Country Jog

Amish Farms

This morning, I took a jog in the country side. We're up at my in-laws' lake house in Northern Indiana. They live in Amish country. It's really slow paced and relaxed here. As I shared before, I restarted my fitness routine in June. I've been back to spin classes at the gym and working out about 4-5 days a week. I feel really good and not feeling sore after exercising.

A few weeks ago when we were at the lake, I ran about 45 minutes. Today, I set out for a goal for an hour. I use my heart monitor and watch my heart rate closely. Instead of speed or distance, I look at my heart rate and listen to my body. In spin classes, I do lots of interval training and have already seen my aerobic endurance improve. My lungs feel clear when I exercise and I'm not seeing any asthma issues.

Today, I ran on a straight, dirt road along the Amish farms. I ran for an hour and turned around at the 30 minute mark. The sun wasn't very direct in the first half, but it was starting to get really hot towards the end. 

I enjoyed the quiet scenery, despite the farm smells. I didn't see any cars, just an Amish man crossing the road to get his mail. I passed two horses and one blinked at me sweetly to I took their picture.

Beautiful horses

At the halfway point where I turned around, I saw a sign in the corn field that said no spray organic. That made me happy!

Organic corn

When I got back to the house, I felt good. But then I looked in the mirror and I was bright red from the heat! I drank a lot of water to cool off.

I ran close to 4 miles in an hour and burned 735 calories. I don't run for distance. I just stay in tuned with my body and how I feel. I religiously watch my heart monitor to take a break if it starts getting too high. I will do a recovery period and let my heart rate come down about 20 beats per minute after walking a minute or so. It was nice to be alone away from the family to decompress.

State Fair Visit

Bravely petting the calf.

 

We've been in Indy 4 years now and every August we visit the State Fair. It's been a  different experience each year. Our first year, I was in my early pregnancy with Ava. And now it marks a summer tradition with her as she grows bigger. We like to go on a weekday evening and stay for dinner so we can see the animals without the weekend crowds. 

This year Ava was very brave with petting the animals. She really enjoyed petting the ponies, baby goats, and the baby cows. Her school had their own Fair where they made crafts like quilt and fruits and veggie art projects. They learned all about farms and had their school Fair on the same day that the State Fair kicked off. She really loved it! Here's a look back two years ago when she was afraid of petting the baby calves. And last year at age 2, Ava fed the goats for the first time.

Seeing the babies in the Cattle Barn

First year of the Fair rides.

The Dad's Lounge next to the Lactation Station

Feeding carrots to the goats.

We went through the animal barns when we first arrived. Ava especially loved the sow and her piglets. They were sleeping and then woke up to nurse when we walked up. We hit all the animals first, and then she asked to do some rides. She was just a bit too small to do the rides by herself so we went with her. Aaron rode the air balloons with her and I did a sea ship ride with her. Then she played a game throwing darts to pop a balloon on a wall. Three year olds throwing darts is a bit scary! She picked out a soft toy rose as her prize and carried it the rest of the evening.

Then we walked to get some dinner. Aaron and I got pulled chicken BBQ sandwiches which weren't too unhealthy. But, we did splurge and shared some french fries. After the short dinner break, we continued to the Future Farmers of America barn that has the baby animals and playground area. It's like a petting area for the kids to feed the goats. She had fun feeding the goats carrot shavings.

We stopped in Pioneer Village and saw more horses and ponies. There was a long line for the pony ride so maybe we'll do that next year.

Lemon Shake Up

By the end of the evening, we walked the entire loop! It was starting to rain, but we managed to stop for our favorite Fair treat for dessert. We shared an elephant ear. Ava really loved it.

Ava and I are heading back to the Fair next Friday with Aaron's mom. I'm volunteering at the Lactation Station with a girlfriend next Friday morning and Ava will get to visit the Fair again with Grandma. I volunteer at the Lactation Station every year. It's a nice spot for nursing mamas to stop to breastfeed in comfortable rocking chairs near fans. Usually with the sweltering August humidity, it's nice for mother's to have some fans to cool off.

Ava is excited about going back next week.We really like this fun summer tradition!

Summer is here!

Excited at the ice cream shop

Today is the summer solstice and the days have been so long. It's even more noticeable in Indiana where we're on the westernmost area on the Eastern timezone. It's not completely dark until about 10pm. Ava has been staying up later and later. The days of winter hibernation are long over and now we're in summer mode: going to bed later and waking up earlier with the extra light.

Tonight we made our pizza on the grill instead of using the oven on a hot day. Last summer we changed our Friday night pizza tradition to the grill, but since today was the first day we had to remember how we did it. This time we made it on a metal pizza pan on the grill and it worked out great! It takes longer than the oven, but Ava had a TJ's peach pop after school so she was fine to wait longer for her dinner. I make a whole wheat dough for our pizza and top it with cheese, fresh spinach, pepperoni, and olives.

A couple weeks ago, we took an impromtu Sunday afternoon trip to a local ice cream shop after Ava's nap. Ava got a chocolate ice cream cone and it was so huge that Aaron had to help her eat it! She was excited because her cone had chocolate and sprinkles!

Her favorite flavor is chocolate!

The ice cream shop is on the Monon Trail and we walked a bit afterwards. Then we saw lots of geese and ducks on the canal. We stopped into a local heath food store that sells corn for ducks. That can't be good. But it's probably better than feeding them bread. Ava felt brave enough to carefully drop the kernals to feed the ducks, but the geese were more interested. One of the geese was especially friendly and walked right up to us. I was shocked! We saved the rest of the duck food for another trip.

Ava just wrapped up her soccer season at school today. She asked to do gymnastics instead of soccer. Last month, she went to her friend's birthday party at a gymnastics place. She had a blast, especially loved jumping on the trampoline. I signed her up for some classes in July to try out to see if she will like it. She has also asked for ballet classes and thankfully we can do that on-site at her preschool so that may be in the near future too. We're excited that she is able try some new activities. 

Feeding geese

I'm amazed by how fast she's growing up - emotionally and physically! She must have been going through a growth spurt because we're starting to put away the 3T outfits for 4T, especially in shirts and dresses. She is tall and skinny so the 3T bottoms fit better. I'm amazed by how much she is developing friendships and recognizing social cues. Her emotional development is top of mind right now and we talk about every detail of her day. She tells me about her friends and who hurt her feelings or made her laugh. I believe that the openness of our relationship now will help in those awkward teen years.

Our garden isn't booming like we had hoped, sadly. When we scoped out the garden spot in early spring, the sun was in a different spot and there were no leaves on the trees. Our garden doesn't get much direct sunlight especially now that the trees have filled in so much. Aaron is thinking about cutting some tree limbs directly above our garden. We have some cucumbers and a few green tomatoes developing, but the peppers and cauliflower have been eaten by slugs. We finally have kept the deer away with the netting, but the garden has been attacked by a mole and slugs. We also suspect our new topsoil is packed down to much. Next year, we'll have compost to mix in and we'll aerate the soil to see if that improves it. We keep learning each year. I hope one day we'll have the garden that we've been dreaming about to provide vegetables through the summer. I really want to make salsa with all our veggies.

We're really looking forward to some lake weekends up north to visit Aaron's family. We're heading up on a long weekend around the 4th of July and then have plenty of lake time in the next few months. Ava is really excited to go swimming in the lake and see her family and friends. We were up a couple weeks ago and the lake water was still very cold. No doubt we'll be swimming on the 4th! We're excited that summer is finally here!

State Fair Visit 2012

Class quilt (Ava is bottom left)

Since moving to Indy, we've made a family tradition to go to the Indiana State Fair. Ava's preschool did a Fair recently with the kids and each classroom submitted crafts. Ava's class made a bell pepper plant, quilt with class pictures, and an elephant. They kids played in a bounce house and had fun with games. Ava had so much fun!

Bell Pepper

Then this past Monday, Aaron and I took off of work a little early to spend the evening at the State Fair. Since last year, Ava seemed to enjoy the animals more since she felt braver than before.

Elephant 

She pet the newborn calves.

Last year, Ava wouldn't go near the baby calves, but this year with some encouragement she pet them. Here's my post from year's visit. They were so small, about the size of Bena! They were curled up and sleeping in the hay. Ava was excited to watch piglets nursing with their mommy. We dropped in a horse and cart show where the horses were decorated.

Sleepy calf.

We shared Fair foods like a butter ear of corn, fried cheese, breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, and a cinnamon-sugar drenched elephant ear for dessert.

This year, Ava enjoyed the horses much more! Last year they scared her up close. We stopped in the horticulture center and Ava looked at the flowers and vegetables.

She loved this!

Feeding baby goats slices of carrot.

We stopped at the Lactation Station where I've volunteered in years past. We ran into Fernanda who has been working the Lactation Stations for several years. She loves seeing Ava and was surprised by how much she's grown in the last year. We didn't go in to nurse, but we did stop for a family picture!

It was starting to sprinkle and look stormy so we hurried back to the car after visiting the Future Farmers of America area. They have more baby animals and a playground.

We had such a fun evening! Since it was a Monday night, the Fair wasn't crowded. Although next year, I think we'll go back on a $2 Tuesday to take advantage of the savings and they do sample portions of food.

Grilled Pizza

Homemade Pizza and Caesar Salad our Friday night tradition!

We started a family tradition just before Ava was born to make homemade pizza on Friday night. I have perfected our favorite pizza using a whole wheat crust recipe that I make in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I usually make the pizza crust on Thursday night before bed and let the dough rise overnight. Then in the morning, I'll split the dough and wrap them in plastic wrap and store the dough balls in the refrigerator. We use a Pampered Chef pizza stone in the oven for the nights that we bake the pizza in the oven. We love it!

This summer has been unbelievably hot! It's been regularly 90 and even 100 degrees and we just can't justify using the oven for much these days. We are doing lots of cooking on our new grill and crockpot with these hot temperatures. Last summer, we went to the Pierce's house for dinner and they made a delcious grilled pizza. They were inspired by our pizza making tradition too! They made a BBQ chicken pizza on the grill and it was so tasty and didn't require heating an oven.

So last weekend, we tried grilled pizza after consulting with Shawn and his technique. Well, it got pretty charred because we tried to put the toppings on the crust after it flipped, while on the grill. Maybe we should have asked him for an in-person cooking class! I made two smaller pizzas and they both got pretty burned on the bottom. But this inspired Aaron to think of another way to grill it. Last night, I'm happy to report that we've perfected our method for cooking the pizza on the grill! It was delicious and not burned. The way we cooked it was similar to the oven, in fact, with the par-baking of the crust before you put the toppings on it.

Shape your pizza into a large rectangle so it fits easily on the grill or cookie sheet or serving platter to transfer easily.

Grilled Pizza:
Make ahead Whole wheat pizza crust - recipe makes 2 large pizzas or six 8-inch pizzas.
Non-stick cooking spray
Pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese

Method:
Thanks to Aaron for figuring this out!

• Preheat grill.
• Shape pizza crust into smaller rounds or one large rectangle with half the dough from the recipe above.
• Get toppings ready. 
• Par-baking: Spray crust with non-stick cooking spray and place on the grill. Close the lid and then grill for about 3 minutes.
• Turn off the grill. Take the crust off the grill and bring inside or off the heat. On the opposite side that you grilled, add sauce, toppings and cheese. TIP: If you use a rectangular shape, you can place the pizza crust on a cookie sheet to transfer.
• After the toppings are on the pizza, place it on the grill with indirect heat (other burner) for about 7 minutes. Then put the direct flame on low to cook for another 5 minutes or so. 
• When the pizza is done, cut and serve immediately. 

We enjoy our homemade pizza with tomato sauce and fresh spinach, pepperoni (sparingly), and olives. 

I'm so excited to have grilled pizza this summer!

State Fair Visit

Ava was afraid of the calf

Sharing pizza

Since we moved to Indy, we started a tradition of going to the State Fair. It's only 20 minutes from our house and with all the animals, it's fun to explore on a weeknight when it's less crowded and hot.



I love the State Fair because I never went to Fairs growing up in California. Last year, we took Ava when she was only about 5 months old and she loved it! This year, she was more tentative of the animals. We took her through the animal barns and she got to see horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle up close! Aaron tried to get Ava to pet the sweet sleeping calf, but Ava was too afraid. She didn't mind the sheep or goats, probably because of their smaller size. The horses scared her quite a bit when we tried to get her to touch them through their cages. I'm surprised by how close you can get to the animals.

Heading home after a fun night!

We shared a buttery ear of corn and slices of pizza for dinner. And for dessert, we shared an elephant ear with cinnamon sugar. You can guess that Ava loved it! We decided against taking her in a stroller for more freedom to move around the Fair. She likes riding in the baby carrier or on Dad's shoulder!

Sadly, we parked right by the site of the stage collapse that happened just days before our visit. That was sad to think about the horrific accident. They kept the stage in tact due to their investigation. It was eerie to be there only a few days after the accident, but we were glad to take advantage of the Fair since it's only once a year.

Our nursing picture at the Lactation Station

During our visit, we stopped by the Lactation Station to nurse and I was happy to see that it was very busy. There were three other moms and baby pairs using the Lactation Station while we were there. Ava felt refreshed after a short nursing session and then we met up with Aaron for one last walk through the Fair before we headed back to our car. At the Fair this year, our nursing picture was featured in the main Lactation Station. We posed for the photos in April and they will use them across the State of Indiana for breastfeeding awareness and education programs.

Enjoying the State Fair is a fun family tradition to look forward to every August. It will be fun to see what Ava enjoys next year!