Lincoln City Getaway! (just the two of us)

On the 25th and 26th of June, Paul had his first "sleep-over" at grandma and grandpa's house without mommy and daddy. In other words, Blair and I got to spend some alone-together time at the beach this week! ;) 

It. Was. Wonderful!!!



We stayed at the Looking Glass Inn in Lincoln City, right on the bay. (Notice my new shirt I bought at the outlet mall. Yes, we actually went shopping! Gasp!)

Blair and I laughed when we first saw our room. It was spacious and comfortable... AND it had a jacuzzi tub right in the middle of the floor! I tried to capture the exposedness of it all in a picture, but it was hard to get a good angle. (Work it, Blair. )

 I guess that counter was the extend of privacy the architects dubbed necessary. I was trying to imagine someone washing dishes in that kitchen area while somebody else was taking a bath. How romantic...(?)

Here's the view from our window. Yes, there's a parking lot, but look back there! It's the bay!


Not to sound overly positive or anything, but the weather really was perfect. It was warm enough for short sleeves and flip flops for the whole two days we were there with the most pleasant breeze. Not to mention, we had beautiful billows of clouds between sun breaks.

Blair's really good at taking the good ol' arms-length pictures.

A nice fellow with a black poodle insisted that he take a pictures of us "two love birds". We gladly complied.



When you're out of town without a baby, of course you have to eat out at delicious restaurants. We did not want to break tradition and decided to dine at the Blackfish Cafe. I got a salmon caesar salad and Blair got some sword fish. We switched dishes about halfway through our meal and concluded we liked both of them a lot!


My creepy-happy face.

Blair's sword fish.

Looks good! (The fish doesn't look too bad either.)

Gotta get dessert! (raspberry... cream... cake... something or other... yummmmm!)

We rented the movie Hugo that night and enjoyed not having to put Paul to bed. The movie was alright, but we would have liked it a lot more if it were shorter. They dragged it on for ever!


In the morning we went for a barefoot run along the beach. Yes, we actually did run barefoot along the beach during out romantic getaway. And, no, we were not able to take pictures of that activity. You  try running with a camera. After our run, we skipped rocks into the bay. Well, I helped find smooth rocks and watched as Blair skipped them. 


Look at this awesome rock Blair found. It has a hole in the shape of a heart! The other awesome finds are mine.



 After checking out of our room, we walked along the shops, bought some books, chocolate, and a gift for my mom. Not wanting the magic to end too soon, we stopped at a Crazy Sushi for a tasty lunch.*

After lunch, we watched Brave in the theater which happened to be right next to the sushi place. I think the last movie I saw in theaters was Harry Potter. It had been a while!

Getting away together was so incredibly fun! It's times like this that I'm reminded - yet again - of how much I love Blair. I can't get enough of him! How did I get so lucky?



*Notice the foods we've been choosing work with our new, healthy lifestyle change. I know I know, "what about the raspberry dessert"? That was an intentional splurge for a special occasion. Other than those occasional treats, we're sticking with this way of eating and loving it!

Family diet change

Things have been pretty monotonous around here lately. Blair goes to work. Paul crawls around and pulls everything off of, and out of, everything. There's always laundry, dishes, jogging, ballet, e-mail, facebook, groceries, dinners, etc. etc... etc.......

...no...

...change...

...no...

...energy...

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my life. We have it so good, it's hard to believe sometimes. But it's in those times of sameness that one realizes what changes aught to be made to improve one's self. We were lacking energy and motivation. Not to mention, I still haven't lost all the baby weight. We've always been fairly healthy with our food choices, but after hearing about some greatly admired friends' diet change, we felt inspired and decided act!

 That's right. We're ditching the dairy, shunning the sugars, warding off wheat, and hauling in the whole foods.

We're saying hello to things like radishes, peppers, kale, spelt bread, fish, seeds, nuts, fresh berries, spinach, almond milk, vegetables sauted in coconut oil, quinoa dinners, brown rice pasta, nut butters, toasted flax seeds, and steel cut oats.

We were talking about making these changes around the last week of May and officially started on June 1st. (We had to use up the rest of our yogurt, cheese, sugary snacks, milk and breads before saying goodbye for good.)

I'm actually really enjoying this lifestyle so far. I like getting most of my groceries from the produce section. I like checking the ingredients lists. I like making my own snacks and energy bars out of nuts and dates. It feels good to go grocery shopping with limits and purpose.

Okay, so it's only been a few days, and we haven't had the real tests, like actual time or eating out with friends. But even this early, we're noticing a difference in our energy levels, our appetites and cravings are noticeably decreasing, I haven't been getting any stomach upsets, and living this way is feeling surprisingly manageable.

Even Paul is feeling more energized and motivated. Here he is helping me with the laundry.

Family Photo Shoot

Here are just a few gems from our photo shoot with Kathi Knowels. She did a great job! Especially when you consider the super bright sunshine and the ten-month-old baby who only smiled when he was eating a clump of dirt or when someone was dancing around like a lunatic.

Warning: There are twenty pictures below. If you make it through them all, let me know if you have a favorite.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.


11.


12.


13.


14.


15.


16.


17.


18.


19.


20.


Congratulations! You made it to the end!