Whole30: Shop-a-thon

Yesterday was the binge and purge of all the food in our kitchen. Well, not entirely, our boys still have to eat. But for the most part, our kitchen has been cleansed of all the starchy, creamy, stuff we can’t eat over the next 30 days. And boy did it send me on a tizzy.

It's the size of my head!!
It’s the size of my head!!

The day started off with a tip to the Marietta City Farmer’s Market, where I loaded us up on some fresh veggies. There’s nothing quite as good as local produce. Its crazy the difference home grown/organic makes. I mean, check out this friggin’ sweet potato! It’s the size of my head! It was a good haul of sweet potatoes, avocados, okra, green beans, peaches, tomatoes, kale, red and green peppers, some sausage, and almond butter. We will definitely be going back here for future produce purchases.

We knew we needed a lot more stuff so a trip to our local grocery store was up for the afternoon. As this Whole30 thing continues, I find it both easier and more difficult to shop at places like Publix and Kroger. The Kroger near us has a fairly good “natural” food section and some decent produce, but I really just dislike the store in general. It feels dirty and the service there is awful. I don’t shop there often enough to know where everything is and I don’t like the layout. The deli counter is meh at best, and the seafood was something I’d rather not see. Publix on the other hand is like a magical wonderland full of helpful employees, samples, fresher looking produce, free cookies for the kids, and occasional free samples for the adults! We can walk around in our racecar shopping carts, up and down the aisles loading up our cart with all the tasty treats we’ve come to enjoy and love! Wait… not any more we can’t.

That’s the thing. We once were able to make a list, go to the store, and 30 mins later be out the door with a full cart, cookies for the baby, and we’d be stocked up for the week. Now we have to stop and read the labels. Every. Single. Label. Granted if we stayed to the outside perimeter of the store and only went into the innards of the store for stuff like coconut milk and frozen items, we should be fine. But even then, its not that easy. Want some bacon? Nope, its sugar cured. Forget about the dairy section. Almond/Coconut milk, nah, sugar or some other added chemicals for “flavor”. The label checking is hard enough, but throw 2 kids in the mix and difficulty increases tenfold.

I was having a mini anxiety attack after leaving the store, but despite a grocery store that was lackluster in what we REALLY needed we still managed to load up with all manner of things that we can eat over the next 30 days. The label looking will get easier and we’ll soon know what’s on/off limits. I have a few butchers I need to visit so we can find some more choice meat, and I’m gonna look online for some other items to stock up on.

Fruits and veggies galore!

Next level salad!

4 meat salad
Four meat salad!

We are constantly looking for ways to eat cleaner and stick to our Whole30 Challenge. Well last night we went out for some BBQ and I ordered the 4 meat + 2 side combo (Sausage, Brisket, Chicken, Turkey + Salad and Collards). There was no way I was going to be able to eat all of it so I brought the meats home with me. Today rather than have a simple pile of meat on a plate I made an epic salad. What made it doubly epic wasn’t just the fact that it had 4 different animals on it, but I got creative and “hard boiled” an egg in the break room microwave! For dressing I had simple oil, vinegar, and seasonings. It ’twas a yummy salad to say the least. I felt satisfied and good after!

Typically I would have had some sort of bread or starch with this meat pile. I would have also had a soda or something with it. Then a few hour later I would have most likely went into a slump at work and wanted to just fall asleep. That would have made going to the gym tonight even more difficult. Instead I felt pretty good and decided to take a walk and enjoy the afternoon weather that’s finally cooperating in Georgia. The rest of my afternoon I’ve felt productive and can’t wait to go to the gym and crush some PRs!

All this from a “simple” salad! Who knew that eating clean had so many benefits. I can’t wait to see what deliciousness I bring for tomorrow’s lunch.

Microwaved poached/hard boiled egg
– Add roughly 1/3 cup water to a coffee cup, or other microwave safe container.
– Crack the egg and add the yolk and whites to the water
– Microwave for 40-60 secs on 80% power
– Check your egg for doneness
– Enjoy
I’ve found that if I use the hot water from the coffee maker I can poach the egg leaving a velvety center in roughly 40 seconds. If I cook the egg for 60 seconds the egg comes out closer to hard boiled.

 

PaleO Snap!

So over the weekend Jess and I started our adventure into this Whole30/Paleo deal. I think we were a bit confused. Now I think I’ve got it sorted out. The Whole30 is essentially a 30 day cleanse/challenge which is a more strict and streamlined version of Paleo. Paleo itself is already pretty rigid in terms of what you should/shouldn’t eat, but the Whole30 is on another level.

From what we can ascertain we went Paleo. We didn’t contract “polio” as Chase would have everyone believe, instead we began a journey into a cleaner and healthier way of eating. So far it’s been a bit taxing, but not impossible. Heck, I’ve lost like 3lbs since Saturday so we must be doing something right! But today, one of the owners of our gym posted that on August 19th they would be starting the Whole30 challenge. At first I was VERY intimidated by the challenge, but then the more I got to chatting with the gym folks the more I became intimidated by them for me to NOT do the challenge. And so I inadvertently signed Jess and I up for this thing. The good news, we will have had like a 6 day head start to get our bodies adjusted to the change.

I posted the other day about this whole change, but since then some new information has come out and I’d like to make some updates. For starters, I will be giving up sugar of all forms. Yes, this means my morning coffee(s). I’ve gone over it a thousand times in my brain on how to accomplish this no sugar thing and still have my coffee, but I just can’t drink straight black coffee. It doesn’t work for me. What I can drink, and really enjoy is unsweet tea. That is something I can live with. Other things that I’ll be giving up are all forms of grains, which means pastas, breads, oatmeal, etc. Also, there will be no beans of any type. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to be living off water and grass for the next 30 days. I have a whole list of vegetables, fruits, fats, and meats that I can load our kitchen with. Jess and I are like Mr. Wizard and a female version of Bill Nye in the kitchen when it comes to making delicious meals, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

What IS a problem is the shock that my body is currently going through. Like I said I’ve lost anywhere between 3 and 5 pounds since Saturday, and it’s only Tuesday! Right now I am laying in bed feeling hollow and hungry. I feel like I’m just empty and need to eat something. But a) there’s nothing here to eat that meets the criteria or our new diet and b) I refuse to gorge myself of food at 11 at night. I know this is temporary, but it still sucks. I just don’t think we were initially prepared so we didn’t stock out kitchen with enough proper foods to sustain us for the week. Yeah we got through the first few days, but now we’re scrambling and everything feels like we’re giving something up and not like we are making a smart choice. I don’t think I’m replacing the stuff I’ve given up with anything that’s providing me with the fullness I had before. Again, this will take some time to adjust, but tonight… It sucks. I’m restless and want a damn plate of nachos.

So that’s my rant. I figured if I can’t have any food, I can at least make a post about it. This feels like a good outlet. I feel better about the choice we’ve made and hope to keep up with the rigor. Stay tuned for more updates and progress reports!

Oh, the cover photo for this post is my sausage, spinach, and egg frittata. It wa amazeballs. I plan on having a lot of that over the next 30+ days.

The Whole30, or at least the Half30… or maybe Half15

Over the past few months Jess and I have been doing fantastic at going to the gym. We’ve also done really well with our eating. That’s not to say that there’s no room for improvement, but in general we’re doing pretty good. On the flip side however we’ve kinda stalled out.

This happens with virtually any fitness/health routine. You do great the first week, maybe a month, but eventually you hit a wall or plateau and just come to a halt. Your body becomes use to the way things are, the level of effort required to do your WODs and most of the toxins have been sweated out in the gym. Slowly but surely, things slow down. Something has to change. With Jess and I its our diet. Like I said, we’re not making bacon cheeseburger pizzas for dinner or loading up on double decker tacos, but we are making choices that could be improved upon. That’s where the Whole30 comes in. Most of the people we talk to at the gym are on Paleo or some form. The owners have touted about Whole30 for quite a while now so we decided to tip-toe into the arena.

The Paleo Diet

We did our research, looked over the can/can’t have lists and decided it was going to be a lot tougher than we anticipated. With 2 kids (11 and 19 months), it was going to be even tougher. So we decided to do a modified version. I’m deeming it the Half15! Mainly because we’re still consuming SOME of what we did before, and we’re going to start off with 15 days rather than the full 30.

So here’s the rundown. Our biggest hurdle is alcohol. We’ve decided to not have any alcohol, with the exception of a wedding we’re going to in 2 weeks, for 30 days. This is pretty big for us. We added it up and on any given week, we would go through a 12 pack for beer or 1-2 bottles of wine. I know, we might as well join AA… but not really. This seems like a small amount, but over the course of a month it adds up, both in calories and on the wallet. We don’t NEED that beer while cooking dinner then another with our dinner, so we might as well cut it out of our diet. And yes, wine does pair nicely with red meat or fish (or tacos, or burgers, or hummus, etc). But again, we don’t need it. So why not eliminate it completely from our diet. Only good can come of that, right? We’ve already established that we will most likely be grumpy at each other or pout about not having our whiskey drink while watching TV, but we’re gonna stay strong and stick to it.

The next part of our plan is to eliminate as many grains, starches, sugars, and such as we can from our diet. This is a big part of Paleo and the Whole30. Much of the breads, pastas, rice, flour, etc that we eat on a daily basis is so processed that it has virtually no nutritional value, and what value is there actually does more harm than good. I’m not going to preach about what other’s should/shouldn’t eat, I’m just going to know what we’re doing. Now there will be some exceptions and I’m not going to rush out and buy a tiny bag of almond flour for $12, but for the most part we’re cutting things out. Another big change is the fats which we use to cook our foods in. We don’t go Paula Deen style and use a stick of butter when scrambling an egg, but watching what you cook your food in, is just as important as the food that’s being cooked. So we’ll look for coconut oil and what ever other approved fats we can.

There are things however, that we will not be giving up just yet. For example our morning coffee is something that is needed. We probably won’t die if we don’t have it, but other’s around us might. We will continue to use the Truvia and fat free creamer. After all, most of the “paleo creamers” have coconut milk and raw eggs. Nope. That’s not gonna happen. In addition, there will be some occasions when we’ll have some bread or peanut butter. We have to stay realistic. If we go cold turkey and eliminate all these things off the bat then we’ll be setting ourselves up for failure. This is something we’re going to have to ease into. Over time we may find it easier to eliminate these types of things, but for now, we’ll just do our best.

As I mentioned before, we have 2 kids. One is a picky eater and the other is a pickier eater (I’ll let you decide which is which). They live off things that are processed and laden with sugars. I’m not going to make my kids go through the change with us. I mean, Chase started middle school last week and I’m fairly confident they don’t have a Whole30/Paleo option on the lunch menu. And when he gets home in the afternoon, its been a good 5+ hours since he’s eaten, so if he goes for a bag of chips or Pop-tart, I’m ok with that. We can certainly cut out some of the bad options that we provide in the house. Sugary drinks will be replaced with less sugary drinks, we’ll have more fruits and vegetables available on the off chance that he goes for some carrots instead of Funions.

Its going to be a process. It won’t simply happen over night, and we will stumble along the way. But we will also be there to help each other along. We will do our best to chronicle this adventure and see how things progress over the next 30 days (or 15 for now).

And so begins middle school!

He's only 11?!
He’s only 11?!

A few weeks ago our baby started his school and since then we’ve been buzzing around getting things ready for our 11 year old to start middle school. So after much preparation and double checking our supply lists, that day came, and boy was everyone excited!

The morning started off like any other, with getting Jess out the door in time to get to her school by 7:30 and me getting BLT Jr up and fed and out the door to get to his school by 8. Today, however we had one more task to mark off our checklist. Chase had to get to the bus stop by 8:30 and he didn’t want to miss it on his first day. Now I’ll go ahead and preface this with the fact that Chase is a bit of a nervous kid when it comes to new things. Something of this magnitude was like on another level.

For the past few years he had been in the same school where his mom taught. If ever anything were to come up, he could always just go right down the hall and get it resolved or taken care of. He wasn’t going to miss a bus or be late, unless she was. They were together and when he didn’t have her, he had his friends. Chase had built relationships with a lot of kids over the past few years and all that was about to change. This was a new school, in a new county, with new procedures, teachers, kids, everything. Walking in yesterday, Chase didn’t know a soul (other than the friend he made over the summer).

Jess was a bit nervous prior to yesterday, and in fact she stayed nervous throughout most of the day. However, I knew otherwise. I drove Chase to the bus stop just… you know, because that’s what parents do. I did make sure to park a good distance away so that I wouldn’t interfere with the establishment of social hierarchy. What happened when Chase got out of the car was a masterpiece! He had his notebook in one hand and as soon as he got out an 8th grader tossed him a football. Rather than duck or fumble it, Chase caught it like a boss and kept on walking over to the group of kids that were there. I couldn’t have been more proud and I knew that things were gonna be just fine. I sat there for a few more minutes until the bus showed up. Chase lined up with the rest of the kids, boarded his chariot and was whisked away to his next adventure. His mom and I pondered throughout the day how things were going. She had made sure he had a “cheat sheet” with all his bus numbers and home room numbers and such on it, so he was good to go, but you never REALLY know unless you’re there.

The bus crew
He fit right in!

When Chase got home that afternoon, the flood of information began. And let me say, I don’t recall ever seeing this kid so excited about something. He was gleaming and literally couldn’t contain himself. Ear-to-ear smiles and chatter about his day. From the lunch to the “freedom” between classes, to the gym, it was all he could think about. He wanted it to be day two already! That’s the thing about Chase, this kid LOVES learning and being in school. He is super smart and bright and willing to learn. He is genuinely eager to excel in class. At school, he made sure to write important things down and get lists of what he needed on day two. He actually had a chance to be in class with the friend he made over the summer so he was at ease with that. This young man had a blast!

So that was day one and it was a success! The next day (today) Jess started her first day of teaching in a new school, so stay tuned for a post about that. In the past three weeks we’ve since shipped off three family members to three schools! Its craziness! Things are certainly changing around here with new schedules and routines, but change doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. Stay tuned for most posts on how things are progressing!

I told him to stand in a "cool pose"
I told him to stand in a “cool pose”
Taking a photo
The whole crew!

 

This is why we CrossFit

This is Rich Froning, this is not me.
This is Rich Froning, this is not me.

This past weekend was the Reebok CrossFit Games, and man were they exciting! Well, they were exciting for me, my wife and those of us who really enjoy doing CrossFit. I don’t think I can call it a sport, but that doesn’t make it or the athletes any less spectacular. 

Lets go back one year. I had been doing P90x steadily for roughly 75 days. Its a 90 day program (hence the name), and was determined to finish. On day 78 I had a car accident… how did I not post about that?! An accident that left me with a Grade 3 AC Joint Separation in my left shoulder. My arm, and my car, and my workout routine was out of commission. I had surgery to repair my shoulder and a month or so later I was back to my trainer working out. This however meant that I did not complete my P90x. I was 12 days short of finishing the program. By this point I was rather frustrated with my shoulder and working out in general. I wasn’t able to get the progress I wanted, lifting things was not as easy as I would have liked and it was just painful at times. You would be surprised at how much you actually depend on your shoulders for day to day activities. Overall, I was slowly creeping back towards how things were before I started the program. This did not sit well with me.

In November we bought a house, and as anyone who has ever bought a house can tell you, that pretty much consumes all your time. Packing, moving, paperwork, planning, schedules, days off, etc., its all you can do. Couple that with the holidays, Jess commuting 100+ miles a day, <1 year old baby and there just isn’t much time in the day for working out.

January rolls around and I’m getting the itch to start working out again. I start looking around at various gyms, since I know that I would a) need a trainer that could tailor routines to a recuperating shoulder and b) push me to excel beyond the wall I had in my head. My previous trainer did a great job at this, but we now lived 60+ miles away and that was just not going to cut it. Eventually I found CrossFit on the Square. Since working out with my previous trainer I had been introduced to the notion of CrossFit and the types of workouts. I knew it was growing steadily in the fitness world and wanted to give it a shot. I like the intensity of the workouts so this should be something right up my alley. The good thing about CFSQ is that its not your typical CrossFit gym. Rather than be all Bros and CrossFit For Life or super douchey, they are super down to earth and “real”. The workouts aren’t strictly CrossFit, rather they are a combination of strength, agility, mobility, cardio, and mental. The classes weren’t 30 people watching 2 instructors go through the motions, and doing the same workouts every time. We have small classes, very personable and knowledgable trainers. It just felt like a second home. A home that makes you lift weights, sweat, and want to puke from time to time.

Well, the first few weeks was ROUGH. I was hurting badly pretty much every time I went. It sucked… a lot. But I pressed on. Weeks turned into months and eventually I was breaking through walls. Not literally, though I’m sure that could be considered a workout. I saw a transformation in myself. Finally my shoulder was getting back to 100%, I was lifting heavier weights, had more stamina overall, my spirit was higher (especially on gym days), and overall… I just felt good.

Eventually, Jess caught the fever and started drinking the Kool-Aid! She was very hesitant at first, but once she got in there and started seeing her own successes, she was hooked! That’s the thing, you are either going to not like it at all, or you’re going to love it. With both Jess and I, we love it! We love most everything about CrossFit, the intensity, the various workouts, the challenge, the endorphins, its just a natural high for both of us. Its something we can do separately and come home and talk about, or we can go together (when the stars align) and push each other while at the gym. We share in our successes, talk about our failed reps, our new PRs, and as of this past weekend, stay up too late just so we can watch the CrossFit games.

Its our new addiction and I couldn’t be happier. I feel healthy and capable of doing most anything these days. CrossFit for me is about bettering myself, pushing beyond my personal walls, and ensuring that I am as healthy as I can be for my family. It gives me a break each week to recharge my batteries and clear my mind. When I’m squatting 200lbs that’s all I’m thinking about. When I’m standing there, looking at a kettlebell, or pull-up bar, or a medicine ball. I can’t be thinking about work or poopy diapers. I have to focus on that one task, clear my head, push through it and get the job done. When I walk out the door I feel refreshed and more alive. I, at time fail at the goal I set for myself, but those failures make me stronger the next time I walk through those doors.

Speaking of walking through the doors, its time for me to change into my gym clothes. I got some pull-ups to do!

 

Day two, not so good.

88f9dd28f3d611e28cc022000a9f308d_7 Jess and I have very high expectations of those that watch over our children. Whether its a baby sitter or a school, we want the best for them. Seeing as Lane is our youngest, we were extra cautious when sending him off to school. We didn’t want it to be just a daycare, where he’s watched over by people who are just kinda going through the motions. We needed him to be in an enriched environment where he could learn and grow and be cared for as if it were us there.

Well, at the end of day one, Jess went to get Lane and on the way out his teacher mentioned he had a poop and she had not been able to change it yet. So Jess stayed a little longer so Mrs. Elizabeth could change our babies poop. No telling how long it had been there! Maybe he had it all day. Maybe he literally just shipped his pants, it really didn’t matter to us, all we cared about was that he had a poop when we got there! Also, he only slept for about 30 minutes. This was NOT like our baby. He usually has about a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. So knowing that we’re picking up our tired baby, with a dirty diaper was totally unacceptable.

Day two, things went even further downhill! Around 4:30 Jess got a call from one of the instructors saying that Lane had “fallen and hit his face on the sidewalk”! Oh no!! Jess rushed to the school to find our baby sitting on the playground, crying, with snot and sunscreen smeared all over his face. Also… see the picture at the beginning of this post. He had a huge knot on his forehead and a red spot on his eye and nose. Our little precious baby had been damaged! This place was a torture chamber and how could we possibly send our little angel back to them. What kind of parents would we be?!

Seeing red, Jess called me and told me the story. I rushed home to provide any aid I could. We soothed our baby, told him it would be ok, bashed the school saying that they were terrible and we were going to give them one more shot before possibly pulling our darling little precious prince. After all we were paying them exuberant and copious amounts of our money to provide the BEST for this tiny little innocent angel baby.

By the third day it was getting more and more difficult to drop off Lane in the mornings. It was gut wrenching to just walk away, knowing with 100% certainty that he was in peril the moment we left the building. Around 1:30 Jess got a call from a number she recognized as the school. Oh. Hell. No! This had better not be them saying that our baby was in an ambulance on his way to the ER because of some disaster!! And as it turns out…. it wasn’t. Lane’s teacher had taken the time out of her lunch break to call and let us know that Lane was sleeping and had been for over an hour at that point. He had eaten his chicken sandwich, and some vegetables. He played with the other kids great all morning. He was laughing and running around and having a fantastic morning!

Wait, what?! How can this be?! We knew that this school was going to not work. After TWO FULL DAYS we were certain that it was a terrible decision. Sadly, we were mistaken. In our fit of rage towards the school we had failed to realize that this was an adjustment period for him, for us, and even for the school and both the students and teachers there. Everything was new for the most part. The poopy diaper, could have literally just happened and the teacher may have been about to change Lane right as Jess got there. And once we got more info about the playground incident, we found out that Lane was tired due to not being able to nap in a new environment and had tripped over one of the staff’s feet. Granted they could have provided a bit more care for him (a popsicle, his blankie, taking him to a quiet area, something), but it was not totally their fault. They didn’t shove him down with his hands tied behind his back. He was a rambunctious and tired baby who fell. This will not be the first time he falls and gets hurt. This is not the first time he will cry and want his mommy and daddy.

After that call, our fears and apprehensions towards the school began to lift. We were no longer distraught after dropping him off in the morning. He began to nap and eat better. He came home happy and ready to see us. He was learning things already. We had all began to adjust to the new normal and find the best way to handle things. We were a bit presumptuous in our initial assessment of the school, but now we are comfortable leaving our baby there. He seems to enjoy it more as well.

We made it through the first week and are looking forward to week two. Hopefully the last three days of the week weren’t just another ploy in their overarching scheme to bring demise upon the Turner family. Only time will tell, and we’ll be watching. 🙂

Lane’s first day of school! EEK!

Our little boy's all grown up!
Our little boy’s all grown up!

It seems like only yesterday we were teaching this little guy to roll over. Then we blinked and he was walking. Now he’s climbing on top of the tables, saying words, swimming (sort of), and in school! Wait… what? He’s in school?! Yep, we dropped off our little baby for his first day of “big boy school” today! Whoa! Its so very hard to believe that its been 18 months already. He seems so little, yet so very big! Time has flown by and our wings have ever expanded to support Jr. BLT, but its time for him to branch out and start the next chapter of his life.

As big of a day as it was for us, I can only imagine how big it was/is for him. We’ve been through a million changes. New jobs, new houses, relationships, experiences, etc., we’ve been through a lot. He’s just a little guy and this is so very new to him. New friends, new people changing his diaper and watching him play on the playground. New toys, schedules, shoes, food, everything for him today (for the most part) is new.

Jess and I got him dropped of and, she may kill me for putting it out there, but she kinda lost it. I fully expected it though. I don’t think anyone would expect a mother so loving and devoted to her children to simply drop off her youngest child without shedding a tear. Eventually composure was gathered and off we went. She and I went about our days leaving our baby boy in the hands of teachers who will enrich the next several months of his life. Jess began a new chapter by spending the day with unfamiliar teachers and lesson planning sessions. She kept busy I’m sure, and I feel she’ll want to expand on her new chapter, but it was for the most part, run of the mill for both of us.

I called the school a few hours into the day to check on Lane and his teacher said that he was doing great! He had a good snack, played well with the other kids, and was generally having a good day. As heart breaking as it was for us to walk away, it didn’t take long for him to get acclimated to his new setting. I’m sure he knows we aren’t there, but he also knows that he’s having fun, and for BLT, he’s all about having fun.

Tonight, we’ll give him extra “lovies” and hold him just a bit tighter. Tomorrow, we’ll drop him off again and the tears won’t flow as much. We’ll fall into our new routine and he’ll have a new normal as well. This is our new chapter and I’m going to savor every moment of watching him learn.

What happens in Vegas…


Last time I made a post with the same title, it ended up like this. Let’s just say, that this time around it was a completely different experience.

My friend Gene turned 40 this year and he wanted to do a big throw down in Vegas. I mean, what better place to celebrate getting old, than a city full of young people who have a complete and total disregard for what they do to their bodies! Jess and I were totally game for a weekend filled with crazy entertainment and no kiddos to wake us up in the morning or need a diaper changed or ask how to make a grilled cheese. This was going to be a weekend just for the adults, and after a week on a Disney Cruise, it was well deserved.

Unlike last time, things got started off right. We landed, grabbed our luggage and headed off to the hotel. Since there was such a large group of us staying there (16 total I believe), we all stayed at the same place. We got checked in and were whisked away to our magical room overlooking the strip. Well, you could see the strip from our room, but it wasn’t like The Hangover where you see every conceivable part of Vegas from your room. Everyone else was already out enjoying their day to the tune of some DJ and a few drinks. Jess and I were just enjoying being there, so we decided to hang at the hotel, order some room service and have a meal in peace. No sharing what was on my plate with an 18 month old. I didn’t have to hunt around for a spoon or fork that had been thrown under the table. It was a meal that didn’t consist of chicken nuggets and baby toys. The rest of the group can have their bottles on ice, Jess and I were perfectly fine with our quiet, alone time.

Party time!
Let’s do this!

That time however was short lived. The plan was that a few of the group members would go to a Circ du Soleil show, while the rest of us went out to a club of some sort. Seeing as we are not seasoned Vegas travelers, we were up for what ever. As people started stumbling back from their afternoon adventures, it was apparent that they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves at this day club. Somehow the four members that were heading to the show managed to pull themselves together and get out the door in time. I won’t go into full details, but it was a miracle that they made it. And despite making it to the show, all of them slept through about 75% of it. Must’ve been nice to have a $300 nap. Jess and I however got on our party rockin’ attire and were off to begin a night of adventure unlike anything we had ever experienced.

Keep in mind, Vegas is time is a) 3 hours behind Atlanta and b) non-existent. By the time we were out the door to dinner it was already 8/8:30ish. That meant that it felt like 11:30 to us, and we had been up since 6am in ATL. We typically go to bed at this time, but we’re in Vegas and had to push through. Dinner was nice and consisted of some tapas and wine. We met up with some new friends, and enjoyed the calm before the storm. After dinner we walked over Marquee. It was everything like you’ve seen in the movies or TV shows or the pics on the site you just looked at. People crammed into every corner of the building, loud pumping music, black lights, drinks flowing, glow sticks, etc. This place had it all!

A good friend of mine is a regular out in Vegas and so we had a host. Having a host means the difference between waiting an hour in line to possibly get in, and having them let down the velvet ropes to guide you past the droves of people out front. It also means that we had a private table stocked with liquor and mixers. This was our table, we didn’t have to wait at the bar for over priced drinks, we didn’t have to figure out if we should have another. It was all there waiting on us!

We decided to indulge and enjoy what had been provided to us. We also made a point to get to the dance floor for some dancing and laughing, generally letting loose. The DJ of the night was Benny Benassi (Benny Benassi – Cinema – Skrillex Remix), so I was all over it cause I loves me some Dub Step! This went on for the next several hours. At one point the largest bottle of champagne I had ever seen showed up to our table as well as more drinks. Sure, why not?! We’re in Vegas!! A few more hours went by and we decided that it was time to roll out.

It was a bit difficult locating a cab for some reason. I’m not sure if it was the fact that it was 3am and we had been up for 24 hours while also having had enjoyed several drinks and hours of dub step, or what. Either way, in Vegas everything looks a lot closer than it actually is and we made the decision to walk to our hotel. This ended up being roughly 2 miles… at 3am… intoxicated… and Jess was barefoot. By the time we got in bed it was at least 4am. Hashtag. Winning.

The next day we were woken up by some calls/texts asking if we wanted to join the birthday boy for breakfast. This was at 9. In case you are doing the math, that’s 5 hours of “sleep” after a 24+ hour sprint. But we were game! We threw ourselves together enough to wander down to the restaurant and enjoy the company of a couple who as slept through most of their Circ du Soleil, so they were feeling nice and rested! After breakfast we headed back to the room to get on our bathing suits so we could enjoy a day “relaxing” by the pool. Relaxing has a different meaning out there. Rather than a simple day snoozing, it was a day filled with spiked lemonade, meeting even more new friends, gabbing about work and the events of last night. Talking about our children, our families and friends. Swimming in a pool filled with bros. And maybe one or two applications of some SPF 12 just to let the sun know that we meant business… not.

The pool was only the beginning of the activities of the day however. By now it was day two and this was supposed to be the BIG party night. We had, yet another, VIP experience getting into a different club. This time it was Light. Zedd (Zedd – Clarity) was on stage and man was the club hoppin! Again, more bottles, more mixers, more music, dancing, glow sticks, people, tight shirts, and fun! We had more of our crew with us on the second night so it got a bit more rambunctious. But never too much. Just enough to remind us how much of an amazing time we were having. Eventually we made the decision to roll out, this time however we were going to find a cab, one way or the other. But what we wanted more than a cab, was some food. Pizza to be more precise. Surprisingly enough we found Secret Pizza, and I have to admit it was a pretty tasty slice. Then again, it was 4am and we had not eaten in hours, so that may have had something to do with it.

After scarfing down our pie, we found another cab and rolled out to our final destination, the hotel. 5am was a painful sight to see on the clock, but the bed was a welcome sight. To the best of our knowledge we didn’t have anything planned for the next day so we were going to finally enjoy some sleeping in. HA! I got jokes.


Texts started coming in around 9 again and off we were to brunch. Do these people ever sleep?! Food was had and good-byes were said as half the group was flying back that morning. Jess and I were still here for the rest of the day and didn’t have to be on a plane until the following morning. This day we did get our relaxing time by the pool. No shots, shots, shot, shots! No bruhs, creepin’ up ons, no thumping house music in the background. Just a few people, laying by the pool enjoying their last full day in Vegas. We reflected on what all had gone down in the previous 48 hours. Again, talked about kids, work, school, home life, all manner of things that normal adults with kids talk about. It was a good, chill day.

Our final night we headed down to Fremont Street so we could see the light show, have a nice dinner, and people watch. This evening was not like the previous two nights. We simply enjoyed the company of good friends, had some amazing food, and wandered around looking at all the sights “Old Vegas” had to offer. Eventually, we headed back to our room and got into bed at a decent time… midnight.

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed off to the airport. Our crazy adventurous weekend had come to a close. Soon we would be back living the life of “normalcy”. We would be looking at kids menus to see what our boys would have for dinner. I’d be wiping up poop. Work would be had rather than just talked about and things would settle back into place. We had our crazy time. We got it out of our system and we were back to the things that were really important to us. Vegas was a temporary fun, but my boys laughing and playing at home is permanent. We were home and happy.

I’ll never forget that weekend. I hope one day we can go back and do it all over again, but if we don’t, I’m perfectly content with living the life just that once.

Here’s some pics that hopefully help reiterate the craziness of that weekend.
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Landscapestravaganza part 1!

This weekend I kicked off the whirlwind of landscaping thats about to take place in our back yard, by clearing some of the trees and such. I figured I might as well make a video out of it. This is the first of several more to come! We have big plans that include grass, an area for a fire pit, a retaining wall, some stone steps, and potentially a treehouse for the boys. Well, that last one might be a bit further down the road, but you never know.

I wouldn’t consider it a “lot” work, but then again I tend to over exert myself when doing any yard type activities. Any way, this is the first of many videos to come. We’re having some of the bigger trees removed and I plan on getting that made into something as well.

Enjoy and look for more posts about the progress!