh mountain air.
Low – The flight back from our family vacation was right during Avery’s bedtime. That, plus another day of not eating much or napping meant for a long….long trip home.
High – Our official 8th wedding anniversary with my awesome bronze compass, handwritten card, and kettlebell gifts! Good-bye, 7 year itch!
Low – Going Mom and to go away for work all week leaving Avery and Daddy feeling quite lonely. We had to take selfies to try and keep happy.
High – Avery’s first time to ride in the cart when grocery shopping was a big hit. Since Mommy wasn’t there, she picked the BarkThins for her when she got back.
Low – I brought her to our friend’s/neighbor’s house to jump on the trampoline, but she was scared to move. Hopefully she’ll do better next time.
High – Playing with our friend’s dog.
High – Mommy came back home and all order was restored! Avery was obviously happy.
Hope you enjoyed going through some of the highs and lows of our August. Now it’s your turn, share a High, Low, and High point from your month if you’d like in the comments section below. Have a great week!
The title alone is enough to make any romantic envious, huh? While it wasn’t a “Lady and the Tramp” spaghetti noodle moment, we still enjoyed a wonderful weekend making the most of our time together!
I forgot to mention, I’m gluten-free.
G-Ma stayed at our house and watched Avery so Going Mom and I could venture a whole 20 miles away to stay at the Embassy Suites Downtown Fort Worth location. I’ll speak more on the hotel in an upcoming post for my review.
We left Friday afternoon not long after G-Ma arrived to our house. We quickly explained the to-do’s and not to-do’s with Avery and took off to start our time away. Maybe I was a little too anxious to go, but I wanted to get the most out of the room we paid for. Yes, I’ll get it out of the way now, I’m pretty tight when it comes to spending on dining out and hospitality services.
Upon arrival, I parked nearby at temporary space so we could unload our bags and check-in and then go back to use the free weekend parking garage. Yes, there was valet, no I did not use it. See paragraph above.
Leading up to our anniversary weekend, I exchanged several e-mails with Michelle, the sales coordinator at Embassy Suites Downtown Fort Worth and she kindly had complimentary champagne and fresh fruit waiting for us in our room. The room, by the way, was on the 7th floor; and it was our 7th anniversary…..eh? Well, I thought it was cool.
Embassy offers a nightly Manager’s Reception for guests with free snacks and a nice selection of beer, wine, and liquor. We arrived just in time and enjoyed the fresh veggies along with a beer for Kelley and a generous glass of scotch for myself.
Mmmmm, scotch and veggies go great together do not pair well at all! But I liked it because it was free and free is what I like! Jealous you don’t have someone as romantic as me in your life? Or maybe you do….
After relishing our complimentary happy hour refreshments, we washed up and headed out to, well, go drink somewhere else. I’ve mentioned the Flying Saucer several times before, and that’s where we went to sit outside. If I’m going to go out, I most likely will not eat, so want to make sure there’s a nice selection of quality beer to choose from and Flying Saucer has plenty.
The open patio seating was filled with energetic patrons, as was all of their tables. We finally found a spot and ended up sharing (not by choice) with a group of guys talking about computer programming jargon I’m clueless on. Regardless, we were alone (kinda) together and enjoyed a nice local brew from Martin House brewery which we visited for my birthday back in June.
Our pleasant evening kept getting interrupted from idiot smokers spreading their infectious smoke on us, so after we finished our beers, we left to walk around downtown a little. Fort Worth has a nice splash pad area that is beautiful when lit up at night, so we watched as the fountains put on a show.
One of my “being cheap” qualities is getting as many free refills from Starbucks as possible. I have the gold card membership, so after purchasing my first drink, refills are free the rest of the day. Only black coffee, that is, but that’s all I drink. We stopped at Starbucks earlier that day before leaving G-Ma and Avery, and then again for free refills on the way to the hotel. Well, I was eager to get another round of free before the night was over, and luckily a Starbucks was close by.
I talked the poor guy overwhelmed with late-night consumers wanting their sugar-laden, whipped cream calorie bombs into giving me two black iced coffees and then we were on our way back to the hotel for the night. We both had intense weightlifting sessions at home and the effects were setting in hard, so rest was the best option.
The next day, Saturday, I woke up before Kelley and went to the complimentary breakfast Embassy offers their guests. I returned with two egg white omelettes and coffee before Kelley woke and she was pleased with my free finds!
Yes, there were seconds. C’mon, free cooked-to-order food is hard to come by! Usually I’m not interested in free food offerings as “free” means processed crap, but not today. Of course, there was plenty of processed crap too.
After breakfast, I had an extremely romantic idea of going to the nearby trails that run along the Trinity River to throw a tennis ball together. I know how to woo my “woo”-man, huh? In my defense, playing catch in the grass with our bare feet really did sound like a fun way to bond and be active without spending a dime.
Our plans were altered when the open entrance we used to go to was occupied by a kayaking rental trailer with a full setup of kayaks and paddle boards. I love kayaking and hardly get the chance to go, so “tossing” our tennis ball plans aside, we opted for kayaking.
There were no tandem kayaks available, but Kelley said she’d be good with her own kayak so we rented 2 single-person vessels for the hour. And at $10/hr, I can deal with that!
We chose a route and kayaked together under a hot Texas sun. I found myself getting ahead several times and would just make a circle to let Kelley catch up. Sorry, dear, I get over-excited when it comes to kayaking and other things and just want to keep going! But, we still enjoyed ourselves and made time for a kayaking selfie.
The way back offered zero breeze and I felt the sweat dripping off of my eyebrows and elbows as if they were leaky faucets. No matter, we completed our hour of kayaking and were happy to have experienced it together.
Afterward, I did my daily routine of 31, burpees, push-ups, and squats near the shore just to be done with them. We still attempted to throw the tennis ball, but after only 10 minutes we decided we were hungry and our arms just weren’t feeling it. We walked back to the hotel to refuel on the food I brought from home and clean ourselves from the sand and sweat.
With our impromptu kayaking adventure, we never had sunscreen on, and as a result, this happened…
She’s still feeling it today, but it’s improving! I had a little redness on my neck, but couldn’t feel a burn. Guess all of that walking outside with Avery made my skin resistant…..or it’s because I had a shirt on.
Food in our bellies, and our bodies clean, we were ready for another night together.
But first we had champagne to open…
I was allowed one sip, Kelley had the rest.
It was a good sip! No worries, I had a Manager’s Reception offering free bourbon (see the shirt?), so I was all set.
After a bit of drinking, we went out to soak in the downtown atmosphere as parents temporarily freed from their cage. We weren’t sure what to do with our freedom since we hardly go out, so a lot of the time we just stood around talking. Oh, and taking selfies.
Finally, we decided to try out Bird Cafe which is the original location of Flying Saucer. Just FYI if you cared. We were immediately seated on the patio with a view of the splash pad and spent time talking and people watching. Never gets old.
Like I mentioned before, I usually don’t get food when we go to restaurants, and this time was no different. I was almost sold on the Zucchini Ribbons they offered, but decided otherwise before the waitress could finished saying “deep fried” when I asked if they were cooked. Oh well.
Kelley ordered a Farmer’s Market salad with cheese, crouons, and dressing on the side and a side of sauteed asparagus. I had several bites of both platters and although very tasty, not worth what I could prepare at home. Again, sorry, dear, I know I need to lighten up, it’s just hard to place that much value on simple things I make at home for a fraction of the price.
Either way, it was time well spent together and Kelley even caught me smiling. And for some reason offering my phone to her.
Seeing a movie was the plan that day, but it never happened since nothing seemed interesting enough. Even the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie that I was sure I’d see in theaters, has been getting bad reviews and figured it was best not to watch that for our anniversary. Instead, we did the next best thing; go back to our room.
Hey now, keep a clean mind here! After strolling around the center of Sundance Square (the main downtown area), we went back to our room, unwound with drinks, and watched documentaries on Netflix. This might sound odd to some, but we haven’t had our TV on at home in weeks, so just sitting together to watch anything was nice.
We watched a documentary called Forks Over Knives which dives deep into the world of holistic nutrition and using food as medicine. It was a great film and mostly ties with our current views on nutrition with a few caveats. We still eat meat, just in limited amounts and raised humanely. Anyway, back to our weekend…..
Well, that was mostly the extent since we fell asleep shortly thereafter. The next day, our actual anniversary date of August 17th, marked the end of our hotel stay. I can’t believe it’s already been 7 years since my stunning wife and I exchanged vows at the Bellagio in Las Vegas! I never thought it was possible, but I keep falling more and more in love with her as time passes.
I ventured out and brought back omelettes just like the previous morning along with fresh fruit. And then, just as before, we went back for seconds. Afterward, Kelley agreed to walk down the hotel stairs from the 7th floor to the first floor and back up to the very top, the 14th floor. No good reason other than I thought it would be cool and something active to do.
It really was not cool, but yes, it was active. We checked out and walked back to our non-valeted car in the free parking garage only to be welcomed by a completely flat front passenger side tire. Wow, this anniversary had us walking all the way on the red carpet!
We even had a note on the windshield that read “You have a flat tire. Love – Fort Worth”. That was kind of Fort Worth to let us know, but I wish it would’ve changed the tire too! The kit that comes with our car is less than stellar and hardly ideal, but it worked.
Once off, it was easy to spot the culprit, a large nail right in the center. We have plenty of construction in our neighborhood and several neighbors have had the same problem, even I did with my Subaru not long ago. Before making it back to Avery and G-Ma, we made a stop at Costco to have our flat repaired for free since we are members, and then it was back on the road.
G-Ma and Avery had a great weekend together and my mom was sending picture texts to let us know they were doing fine. I’m extremely grateful to my awesome mother for staying and watching Avery and doing a great job as well! Thank you, Mom/G-Ma!
It may not have been a lavish vacation, but we are simple and enjoyed being alone in each other’s company. Kelley, I love you so much and can never tell you enough, so I’ll just keep on saying it. Our time together was wonderful as always and I look forward to what the future has in store for our little family!
What’s the most simple celebration you’ve had with your significant other?
What’s the most lavish?
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
