Indians

weekend wrap up // July 10th thru 13th

July 17, 2014 by Rachel Leave a Comment

GUYS!! This weekend was amazeballs. Seriously.

Thursday —

After work I met up with some friends at the Nauti Vine Winery for my friend Cristin’s birthday celebration. Cristin and I nearly accidentally stumbled upon this winery a month or so back during a girls night out. The location is beautiful — it’s located on Portage Lakes in Akron. Super scenic for being in a (near) city setting!

We laughed SO hard. SO much! My soul needed that. Fo sho.

Sidenote: When you go to a winery, it’s generally not safe to order their house-made beer. (The exception in this case being Cellar Rats brewery from Debonne). The beer was terrible. The laughs were awesome (and so was the wine — of course).

Chad & Ari were at a family function with our Denver family that night and we ended up getting home pretty much exactly at the same time (which means late night #1 for Moosh!).

Friday —

Friday I would love to say that we slept in. But that totally didn’t happen.Well, at least not for me. I woke up early to get a workout in and get some cleaning done. … and then Moosh slept til like 10:00 am. Aaaand we rushed out of the house to meet my cousin Maryssa to go bridesmaids dress shopping. For those who don’t know, my sister is getting married this October. I put off dress shopping until the last possible moment. But I’m happy to report my dress has been ordered for the last couple of weeks. And now my cousins’ dress is ordered too! Woo hoo! Mission accomplished! And it feels SO good! Gah!

Moosh, Maryssa, and I went out to BW3’s post-dress shopping where the food was bland but the service was hilarious. Our server came running out of the kitchen screaming “We got Lebron! We got Lebron!” Hahaha! He was like “Did you hear?” Yes, dear… my husband sent me a text right away.

Post-B-Dubs, Moosh napped for 2-hours (TGIF!). And then I took him to Babies R Us for a baby-registry extravaganza with my BFF. Moosh & I didn’t get home til super late (again). But he was a complete champ (again). And he slept in until 9:30 Saturday morning.

Saturday —

My mom and I went up to Lincoln Park in Tremont for Yoga Rocks the Park CLE. The morning provided beautiful weather for a beautiful practice.

Scott Sulper from Cleveland Yoga led our vinyasa practice for 60-minutes. The practice was warm, sweaty and fun!

The view from my mat….

… was awesome. Beautiful, bright blue sky and a giant tree above me.

It was great to connect with my fellow bloggers… Alicia, of Poise in Parma (left) and Jill, of The Year of the Phoenix (middle).

and my mom! Family + friends = what dreams are made of!! <3

Props (and thanks) to my husband for some post-yoga fuel of grilled chicken, grilled asparagus, and quinoa!

Saturday afternoon, Chad & I went to Whiskey Island for SC4k Luau on the Lake while my mom hung out with Ari. They spent some quality time together visiting family and we took selfies.

It was our first visit to Whiskey Island and we totally loved it! Only thing we regret is not bringing a chair! Oops! Lesson learned!

And again it seemed to be a mini-blogger meetup!

Kimberly (Smitten in CLE). Alicia (Poise in Parma). And me!

Kimberly (Smitten in CLE), Alicia (Poise In Parma), Charlene (Life in The CLE), Anna (Anna In The Raw), and me!

Matthew, Jen (Why CLE?), Me & Chad! It was our parents-day-out without the kiddos! Jen & Matthew have a teeny tiny 8-week old-ish baby at home, and we left Ari with Mimi for the day! It turns out Mimi & Moosh had TONS of fun on their own. They went to see some family and went out to dinner — just the two of them!

We snacked, we laughed, we cheered Alicia on in the limbo contest! … and we still beat Moosh & Mimi home from their adventure!

I didn’t tell Moosh that we stopped at his fave ice cream place, Mitchell’s in Ohio City on our way home from the luau! Their strawberry jalapeno is incredible PLUS it’s sourced locally! 🙂 Double win!

Sunday —

Moosh finally slept in! Thank GOODNESS! But this mama didn’t have that luxury. Nope. I went for my long training run and I rocked it!! Post-workout Moosh finally woke up and we all headed to the Indians Family Social Suite versus the White Sox!

The family social suite was awesome. Moosh was kept super busy with toys and coloring while the rest of us watched the game. PLUS it was another mini-blogger meet up! I finally got to meet Brad from Cleveland Food & Brews!

And this view! The view from the suite is awesome!

#Moosh! He thought the whole experience was kinda cool. Plus he got to meet Slider. Soooo there’s that.

…. and then we all needed a vacation from too much fun. Thankfully, today is our first day of our staycation and we have very little planned (woo hoo!). PS. I say that now, but I KNOW I’m going to make a ton of plans for the next 6 days! Ha!

Summer Lovin’ // July 12th

July 12, 2014 by Rachel Leave a Comment

Winter in the Midwest seems to last FOR.EV.ER. Come Spring (which lasts for two days) and summer, it seems like all of us Ohioans try and cram as much into these short few months as possible. And the events are a-plenty, my friends!

Just looking at my social calendar for the next several months has me wondering when I’ll actually fit other important things in. Like sleep. And work. 😛 I kid! I kid! … kinda.

But seroiusly if you’re looking for something to do there is so much going on. Here’s what’s on my ‘can’t miss’ list for this weekend:

Saturday July 12th —

Luau On The Lake : Whiskey Island, 4 PM : $60 at the door

Yoga Rocks The Park : Lincoln Park, Tremont, 10 AM : $15
Akron Farm & Flea Market : Musica, Akron , 9 AM – 3 PM : Free

The Cleveland Flea : 3615 Superior Ave, Cleveland, 9 AM – 5 PM : Free

Sunday, July 13th —

Moms Run This Town Half Marathon Training Run : Mustill Store, Towpath Trail, Akron : Free
Cleveland Indians Game : Progressive Field, Cleveland, 1:05 PM : Ticket Prices Vary

Free Concert & Food Truck Round Up : Keyser Barn, Cuyahoga Falls, 4 PM – 8 PM : Free

All of THIS happens in just ONE weekend! Bring on the summer, Northeast Ohio!

What’s on your summer “MUST DO” list?? And what big plans do you have for this weekend?

weekend wrap up // June 27th edition

July 1, 2014 by Rachel 1 Comment

This weekend can be summed up in just a few words — Busy. Fun. Tired.

Friday started with a whirlwind of ‘stuff ‘ to do. First and foremost I had to take my car to have my brakes done. Not the most glamourous errand but it needed to be done. Then Moosh and I were off to try on bridesmaids dresses! YES, I may be crazy for taking him with me to a bridal boutique by myself (!!!), but yet another thing that needed to be done. It just so happens that it was a thousand degrees out (OK, maybe in the 90s) and Moosh was super uncooperative (read: wouldn’t sit on my hip and so I basically carried a 20-pound weight out to the side for 30 minutes — I’m fairly certain my left arm is now more muscular than my right).

We ended up meeting up with my aunt — Ari’s Grandma Dee, for some ice cream at Mitchells! Before we even walked into their Beachwood location, we heard a “Hi Ari!” from someone on the patio! This kid is such a freaking rockstar! 😉 I didn’t know the gal, but apparently she’s my cousins friend who knows him from hanging out with Grandma Dee! I swear this kid knows more people than I do.

Moosh ate some of Grandma Dee’s Key Lime Pie ice cream, and had his own teenie scoop of Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp! He hammed it up for all of the employees (obviously) and watched the train go round and round the track!

Post-ice cream I rushed my butt home to get Moosh a nap. Ari isn’t much of a car-napper, but kid passed out hard on our way home.

Poor guy. He was exhausted from bridal boutiques and ice cream fun!

Last year I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural #BelieveInCLE event at the Rock Hall and it was life changing. I wasn’t going to miss this summers hottest (literally?) yoga event.

So I rushed to meet up with my BFF Carli (and two-thousand other yogis) downtown. We set up shop right in front of Chill Pop Shop!

Which ended up being pretty perfect because we needed something to cool us off while we waited for the evening to begin. It was H-O-T out! Kiwi/cucumber for the win!

People piled in and tons of spectators came out to just watch us all practice yoga on the front steps of the Rock Hall! So cool.

It all got started with Alex Sheen, founder of Because I Said I Would, talking about the social movement of making promises and keeping them. His story was incredibly moving and it was hard (OK, impossible…) to keep it together while he was talking. I went away with 10 #BecauseISaidIWould cards and I’m putting a lot of thought into these ten promises. (Learn more about the movement here.)

The practice itself was awesome. There are few things cooler than grabbing the hand of the total stranger next to you and supporting them in chair pose and boat pose. And there are fewer things cooler than feeling that support back from that stranger. Carli + stranger to my left — thank you!

And yes, there was an aerial drone taking overhead pictures of us the whole time. A little distracting at first, but these totally awesome shots (without my watermark) came from the drone!

Post-#BelieveInCLE, Carli and I went to Progressive Field for Grapes & Ales, an event benefitting Our Lady Of The Wayside. By the time we arrived, most of the food was gone; but I did get to sip and sample a few wines while my pregs BFF sampled some pork nachos.

We ran into a few friends but, sadly, didn’t get any pictures with them (maybe this was a blessing because we were so sweaty from a humid night and yoga). Next time, gals!

Post-Grapes & Ales we were… hungry. Mega, mega hungry. Good news is I finally had a reason to try out The Greenhouse Tavern! Bad news is I made a delicious, yet poor, food choice… animal frites.

Animal Frites is basically poutine + mustard + bacon + 2 eggs. Here’s a better picture of what it looks like (photo cred):

I had to work Saturday morning. Which was rough. Really rough. I sent Chad a text message pretty much explaining how a night out at a yoga workshop felt like an all-night college party to me. Well, at least the next day it certainly feels that way!

Growing old is fun. Ha!

Saturday night we hit up a graduation party and then a pool party. The pool party started at 8:30, which is usually the time Moosh is going down for the night. Playing with fire, y’all!

He ended up doing great, considering how late he was out. He was wide awake but super nervous in the pool with all of the other people. He tends to do better in the pool when he’s less stimulated.

And thanks to this half marathon training, I had to wake up early Sunday morning to fit in a 4-mile run. It was humid but the run went really well. And that means that my first full week of half-marathon training is complete!! Woo hoo!

That’s IT. That’s all our Sunday consisted of. And it was everything we needed.

PHEW! I feel like the whole weekend was action-packed! As much fun as that was, I think I need a vacation to recover from my weekend 😉

life lately.

October 2, 2013 by Rachel 1 Comment

Life has been crazy lately — but in a good way. I realize I’ve been awful about updating our fun day-to-day workings, but I’m not at all sorry for that. 🙂 So here’s what we’ve been up to:

Ari & I visited my sister and brother-in-law in Columbus for a couple days. We wandered around downtown and shopped, ate, and drank yummy beer.
I’m not gonna lie, it totally sucks not having my mom and sister nearby. And to make matters worse? All 3 of my sis-in-laws are out of town too. So I majorly lack girl time. But these impromptu trips to Columbus (TWO of them!!) were totally worth the drive.
Oh, and we shopped. I love, love, love buying handmade and local!! Seriously, if there’s an addiction I have, it’s that. More than Etsy, more than Pinterest, there’s buying from local vendors. OBSESSED.
I’ve been going to bed either drastically early or way later than I should. Try like 8PM or midnight. Oy. My struggle to find balance in my life is evident EVERYWHERE.
I had a weekday morning off so I went up to Cleveland Yoga for a 6:30 am class with some of my favorites. As much as I adore Yoga Bliss here in Akron, I so easily find myself in a comfortable routine and feel the urge to change it up and challenge myself. Hence returning to CY for a class.
I ran the Akron Marathon Relay and loved all 42 minutes of the 4.8 miles! I not only exceeded my goal of running under 9 minutes per mile (woot, woot 8:45!) but I had my parents, amazing husband, and #BabyAri there to cheer me on! They watched me take the hand-off from the relay and then walked over to watch me finish and hand-off to the third leg of the relay!
Too bad as soon as I handed off I threw up.

This is a post-throw up pic. I’m just happy. Happy to be done throwing up and happy to be done running my ass off.
I went to another Wine & Canvas event. This time we painted the Cleveland city skyline, as seen from out on Lake Erie. It was totally fun, yet again. I mean, I don’t consider myself to be a very crafty person, but something about a glass of wine and painting during a stressful week is so therapeutic!
I’ve been busy planning Ari’s party. Well, that’s kind of a lie. Because I start thinking about Ari’s party and then I panic, shut down and stop thinking about it just as quickly as I started. Pretty much the furthest I’ve gotten is sending invites out and buying this variation of his smash cake:
Luckily I ordered his smash cake from Pure Delite, which is a gluten-free and vegan bake shop, well ahead of his allergic reaction to eggs simply because it’s a healthier option to a traditional cake. Well, good thing I did!
We visited the local apple orchard and the farmers market. I know it sounds strange, but going to the farmers market totally feeds my soul!
The three of us had the chance to go to an Indians game in an incredible suite. It was Ari’s second Indians game, and his first in a suite (the last time we had tickets just behind 3rd base). I swear this child will be spoiled by awesome locally sourced organic food and only going to sporting events where he has awesome seats. Ha!
Ari learned to climb stairs on his own. So… yeah. There’s that.

(ugh)

Life has been nothing short of amazing lately. And I’ve been out enjoying it rather than blogging (regularly) about it. I am trying to post more often, but if you want to catch me daily, be sure to follow my Facebook page, my tweets, and follow on Instagram!

But, yeah, I’m not sorry about being busy. And I’m not sorry about living life and ignoring my blog. See that little guy? He’s about to be ONE. And things are finally fun. So I’ll be busy for a while 😉

we’ve been busy!

September 5, 2013 by Rachel 3 Comments

Well I didn’t mean to be so quiet around here, but we’ve been keeping ourselves extra busy for the last week!

Friday night my friend Carli & I went to the #BelieveInCLE event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland. The event was hosted by the Rock Hall, Inner Bliss Yoga (located in Westlake and Rocky River), and Lululemon Athletica.

It was a night of “Yoga, music & connection;” complete with a DJ playing music live during a challenging 90-minute yoga class. The connection part?? That came from the pre-yoga talk on mindfulness and the deep breathing of the 1100 people who came out to practice together! It was an amazing night. So incredibly powerful and moving! I’m so happy to have been part of the night.

Post-Rock Hall-Yoga-fun, Carli & I grabbed some food from Hodges (obvi!). I was BEAT the next day! Literally my only goal for Saturday was to not leave the house — mission accomplished!! 🙂

Because it was pretty much the only day that we didn’t have anything going on.

Sunday my parents were up from Kentucky (just for the day — sigh — I wish that they were up here for good! I swear I’m still in denial about the fact that they aren’t living here in Ohio anymore) and we hit up the Fairlawn Food Truck Round Up! I seriously had this on my calendar for over a month. The thought of eating another sushi burrito (from a freakin’ mobile sushi truck!!) was mouth-watering. There were a gazillion (technical term) people there. The lines were crazy, but to be expected for a food truck roundup, amIright???

My sushi burrito was followed by some teeny tiny cinnamon sugared donuts from Donut Lab! Yum!

Monday morning I raced in a 5k in Hudson — the first annual Race to the Taste! There were wayyyyy more people than I expected for their first annual race. And I had set a goal for myself to finish in 28 minutes — but I ended up finishing in just over 27 minutes! Still not a PR, but my best since Ari was born!

Later in the day we went to a family cookout. My parents may have already been gone, but the rest of our family welcomed us with open arms! They are freakin’ obsessed with our kid — and I totally love it! Cause I’m totally obsessed with him too. 🙂

I thought going back to work Tuesday after a long weekend would restore some balance, but that’s not the case. A crazy work day was followed by an awesome family (and coworker) night at the Cleveland Indians game against the Baltimore Orioles! We ~~rarely~~ never say no to free tickets! Especially tickets in an awesome suite filled with free food [where Ari ate more than his share of pickles, tomatoes and melon!].

The long night made Wednesday even longer. But I had previously scheduled myself to attend another Wine + Canvas event — and I wasn’t going to miss it!

It is seriously SO therapeutic to get creative and paint. It gets me out of my head, just for a little while. And in the end?? I have this awesome creation to display! 🙂

So yeah… we’ve been busy. It’s totally worth the craziness… but I cannot wait to spend the entire weekend on the couch in pajamas! 🙂

So much going on

April 24, 2009 by Rachel 2 Comments

There is so much going on within the next few weeks, it’s ridiculous.

-tomorrow BF and I are going to the Indians versus the Twins game. I love going to live sporting events… the energy, the outdoors, the hotdogs, the beer! All make for a wonderful experience! Plus it’s “fireworks” night. BF seemed very excited about this part. And, in theory, I’m excited about this part. There is something cute and slightly romantic about fireworks, I suppose. The only problem is that I am slightly frightened of fireworks. Oh well. I’ll deal with it and just make him ‘keep me safe.’ 😉

-I’m also supposed to hear about the job tomorrow… EEEK. Could make or break me.

-Saturday I am volunteering at the Akron Zoo for their Party For The Planet in celebration of Earth Day. I am handing out information on Earthwatch Ohio, which is a non-profit group focused on sustainable living. I’ve (somehow?) convinced BF to join me. We are supposed to have BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend, so, if nothing else, I will get some sun. 🙂

-Next Friday May 1st, I have Girls Nite with two of my favorites. It’s Margarita Nite at All Fired Up! in Akron. It’s BYOT (Bring Your Own Tequila)! They provide the snacks. We are going to spend the evening drinking margaritas, painting pottery, snacking, and chatting. Sounds pretty fantastic to me! 🙂 I’m very excited.

-Shortly there after (the 13th) is BF’s birthday. I’m not quite sure what I”ll be doing that day, mostly because it’s a weekday and both of our schedules may be pretty hectic.

-Then I will be dropping him and his mother off at the airport. They are going to Denver to visit family. I don’t really want to talk about this. I’m not really happy about it, for many reasons.

-When he gets back, we will (or at least should be, if all goes as planned) going on our big camping/whitewater trip! I’m pretty pumped.

But most of this depends on the “big news” I will hear tomorrow. Sooo doing my fair share of praying for this.