Fam, Egg Dyeing and Food!

I took off a bit early from work yesterday and we went to visit Ryan's grandma and grandpa over near Hinckley. The girls have been asking to go visit them and we've been trying to find a good time and yesterday seemed to work...

It was a bit drizzly, but we had a wonderful time visiting. We talked about what we've been doing, and our possible future plans. It was so nice to see them and chat... it's always good to have time alone to visit with family. The girls even got to drive grandpa's tractor! Well, actually Brooke ran along side with grandpa...but they enjoyed themselves!

"wait for meeee!!!"

We enjoyed a nice dinner and some wonderful cake and didn't end up leaving until after 8! It was so nice!

This morning, (after I slept in), we had a list of things to cross off of our list...one of which was egg dyeing...the girls have been eyeing up the package all week! We tossed some eggs in to boil (I cracked one, which meant I had to take another one out so that there would be an even number....those who have kids understand...no child can have more eggs than the other!!), and whipped up the colored mixture...

Naked Eggs...

The girls were super-duper excited waiting for the eggs to boil...they could hardly wait!

Yaaaah!

Whoop-whoop!

 Someone else was just as excited...

Smiley-Miley!

Fill-em up!

Who's excited?

Purdy!

Takes concentration!

She's a pro now!

"oooh ~ aaah"

Please ignore that ugly shadow in the pic above with my elementary photo taking skills. I know I stink at pics...I keep saying I need to practice more...but I happen to be the best procrastinator in the world! So maybe tomorrow!

pretty in pink

After egg dyeing and grocery shopping we were hungry! Ryan has been on the search for a "loco-moco" recipe. Loco Moco was something he had while we were in Hawaii. We had bought the ingredients while grocery shopping awhile ago. Loco Moco is a common Hawaiian meal, the first time I heard what it was it didn't sound the least bit appealing to me. But I did have a couple bites of Ryan's and it was pretty good! Definitely not something you would eat on a regular basis though...it's a pretty rich meal!

For our Loco Moco recreation we layered homemade fried rice mixed with brown rice, topped it with a fried egg, and hamburger patty, and drizzled homemade brown gravy over the top. The gravy was a mixture of beef broth, flour, and Worcestershire. It was pretty fabulous! I think I might have to up my running tomorrow now! :) Especially since we ended the meal with a brownie (shhh...don't judge!).

Tomorrow we are having my dad and brothers for lunch...should be a yummy meal...I have a few different recipes I'm trying....stuffed mushrooms, string beans, twice baked taters...mmmmm! Off to stuff some Easter baskets for some anxious girls!

Nighty-night!

XOXO,

Erinn

3 Minutes!

So my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. EVERY morning I am tempted to ignore it and go back to bed for the extra 30 - 45 minutes and skip running. I mean...maybe I can run after work, get a few more minutes of beauty sleep (believe me...I need every minute I can get!). EVERY morning Ryan kicks me while I say "uh-huh" at least 5 times....then I roll out of bed. Knowing once I get going everything will be good. And it usually is!

I started week 3 of the C25K program. Which means I upped my time to 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, 3 minutes of running, and 3 minutes of walking (started and ended with a warmup/cooldown). 3 MINUTES! I mean, to all you pro runners it may not sound like much....but holy macaroni....it gives me hope in knowing that I can up my endurance....I would have never been able to last 3 minutes straight in the beginning. It makes me a little giddy.

That's my update of today...I promise to get some pics and more updates on here soon! We are working hard and getting a few things done around the house to get it "listable".

Happy Monday!

XOXO,

Erinn

Spring has sprung!

After being able to walk the last couple weeks with Ryan, the girls, and Miley...I've decided I hate winter! Why do I continue to torture myself with disgusting weather while dreaming of sandals and sun? I don't really have an answer to that question.....

We've been trying to get out as much as possible...which of course is hard when you have to squeeze work in there too (gross!). Ryan and I walk with Miley and the girls are finally able to ride their bikes now that the snows melted off of the sidewalks. It's wonderful! Soon Ryan will be back to work and our whole routine will be tossed around again, so we are taking it all in while we can!

Lots of yard work and spring cleaning to finish up...but it'll feel good to get it all done. (Ryan, you better get going on that...remember...you'll be back to work soon...chop,chop)

Oh...little update...I started the C25K program. I just finished day 3. Soon I'll be running miles (okay, maybe not). I almost died on day 1, seriously thought I was going to die.....fall over dead. I didn't, good thing. The training plan has me running 3 days per week. I upped it. Call me crazy. I will be following the plan 5 to 6 days per week. So far so good. (check back with me next week, my mind may have changed).

So there's just a little blurb on what we've been up to. We hope to start painting some walls in the dining/living room this week! Add a new little touch to our house...we hope to wrap up some updates with the house this summer and get our house listed....could be scarey...maybe it isn't even worth anything! But if that's the case I guess it means we stay here!

Okay...off to bed!

XOXO,

Erinn

Our week in Arizona recap...part 1

Back to our trip to Arizona...The week before we got there apparently was high 80's all week. The first day we were there I think hit 80...but was very cloudy. Then it dropped to the 60's (yes we found ourselves in our sweatshirts, apparently we are not "tough" minnesotans), the last couple days it was in the lower to mid 70's....either way we got to miss the last big blizzard of the season back home!

The first day we spend at Luke Air Force Base, they had their bi-annual free air show. Ryan and his dad are both huge plane and jet fan's so this was right up their ally. Plus they had the Thunderbirds, which are the Air Forces demo team, which Ryan wanted to see...we've watched the Blue Angel's before (the Navy's demo team). Plus they had some other military planes that Ryan hadn't been able to see before...we got up, got ready, and headed up to the base...got our bags searched and walked thru metal detectors.

We set up our chairs and walked around a bit before the show began.

Thunderbirds lineup

Guess what I found....the only animal on the grounds!

Notice all those missiles around this one! Yikes!

Then we headed back to catch the show...the shows always seem to start with a sky diver. This time it was actually an Army sky diving team.

Those 3 little things separating on the bottom are skydivers.

Little Army Man

Look! He's smiling right at me!

Getting ready to drop a bomb...

BOOM!

The Thunderbirds "prep" crew!

The Thunderbirds wrapped up the show...then we ventured out to look at some more planed before they kicked us out...

Mega-Wings....

Beast...

Hannah smiling...Brooke, uh, signature look.

I was as red as a lobster by the end of a day...In fact when we were leaving one of the guys said to me, "you look as red as I feel!"...haha! I said..."Hey, I'm from Minnesota" which really means...my skin hasn't seen the sun in a looong time! He said he had no excuse...

We slept good that night!

The rest of the week we spend just exploring random places around Pheonix. It was beautiful...so beautiful that it might be the place for us eventually...that is, if God has it in His plans! I sure hope so!

We found our cactus!

Old Indian petroglyphs (rock writing)

Don't worry though...the snakes know not to go past this sign!

The big White Tank waterfall trickle...

Ryan would make it  his goal to catch one (or two) of these all week!

Okay...enough for the night....one more day of pics and I should be completely caught up on our trip! Oh, and about the lizards...we did end up with 2. Their names are Bob and Pablo-Tree, they have already shed one layer of skin...the cat's LOVE them, in a "I want to eat you" kind of way. They are kind of fun to watch, they have little personalities, the bad part is they are both boys so we have to keep them separated or apparently they fight. So we have them in their separate tanks...pretty much all they do is sunbathe. And puff their chest at kitties...

So tomorrow I will wrap up our Arizona recap...but now I'm going to bed!

XOXO,

Erinn

Our trip to visit G&G in Arizona (finally)

So finally a recap on our trip to Arizona...I know. I'm terrible. Bad blogger.

So we made our first trip down to Arizona to visit Ryan's parents since they made the big move....and they officially bought a house! Ryan was super excited to drive down...he's a crazy man who loves him a road trip! Luckily our girls are pretty good on the road too...especially if you give them a Nintendo DS...

Syncing the DS games....pure joy!

The trip down was wonderful! It was so nice to drive and watch the weather get nicer and nicer! By the end of day 1 we made it to Denver, CO. It was g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s.! We got there and it was still a little sunny, which reminded us that the girls still need sunglasses...so we made a totally necessary trip to Target!

Cheese!

Diva!

This was what we saw when we drove into Denver....Talk about taking your breath away! I couldn't imagine being able to see that everyday!

We got in a little swim time at our hotel and then got a good nights sleep so we could get another early start the next morning. Then began our trek over the mountains....

I decided that I could sooo live in the mountains! They are wonderful! And all the wildlife!! Highlight of the trip!!

Mule Deer

Elk

Buffalo

Big Horned Sheep

And fluffy white kitties....oh wait.

The animals were by far my favorite part of the trip!! But we saw a ton of great scenery also!

Mountain tunnels...

Real gold mines!

Snow capped mountains....ooooh.....aaaah!

Ski hill and half pipes in Vail....b.e.a.utiful!!

Colorado River (we honestly crossed it about 29 times)

More pretty mountains!

Some Utah striped mountains....again...oooh!

Hole in the wall of a mountain...

Hole in the Rock...heehee...cool!

Some pretty lake in Utah...I really can't remember!

Cool thingy....

Another cool thingy.....

Some more cool thingy's.....

We were starting to drag at this point...we were getting a little tired. Even I was asking "Are we there yet??"...

Then finally after all that pretty stuff...we made it to Arizona!! We hit our last fill up before hitting our destination! Everyone was happy! Ryan even smiled while washing windows!

Men's work...washing windows....

Then began our search for a specific Arizona beauty... the girls did their best to show us what they looked like...can you guess??



Could you guess it?? It's the saguaro cactus! We began seeing them between Flagstaff and Pheonix...they were beaut's! Huge!! The girls loved them!!

Thus ends the pics and story of our trip to Arizona...I'll continue tomorrow with some more pics...

XOXO,

Erinn