folk soul

this is a picture, albeit a not very clear one, of darla last year at pitchfork. she was running wild during tv on the radio getting as messy as could be with a yellow bandana tied around her cape-style.

i don’t know if it gets any better than that. i really don’t. it’s one of my favorite memories of her life thus far. i’m happy we’ve been able to provide her with such carefree moments.

we’re heading to forecastle this year instead of pitchfork. it’s a foray into new territory. i’m a little apprehensive that it won’t be able to compare with our previous experiences.

there’s only one way to find out!

we’ll miss chicago this year, maybe next year we’ll return. but we’ll be surrounded by our friends and good tunes in louisville so i’m sure the weekend will be tops.

at the very least it will be fun taking in a new festival. Pics and updates will be shared along the way. With that, I bid you adieu.

Louisville or bust.

front porch sitting

i’ve been trying to take advantage of our front porch as much as possible during the warm summer weather. it seems like we are on the go so frequently that a nice front porch sittin’ session really revives me. whether it’s first thing in the morning for breakfast or in the evening for a beer after darla’s gone down.

the front porch has been good to us. somehow it always seems calm out there. it’s kinda my happy place. the porch has provided us with good conversations, helped us meet our neighbors, and has been a nice cool place to listen to some tunes or just sit and stare meditatively at the sycamore leaves blowing in the wind across the street.

that last one might just apply to only me.

i love sycamores. but anyway…

we’re gearing up for another festival weekend so i’ve been trying to catch some extra front porch time this week. i’d like to reach a nice, calm state of being before heading back into the frenzy. Last night definitely helped:

praise the universe for that front porch. won’t you come join me for a sit-sesh?

ps. take notice of our wedding poster we FINALLY got framed. almost 2 years later and i’m still in love with it. eternal gratitude mr. crothers!

project iron thighz

7/4 – 4 mi

I was pretty lazy last week. Only one day was bikeable weather and i only got 4 miles out of it.

oh well.

grand total – 197.8

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.

bakehouse

what do you do during a heat wave? bake tons of goodies? turn the oven on for an hour?

sure. sure you do.

at least darla does. she’s been a big proponent of baked goods lately. the cuteness and hilarious conversations outweigh the temperature spike in the kitchen so it evens out.

batter face

joey lawrence like “whoa” when her ala mode was put in front of her

and of course some buff baking. in this session she waxed poetic about how much joy there is in baking. and then said “don’t forget to put in the love!” and that’s her blowing kisses into the cupcakes.

she didn’t really help that much with this batch because of the germ factor. she was relegated to spatula licking duties only.

animals + rides + food + fun

equals the fair!

last weekend we squeezed in a short trip to the marion county fair. the set-up couldn’t have been more ideal: wonderful weather, barely populated fairgrounds, grumpy three-year-old.

whatevs. she came around.

oh, i love the fair! i inevitably hear templeton from charlotte’s web singing “the fair is a veritable smorgasbord, orgasbord!” anytime i just think about it.

indiana, you do you some good fairs:

i saved this photo for last because darla said she liked the extreme jump the best of all the rides. can’t say i blame her.

“good-bye charlotte, you old schemer.”

p.s. the franklin county fair is july 14-21 in hilliard, oh. will i see any of you there?

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!

Columbus loves Mikey McD

Darla saw Michael McDonald last night. Her life is now complete at the ripe age of 3.5!

So, columbus loves them some Michael McDonald, or at least some free Michael McDonald. Darla just loved the free food and carousel rides – free to her. We still had to pay for it.

We also invented groove ball at the show. It simply involves tossing the ball back and forth but each player has to do a groove before they throw. If you forget to groove You. Are. Out.

weekending: trio edition

our weekend probably resembled yours: cook-outs, backyard play, gathering with friends and fam. and of course mother’s day fun.

in addition to all the fun stuff, i feel like my productivity level has gone through the roof now that there’s an extra pair of hands. i guess it’s like that, huh?

just a bit of it:

the circus came to town = free parking. $12 cotton candy. whomp whomp.

kid friendly backyard cookouts

yes.

yes, please.

and our mother’s day dinner photo op. this is the best we could do, but that’s all right with me.

Project Iron Thighz

project iron thighz has been in full effect this week with some pretty good success. the first being that we rode it some every single day, even if it was just down to the gym and back. the second being i found our bike path to downtown, along the olentangy and to the scioto mile. i also found how to get to whetsone. as soon as i’m conditioned to make it that far we’re going to ride just about everywhere on two wheels. the third being i haven’t picked up groceries in the car since we got RuJu. our time in the car has greatly decreased. and lastly, a couple women who work at our gym asked me to email them pics and info about our bike set-up so they could get something similar for themselves.

excuse me, elaine. do you brag much?

errr sorry.

look, i don’t mean to brag it’s just that this week really knocked me back on my heels and i need to celebrate any small victory i had so please, forgive me this one brag sesh.

4/30 – 2.3 miles

5/1 – 1 mi

5/2 – 2.3 miles

5/3 – 1 mi

5/4 – 2 mi

5/5 – 7 mi

5/6 – 2.4 mi

week total – 18

grand total – 26.3 mi

woo woo! we just rode away 1 gallon of gas.

here’s darla enjoying a ring pop that lasted her a 7 mi ride.