restaurants

October Traditions

Posted by Lisa Eirene

On Saturday Michael went for a run, I went to the gym and then we headed south to Dundee. We had to pick up our last case of Sokol Blossor wine (I cancelled the membership) and decided to make a day of it.

The hope was that Logan would split his naps into two: it’s 45 minutes from our house so it would be perfect if he could take part of his nap there and back. We recently turned Logan’s carseat around and I had worries that he’d be able to sleep in the car but…

He was so stimulated by pointing out all the cars we saw on the road, he didn’t fall asleep until we were 15 minutes away. Of course!

First stop: lunch!

We went to Red Hills Market for lunch. It had great reviews online. And they were right! The food was excellent. The service? Mixed. You ordered at the counter and then found a table and the line was insane. It was a bit stressful standing in line with a toddler to order a meal but the food actually came out really quickly, so that was good.

Now the food: it was really good! I highly recommend this place. Michael got the steak salad and said it was excellent (I had a bite and agree. The chimichurri dressing was to die for.) I got the soup of the day and a side of egg salad on toast topped with arugula.

It was a small cup but the perfect amount. The butternut squash soup was really good, slightly sweet, and topped with toasted pumpkin seeds. I really liked my lunch. I would definitely go back here.

The next stop was picking up our order at Sokol Blosser and then heading to Heiser Farms for the pumpkin patch! Last year we went to the pumpkin patch in Hood River and it was great fun, so I was expecting Logan to love it even more this year. I love this tradition!

Heiser Farms was about 15 minutes from downtown Dundee in Dayton and it wasn’t crazy busy or crowded. Bonus for us! We went early. 🙂 For $15 we got into the farms and could do a bunch of the activities. There were a few things that were extra money but we didn’t feel like we missed out not doing them.

The first thing was the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Logan wasn’t quite sure about it but once the tractor started moving he was all about it!

It was a short ride to the pumpkin patch, the right amount of time for a toddler. 😉

The pumpkin patch was pretty big and well maintained. There were pathways and trails covered in hay, which was nice, and there was also a corn maze (we didn’t use it but next year I think Logan will love it).

We didn’t get any pumpkins because they were super huge, but there were a lot of good-looking pumpkins.

We went back to the main farm and checked it out. There was a band playing and they were really good! When we got there, they were playing Johnny Cash. They sounded great! I wish I’d gotten the name.

Next Logan and Michael climbed the hay mountain and went down the slide (I posted some cute videos on my Instagram if you want to see them) and I went down once with Logan. 🙂 And then Logan got to see A REAL fire engine! The expression on his face was absolutely priceless and adorable:

After all the sliding and firetruck investigation, we checked out the petting zoo:

And photo ops:

And then we shared two apple cider donuts–freshly made!

They were good donuts!

It was getting pretty late so we decided it was time to head home. Thankfully Logan fell asleep and got in a good little nap on the drive home!

 

Update

Posted by Lisa Eirene

Where’ve I’ve been? Yep, I kind of dropped off the planet for a bit.

The good news: I lost 3 pounds! After our mini-vacation to the beach I came home and weighed in. I’ve been taking a break from the low carb diet since before Thanksgiving. Mostly because it stopped working, but also because it was just too much of a struggle for me. I realized that it’s just not the best diet plan for my lifestyle. It works for about 3 weeks, then the weight loss stops and I am just miserable. So anyways, the diet is on hold. I’m eating whatever I want but staying in my calorie range. I have no idea how I lost 3 pounds, but it was a nice surprise on the scale!

The bad news: Michael got laid off. It sucks. It’s hard. It’s terrible timing. Michael is feeling very optimistic. I’m trying to be optimistic. We’ve been through this before. He’s already gotten a lot of leads and referrals to other jobs, so that’s good. But not exactly how we wanted to go into the holidays…

The upside to unemployment, Michael will be finish all the house remodel projects! I am looking forward to having that stuff finally done. (Over Thanksgiving break we painted the kitchen and dining room after living with primer white paint for years! It looks so great!)

I’m feeling pretty Grinch-like this season. Part of it is the job stuff. But the big part is that it’s been a really rough year for us (and a lot of people) and I miss my cat a lot. It’s hard not having him around but I get through it. This time of year? Not so much. Yggdrasil LOVED Christmas. He loved sitting underneath the tree, sleeping and purring and just enjoying the lights. He loved it when I would wrap Christmas presents (and he’d try to help LOL). He absolutely loved bows and ribbons (and our presents could never have bows or ribbons because he’d steal them!). So everything is kind of a reminder and it’s sad and my heart hurts

We did get a tree. I’m glad we did. It’s cheering me up a little bit. And Logan helped decorate! You can see a little video on instagram. 🙂

We topped the tree with an angel that Logan made at daycare! 🙂 So far he’s doing really well with not touching the tree. Most of the ornaments are felt just in case, though.

For Christmas Michael and I decided to go out on a date night instead of getting each other gifts. We didn’t really need anything anyways.

We went to West Linn and walked around the cute little area and then went to Allium for happy hour. We got drinks and shared an order of duck fat fries. 🙂

Later we went to 1933, a pub with really good food and a huge tap list. We each got a Boneyard beer. Michael got the Prohibition Burger (he said it was outstanding) and I got the prosciutto flatbread.

It was really good! The flatbread was grilled with prosciutto, arugula, goat cheese and balsamic. Very delicious!

The bar was playing Christmas music, which was really nice. It was a quiet evening just the two of us. I guess a SantaCon pub crawl was making their way through the local bars and would be heading to 1933 but sadly, we missed it. We had to get home to relieve the babysitter.

It was a nice night, low-key but fun, and I think it will be a new tradition for our Christmas Date Night. 🙂