Meeting Grayson

Last Friday was our last day of school, so it was the perfect opportunity for us to take a much needed vacation. We left for Schaumburg as soon as I got off work. Since we needed to be able to drive the truck back east, we decided to drop Emma off with Uncle Nathan and drive the rest of the way to Pensacola.

On Sunday, we went to church and then decided to spend the day at the beach. It was great to celebrate Jeremy's first Father's Day with him! 

In our Sunday finest.

Beach baby!

 This is one of the cutest pics ever!!

After the beach, we got to spend 
some quality time with Graysie!

Our favorite little family!
(All Grayson wants to do is sit up on her own!)

Just relaxing at home!
(With one of my blocks!)

We always love going to visit Jeremy and Maggie in Florida, now Grayson is an added bonus! Even with the baby, it ended up being a very relaxing vacation. We were happy just hanging out at home and playing with her, but we managed to fit in a few fun things in between playtime.

Our Latest Move

Right now, I'm enjoying a little vacation back home, before I head east to unpack a few more boxes and then go to class.

We have no more furniture in Boston, 
so we made Emma a bed out of an old sleeping bag...

She loves it!

We successfully moved into our new place in Webster. On the 8th, while I was at work, Amit and the movers packed the truck. I came back home, grabbed Emma, and hit the road! Dad met us in Webster and the three of us became moving machines!

My Navigator

Webster is 6 hours west of MA.
Emma slept in the weirdest positions throughout the ride.

I wonder what she is thinking...

We spent a little time on Friday night unloading the truck. Saturday we unloaded/unpacked/put things away literally all day.

Emma loves the landing.

(She's just super tired in this picture.)

This is her other spot.

She can get a tan and supervise the deck, at the same time!

It was one very busy weekend, but it was nice to have the townhouse all ready for Dr. Patel! He's started orientation on Friday and will be back with patients in no time!

Sewing Break

After one very busy semester, I could hear the sewing machine calling me back. I have so missed my crafting! I keep pinning all of these different sewing projects to my Pinterest boards and needed to actually make one (or two) of them. After much debate, I decided to sew some baby circle skirts and baby blocks. I thought the skirts were so adorable, but the blocks would be a good practice project for me (sewing straight lines can be hard)!

It took me about four hours to make the first circle skirt, but after I started getting used to the elastic, the others didn't seem so bad!

Such a fun skirt!

Isn't she helpful?

The baby blocks were fun.
I followed the tutorial and it actually worked!
(Ignore the slightly mismatched corners.)

I am so proud of how my projects turned out!! I might actually be good at this sewing thing after all (that would be crazy)! Tomorrow we leave for Pensacola by way of Chicago (to drop off Emma), then it is time for some more sewing and crafts (this time with family), and then a long weekend back in Rochester with Amit.

The Patels go Primal

So I totally had this post nearly ready to go before this weekend and kept meaning to add a few more pictures, so I could blog before we moved this past weekend. Despite my good intentions, it obviously didn't happen. So, here is my post, a few days late. We're home from NY and all moved in - one big moving post coming up! Now - back to the Primal topic...

What do I mean by Primal? No, we're not becoming cavemen (those jokes get old, fast), we're basically changing the way we eat. We've cut out the added sugar, processed foods, and grains. Being Primal means we're spending more time in the kitchen, but so far it's been a delicious adventure!

Here is what we've been making:

Leftover burgers, avocado salad

Our absolute favorite - pesto chicken

with sweet potato "chips"

Tacos in lettuce "shells"

Kale Chips
They are AMAZING!

We feel fantastic eating this way and love the other aspects of the program: get plenty of sleep, move slowly (i.e. hiking), and take time to play! We are energized and ready to eat locally in NY, while we go on hiking adventures in our new home state! (Although, as we get closer to being home, I am getting a little excited to follow the 80/20 rule. 80 percent primal, 20 percent of other treats - I'm thinking deep dish pizza and Italian beef!) 

Time to go back to being primal. My last day of school is the 15th. Then it's on to Pensacola and back to Schaumburg. We didn't eat that well this weekend and I can definitely feel the difference. I better get back to normal so we can get ready for all that fun!