Toes in the Clay

We spent 6 days at Lake Norman with the Londry family last week.
We all desperately needed this vacation....so we loaded up the car....

Left these two behind....

Picked up the boat...

And headed to what would be our home for the rest of the week.  The house we rented had a double decker back porch, plenty of rocking chairs, floating dock, plenty of shade and much much more!

This is how we started each morning....

 Homemade frozen yogurt with your choice of toppings.

The guys took turns kyacking as a morning warm up.

Most of the time however was spent on the boat and just hanging out!

 Jared bought Captain Paul a hat that he sported all week.

Everyone enjoyed knee boarding, slalom skying, wake boarding, and tubing.

I really enjoyed trying to capture the tricks on camera and even took a few videos.  Here is my favorite picture of the week.  Ryan cleared the wake and I caught him mid-air!

Throughout the week we all had friends come visit.  Blake and Lindsay came to visit one day and we all got tortured on the biggest tube I have EVER seen!

So much fun!  We also had a great dinner and made smores in the fire pit.

Our house was back in a quite cove that was full of little fish, ducks and turtles.  We got to dust off the fishing rods and try to catch a few fish.  I even used a few worms as bait!

We spent lazy afternoons and evenings reading in the hammock, watching movies, baking, doing puzzles, playing games and taking night cruises on the boat.

And of course we cannot have a week vacation with the Londry family without mentioning the food.  OMG the food!!  I think we all gained a few pounds after a week with 5 people who love to cook.  Some of my favorites: crab legs, warm bacon dressing on a fresh salad, chorizo dip, triple chocolate chip cookies, homemade yogurt, chicken salad, tiramisu, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, cartoon sandwiches, fig pork tenderloin and I am still dreaming about Jared's gluten free seafood pasta:)

What a great vacation!  We came home relaxed and energized.  We always enjoy our time with Ryan's family and are so grateful that we were able to take a week out of our busy schedules to reconnect and spend some quality time together creating such wonderful memories.

To Captain Paul and Miriam- Thanks for the amazing week and for bringing the family together!  Can't wait until our next vacation!  Love you both:)

Just Peachy

Last week was a long and stressful week here at the Londry house.  Now that things have calmed down a little...we are doing better...actually we are just Peachy:)  Yes it's that time again...Peach season.  If you remember from a few months ago, we have a cheery tree in our yard.  We really tried to take advantage of the cherries and are now trying to figure out what to do with all our peaches:)  Here is the tree....

Here is the picking and cleaning process...

We are currently at the Lake with Ryan's family (a MUCH needed family vacation).  We usually break the meals up and all take turns cooking.  Ryan and I are in charge of Mexican Night.  We wanted to somehow use our peaches in our dinner.  We came up with not one...but two peach salsas.

1. Remove skin from peaches....we used 6 peaches since they were tiny:)

2.  Chop the chipotle in adobe sauce.  You can find these in a can at your grocery store and they are very hot/smoky so you will only need one out of the can for this recipe.

3.  Add it all together.

4.  We wanted this to be less of a chunky salsa so we pureed it for a few seconds in our food processor.

If you like the combination of hot and sweet then this is the perfect recipe for you!

The second salsa is really fresh and would be great with grilled chicken or fish tacos.

1.  Remove seeds from jalepeno and red pepper.  Chop tomato, onion, red pepper, cilantro and jalepeno into small chuncks.

2.  Remove skin from peaches and cucumber.  Chop and add to mixture.
3.  Add salt, sugar and lime juice.

 4.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

If you like peaches and you like salsa you will love either one of these recipes.  Enjoy and stay tuned for more recipes and fun on the lake!!!!

Shower for Caroline

Wow, this is the longest I have gone without posting...sorry!  I have been very busy preparing and planning a baby shower for my sweet friend Caroline!  This was my first time hosting a baby shower and my first time hosting a party of this size at my house.  I have to say I had sooo much fun planning for it and am so sad it is now over:(  Ok so now on to the shower.   Caroline and her husband John are naming their little girl Leighton Dare.  We decorated and used her monogram on a lot of details throughout the party.

I made these water bottle lables...perfect since the mommy-to-be always has a water bottle in hand:)

We all helped out in making yummy snacks and a Pink Punch.

We had a childrens book for all the guest to sign for Leighton:)

Here is Caroline with all of the beautiful hosts.

Caroline has some sweet friends and she got so many cute gifts for baby Leighton.  This little girl will not be short of blankets and bloomers.  We gave her a Moses basket, monogramed bloomers, and a silver rattle.

Our talented friend Alice made an alphabet picture to put in Leighton's nursery.

And of course we had a cute take away gift.  Jennifer made carriage cookies and we put them in a carriage I found at Marshalls and spray painted white.

Overall it was a fun day and hope Caroline enjoyed it as much as we did!  We are anxiously awaiting Leighton's arrival:)