Pittsburgh

So last week the kids and I drove to Penn Hills, Pennsylvania to visit my friend Julie and her family. It's a 6 hour drive and I've never attempted anything that far alone. We bought 2 new movies for the car ride and packed LOTS of food. I wasn't even sure we would make it and left thinking I just might have to turn around and call Julie and tell her we weren't coming after all. However the kids did great and we made good time, stopping only once for 20 minutes. We had a BLAST on our mini vacation as "healthy chef" Julie spoiled us with her amazing cooking skills and hospitality. EVERY meal we ate was picture worthy, and I wish I would have taken photos of every meal. Here's a few highlights... (okay really it's the menu as best as I can remember, but I LOVE food so just skip reading this part if you don't care.)

So we arrived to fresh baked zucchini bread. Dinner we ate chicken shish-kabobs, and seasoned rice with strawberry icecream sugar cones for dessert!

The next morning we had oatmeal for breakfast with a buffet for toppings! It tasted more like a delicious granola bar. We had walnuts, coconuts, brown sugar, and orange slices. Salmon wraps with lettuce and cucumbers for lunch. Black bean nachos for dinner. (Which Nick seasoned spicy for us, so yummy!) We spent the day at the zoo and saw so many "baby" animals.

The tigers

The rhinos

The elephants... look at that adorable baby elephant!
Look at that amazing shark! We were so close to it, scary!
So cute to see Reesa and Anika holding hands.

Sunday Nick fixed us a peanut-butter banana smoothie we ate with a bowl of homemade granola and fruit. Lunch we had chips and salsa, veggie platter, tomato soup and fresh baked sourdough wheat bread with butter. Dinner we ate cornish game hen spiced indian with masala spices, baked sweet potatoes, and green salad. Nick seasoned the chicken and was asking Julie for cinnamon because they had run out of "masala" spice. So impressive he even knew what to do without a particular spice??? Julie and Nick are quite the team! At the last minute we realized dinner wasn't going to be ready until 7:30 and the kids NEEDED to go to bed, so we quickly whipped up somewhole wheat pancakes, and fresh fruit salad, put the kids to bed and enjoyed dinner without them! I finally remembered I had a camera and took a photo.

Me flipping pancakes

Julie with her yummy fruit salad

Nick and Julie

Monday morning we made crepes with ice cream, and blueberries. We went to Ikea and the kids ate homemade granola bars, annie's bunny crackers, string cheese, veggies, apples, and pb & j roll-ups on whole wheat tortillas (which Jansen is in lOVE with!) we ate when we returned home: Taco Salad with Nick's spicy black beans, brown rice, lettuce, and shredded cheese with a little yogurt ranch. It was so yummy Reesa came and asked for a bite of mine. I fixed her a plate because she was liking it so much and she ate 3 plates full!!!

The kids playing at Ikea... we got all 4 together!

Me and Reesa

Julie and Anika

Monday night we took the girls to a princess party at the library. They got to dress up like a princess.
They read stories to the girls, then fed them PBJ's in triangles with the crusts cut off. They had drinks and cupcakes, then got to decorate a sugar cookie. No MOM's allowed! But of course we ALL stood at the window and watched these girls feel so special. They were on their best behavior!

They gave each girl a tiara to wear and took their picture.

The decorations were seriously amazing. I took pictures as we left, so most things were gone and already eaten, but still SO CUTE!!! Especially for a free event.

For a late dinner we ate:
A bed of baby spinach, seasoned cous cous, smoked salmon, and golden raisins with lemon zest for the "kick" of a dressing. This was probably my favorite meal. It was really simple to put together, but just the right combinate of everything!!! Too bad I didn't make it, I can never repeat things on my own!

Tuesday breakfast we ate homemade orange zest, crasin whole wheat sour dough bread baked french toast, & grapefruit. Julie sliced the grapefruit in slices and I think this was the first time my kids had tried it. Jansen kept SCREAMING for more grapefruit. He would be so jealous whenever anyone picked up a slice. I thought it was so funny.

Here's everyone saying goodbye. Issac gave Jansen a toy car he LOVES to hold. He'll even take his naps with it!

So I didn't feel sick ONCE at Julie's house. I can't decide if it was because I ate so well... or Julie took care of my kids most of the time... Thanks Julie for a wonderful week I feel so spoiled and lucky to have you as my friend!!!