Happy couple & happy goats weekend

Another weekend filled with outings and travel and showing off our little man!

 

Starting with a leisurely Friday.

Since I finally polished off the last of the millionth loaf of banana bread I made, I decided to bake a new somethin’ somethin’.  More on the above [oatmeal caramel creation] later…

 

This is my new favorite meal.  It’s been on repeat, so don’t be surprised if you keep on seeing it.

That’s an egg/avo combo on toasted Essential Baking Co bread with a side of veggies (tomatoes from my garden).

 

Look I finally managed to perrrfectly soft boil the eggs!  [More often than not I start boiling water and get sidetracked with something P related and forget about the long over-cooked eggs until I hear them bubbling away like crazy 30 minutes later…oops!]

 

Thick runny yolks mixed with creamy avocado is almost the best thing (I’m sure I’ve said that about tons of things).  Whatever, it was super freakin’ good.

 

After lunch Kyle and I went for a walk, but only to get some fresh air, not for exercise.  We were both pretty wiped out.

Friday was the first night in a while that neither Kyle nor I had to work a night shift so we celebrated by playing in the backyard.

 

Patty-cakes was trying to steal our snacks…chips & guac and Kombucha.

  

After we put P down we BBQ-ed some corn and cod for dinner.

 

Served alongside quinoa and a video monitor.

I love corn! 

And summer. 

And eating outside. 

And solo mom & dad time. 🙂

For dessert I had chocolate and nuts and almond milky tea.  And we finalllly watched the last ep of Orange is the New Black.  Followed by Dateline.  Nightmare potential was on high, so we ended the night with some 30 Rock to give our brains happy dream subjects.

 

The next day was another family filled one.  The best kind. 

Kyle made himself a PB&J for breakfast and even though I’d already started oats on the stove, I nixed those plans (tupperwared them for later) to make myself an open faced version.  With almond butter and bananas.

There were two pieces but only 3/4 of one got caught on film.  Still loving the Essential Baking Co GF bread.  The slices are really small (if I’m being picky), but I don’t think the fruit juices used to sweeten it are bothering my GI tract very much.  I’m not totally sure though.  I’m kinda bad about FODMAPs over the weekends because I want to live my life and enjoy food.  I spend the week days getting back on track.  No big.

For lunch I mad the same thing as the previous day.

Look how the avo came apart!  I’m easily amused…

 

After lunch we started the ever complicated balancing act of getting all of us ready to leave at the same time. 

Lemme tell you, it’s quite the process with a little one who is nursing.  It’s no wonder new moms never have their hair did.  Kyle and I had to alternate and coordinate showering, blow-drying, straightening, make-up-ing, dressing, diaper bag and purse packing, accessorizing, and car loading all so that we’d end with him nursing right before it was time to go.  After which I’d quickly burp P and then race to get my own dress on while Kyle got him in his car seat.  It’s a science that we have pretty well down pat.

Unfortunately we hit MAAAAJOR wine tasting traffic on the way to Napa and P was kinda pissed about the delay in his next meal.  Rough life that kid has.  He did take a little nap towards the end of the trip.  When we arrived at the winery we divided jobs to conquer.  Kyle got P out of his seat to change him to I could run to the bathroom before feeding him.  Well.  Let me just say, Kyle got the raw end of that deal.  I got back to the car to find Kyle, his tie, the backseat, and Patty-cakes covered in poop.  Covered.  I started laughing so hard.  Kyle and I were quite amused.  Ah, the life of a parent…you just have to laugh right?

P wasn’t even phased.  Good thing we hadn’t put him in his 3 piece suit yet!  Yes.  That really happened. 

The bride was GORG, and P fortunately didn’t spit up or poop on her so I’d consider the evening a success.

 

Honestly, though, P was the star of the show! 

No surprise right?  Look at those eyes!

But it blew my mind how people were drawn to him.  Such a magnet, this guy!  And he was SO well behaved.  Smiley and giggly and happy to be around everyone and anyone.  I think we may have tricked a few couples into having a baby sooner than they were planning because of how dreamy he was.  I was a proud mama for sure.  And it was awesome showing him off to all my college friends who I haven’t seen in a while…since this wedding actually. 

  

When we went in to be seated at the reception, this salad was waiting for us.  I left the car seat / stroller in the car so he sat on my lap.  He kept grabbing at the salad (which was really good by the way – spinach with candied walnuts, dried cranberries, and a vinaigrette – a winner in my opinion). 

P started getting restless during the speeches, so I slipped out to nurse him in the car. 

By the time I got back our entrees were just beginning to arrive.  Good timing!

 

Kyle and I both got the scallop dish.  The potato thing that’s hidden under the asparagus was the best part, but I did enjoy the scallops too.  I was happy that we got a lot because usually you get some pathetic amount, like three.  This filled me up but wasn’t too much.  Yum!

It was a fun fun night.  P was on my hip all night long, including on the dance floor, and lemme tell you, my arm was sooooore the next day!

We left around 8:30 pm to get home by 11.  Our little guy passed out the second he hit the stroller and as much as I wanted to give him a bath when we got home, I knew waking him would be a bad call.  Instead, I cleaned his hands and face with a soapy washcloth (while he slept in the car seat) and then attempted a seamless transfer to the crib…

It didn’t work (which we were expecting) so I changed him into PJs and then nursed him back to sleep.  15 minutes later he was down again. 

Sunday I had a randomly un-Elise breakfast (as in stuff I’d typically eat as lunch / dinner fare).

 

I was finally able to find these vegan tamales again (after praising them on the blog, they (of course!) went out of stock at both the co-op and WF).  Anyway, they were back last week so I grabbed them even though they weren’t part of the weekly meal plan.  Hence the tamales for breakfast.  With avocado, naturally.

After everyone got some food in their system, we loaded up in the car to drive back to wine country…

 

This time to the farm where my uncle lives.  🙂

They have pinot vines, a pretty impressive garden/orchard, a chicken coop, and…best of all…

 

Goats! 

These are my uncles babies. 

 

So of course Patty-cakes had to meet his second cousins.

 

Doesn’t he look excited!  I sure was.  :)  I’ve seen lots of videos of them, and heard several stories, so I felt like I knew them.

 

So cute!  

We snacked on fresh goat cheese with crackers (thanks Pollux!) and then headed out to give them their own snacks.

Hi Hermione!  How’s the grub!?  <— she may or may not be knocked up thanks to the summer (preggo) camp they sent her off to.  Yeah, my uncles a pimp.

I think P was quite taken by them.

 

For lunch we went to Sunflower Caffe in downtown Sonoma.

So many things on the menu I wanted to try!

 

I ended up going with the kale & sausage salad, which they vegetarian-ize by swapping the sausage for avocado.  How awesome is that??  I hate when you get no meat on a meal but still pay for the meat.  Sunflower Caffe actually notes that they offer avocado or cottage cheese as a veg option on the menu. 

Anyway.  The salad doesn’t photograph nearly as well as it tastes.  It had beautiful lacinato kale ribbons tossed in lemon vinaigrette, along with white beans, a hard boiled egg, and avocado.  I gave my toast to Kyle.

His tuna melt sando was good but not very substantial.  It did say open faced on the menu, but only one piece is more crostini than sandwich. 

 

My uncle got the goat cheese and avocado sandwich.  Looked pretty bomb to me!  I almost got that one.  Next time!

 

Before I knew it, it was 4 pm – gotta hit the road to be back in time for bedtime!  My uncle sent us home with some farm fresh eggs, squash, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, thyme, and lemon verbena.  Hooray! 

We grabbed iced coffee on the way home to give us the kick in the pants we needed.  Because once we got back to Davis it was go time for the bath, story, nursing, bedtime routine. 

And then it was time for us to eat. 

 

I still had avo and goat cheese on the brain so I knew dinner would involve both.  Luckily I had both on hand! 

  

On the left is Redwood Hill Farm traditional chevre (another one of Sonoma’s finest).  I’m kinda obsessed with their family run farm – they’re sustainably run (solar panels!) plus they’re organic and certified humane.  Yay for happy goats.

I steamed some spinach, topped it with a fried egg (that had been laid earlier that day!!!) and then piled the avo and goat cheese mix on top.  DE-dang-LICIOUS.  Think I packed in enough avocado this weekend? 

I could certainly get used to all this farm fresh living…