maine two

Posted in advantageous adventures, Momma Needs a minute..., Travels by ElaineMarie

and now for the more relaxing portion of our vacay:

this was the part i needed: these morning views, long walks and talks with cousinfriends, explorations in the woods, naps, family meals, cool night breezes, anne morrow lindbergh. we don’t take relaxation vacations enough. our travels always seem to be packed around some central activity, i.e. music festival, and i’ve been reminded that we need to slow it down every once in a while. at least i do. i would love a long weekend in the woods. or a few do-nothing days by the sea. it seemed to be good for darla, too. i forget that she gets shuffled around to lots of daily activities and maybe she just needs some time to be fluid.

thank you for being good to me for so many years, maine. we hope to visit you again in the near future.

treehousez

mike’s parents took us to cheekwood botanical gardens this afternoon to romp around their literary treehouses exhibit.

they were extraordinary and worth braving the 100 degree weather to explore.

tree houses are the coolest! i was always envious of my peers who had treehouses growing up for i was sure there was some kind of enchanted happenings going on to which i wasn’t privy. i wish we could build some kind of magical structure for darla in the backyard. i guess you never know what will happen in the future. for now we’ve gotten our fix at cheekwood.

1Jul2012

project iron thighz

Posted in Run Da House by ElaineMarie

i kinda got back in the groove this week even though the weather was not so conducive. i got some mileage in there. we rode to dairy queen one night and to our favorite bakery this morning so that was pretty good motivation. probably not too good for any calorie burn off, though.

hubster has been an over achiever lately and logged 35 mi in one day this week. we be saving gas!!!

6/25 – 3.4 mi

6/26 – 1 mi

6/27 – 15 mi

7/1 – 5.2 mi

weekly: 24.6 mi

grand: 193.8

just over 8 gallons of gas saved by RuJu.

14Jun2012

‘hood

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

i love our neighborhood.

gym, super-secret-super-cool swimming pool, pub & playground all surround our house. oh, also a pretty nice hotel is next to the gym which is lucky when you can’t be in your house but need access to your stuff.

smiles.

in short, our ‘hood makes it easy to be displaced from one’s home.

i told darla to make funny faces for those shots. bahahahaha.

darla says “isn’t it so nice to eat outside?!” mike taught darla tic-tac-toe. i sampled the draft cider. we ate lots of delicious fried food and then went to the playground to work some of it off.

swings. swings. swings. swings.

it was the most excellent of days.

catchup & mustardiness

well, hello, it’s been a while. we’ve been living in a hotel for over a week (our house is having some major plumbing work done) and it’s kinda thrown our schedules out of whack. momjeanz hasn’t had very much of my attention. and that’s ok. it’s been good to put more effort and attention towards personal relationships. we’ve been as busy as always and our staycation has had some perks that life in our own house doesn’t provide: no cooking or cleaning!

here’s what we’ve been up to:

darla came with us to see deep sea diver + antlers + the shins. she had a good time rolling down the lawn. after the first antlers song darla ran forward, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted “I RESPECT YOU” at the stage. it was pretty awesome.

the complimentary breakfast here is cray cray! every day is a delicate dance of bargaining with darla to eat more fruit and yogurt so she can earn a donut. it’s been working. i love breakfast buffets!

i had a ladydate to see feist, who is currently being backed by mountain man. oh my word, it was an amazing show. AND everyone on stage was in prairie costume sooooo i pretended, in my head, that they were all a part of a covered wagon caravan making their way across the country and had stopped to give an impromptu performance. take me with you to oregon!!

we took in a free performance of Robin Hood at schiller park. darla made friends with anyone who had a dog that was in our immediate vicinity.

we took a bike ride up to whetstone and rode through the rose gardens.

for the weekend we hit up the park street festival which helped us spend almost the entire day outside on saturday. bounce castles, food trucks, live music and snow cones = hours of entertainment.

some daddy-led art projects on old ocean charts.

…and just a few more mommy + daughter shots at the park of roses

any other moment of last week not pictured you can just assume was spent at the pool – either hotel or grandview – or at one of the two restaurants adjacent to the hotel.

hopefully, we’ll be back in our house by the week’s end. we’ll keep ya posted.

pun. blog pun!

11Jun2012

project iron thighz

Posted in Run Da House by ElaineMarie

last week:

5/29 – 4.2 mi

5/30 – 15 mi

5/31 – 2 mi

6/3 – 4.3 mi

25.5 weekly total

this week – i didn’t do a good job of keeping track the distances each day. i know we did a 13.5 mi ride, a 4.2 mi and a 6.5 mi ride. I’m going to add another 5 miles in there for little short trips i did around the hood but didn’t record.

so weekly is – 24.2

grand total – 132.3

5 1/2 gallons ridden off thus far.

happy riding!

27May2012

project iron thighz

Posted in Run Da House by ElaineMarie

only a 3-day ride week:

5/22 – 1.0 mi

5/23 – 7.2 mi

5/24 – 9.2 mi

weekly total – 17.4 mi

grand total – 82.6 mi

another gallon down. i’m hoping we’ll put some serious miles on RuJu next week to make up for the shortage in riding days this week.

happy riding.

22May2012

recovery

Posted in i dig music, Kiddie Hangouts, Travels by ElaineMarie

it takes a few days to recover from these weekends away, don’t it?

we drove on to athens on friday before heading to camp, then it was all nelsonville, all the time.

the weekend was a fine display of music. sunday was my favorite day, mostly because darla actually settled down for a nap on me so i was able to sit peacefully in the shade and listen but also because Dawes and M. Ward put on pretty excellent sets. Shovels & Rope were there and i’d say they won the hearts of just about everyone in attendance. I have a feeling i won’t be able to catch them in a venue as small as Rumba again.

i really love this festival. the people behind the curtain had a vision and i’m 100% a converted member of their church. darla spent hours in the kids’ tents and walked away with a handmade canjo, bluesband harmonica, tutu and she got to participate in a parade. i think the true aim of the festival is to make it a family and community event.

this is an excellent way to weed out all the douchey people we often come across at other festivals. no one is there to be seen in their wild, spandex hipster outfit. everyone is just there to have a good time. and be free.

as family friendly as it was, it was still A LOT of work to merge the wants and desires of a 3 year old with a camping, music festival weekend. DO NOT attempt this unless you are willing to weather tantrums, breakdowns, whining, crying and spasms of craziness. Oh, your kid might get a little upset as well.

still…

i’m ready to buy our tickets for next year.

18May2012

See you there

Posted in i dig music by ElaineMarie

We’re in the car, on our way to let our hippie flags fly. See ya when we get back!

18May2012

project iron thighz

Posted in Run Da House by ElaineMarie

i’m just going to go ahead and wrap up this weeks log because we’re setting out for a weekend of camping, music and maybe a little magic. Madame RuJu will be resting from her week’s endeavors.

5/14 – 1.2 mi

5/15 – 10.4 mi

5/16 – 7 mi

5/17 – 3.3 mi

week total – 21.9

grand total – 65.2

2 gallons of gas down.

i will say husband has been a great support and riding partner. with his help, maybe we’ll get these miles knocked out before next winter after all…