Only Child

Ava spent a week at Ninny & Yoda's house ALL BY HERSELF!!  Ninny extended the invite a while back and we weren't sure that Ava was ready.  We talked to her about it and she was absolutely convinced that she was ready.  She was right.  As far as she was concerned we couldn't leave her fast enough and she never felt homesick.  She had a ball!  Ninny, Yoda and Chad treated Ava like a princess!  She got to travel to Myrtle Beach where she went to the aquarium, miniature golfing, boogie boarding on the beach and out to eat at Hard Rock Cafe.  She also got to spend one night at Zsa Zsa's house in Raleigh.  What fun!  Lincoln enjoyed his time as an only child and Chris and I basked in the ease of life with one child.  Wow, it's so much easier.  Like, so, so much easier.  Here's how Linc enjoyed life as an only child for one week...

He's finally tall enough to ride the Elmo Roller Coaster and he LOVED it!  Here he is anxiously waiting in line for his first turn on the roller coaster...

 We built a lot of tracks and lego towers...

 We hung out at Honey & Papa's house...

 We went to Busch Gardens a second time to tackle some more "big kid" rides that we've never tried because Ava is always too scared.  Turns out Linc is an adrenaline junkie...

 He wasn't too sure about the Battering Ram at first...

 ...but then he loved it!

 For Ninny & Ava's return we made dinner and a delicious Raspberry Buttermilk cake...

 Louis is happy to have Ava home, too!

4th of July

A day or two after we got home from our two-week vacation we packed the kids in the car and we drove down to NC to spend 4th of July with the Fescoes.  It was a great time, as usual ;-)

Court's dessert creation...

 Who is this kid and when did this happen?

 Little Miss helping Yoda with the dishes...

 Fun with Ninny & Yoda!

 *sigh* The beach :-)

 4th of July project with Aunt Lindsey...

 Tasty 4th of July cake...

 Fun with Chad (they abuse him, he's patient)...

 Zsa Zsa and her Mini Me...

 Fun with Uncle Kyle!

Moosewood

 Finally!  The Moosewood post!  If you're a regular "Fescoe Family" blog reader then you've probably heard (er, read) me mention Moosewood before.  I discovered Moosewood about 2.5 years ago when I decided to omit meat from my diet.  I had no idea just how much Moosewood would infect our lives...for the better.  It brought healthy, well balanced eating to a whole new level.  I absolutely love cooking Moosewood meals!  They're delicious!  MmmMmm good!  Originally, I stumbled upon the Moosewood cookbooks without having realized that it's a real restaurant in Ithaca, NY.  As soon as I realized that (which didn't take long) I decided that someday in the distant future I would visit the restaurant to have an authentic experience.  When we booked our cruise which was sailing from New York we figured that would be as close as we'll get to Ithaca for a looong time.  So we used it as an opportunity to make the culinary pilgrimage     

Ithaca, NY

Welcome to the Ithaca, NY blog post.  As aforementioned, after our cruise we hopped in a rental car and drove four hours to Ithaca, NY - home of the famous Moosewood Restaurant.  It was a pretty drive and it reminded me of driving to Blacksburg (VA Tech).  Ithaca is a cool little town with some incredible state parks.  During our visit we ate three meals at Moosewood, saw two movies (in the theater!), visited three state parks, saw seven different waterfalls and hiked six miles!  It was fuuuun :-)

     

Driving to Ithaca is serious business...

 I don't have any words for this one...

 Taughannock Falls State Park (where's Chris?)...

 Taughannock Falls...

 Chris' tree pose...

 My tree pose (much more convincing, I think)...

 Angry guy we encountered on the trail...

 So beautiful!  

 I'd like to point out that this was taken without a tripod.  *patting self on back*

 Here are some shots of Cornell's campus...

 Chipmunks are everywhere in Ithaca!!  They're so darn adorable!  I shared my snack with this little fellow and I helped him stuff his cheeks silly.