1,000 apologies

 I'm not really sure how two weeks got away from me.  I have no idea what I was doing for the first week and the second week I was getting ready for, and then taking a road trip to Virginia.   Round trip, we spend a total of 22 hours in the car.   That's really 22 more hours than I care to spend in a car,  but seeing as the cost of planes and trains are prohibitive,  it was our only option!  

Much like most of the eastern seaboard,  Virginia was having higher than normal temperatures late last week.  We took advantage and had some fun at Virginia Beach.   Baby Girl had a blast and is still talking about how cold the water was!  (it may have been almost 90*,  but no one told the Atlantic that we were having a heat wave)

Of course it was all fun and games until someone took a header into one of the waves,  but we recovered quickly.  

If you read her blog (and why wouldn't you?),  you know that The Pioneer Woman was doing a book tour - actually I think she still is on it - for her new cook book.   I couldn't make it to the Boston signing because I have to save my vacation time for the arrival of the Little Guy,  butI saw that she was going to be in Virginia Beach...  As luck would have it, that date was before my whirlwind trip south of the Mason-Dixon line.  However,  my fabulous sister-in-law whom we were visiting (along with her family,  obvs) DID go down to her book signing to get a book signed for me!!!  Unfortunately,  the line was like 9 hours long so she wasn't able get it signed, but I STILL HAVE THE BOOK!!!  And a picture of my SIL with Ree in the background.  Win-win situation for me!   I've been going through the book and I'm pretty excited about what's in there.   Andrew and I are going to try to go through and pick out a different recipe to try on Friday nights in April.   We'll see how they come out!

Lastly,  Andrew has been running again,  training for the road race.  He was going to guest blog about his training,  but hasn't yet gotten around to it.   I have been trying to get him to guest blog for awhile because he is a much more talented writer than I am,  but I can't seem to talk him into it.   If you could leave a comment explaining how much you'd love to see a post with actual content written by someone who proofreads his work and fixes typos,  I may be able to convince him! 

some pictures of the weekend:

The palest girl on the beach - she can thank her Irish ancestors and the long New England winters for that

having fun splashing in the waves!

Worth the 11 hour drive.