Daniel turns 30.....

Saturday, afternoon (after the Fawn Lake Party) we headed to Westmoreland State Park to celebrate Daniel's (Ashley's husband) 30th birthday.

Here's Fayth, walking around finishing the set up.

The table all set.

A table for gifts and dessert.

Pictures of Daniel through his 30 years.

My sister, Ashley got this duo pitcher from Hobby Lobby.  One side held lemonade and the other side had tea.  It was cute.  Nate loved this pitcher combo.  It's great for parties.

Here's a plastic plate (looks like china) with utensils wrapped in a napkin and tied with twine.

Fire pit

Once it started getting dark, the tiki's were lit.

Nate being goofy.  :)

We were surrounded by trees.  The campsite was awesome.  I didn't realize how cool it was.

Candles on the table while we ate dinner.  We had steak, chicken, potatoes, and veggies.  It was delicious!!

Here's some little paper lanterns that were strung above the tables.  There was a battery tea light in each one.

Here's Daniel talking to his sisters.

Ashley and Daniel.  :)

Fire pit with the fire.  We sat around the fire (it got chilly) while Daniel opened his presents.  We also had glow sticks that were fun to play with.

Fayth (Daniel's mom) made a chocolate cake.  It was good!

Fayth also made a pound cake.  It looks like a castle.

Ashley also had some things to throw in the fire and it turns the fire different colors.  It was pretty neat and colorful.  It was a fun party.  Happy Birthday Daniel!  :)

Fawn Lake Party

This past weekend, Nate and I went to a party at Fawn Lake.  One of the doctors that works with Nate decided to have a party at the beach.

The party was down on the right where you can see the people.

Nate is over by the beach chairs talking to some co-workers.

It was a nice beach feel and beautiful weather.

Love these chairs.  They looked inviting.  haha

ahhh....sand.  :)

 I went up to the pool house to use the restroom.  And I went out on the deck and took this shot of the pool that overlooks the lake.  When I went to go back into the building, I was locked out on the deck.  LOL  OOPS!  Luckily, I saw one of Nate's coworkers coming in to use the restroom and she let me in.  Embarrassing.  haha

New Things Monday

So, I try to stay away from fast food places because I know how completely unhealthy they are.  Sometimes, you really just don't have a choice and if you're hungry and need something quick and close, and maybe it's your only option.  Yeah, I could go for a salad but who wants to get a salad at Wendy's.  LOL

When Nate and I were in PA the other weekend we both got a Baconater from Wendy's.  This is definitely a burger you don't want to have too many of.  With lots of cheese, burgers, bacon, and mayo under a bun......I could just feel my arteries screaming NOOOOoooooo to me.  :)  Nate and I hadn't had Wendy's in such a long, long time.  Plus, we wanted a burger and a burger is what we got.

For most of today, I was out of town and when I left I came right to work, so I had to grab something for dinner and well the Baconater called my name.  It's such a good burger but not one to eat too often.  :)

I Love My.....

I'm going to slip in some "I Love My......" blogs from time to time.  

Today......

I Love My.....HARLEY.  He's my kitty son.  This is a picture of him while I was out in the front yard.  He was meowing and waiting for me to come back inside.  :)  I got Harley from the pound as a little baby kitten 11 years ago this week.  :)

New Things Monday

Who doesn't like Cheez-its?  I came across these Cheez-it White Cheddar Crackers in Reduced Fat when I picked up some other snacks at the store one day.  I couldn't wait to try them.  They taste a little different than the yellow cheddar crackers.  I mean obviously they would....they are a different cheese.  DUH!  :)  I just noticed on the website that there are other cheeses.  Like Mozzarella, Colby and Baby Swiss.  I will have to find the baby swiss to try.  I love me some baby swiss cheese.  :)

Breakfast for dinner

Breakfast for dinner?  Why yes, please!  Nate and I stood at the pantry wondering what to make for dinner. I said "How about breakfast".  We could make scrambled eggs, tots, bacon and pancakes.  Nate perked up, and said "But we don't have pancake mix".  I said "We have flour and sugar and everything to make our own mix".  I went right to the internets and found this recipe and then headed to the kitchen and whipped up the batter.

It took no time at all.  Breakfast is so quick and easy to make.  I put tots and bacon in the oven to bake.  When those were almost done, I started on the pancakes.  While I was in the middle of cooking pancakes, I also made the scrambled eggs.  Once it was all done I plated it all.  I added black pepper and parsley on top of my scrambled eggs.  On Nate's eggs, I added black pepper, parsley, shredded cheese and a little salt.  Nate grabbed a pancake after commenting how awesome they looked and took a bite.  He said "Wow, these are good, they don't even need syrup".  YES!  I tried mine and loved it.  This is a simple and really good recipe!  I will be making these again and again.  Who needs pancake mix when you can make your own and know what's exactly in it.  :)

Here's the pancake recipe:

1 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp vegetable oil

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients.  Make a well in the center and pour in milk.  Mix it in the flour with a fork.    Add the eggs, vanilla and oil.  Whisk together.  Use a 1/4 measuring cup for the batter to make easy-to-flip pancakes.

Lancaster, PA Trip

On Friday, Nate and I both took a vacation day and drove to Lancaster, PA.  :)  We were going there for the Bird-in-hand 5k and Half Marathon.  We left our house at 10am and got to Lancaster around 1:30pm.  We headed right to the farm to pick up our runners packets.  I was only doing the 5k and Nate was doing the Fireman's Challenge, which was the 5k and the half marathon.  :)

Here's the tent with the registration pick-up and the expo.

This is the course map for the 5k.

This is the course map for the half.

We had some time to kill before we had to be back to do the 5k.  I asked Nate if we could go to the Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse, PA so I could get my Pineapple Salsa.  :)

After I got my salsa, Nate and I drove over towards the hotel.  We picked the Holiday Inn Express which just happened to be next to the Rockvale Outlets.  We had about a half hour till we could check into the hotel.  So, we went over to the outlets.  We went to the Famous Footwear outlet and looked around.  Then we went to Under Armour outlet.  Nate found some shorts 3 for $30 so he got them.  It was finally time to check in at the hotel.  We unpacked and relaxed till we had to change for the 5k run/walk.

I looked in my runners packet and there was some cool stuff in there.  :)  A water bottle, a COOKIE from the Good 'N Plenty Restaurant, (Nate had a whoopie pie in his packet), block, dried kelp, pen, manual, and shirt.

I'm not a fan of the color green but the logo is pretty sweet.  :)

Here's the block that was in the packet.  It's cute!  :)

Finally, it was time to change and head back over to the farm to get ready for the 5k.  There was a bunch of hot air balloons being launched off.  Hot Air balloons are always so fun to see.

I saw this Amish family.  The color 'sage' must be in right now.  A lot of Amish were wearing this color.  I thought it was really cute when each family had the same colors on.  They all matched.  LOL  Anyways, this young Amish woman has 4 little blonde haired boys.  They were adorable.

We headed over to the start line.  There were a few buggies and a pony cart waiting near there for their Amish owners.

We finally started the 5k race.  It was so humid out.  There was a little bit of a breeze but not much.  The run/walk went around and literally through Amish farm land.  LOL  I don't know why but I found it easier to run through the field then on the pavement itself.  We had lots of Amish families on the course, clapping or motivating you as you ran/walked by.  There was also Amish kids handing out water at the water stops.  So cute!  :)  Nate went on my pace.  When I ran, he ran, when I needed to walk he walked with me.  We ended up dead last.  But there were some people that couldn't even finish the race and asked to be picked up so to me even though we came in last, we didn't give up.  We did finish.  Once we turned to the finish line field, we ran to the finish.  Nate let me cross over first.  We finished in 58 minutes.  I was so HOT and sweaty.  LOL   I grabbed 2 bottles of water, an apple, a banana, and a small bag of kettle chips.  We cooled off for a few minutes and headed to the car to go back to the hotel for hot showers.  :)  We also wanted dinner.  We both wanted a burger but we didn't want to sit down at a restaurant all hot and sweaty.  We decided to get Wendy's.  We hadn't been there in forever.  We both got the baconater.  OMG.....it was so good.  :)


Saturday, morning we got up at 5:30am to leave at 6am for Nate's big race.  :)  We got there a few minutes after 6am and walked on in and hung out till the start of the race.  (which was 7:30am).


Here's a picture of Nate at the Race sign.

Finally, time to head over to the start line.  Here's Nate warming up and stretching.

Here's a picture of Nate's shirt.  He made a shirt where anyone who's supported his weight loss journey got their name put on his shirt.  The shirt was really big on him.

And they're off...... Nate is pointing at me.   Vella Shpinga Nate!  :)  That means "Let's Run" in PA Dutch.

I waited at the finish line for Nate.  There were lots of Amish kids and families there to support their friends and relatives running the half.  These kids were sitting across from me.  They were cute.  Their mom went to walk around with the smaller kids and had these kids wait at the wagon.

Here's the kids again just waiting.  :)

I couldn't resist taking this picture.  His mother sat next to me with her kids.  She was holding the baby with her back towards me when I snuck this picture of her little one.  :)

This is a picture of the 2nd finisher.  He was right behind the first finisher.  They finished around 1:13.  This little Amish boy on the right is looking right into the camera.  He's the brother to the cutie in the picture above.

Here comes Nate........

Nate started high fiving strangers.  LOL

 Here's Nate as he's crossing the finish line....

Nate's exact finish time was 2:32:57.  His best time yet!  :)  Here's Nate soaked with sweat.  LOL

Here's a close-up of Nate's medal.  How cool is that?

As we left, I noticed we parked our car right on a huge cow patty.  LOL  GROSS!

As we were leaving the race area I saw these Amish bikes up against a building.

Nate grabbed me another apple since I loved the one I had the night before.  It was sooooo good and crisp. I can't wait for fall.  :D  I wished I had more of these apples.

 We had a late check out at our hotel since we're preferred members.  Nate was able to take a nice hot shower and change before we got on the road to head home.  Here's a picture of Nate ready to go home.  :)

On the way home...............It was a fun trip.  I want to go back!  :)