Hot Hot Hot

This week, we've been experiencing HOT temperatures. Including the heat index, we've been over 100° every day...and it's looking like next week will be the same. Yuck!

Luckily, we have central A/C so our house stays pretty cool. However, we haven't been able to go outside since Saturday and Josie and I are getting a bit stir crazy. I cannot wait for this heat to break! It's been over 2 weeks since I went for a run!

Since JBird is a crawlin' fool now (and a very "heavy" crawler at that) she's been keeping herself busy by exploring the upstairs of our house. Needless to say, I've been very busy chasing her around.

It's exhausting running around after her! Everyday I fall asleep during afternoon nap time too. Not because I think "Oh, a nap sounds good right about now"...it's more of a "Ok JBird, it's time to.... Zzzz...."and I usually wake up 45 minutes later with drool over one side of my face. It always startles me too. Isn't that funny. Luckily we have a nice little "Nap Nest" set up so we can both sleep comfortably on the floor.

I have a feeling that Josie is going to be accident prone. It seems like everyday she either hits herself in the head/face, tips over, bites herself on accident, face plants or gets herself stuck somewhere. Needless to say it's always a very dramatic scene; full of deep belly cries and big crocodile tears. She's always glistening with Arnica ointment; ensuring that she won't have a horribly bruised little face and head.

This hot hot weather has also put me in a "motivational slump". I have not been able to think of a decent recipe for the Feel Good Foodie site in weeks (and when I do come up with one, I just can't find the time to take pictures). I'm also working on a Mom's Night Out event for next Thursday (which should be a lot of fun), organizing a HMN Book Club (meeting sometime in August) and helping to plan a family picnic with HMN (late August). My mind is an absolute jumbled mess at the moment.

I think I need to put myself on some sort of daily schedule (even though I hate schedules) just to ensure stuff actually gets done. I think I'll try that out tomorrow and see how it goes. Maybe I'll just plan on more "structured" weekends (when Tim is home to tend to my little clumsy baby love). Or maybe I'll just  keep "winging" it...and what doesn't get done, just doesn't get done.

I think I'll go clear my head by eating half a loaf of zucchini bread. Wish me luck.

Josie's First Camping Trip

(this carrier became our saving grace during naps and bedtime. Nothing like babywearing to calm a fussy baby)

This past weekend, we loaded our car to capacity(literally) and headed to Kettle Moraine State Park! This was Josie's first official camping trip and she did AWESOME. She loves being outside, so she was just as happy as could be.

 (just chillin' in her super fantastic Mr. Fox chair)

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one out of the three of us that got eaten alive by buggies: I have over 20 bites on my legs alone..and yes, I wore bug spray ALL DAY, every day. It's just the price I pay for being so darn sweet. Ha ha ha..not.

(isn't she just the cutest little "tough guy" you've ever seen?!)

We arrived around 1pm on Friday afternoon; set up camp, then wandered around for a bit.

(Oleson Pioneer Cabin in Kettle Moraine)

Saturday we  checked out some awesome pioneer cabins (one was an actual restored cabin from the 1840's...really really interesting). We also did a short trek on a glacial nature trail. Had it not been SOO hot and muggy we most likely would've done a longer hike. We packed everything up and headed home Sunday afternoon....just as the impossibly warm weather started to get hotter (85° and muggy by 9am...with no breeze what so ever..no thank you).

This small camping trip was a test-run for our week long camping trip in September that we'll be taking with our dear friends The Prochazkas! I am so happy that this little getaway was such a big success (minus the fact that I forgot to pack pillows...ha ha..Oops! Luckily, there was a target a few miles from where our campsite was. We needed some spare pillows anyway).

One thing is for sure: We will NOT be using the air mattress again. 3 VERY hot bodies smushed together at night = me waking up miserable and almost having a meltdown when we couldn't find the maple syrup. Seriously, every time I moved in the middle of the night I would inevitably wake up Josie and then I had a crying baby to deal with in the middle of the night..uh, no good. Next time we will bring the cot and sleeping pad (Tim will sleep on the cot and JBird and I will sleep on the floor on the sleep pad).

In reality, we need a bigger tent. That'll be our big purchase next year for sure! (and when I say bigger I don't just mean can *fit* more people, I mean taller! Having to constantly crouch over made me super sore!)

This was not only Josie's first camping trip BUT our first little vacation as a family!

Hooray for camping!

(hiking is exhausting)

Back in the swing of things

This past week my mom and brother (and lil' doggie) made the 955 mile journey from NY to WI to visit us (That's 17 hours of driving! One Way! I have no idea how in the world we will survive 17 hours in the car with a toddler next summer when we make that journey ourselves. It's a terrifying thought).

It was a really great time and we very much loved having them here with us. It was especially nice to spend some quality time with my brother (who JUST graduated from high school...how is that even possible? I still remember the day he was born!). The week absolutely flew by.

We visited the zoo (the Henry Vilas Zoo is possibly one of the best Zoos I've been to) , toured UW campus, browsed Monroe Street and some other fun things that I cannot remember at this time. :) My mind is a total blur of the past 7 days. I think I need a 3 day nap! 

It looks like my brother wants to seriously consider attending UW once he's through at BCC. That would be BEYOND awesome and I really hope it works out that way. After spending the day walking around UW I definitely wish I could go back and have a "Do Over"....and spend 4 years in Madison; instead of Binghamton (but without 4 years in Binghamton, I wouldn't be in Madison, WI this very moment...everything happens for a reason). The campus is absolutely breathtaking. I mean seriously, one of the residential halls actually overlooks the lake! Gorgeous!

This experience DID inspire me to look into the possibility of getting my Master's Degree in the next few years. I just need to figure out what I should study (with my B.S. in Human Development there are several avenues I could take). However, I've decided that my Masters will be one of my "Dirty Thirties Accomplishments"; keeping my twenties focused on bringing babies into the world; aka putting my degree to good use!

All in all, it was a pretty low-key week; but now we're back to our "usual" grind. This week, I have a bunch of food blog posts to catch up on and some HMN stuff to tend to.

Right now, we are in the process of getting everything ready for a camping trip this upcoming weekend. It'll be our first time camping with Josie; so it's more of a social experiment than a camping trip. I'm hoping the weather stays nice so we can take some nice day hikes.

Phew, I am tired!




 **Please excuse the lack of photos from their visit...I was so focused on food photography that I completely forgot to snap some shots of people. That might make me a bad person. If so, I apologize :)**