Fun times in Cleveland

Our first vacation stop was Cleveland to visit Jess, Dan, Beck and Mylo. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving, and it was great to see how big their boys are getting. The cousins had fun playing together.

Our first outing was Cedar Point. We had a great day there with very short lines. I think the boys rode Jr Gemini at least 10 times.







On the way out of Sandusky, we had to stop at Toft's Ice Cream. Toft's is an ice cream factory with a ice cream shop attached. I had forgotten how huge their servings are. A kids cone had 2 large scoops!

The boys tuckered out from Cedar Point.

The next couple days were spent at the Science Museum, going to the park, and hanging out with Jess & Dan.




We did have some excitement on our last day in Cleveland. Brooks lost his first tooth! It had been loose for a few weeks, and it finally came out. We celebrated with a tooth party.

12 Years!

Ryan and I celebrated 12 years of marriage on June 19th. He had a bike race at French Lick, Indiana, so we decided to make a weekend of it since I've wanted to stay at West Baden Springs. It rained all the way (3 hours) to the race, and he wasn't even sure it the race would be on. It was, but unfortunately Ryan had a tire issue and had to drop out. In the 4 years that he's been racing this is the first time he had a DNF. At least we had other plans for the day, and we didn't drive down just for the race (like most of the time).


The hotel was awesome, easily the nicest place we've ever stayed at. The history of the place is amazing too. They really did a wonderful job restoring this place to its grandeur. We enjoyed a great dinner at one of the golf courses, and had plenty of time to relax.





The next day we drove south another hour to Holiday World to celebrate our anniversary and Fathers Day. The park was not crowded and we hit all of the big water slides at least one time. The down side to no lines on the water slides is that you have to hike up 100+ steps all at once! We will be back later this summer with the boys, since it has become an annual tradition for the past 9 years. The only summer we missed was when I was pregnant with Hudson.

On the way into the park, the owner was out greeting the crowd as usual. Ryan was wearing a Holiday World shirt that I found at Goodwill (for .99!) and she complemented him on it. I later saw the same shirt in the gift shop for $15. We did buy shirts for the boys since they didn't have any amusement park shirts and we knew they would love to have one to wear on vacation.

Wordless Wednesday - Pictures taken by Brooks

Tasty Tuesday

Whoa was it hot last week! These peanut noodles are great for a hot day. It would also be great for a picnic. I sauteed some pork loin to go with it, but I think it would be yummy with grilled chicken.

Cold Peanut Noodles

Ingredients

NOODLES

• 1 lb spaghetti, can use linguine
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup chopped scallions
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red bell peppers
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, can use parsley

SAUCE

• 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, I use red pepper flakes
• sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of boiling water to a boil. Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions; drain; rinse in very cold water and drain again.
2. Place cooled noodles in a large bowl and toss with the carrots, scallions, bell pepper slices and cilantro.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients until smooth.
4. Drizzle the sauce over noodles mixture; toss to coat well.
5. Serve room temp or cold.
6. Garnish with sesame seeds if desired.

Continuing with the it's hot out theme, I picked up some popsicle molds at Target. This is the first recipe I made in them. It's basically a chocolate pudding, so you could call these pudding pops!

Fudge Popsicles

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons Hersheys cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and milk.
2. Cook on medium until thick.
3. Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter and stir until combined.
4. Place in molds and freeze until firm.

I'd been hungry for grilled shrimp. When I realized I didn't have any lemon, I had to find a recipe that didn't call for it, which is hard to do. It seems most shrimp recipes have lemon juice in them. This one sounded a little weird because of the tomato sauce, but it had rave reviews and I had everything, so I gave it a try. It was great!

Marinated Grilled Shrimp

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• skewers

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together the garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, and red wine vinegar. Season with basil, salt, and cayenne pepper. Add shrimp to the bowl, and stir until evenly coated. Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring once or twice.
2. Preheat grill for medium heat. Thread shrimp onto skewers, piercing once near the tail and once near the head. Discard marinade.
3. Lightly oil grill grate. Cook shrimp on preheated grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until opaque.

Swim! Bike! Run!

The boys participated in their first triathlon tonight. It was held at our Y. They had to swim 50 yards, bike .75 mile, and run .25 mile. The boys had been training hard, taking private swim lessons for the past couple months. This was a great goal for them to improve their swimming. They did a great job! Brooks finished 3rd and Hudson finished 4th in a field of 10. Brooks held 3rd place the whole way through and Hudson rocketed past quite a few kids on the bike portion.












We promised them dinner at Dennys if they completed the race. Yeah, you're probably wondering why Dennys, after all these are kids who ate Indian Chickpea Salad for lunch the other day. Well, Ryan had told them that Dennys is open all the time and you can go there at any time of the day or night and eat whatever you want, so the boys were intrigued.



We finished the night with ice cream from Sonic and took home two very tired boys!

Wordless Wednesday