Quail Eggs, Bus Rides & Dorm Rooms

Little man and I made quail eggs, courtesy of Grandma Faiola's generosity. It was really fun to try mini eggs. Grandpa Faiola even figured out how to boil them and make mini deviled eggs. 

It turns out that quail eggs taste a lot like chicken eggs and nutritionally, are pretty much the same but c'mon, they're teensy tiny. #cutealert

  

Jamisen and I recently grew a full on grass-head that has sprouted so much that it needs regular trims!

One of our favorite activities when the weather starts to clear up is to take the bus downtown. The kids love exploring downtown (hello delightful animal stores and sugar emporiums in the form of ice cream shops).

Chris typically will drive his car downtown and then run home. It's a perfect 3-5 mile run depending on the route he takes home. Then, we wander our little family the mile down to the bus station and wait between 5 and 20 minutes for the bus. Luckily, we've never had to wait the longest stretch possible (45 minutes) but if we did hit that window, the grocery store is right near by as is another sugar emporium (gelato and fudge).

The kiddos are big fans of anything frozen and in fact, that's their main form of veggies right now: frozen peas and carrots. They'll eat bowls of them so long as they're frozen. They also love broccoli 'chips' (burned broccoli from the stove), kale chips (dehyrated), cauliflower (Jamisen only) and carrots (both kids, though Lily less so). You can't tell how much he loves his veggies from the hilarious scowl Jamisen has on his face but really, that's all about not wanting another photo taken and not so much about what's in his bowl.

Lately, Lily has been waking up at night again. We're not sure what it's about but suspect night terrors. Sometimes, she'll make it halfway down the stairs, heading downstairs with her blankets, whimpering all the way, before we reach her. Usually, she lays in her bed and cries until one of us rushes in to pat her back, cover her back up and back slowly out of the room. We're hoping it's a phase because it sure is hard to see our little girl sad. And, the parentals wake up tired! =)

I recently flew to Tennessee to speak at the 2x4Live Conference, a small group, two day session on growing your business. I spoke on a panel and answered questions from the audience as well as gave a 60 minute talk on 'The Power of Small & the Beauty of the Trudge'. Day two was all about breaking the 49 participants into small groups and then round tabling on the different topics each speaker talked about.

It was good though exhausting - and of course, it's always tough to be away from the babies. It's especially tough to be away when you're staying in a dorm room with shared bathrooms (really; that happened). The conference took place at Vanderbilt University. It was a beautiful campus with a nice 1 mile running loop that went right by Starbucks (convenient). =)