Friday, 4/22/2011

Tonight we drove to Spokane to spend Easter with my family.  Katie and I met Ben downtown for dinner before starting our drive.  In the past we have headed straight out only to have to stop for a meal an hour down the road.  It seemed, since we were not able to leave before 5pm, that having dinner first would be better for traffic and our stomachs.  We went to a Red Robin just a block away from Ben's office. 

Katie had chicken strips and fries with ranch dressing and chocolate milk.  Ben had buffalo wings and a side caesar salad.  I had a bacon cheese burger without the bun and a side salad.  I ordered the burger in a lettuce wrap.  Well, that was just way too much lettuce.  Yikes!  I ended up pulling the burger out and eating it on it's own.  I sure did miss having ketchup on it.  It is amazing how much sugar is in a tablespoon of ketchup.  Too much for maintaining a low-carb diet right now.  

Our dining and travel plans worked perfectly.  We only had one minor slow down on our way to Spokane and didn't have to stop.  We are looking forward to a lovely weekend with our family:)

Sunday, 11/21/2010

We had a nice, relaxing morning at Ben's mom's house.  She made a great breakfast for us, and then I took a nap:)  I didn't sleep well last night and just needed to get some extra shut-eye before driving back to Seattle.  Spencer drove to Centralia, and then I drove up to Seattle after lunch at Pizza Hut/Wing Street.  Lunch was kind of late; so, Ben and I didn't really have dinner.   Katie had yogurt and a spoonful of peanut butter for her dinner.  

Friday, 10/1/2010

My plan for this afternoon involved going to Southcenter Mall to return a pair of shoes and to the grocery store to get something for dinner.  Promptly after getting Katie situated in her stroller in the mall parking lot, she puked.  And I mean, puked.  I believe she got rid of everything she had eaten for the past five hours.  Wow, what a mess.  I just don't understand why she always has to puke on things with straps that can't be removed or washed well--strollers, car seats, high chairs.  UGH...poor baby (and poor mommy):(  After two minutes, I had her cleaned up and in fresh clothes.  I started to put her in her car seat and she FREAKED out-- stiff body, immediate tears, sobbing "no, no, no."  I didn't think she would get sick again, so I carried her into the mall and then we walked together, hand in hand, to return her shoes.  

The timing of our departure from the mall worked well with picking Ben up from work.  Since I had not made it to the grocery store (I blame the puking), we decided to order pizza for dinner.  Ah, the wonderful aroma and taste of Garlic Jim's Hercules pizza.  It is a meat-lovers dream:)  We got free hot wings with our pizza order too.  They were ok.  I prefer wings to be crispy, and they were not.  We ate them anyway.  I was trying to keep Katie away from things that might upset her stomach.  But, when she wanted to dip her pizza crust into Ben's blue cheese dressing, we let her.  The verdict?  She liked it and wanted more!  Way to bounce back kiddo:) 

Sunday, 8/15/2010

We took our time getting out of Portland today.  Katie ate breakfast twice while Ben, Spencer and I got ready, packed, and loaded the car.  Then we drove to Cadillac Cafe, near Lloyd Center on Broadway, for breakfast.  It took a while to get a table, but the food was worth the wait.  After breakfast we went to the Portland Saturday Market.  We did our best to stay in the shade, because it was HOT outside.  We perused the art booths while drinking refreshing Italian sodas.  Katie kept dumping water on herself in her stroller, so we decided to let her play in the Salmon Street Springs fountain in Waterfront Park.  I think she was a bit overwhelmed at first.  There were lots of kids running around her, kicking and splashing water and screaming with excitement.  It didn't take long for her to drop into the water and enjoy the spray.  Eventually, we had to dry her off and get on the road for home.

We stopped in Olympia for dinner at Ruby Tuesday.  Katie had a pretty good melt down while we waited for our food to come out.  I must admit that I was a bit embarrassed by her behavior.  Thankfully, she settled down pretty quickly after her food came to the table.  She had a little macaroni and cheese and a chicken strip dipped into marinara sauce.  Ben and I shared two appetizers--beef queso dip with tortilla chips and the four way sampler.  The sampler included chicken strips, fire wings, southwestern spring rolls, and fried mozzarella.  I didn't think the dip had enough beef in it, and both Ben and I expected it to have more heat.  And the sampler items were all just so-so.  Nothing stood out as exceptional with our meal, but it was good enough to finish.  Spencer had the peppercorn mushroom sirloin.  He said the sauce was good, but didn't comment on the meal overall. 

It was a wonderful weekend, and we are glad to be home:)

Sunday, 7/11/2010

Today was our "catch up from vacation" day. Ben processed and posted the photos we took during the Moser family reunion. I seem to have accomplished making a mess of the house. Guess I'll have to clean up tomorrow;) We still didn't have much to eat in the house, so we ended up stopping at KFC for dinner. We ordered fiery grilled wings to share, Katie had a hot dog, and Ben and Katie had corn on the cob. The wings were really good! Katie ate all but two bites of her hot dog, so I think she liked it:)

Katie's corn cob was a bit hot. We told her she would have to wait to eat it until it cooled down, that it was "hot". When we finally gave it to her, she said "hot, hot" and then blew on it. Each time she went to touch it, she would say "hot". We are now confident that she understands what hot means. Score one for the parents!

Friday, 6/11/2010

Katie was walking around the house shouting "Da-da" around 4pm. I decided to call Ben at work so that she could hear his voice. After she was done "talking" with Ben, he and I opted to go out for dinner rather than eat at home. Katie and I picked up Ben from work and headed to Maggie Bluff's. We had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated. During that time, Katie grabbed my iPod out of my purse and was playing with it. All of a sudden, she bolted towards the marina. Who knew she could move that fast?!? Ben and I both started after her, but he got to her first. They walked along the path together; it was very cute:)

We ordered fish and chips for Katie, since she has been eating fish so well in recent weeks. We sacrificed our own health by eating her chips for her;) Ben and I each got a salad and then opted to share a couple appetizers. Ben was brave and ordered the Broadway Pea Salad- sweet peas, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas and bacon tossed with creamy pepper dressing. He didn't like it at all. The dressing was not what he expected and it had lots of onions in it which were not included in the salad description. So, I shared my caesar with him. It was an ok salad.

The appetizers we shared were the Buffalo Chicken Wings and the Basket o' Ribs. The wings were really good in my opinion. They were deep fried, but not breaded. They had some heat, but not enough that my nose ran. It was nice to actually be able to taste the chicken and not have my tastebuds messed up by how hot the spice was. Ben would have preferred them to be breaded, but agreed that the flavor was good. The ribs were ok. I really like the Kalbi flavoring. Unfortunately, I don't think I chose pieces that had the best quality meat on them. I've purchased much better from the Fred Meyer butcher case. They were still good, but I would have been happier if the meat had been more tender.

It was a lovely evening at the marina. By the time we got home, it was time to put Katie to bed. Ah, what a great Friday night!

Saturday, 4/24/2010

Oh Garlic Jims, you make delicious pizza. Ben's brother came over this afternoon and we ordered a double pepperoni & sausage pizza with garlic wings and ice cream for dinner. The pizza was fantastic as always, but the wings were a little disappointing.

In my opinion, the skin was too chewy. I like crispy skin on my wings. The garlic flavor was ok, but I just didn't care for the texture. Ben thought they were alright, but wouldn't order them again. Spencer thought they were ok, but wouldn't order them either. Guess we'll stick with just ordering the pizza.

Katie ate much earlier than we did. She didn't have a very long nap and was quite whiny thoughout her meal. She ate her mac & cheese & peas in fits and spurts. The fits involved smooshing her food on her tray with her hands and then running them through her hair. Ugh!