Hi friends! I hope you had nice weeks.
Last weekend, the weather was amazing – unseasonably warm – so Matt and I took advantage and met our friend Shane for a hike with the kids!
Since it has been so cold it had been ages since we did a hike, and it was really nice to get out and do something active and be in nature.
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We went to Huntley Meadows Park, which is one of our local favorites. Cool boardwalk and fun things to look at in the water for Riese!
She did NOT want to go hiking and it was a whole thing to get her dressed and in the car… but once we got there she had a lot of fun, thankfully. 🙂
About half of the main loop you can do is in the woods and the other half is on the boardwalks.
Our little guy really enjoyed himself too!
So much so, in fact, that he skipped his nap – I thought he’d sleep in the carrier (I turned him around to face me when he got noticeably tired), but instead he just thought it was hilarious to try to grab my face/sunglasses/etc.
It had been awhile since I had him in a carrier and I guess it was just too exciting to sleep!
Next time we’d bring the stroller, instead – we couldn’t remember if the trail was smooth enough for it or not, but it definitely was.
Isn’t he getting so big?! He’ll be 9 months on March 1 which blows my mind.
He has the best smile – unless he’s teething or in a developmental “leap”, he’s a super smiley happy little guy.
His smile melts my heart – it’s so big and his tongue always sticks out, too!
When we got home, we decided an early dinner was in order to take advantage of the last bit of warm weather, so we walked over to Evening Star Cafe and snagged a spot outside.
Burger + salad + some shared fries, yes please! Hit the spot.
Right after we arrived Wes fell asleep in the stroller – he had such a big day and he was just done.
I was like “nooooo!!!!” because it was 5:20 and I knew that was too late/was going to mess with bedtime, but we also wanted to enjoy our dinner and knew he’d be super fussy otherwise soooo we let him sleep.
He woke up 40 minutes later super cheerful, and then as expected proceeded to stay up until 9p.m.
Oh well! Worth it sometimes to just go with the flow and enjoy a dinner without him crawling all over us or throwing food onto the floor. 🙂
One other big highlight from the last week: Matt and I went out to dinner for Valentine’s Day!
We actually went out Tuesday night instead of Monday since that’s what worked with our schedules – we figured the actual day didn’t really matter and that way it might be less crowded out and about, anyway.
We went to Il Radicchio in Arlington – it’s an old fave of ours that always reminds me of our younger years.
We used to live in an apartment building near it and went all the time for date nights, so it holds a lot of nostalgia for us as a younger couple, pre-kids! Feels like forever ago…
We started by sharing a salad and the bruschetta two ways – garlicky tomato and mushroom ragu. (Guess I had mushrooms on the brain after sharing my Healthy Mushroom Recipes blog post!)
All of it was absolutely delicious.
For my entree, I had the sausage tortelloni which had a yummy sautéed pepper situation, more sausage, and some broccoli rabe with it. So yummy.
We hadn’t eaten there in years and it was a nice treat to be back!
As for other food from this week, I’ve been mixing it up from my usual grain salad bowls and doing a lot of sandwiches for lunch.
My favorite combo as of late has been turkey, sharp cheddar, guacamole, mustard (yes, both guac + mustard – good combo actually!), tomato, and spinach.
I had it in wrap form too one day to mix it up!
Have a great weekend and see you back here next week!
What’s your favorite sandwich combination at the moment?
Have you gone hiking recently? Where and how was it?
