MDW in the ATL

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!  I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend.  I had a great time down in Atlanta, and I'm happy to report the integrity of the surprise was preserved!  My sister had no idea I was in town until she opened her garage door and there I stood :)

I usually make time to visit my sister and her family a few times a year, but somehow I had not been down there since her third child was born last September.  Needless to say, there was much catching up to be done.

I didn't take a ton of photos or spend much time on social media while I was down there and that suited me just fine.  I enjoy the chance to unplug a bit when I'm away and love being able to spend QT with my nieces, nephew, sister and brother-in-law whom I don't get to see nearly enough.

Here are a few highlights from the trip with a few pics I did manage to snap.  Enjoy!

Visited Zoo Atlanta:

 

 

Spent an evening out (sans kids) in Buckhead where we ate at Seasons 52 and listened to some live music at Park Bench:

 

Branzino (fish) flown in straight from Greece! 

 

Twinning!

 

 

Hung out with the cutest kids south of the Mason Dixon:

 

 

No bias.  They are just legitimately adorable :)

 

 

And spent some time at the pool:

 

 

 

In between hanging out with the kiddos, I did manage to fit in some workouts.  My sister (who looks INCREDIBLE btw!) is also very active so we spent a lot of time working out together.  She goes on long walks every evening (which I joined her on) and has started adding some running into the mix as well!  She also lives very close to the Silver Comet Trail so we went biking there twice while I was visiting.  The trail is a great free, well maintained paved path that's 60+ miles long in North Atlanta.  We were out amongst many other bikers, runners, walkers and families and it was great to catch up, chat and enjoy the scenery on our bikes.

 

And in a surprising turn of events, she invited me to participate in her Friday morning yoga class which I actually enjoyed?!  If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know I've tried yoga a handful of times and can just never get into it.  However, my sister takes a class which is taught by a mom privately in her home studio.  On Friday morning, the two of us were the only students in class so we got lots of personal attention.  The instructor told us she combines yoga/Pilates into her practice and I really enjoyed the flow of moves.  I'd love to find someone similar in Baltimore who offers small sessions like this because I feel like I'd learn much better than when I'm in large classes at the gym (and have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing).  It was also much more peaceful being the only ones in class. 

 

It is always wonderful to reconnect with my sister and her family.  I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like, so every trip becomes a treasured memory for me.

 

This was my first vacation all year and getting back to the real world Tuesday morning was rough!  Hope you all had a better time of it than I did.  And now it's nearly June?!  I dk what is even happening to 2015.

 

Have a great day!

 

 

How did you spend the holiday weekend?

 

Do you have family that lives far away?  How often do you get to visit?

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, how big does my hair look in that restaurant pic?!  Ha







Surprise!

I flew into ATL early Thursday morning to surprise my sister!  She had no idea I was coming (I hope!)

I'll be hanging out with these 3 little monkeys for the next few days:

So I'll catch up with you next week.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Sweet Georgia Peaches

Hey y'all!  I'm back after spending a week down south visiting my sister and her family and meeting my newest niece:

2 weeks old!

 

 

If you are anything like me and think there is nothing sweeter in this world than teeny tiny baby faces & hands & toes, then please accept these photos as my gifts to you:

 

 

 

 

 

My sister was 2 weeks post-partum when I arrived so she was still dealing with a fair amount of pain (from the C-section) as well as sleep deprivation!  So it was my job while I was there to step in and do as many of her duties as I could.  Mostly this meant taking care of my 1 and 4 year old nephew and niece, but I also tried to help out around the house too. 

Remember when I asked you all for easy recipes?  Well, by the grace of God and all of my sister's incredible friends we had meals to eat almost every night!  My sister has a network of mom friends and so many of them brought over cooked dinners while I was there.  Guaranteed I ate far better last week than I normally do at home.  I actually only cooked one night and I made tacos.  I know, I'm a real Betty Crocker.  But the kids and adults alike ate them and no one got food poisoning so that's a WIN!

I did a lot of running around for my sister since she couldn't really leave the house yet.  I think I went to the grocery store 3 times that week and to Target twice?!  [This is apparently standard for a family of 5?!]

Random grocery store finds:

The best vegan gelato I've ever had.  I wish I could find this up North.

 

 

I obvs did not buy these but came across them while shopping and wondered if anyone has ever seen these?!

 

Let me just tell you it is a far different experience grocery shopping with toddlers than when you go alone! Hahaha I'm sure all the moms out there can verify this but I sure do take for granted how easy it is to run errands by myself.  I dk how my sister gets anything done in a timely fashion.  My 23 month old nephew is obsessed with vacuums so every time we went to Target we had to visit the vacuum display so that he could try out at least 10 different vacuums (which we had no intention of buying).  20 minute derailment right there.  Good times.

What else did we do?  Hmmm, I took the kids back and forth to school every day.  I took them both for haircuts one day which was incredibly cute, and of course I forgot my phone that day.  So unfortunately I wasn't able to capture that priceless moment for each of them, but let me assure you they both looked ADORABLE sitting in the big chair draped with a cape. 

It was also still fairly warm down there so we went to the pool and naturally took a selfie:

Me & my niece/Jillyruns/IG

I took the kids for ice cream one day after school.  It should be noted there is a vast difference in terms of neatness in how a 23 month old and a 4 year old eat soft serve ice cream:

She remained this tidy throughout the entire process :)

\

This was about 1 second in.  He was completely covered approx. 2 mins after this

 

I also took my niece to t-ball one morning:

Tiny body x huge helmet = cuteness x1000

 

 

I got called by my sister's name at least 15-20 times last week.  I kind of just lost count.  When I was out at Kroger or Target I heard random people shouting "Lisa" at me, so now I pretty much just answer to my sister's name when I'm in ATL.  They all told me I looked wonderful for just having had a baby 2 weeks ago.  Yep, thanks!!!

 

In between all this madness, I managed to fit in just 2 runs late-night.  I went out around 9pm after the kids were in bed and ran 4 miles one night and 5mi another.  I now pretty much know my sister's new neighborhood like the back of my hand, even in the pitch dark.

 

In an unfortunate turn of events, I came down with a cold that I contracted from my NannyKid just 2 days after I arrived in Georgia so for the rest of the week, I had to keep my distance from the new baby.  I was so terrified of giving her the cold, but so far she has been ok. 



Last week was such a whirlwind, and as if I didn't already realize moms are pretty much superheroes this week of nonstop action pretty much sealed the deal for me.

 

 

 

With the addition of the newest baby, I now am an Aunt to FOUR nieces and nephews.  How did I get this lucky?!

Hope you all had a great week!  I'm off to tend to my other babies now :)

Parting Thoughts

Nope, not dying over here or shutting down the blog, butttttt I am going to be out of town for the next week meeting and greeting this little one for the first time:

 

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  That's right, I'm headed back to Atlanta!  Through the years, I've been fortunate enough to be able to be with my sister right after the birth of each of her children.  Being able to meet my new niece and nephew in those first few weeks of their life was indescribable and being there for my sister when she needed my help was the least I could do.  Soooooooo, this time around there are 2 toddlers in the mix which means non stop activity, of which I am already a huge fan.  The only thing that concerns me is that I'm going to have to feed a family of 4 (5?) each night and as we all know my culinary skills are abysmal.  In fact, today at work, I actually had to Google 'how to hard boil an egg' in order to prepare my NannyKid's lunch.  I'm outrageous.  So if you have any EASY to make dinner ideas for me (I mean, like they literally contain 5 ingredients or less and don't involve a recipe), please leave them below.

Ok, now for the random roundup of this week's happenings:

1.  I saw these in the lobby of my building this week - Didn't even know they still existed:

 

Does anyone use these anymore?!  And also, that's a lot of dead trees right there.

 

 

2.  I was mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed the other day, pondering taking the next BuzzFeed 'If you were a breakfast cereal, what would you be' Quiz, when this pops up and smacks me like a 2x4 to the head:

 

 

IT'S NOT EVEN FALL YET!  People need to calm the H down on the Christmas mania in September.  However, reading through some of the comments on this post was actually a highlight of my day.  They included such gems as "Do not get me started on the Christmas before Halloween stuff.  I will throw a pumpkin at the TV".  I am with you lady. 

 

 

3.  It's concord grape season!!

 

My grandparents have a grape arbor over their back patio that has it's origins in Sicily.  My great grandparents brought a sprig over from the old country and planted it in Brooklyn where they settled.  Then when my grandfather moved to Pennsylvania, he took some of the vine with him and started an arbor in his new home.  When I was a kid, the arbor was huge and concord grapes were everywhere.  These grapes are what (purple) grape juice and jelly are made from and they taste much different from normal red and green seedless grapes.  I think they are only in supermarkets in September?  Not sure, but it's a very limited window around here.  If you've never had them, I def suggest trying them!

 

4.  And finally, if I come back to Baltimore in a body cast, this is why:

 



 

My brother in law's suggestion for outdoing the popping-out-of-a-box entrance that occurred on my last visit.  COUNT ME IN

 

 

I obviously won't be blogging next week, but I will be reading!  I'm sure my IG feed will be full of baby/kid photos for the next 7 days as well if you're interested.  Chat with you all in a week :)

 

 

Have any go-to family friendly, EASY to make meals?!

 

Do you still use a phone book?

 

Ever had concord grapes?

 

 

 



The Big Surprise

Last Thursday morning, unbeknownst to my sister, I boarded a plane headed south to the Big Peach.  Later that day, I stuffed myself inside a box and waited outside her house until she came outside to find the surprise her husband had planned for her.  It was epic!  Even after I popped out of the box my sister was still so confused as to what I was doing in her front yard!  Hahaha  I blame it on the pregnancy brain.  (I have a video but unfortunately, when it was sent from my brother-in-law's phone to mine, it got all blurry and scrambled.  And it's also too long to email for some reason, so I apologize but I unfortunately won't be able to share this magical moment with you.)

A little background here:  My sister is currently 36 weeks pregnant, a mom to a 1 year old and 4 old and literally JUST moved into a new house (like a week ago).  To say she has a lot on her plate right now is an understatement.  My brother-in-law knew she was feeling super stressed lately and so a month or two ago he approached me about coming down to surprise her, help her and just generally lift her spirits as only a sister can do!  And dare I say it was a raging success!

I had a few goals for my 5 day visit, number one being to get the crib for the new baby assembled.  Mission accomplished!  I put this crib together with my own two hands.  Credit also goes to my 22 month-old nephew who assisted with his plastic hammer.  Definitely a key factor :)

I also helped her out by watching the kids while she ran around like a nut trying to get things done in the new house!  Hanging out with kids is just what I do, so no arm twisting required there.  Plus, I mean, how can you resist these faces?!?!

Jillyruns/IG

The answer to that question is that you can't. 

Bedtime selfie!

 

 

We ran a lot of errands while I was in town and it never ceases to amaze me, every time I'm in ATL and out with my sister, the number of 'twin' comments we get.  Literally every sales clerk at every store we were in asked us if we were twins.  A woman in Lowe's actually shouted across the aisle - 'Excuse me.  Excuse me!  Are y'all twins?!'  Hahaha I dk what the fascination is there.  Even more interesting is that SEVERAL of my sisters friends, who she sees on a very frequent basis in her neighborhood or at my niece's school, actually thought I was her, that I had delivered the baby, and returned to my pre-baby body all in the span of less than a week! HAHAHA  Someone actually called her to congratulate her on having the baby and she was like WHAT?!  

 

This pic is from a visit last year.  We didn't manage to get a pic together this time around.

 

 

My sister is a big smoothie fan and during our visit, she introduced me to my new favorite concoction.  It is delicious and super easy and once again, I forgot to take a pic :(  It contains only 3 ingredients:

 

Coconut/Almond milk blend

1 frozen banana

Generous scoop of Hershey's unsweetened cocoa

 

Try it! You won't be disappointed.

 

Oh I also found these cookies, in a gas station of all places down there.  I had heard about these for awhile but never came across them in Baltimore.  Vegan.  Protein.  Chocolate.  All wrapped up in a giant cookie.  SOLD!  Now I just need to find them up here.

 

 

 

While down in Atlanta, I also had to keep up with my half-marathon 'training' (I use that phrase loosely here since this has been the shortest training schedule ever).  With the heat and humidity down there, I honestly wasn't sure how I'd make my last long run happen.  I wanted to get in a double digit run since we are literally less than 2 weeks away from race day (let that sink in).  So far, I've squeezed in multiple long runs (a 10mi, 11mi, 11mi the last 3 weeks) so I've been feeling pretty good about the race, but I wanted one last long run 2 weeks out. 

 

I decided to run at night, after the sun went down since the daytime temps were about 97 degrees and 75% humidity!  I've visited my sister many many times over the years and knew her old neighborhood well, but I knew zippo about her new one.  In hindsight, setting out alone in the dark in a place where I had zero sense of direction may not have been the best decision but my lord it felt great!  That night I had one of the best double digit runs of this training cycle.  I absolutely loved running by the light of the moon.  I'm a night owl naturally (definitely not an early morning runner) and running in the dark was so peaceful.  I did 10 miles and my legs felt light the entire way.  I honestly felt like I could have run several more miles but it was already after 10pm so I decided to call it a night.  When I arrived back at the homestead I was completely drenched from head to toe.  I don't think I've ever run in humidity like that!

 

 

I always have a great time when I visit my sister.  It doesn't matter if the trip is more about business or pleasure, I'm just happy to see her and her fam.  I hope having me around for a few days gave her some sense of peace and lifted the stress she had been feeling lately.  In hindsight, scaring the crap out of a nearly full-term pregnant lady by popping out of a box on her front yard may not have been the smartest plan, but it sure was fun!

 

 

 



 

What have you been up to the last few days?

 

Ever surprise a family member in a big way?

 



 



My Georgia Trip from A to Z (Well, mostly...)

I'm baaaaaaack!  My two weeks down South sure went by in a jiffy, but it also feels like forever since I've blogged.  I was going to try to post a few times down there, and also keep up to date on reading my favorite blogs, but the reality of what a day with two kids under the age of 3 entails hit hard!  After putting them to bed and getting our workout in, we only had an hour or two a night to ourselves.  I don't know how my sister does it alone every day!  Just another piece of evidence supporting the statement that Moms really are Superheroes :)

Enjoy the recap of my trip below in keywords and pictures:


A - ATLANTA!  My destination.  The New York of the South.  The Big Peach.  Hotlanta.  The ATL.  Ok I'll stop.

B - BLUEBERRY PICKING.  We did this twice while I was there.  My niece loved it and so did we.  There is nothing more delicious than fresh produce you pick yourself.  We had pounds of fresh blueberries to eat all week and even made some blueberry muffins.  YUM!

C - COLD.  I came down with my very FIRST cold of 2013 on this trip.  Knock on wood, I rarely get sick, however never underestimate the germ-carrying power of small children and the places they frequent. 

D - DRINKS!  We went out to the movies one night, and to my surprise there was a BAR in the movie theater!  What a great idea.  Not sure if they serve alcohol in the theaters where you're from, but they don't around here.  Aside - We saw "We're the Millers" and it was unexpectedly hilarious.  Could've also been the alcohol I was drinking but I recommend checking it out :)

F - FITNESS CHALLENGE.  I kept up with my Push up challenge on the trip, although I will admit with all the activity going on during the day, there were a few days I forgot to do my push ups, which meant the following day I had to double up.  Yep, days of 120 push ups have already happened.  I am liking this challenge though because it's getting me to focus on my arms.  I do standard (not knee) push ups and can usually do 40-50 without a break.  Then I'll rest for 30 seconds and finish up.

 

H - HUMOR.  This sign seen outside a bar...

L - LACTATION MUFFINS.  No I'm not lactating, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy plenty of these delicious concoctions made by my sister the past two weeks!  They contain ingredients like flax seed and brewer's yeast which apparently are good for nursing mothers.  And me.  (If anyone is interested, I can get the recipe from her.  They are seriously good.)

M - MOMMY'S NIGHT OUT.  Apparently goes like this...

N - NIECE and NEPHEW.  Behold the cuteness.  I can only hope my future children are half as good looking as these two.

 

 

P - PAINTING NAILS.  My niece is only 3 and is already obsessed with having her nails painted.  She asked us to do it nearly every day, and she wanted every nail painted a different color! Hahaha.  I decided this was awesome and did the same...

S - SKY ZONE - A giant indoor trampoline center that I took my niece to.  They also apparently have adult fitness classes (on trampolines!) and recreational dodgeball leagues.  So much fun.  Will be requesting my next date take me here.

T - TWINS!  My sister and I get asked constantly if we are twins.  Sometimes we say yes, sometimes we tell the truth! Haha (We're actually a year apart.)  On my last day there we were out eating lunch and the counter person asked which of us is the better fighter?! What?

V - VODKA.  We went out in The Highlands one night (my first time in this neighborhood) and happened upon a bar that made their own house-infused flavored vodka.  I ordered orange-pineapple-vanilla bean, and it was delicious!

W - WALKING.  This was my workout most days.  Truly, I had wanted to do more low impact activities like swimming, HIIT or core work, to give my legs and their accompanying tendon/muscle issues more rest time, but this was great sister time.  My sister goes on a nightly walk after she puts the kids to bed most evenings and this is something we did together.  We walked a 5K nearly every night I was there.  However, my legs seem to be bothering me more.  My 8 weeks of training for the Runner's World Half will begin this week, so all I can do is start up and see how they do :/

Y - YUM!  My sister and I went out for a sushi date one night and tried someplace she had never been before.  This place had some of the best, freshest, sushi I've had in a long time.  It was also really cute and the owners were very sweet and attentive.  If you live in the Smyrna, GA area, I'd definitely recommend it - Village Sushi and Gourmet. 

Z - ZAC BROWN BAND!  Great concert.  Kind of weird seeing a summer concert indoors (Georgia Dome) but it didn't take away from the music - I've wanted to see this band live for years and my dreams finally came true. 


Ok I skipped a few letters here and there, but this gives a good picture of how I spent my time down in Dixieland.  Just wish my sister lived closer so I could spend more time with her on the regular.



Questions for you today:


Where was your most recent trip?

Does your family/siblings live nearby or far away?

Have you picked any fresh produce this summer?