It started out with visiting our family--we have an ADORABLE niece and nephew! We enjoyed visiting with everyone and cooking dinner and making dessert! That was definitely the relaxing part of the trip. We then got on our bikes and made our way north. Some highlights:
Tiny turtle!
Totally retro motel--LOVED IT. At Minacqua.
Out to dinner in Minacqua.
Hiking and camping at Copper Falls State Park--gorgeous!
Relaxing by the fire.
After the bike ride, we ended up at Lake Namekagon to visit some friends. This place is quintessential northern Wisconsin lakefront property. Loved it!
Pontoon boat ride!
Definitely miss Wisconsin already. We will be going back next year in October, so I can see the fall colors. September weather was definitely perfect for us!
We are back from a wonderful week in Wisconsin! I'll post some pictures from that trip later. Right now, we are trying to eat healthy--while on vacation we definitely indulged on a daily basis.
So--Sunday afternoon after we got home, I made:
Salads for lunches for a couple of days...
And Monday, at work, I picked:
Which will become canned fig jam, and I'm thinking even a fancy fig appetizer! More to come this week.
So, usually on a Wednesday I ride to and from work and then we go to agility with the dogs. But, I didn't ride today and we are going to agility on a different night this week, we had more time on our hands. So, here is an overview on what I (and we) did tonight...
Went to Cost Plus. They are having a sale on the drink mixers from our wedding--the Powell and Mahoney brand. Buy one get TWO free!! Holy crap!
Went to Ace Hardware. (Boring.)
Did misc. chores, expecting to be home alone all evening, then Adam came home! And he brought us bbq tri-tip for dinner! It was awesome.
Then I cleaned up the kitchen, made my lunch for tomorrow, and started moving furniture around since we are having the carpet cleaned tomorrow.
Then, we got sidetracked...
I started framing more photos and hanging them up, which meant using a hammer. Which lead to this...
See, Adam said I was weak. Then he said if I'm strong I should be able to hammer a nail into a board in three hits (tap, HIT, HIT). So, we had a hammering contest in the garage. Neither of us could do it! Then, Adam got out the 12 pound sledge hammer. He hammered a nail in with one hit!
I hammered a nail in with 10 hits with a regular hammer and 4 hits with the sledge.
Then, we watched this video:
You might wonder why. That's because my coworker got offered a chance to learn how to butcher a sheep, which means I could come too...which lead to Shaun the Sheep. :)
Now Adam is working on his computer and I am doing this blog. Time for bed...
I made healthy granola last week, and it was actually good! A lot of times, things that are healthy aren't actually that good. Like, raw carrots. I'm just not a fan unless a dip is involved.
This granola was amazing when served on top of Fage 2% greek yogurt with a spoonful of my blueberry lime jam. (I had that for lunch three days in a row!)
I used a recipe from here but omitted the nuts and reduced the baking time:
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp cinnamon
Mix the applesauce, honey and cinnamon together and then stir in oats. Bake at 325 for about a half hour (check often because mine got a little over-brown and the original recipe called for 45 minutes), stirring a couple times during baking.
That's chocolate chip zucchini bread with vanilla ice cream.
BTW, that first picture--the deliciousness is sitting on top of a cedar plank/log that my husband is working on in the garage. We found it while hiking in Washington. He carried it out (the man is strong!) to our van and we brought it home with us. It will eventually become a bench.
The third is doing another grouping of photos using a bunch of flower photos I've taken. Adam is going to make natural looking frames using knotty pine.
I'll post as I work on these projects! BTW, we are in the process of buying a house near our favorite trails--nothing is for sure yet--but I may have new walls to hang art on soon!
