Girls.. Just Wanna BIKE, EAT & REDBOX

I really thought it was 1pm and that we still had to stain a deck when I woke up today. 

nope. 

And don't get me wrong, I was all the way down and ready to do some staining, but the sun was so bright at 9am that I thought it was well into early afternoon. Fortunately, it was early, and with the rain yesterday, there was no way we'd be doing any type of stain work today. 

INSTEAD, we opted to go for a bike ride! 

I didn't bring my bike, but fortunately, Jenn's parents have a few spares, so Nikki and I took up the offer and we were on our way in no time. I did end up with the taller bike, but major kudos to Nikki for wanting to try it! 

^ Nik, we weren't laughing at you... I mean.... ok, yeah, we were, but it was hilarious and you are a trooper for even wanting to do that! 

The ride in was beautiful, and although it was 16 miles each way, the ride itself was mild.

covered bridges :) 

We arrived in Yellow Springs, in the middle of a street vendor Saturday - these are my favorite, and I had to admit I didn't know YS had weekends & shoppes like it does! 

yellow springs, oh

merch & shoppes... & nikki! 

We ordered food, stopped at the brewery and then got ice cream.

And we justified each of these things with having ridden the 16 miles to get there, and the fact that each of us had done some version of a workout circuit in the past 24 hours. Haha..

pizza. brew. ice cream. #saturdaynotsorry

And Yellow Springs is especially dog-filled.

... and obviously i will. pet. all. the dogs. 

We finished up in YS and made our way back to Beavercreek - a slightly different but still beautiful little ride.

Jenn and I met up with Mikey for dinner and then decided that we were absolutely not doing a daggone thing after that. 

yes.

Well, maybe something, if an impulse trip to the store to buy snacks immediately following dinner.. counts. It counts. It totally counts. 

snacks, wine, redbox.
.... i mean.... 

Because we thought it'd be a good idea to sob ourselves into Saturday night... 

the shack

^ Holy crap, Sam Worthington... so many feels. 

Whew. Happy Saturday, loves!

xo | cms

Welcome, Clarissa!

We welcomed a brand new member to the Express team today!! Elisa is leaving at the end of this week to prepare for her launch off to grad school, and after several unfruitful weeks of searching, we found Clarissa, who is going to be taking her place. I'm super excited to see our next chapter with her! :D 

welcome aboard!!

I was also pretty excited about lunch.... not just the salmon & green beans, but the fact that I actually remembered to bring it to work. I mean, that's half the battle, right? Haha.. 

Elisa and I took a breather [our first of the day, really] around 3:30, and opted for ice cream... because we were both embracing our inner fat kids today and it sounded awesome. 

and it was awesome!

How'd we never know about this place before?! Not cool...

It's awesome. Cute, small, locally-owned and operated... and delicious. :) 

Time Warner Cable on the other hand, has some absolutely ground to make up, and will stay in the doghouse until the end of time. While I understand it's a luxury, and this will certainly sound like a first-world rant... we signed up for this because we are blessed with the means to support it, and because we enjoy watching it occasionally. So given those two things, the fact that we spend more time speaking with customer service about our lack of service than actually having service is irritating. 

We're almost on board with whoever else has ever though and/or done this... 

last straws.. 

And I suppose if that's the worst thing that's happened to me today, we're okay :). 

It's Monday, and it's sunny. This is gonna be a good week! 

xo | cmd

Easter Eggs & Kites!

I slept on the couch in our greatroom last night, and I don't regret that decision at all. This house, the house in which I grew up, boasts an open greatroom with gable windows, and when the sun rises, so do you.. in a great mood. I was up and moving before the rest of the house; the first thing I did was step outside onto the deck. The trees have yet to sprout their full sets of leaves, but that barely detracted from the beauty that always surrounds this place.

** Deck morning pic

My mom is a machine. I think we'll all be shocked if I actually outlive her. Haha. Seriously, though: My mother is the definition of a healthy woman, and I'll never get over the fact that she can run circles around us. She had us up and going as soon as her feet hit the floor this morning, and we haven't looked back since. ;)

|| ONE ||

First, it was an Easter Egg hunt & the unveiling of Easter baskets.
[The Easter bunny was busy this year!]

egg hunt...... go!

basket o' eggs

nana & pappy!

With all the eggs collected, we noticed there were some strange prints on the deck... [yes, this Easter bunny walks, like a human... haha]

where did he go?

easter baskets, of course!!

ransack.

easter basket goodies!

Showcasing some spoils:

new sock-shoes? lol (:

ninja bunny here....

little capsules that become sponge animals

|| TWO ||

We survived the explosion of Easter basket fun and gathered ourselves together for a trip to the new and still in-progress development of Mt. Vernon's Foundation Park. They still have some big work to do, but it's already beautiful and I'm excited to come back in a few months to see how it's finished.

Our reason for the visit today?

butterfly kite!

I didn't realize until today that my mother has never before flown a kite. Never. This won't sound like much to most, but today will stay special if for no other reason than the fact that I was with my mother and my daughter for their first time flying a kite. How.. awesome (:

she's good!!

she insisted she could do this herself ;)

but finally enlisted mister rob's help ♥

heading out to get started

my girl ♥♥

mom!!!

showing mister rob how it's done ;)

she's a pro now!

mama, reeling it in after an hour of flight time (:

We flew that thing for almost an hour before finally bringing it down. Luckily for us, we also brought snacks... and bubbles.

snacks with pappy

bubbles with nana



ribbons!

Soon it was time to go...

getting chilly ... zip up!

my love...

... and the love i most admire ♥

|| THREE ||
We headed home after the park; Dad, Rob and our neighbor Fred got together to switch out the dryers and hang out for a bit, and Sydni and I took to the yard.

in love with today

her snarly monster face

if you guessed that she's singing the frozen soundtrack, you're not wrong...

more bubbles!

This picture, which is now one of my favorites:

baby girls being raised right ;)

Before long, it was time to settle down for dinner. Mom, as usual, outdid herself and left the family with bellies so full we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Dad's solution? Teach Sydni chess. 

ok, so maybe it wasn't by real chess rules, but hey, it's ok!

After dinner, we forced Mom out of the kitchen and took away all her dishtowels and parked her in a seat with the family to watch................. you guessed it.. Frozen. I'm fairly certain my parents are were the only two remaining people in the U.S. to have seen this movie. Haha.

it's movie time!

hey pappy! dooooooo you wanna build a snowmaaaaan?

They loved it. She recited it. We just laughed watching them the whole time.
Oh, and when you're here at the Dren Lodge, this is how you end Saturday movie nights:

homemade chocolate & caramel sauce!

Whoa. Saturday = SUCCESS.
We're aiming for the same thing tomorrow (:

xo | cmd

Sicky Saturday

Today definitely didn't turn out like we'd planned, but at the end of it all, I'm thankful for my resilient, funny, and likely lactose-intolerant little trooper.

We started our Saturday off with an array of miscellaneous errands. That landed us in Eastgate, where we had a small bone to pick with Time Warner [shocking, I know]. Sydni had no qualms though, and perched herself on a tiny stool in front of a tiny computer with a tiny game on it. She, in all her itty-bittyness, looked a lot like a miniature college student, and naturally that warranted a picture. 

i can't handle it sometimes (:

^ See? My studious little girl, complete with leggings, boots and a thermal vest. It's like I picked her straight out of a Miami University kids catalogue. Don't worry, MU friends, I still love you.. but you have to admit the standard campus dress code is a bit predictable. ;)

Anyway, we checked things off our list one by one, and even stopped for some Orange Julius before moving on from Eastgate to Target.

I'll fast forward through our trip to Target, and absolutely through the ride home after that [at least the picture part, because there are none to document what happened... BUT, I can and will safely say that I now firmly believe that Sydni is following in my childhood footsteps of being just about completely lactose intolerant.

How do I know this? I have an incredible boyfriend who took my car straight to the carwash to shampoo and vac out the backseat as soon as we pulled into the driveway. I busied myself cleaning off what was left of the rejected ice cream [+ sprinkles & all.....] from Sydni, her clothes and shoes. She has never thrown up like this; my immediate instinct as a mother was to call someone, but as I inspected her face, breathing, mouth, eyes and behavior as she was in the shower, she already seemed to feel better. I figured I would give it a few more minutes before I summoned an army of paramedics, and realized she would go through two more, far less intense vomit episodes before her belly finally ceded.

No. More. Ice. Cream.

Poor girl. :(
We spent the rest of the afternoon parked on the couch in piles of blankets, making sure there was no more belly aching to be had. By the time the evening rolled around, she was safely munching on some crackers, and even hopped up to start filling her piggy bank [which was our purpose at Target, earlier]. Rob donated a half a water jug's worth of coin to her collection, which she diligently dropped one......by...... one.... into her new bank. 

super saver!

I suppose four years with no major puking incidents is really not all that bad. Lesson learned, right?

.. Right (:

I promised some dinner in return for Rob hanging back with Sydni for a couple of hours while I made a brief appearance for Carolina's birthday. I'd promised her sometime back that I would at least come by to say hello before the gang headed down to OTR for the evening, so I visited with them briefly at Dancing Wasabi while I waited on my to-go order.

myself. carolina. ika

Happy, HAPPY birthday, Caro! I'm sorry again that Rob and I couldn't have gone out with everyone tonight, but I promise we'll get together again very soon and celebrate the right way.

For now, I'm back home with a boyfriend who has definitely outdone himself today, and a happily snoozing little girl who hopefully has a better day tomorrow.

I'm a pretty lucky girl.

xo | cmd