We went to Mom's for Labor Day weekend - always an adventure! We tried and tried to get out the door on Friday, but it didn't happen until 6:30pm which also happened to be dinner time. And so it was with a heavy heart that I introduced the girls to the saturated-fat-filled world of fast food. We stopped at Burgerville for dinner which was about the best option we had. The girls had a "fish and chips" that was really parmesan-crusted (and deep fried, of course) sole and some sweet potato fries. They loved every second of it. Then they promptly fell asleep as we drove the three hours through the Gorge and high desert to Mom's...in the dark (slightly nerve wracking). Visions of kid's meal toys and chicken nuggets probably danced in their heads.

Mom's was fun. Dan, Bri and Bri's boyfriend all came out for the weekend, too. We ate copious amounts because Mom only knows how to "cook for an army" - bbq ribs, smoked gouda macaroni and cheese, 3 kinds of cobbler, homemade ice cream, fried green tomatoes with gravy, pizza, apple pie, venison stew, etc., etc. Holy shit. It was all so good and so, so, so much. 

Belly and the Bug had their first experience feeding chickens. And petting chickens. And nearly getting attacked by chickens wanting MORE BREAD BAAAAWWWWK!!! We've had lengthy discussions about chickens every day since we came home. And deer. Deer wander freely through Mom's town and we saw does and fawns every day. If a girl wanted to see deer and there weren't any in the yard at that precise moment, we'd walk around and always find them in somebody's yard within a two block radius. PLUS there's a creek near Mom's house. The girls had a big ol' time splashing around in it with sticks. 

The one thing that wasn't all I had hoped it would be was the climb up Black Butte, just outside of town. We've done this hike before both the hard way - up the front, over the rocks - and the easy way - up the back, along the road. We of course opted for the easy way because we thought the girls would like the adventure. Well, two things didn't really go as planned with that. The first was that the road was steeper than we remembered from back in the day when we were kidless and fancy-free. And the second was that the girls just wanted to be carried aaaalllll the way up and aaaalllll the way down. Nope. No walking for those princesses. AND when we got to the top, it was extremely windy. This meant that the girls just fussed until it was time to go back down. My back still hurts from this misadventure.

Game playing is a must for my family and we played two games that were just AWESOME (courtesy of Dan). The first is called Quiddler. Google it. It's like a cross between Scrabble and Gin. I cannot imagine a better card game. The second is called Revolution! It's filled with back-stabbing fun for the whole family!

We got home Monday afternoon and I immediately started planning for a little soiree I was hosting Tuesday night. A friend of mine is going to Richmond, VA for a couple months and so I planned a "ladies night" at my house as a send-off for her. I had no clue what I was going to make for dinner but I knew I wanted it to be special. I started thinking Asian because it's easy to make and easy to impress people with it, but then one friend said she wanted to bring Brie and bread and another said she wanted to bring a caprese salad using tomatoes and basil from her garden. So...I switched gears and here was my final menu:

• Zucchini ribbons with truffle oil and shaved parmesan
• Cauliflower soup with Asian pears and creme fraiche
• Pizza with figs, prosciutto, goat cheese and a balsamic reduction
• Pizza with mascarpone, sauteed shiitake and chanterelle mushrooms with fresh thyme, caramelized onions
• Chocolate flourless cake (which I couldn't unstick from the pan, so ended up being kind of brownies)
• Plum-creme fraiche sorbet

Plus dishes brought by guests: the Brie and bread, caprese, potato salad and cayenne-chocolate brownies. Plus lots and lots and lots of red wine. It was a FEAST! And it was gooooooood. The fig pizza and the sorbet are now two of my favorite things ever. I will definitely make them again and again and again...when I'm not counting calories, which I have been doing for two days now after nearly a week of massive gluttony and delicious, delicious good times.

So, it's Thursday. Dude is flying to Boston on a red eye Sunday night and not returning until next Thursday afternoon. As luck would have it, his parents are arriving that night around 9pm for four and a half days. This is precisely the time that I should be getting my period, too. I want to get back into the blogging saddle and post every day or every other day, but please bear with me over the next almost two weeks. I might be crazy. I might be a ranting machine. I might be surprisingly calm. It's a total crapshoot.