Utah Trip

Do you remember when my friend Marci surprised me earlier this year by flying into Tampa for my birthday? Well, I decided it'd be a fun surprise to reciprocate. The last trip I took on my own was back in December for my friend Halle's wedding in Ohio, and since then I've been itching to travel again. Robert was amazing and took leave from work to stay home with Abby for 4 and 1/2 days while mommy got a little break! 

I sat in the backseat with Abby on the way to the airport and we had fun taking pictures together. I love her cheesy grin!

At the airport, she blew me a kiss from the car and said, "bye, mommy!" and I thought all was well. Then I took one last look as they pulled away and I saw her crying. She had big fat tears rolling down her cheeks and of course then I did, too. Goodbyes are hard! But I knew she was going to have a great time with her daddy.

My flight took me through Denver (a 4 hour trip), then Salt Lake City (2 more hours) and then I jumped on a shuttle to head north to Logan, Utah (another 2 hours). It was a long day of travel. I went from sea level to an elevation of over 4,000 feet and changed from Eastern to Mountain time. But it was all worth it to see Marci and Joe. 

On Friday we headed north and crossed the border into Idaho to go to Lava Hot Springs. The hot water felt soooo relaxing and therapeutic. 

It was a pretty warm day so we stayed in the shade and had to take occasional breaks from our hot water soaking. The cool breeze felt amazing.

This was the deepest and hottest pool. I think it was 113 degrees? I lasted only about two minutes before I had to leave.

Fall colors! I couldn't have a been any happier to see this.

This part of the country has some truly gorgeous farmland. We saw a lot of livestock, cornfields, and hay bales.

On Saturday, Marci and Joe showed me around Logan. Joe is the marching band director at Utah State so we went to see the university. I love how the football stadium is surrounded by the mountains! I wish I could have seen him in action with the band -- hopefully next time? 

We had a Skype session with Abby later that afternoon. She had fun showing us her toys and she kept running around like a crazy lady!

Robert creeped us out with Abby's baby doll. Ha!

Brave Robert gave potty training a try while I was away. I was impressed that he was willing to go through that without any reinforcements. We decided awhile back to go the route of "potty training bootcamp" where you put your kid in underwear over a long weekend, hoping they learn from any accidents they make. I'll spare you the details (although there are some pretty funny stories) but ultimately we decided to give her a little more time. Abby did great and used the potty several times but she had several accidents, too. So we'll try again later.

Back to Utah...

Robert insisted that I eat at In-N-Out Burger (I've never been) while I was there so we drove down to Ogden on Sunday. Marci has to travel to Ogden to go to Target, too...how does she survive?!

Here's Marci's "animal style" fries. Impressive!

I enjoyed seeing more Fall colors out the car window on the drive back to Logan.

We celebrated Marci's birthday that evening with an incredible Oopsy Daisy Cake from Baked. Marci and I need to start keeping track of all of the birthday cakes we've made together. We made a lemon pound cake with lemon poppy seed buttercream this past April on my birthday. Two birthdays ago I flew to Virginia to visit while Robert was deployed and we made a delicious strawberry birthday cake. I made a chocolate peanut butter cake for her when we had a girls weekend at Sanibel Island several years back -- the infamous cake that split into 4 or 5 pieces on the drive there! Friends who bake together, stay together. ;)

My apologies for the blurriness.

We went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant that evening (after eating cake, not before, in true Marci/Bobbie style) and on the way we saw this crazy fog.

I'm so sad this is the only picture I got with Marci during the entire trip! Thanks, Marci and Joe for the great visit. I loved seeing your beautiful surroundings, the campus, and your favorite restaurants but most of all I loved seeing you! I wish we still lived close to each other. Marci, happy birthday again and I hope you have the most amazing year ahead. Love you, friend!

Abby & Layla @ the Aquarium

It's "Swaptember" for zoo pass holders, which means we get free admission to the Florida Aquarium. The best thing about the aquarium? It's indoors. We met up with my friend Laura, her daughter Layla, and baby Grant this morning. Layla is also in Abby's preschool class and they are becoming good friends. When I ask Abby what she did at school she says "play!" and "Laalaalaaaa" (translation: Layla). 

First we had a quick photoshoot while waiting for them to arrive.

Happy, happy girl!

The cutest little bffs. 

The otters always put on quite a show.

Abby used to be afraid of the sting rays, but now she loves them.

I wish I could capture the size of this aquarium. It's huge!

So relaxing and peaceful.

...or not.

Thanks for the fun morning, Layla! Here's to September and cooler temperatures around the corner. 

Seriously Delish

Tonight I invited my friend Mandy to join me for a cookbook signing at Inkwood Books, Tampa's only local independent bookstore. It's an incredibly charming little shop -- the kind of place that upon walking though the doors, I wanted to hand them my resume and ask about possible employment opportunities.

Food blogger turned cookbook author Jessica Merchant released her new cookbook Seriously Delish today and Tampa was the first stop on her book tour! My friend Marci introduced me to Jessica's blog How Sweet It Is years ago and I followed it regularly until the death of Google Reader about a year ago. I adore Jessica's bubbly writing and unfettered enthusiasm for food. One of my favorite recipes is her portobello fajitas with fontina queso -- it says it serves four but Robert and I couldn't stop eating all of that ooey-gooey cheese and we polished off the entire thing with just the two of us.

I didn't have a chance to eat any dinner before the event but fortunately Jessica had prepared a small feast. She made not one, but two types of macaroni and cheese. (My apologies for taking all of these pictures with my phone.)

I had seconds and then thirds of her Brown Sugar Bacon Biscuits.

She also served an asparagus ribbon pasta salad, grilled fruit salsa, and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. We munched while she prepared the recipe featured on the cover of her new cookbook: whipped goat cheese with warm vanilla berries on toast.

How about that? It's just like the cover photo!

It was neat to see that Jessica is just as bubbly and fun in person as she comes across on her blog. I felt inspired when I left tonight, which is great because lately I've been thinking about how I want to put more thought and effort into our family meals. I want to introduce Abby to a wide variety of flavors and ingredients. I want to feel more at ease in the kitchen. Sometimes it seems like we are stuck in a rut, preparing the same recipes over and over.

That being said, we're off to a pretty good start. We gave the following recipes a try this past month and agreed we'd enjoy eating each of them again.

• easy thai chickpea curry with coconut rice: Our rice needed a bit more liquid so I recommend using the measurements on your bag of rice.
• PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Quinoa Enchilada Casserole: We used enchilada sauce from Trader Joe's. Overall, this seemed a bit soupy. Robert thought it might be good scooped up with chips? Adding some diced or shredded chicken might be a nice addition, too.
• Parmesan Broiled Tilapia: I'm trying to eat more fish...begrudgingly.
• Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo: More delicious goat cheese!
• Penne alla Vodka: From the book Delancey by Molly Wizenburg.

Family and friends, do you have any recipes I should try? Please share!