Lyn

STOMP Bicycle Adventure

Adventures with Nick and Sally 1 Response »

Sep 032011

Today, the family headed to Howe Meadow in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to ride the STOMP Bicycle Adventure. STOMP is an organized bike ride with over 1000 riders each year. There are several distances to choose from. We had signed up a couple of months ago for the 10 mile family ride. There was a special for $50 and that enabled all 4 of us to enjoy continental style breakfast, snacks, lunch after the ride and t-shirts for each of us. It was a great deal and all of the proceeds to to support the Metro Parks Serving Summit County.

As we approached from the parking lot, it looked like quite the festival environment. Registration was smooth. We arrived about 9:30AM and our ride was to begin at 10:30AM.

We picked up our t-shirts and walked around the farmer’s market for a bit. I entertained the kids while Stephen got our bikes put together. We had to take 2 cars since we had coolers, helmets, wheels, a Weehoo trailer, a Burley trailer and 2 bikes. It just doesn’t fit in one vehicle. The Weehoo had a flat when Stephen went to put it in the car today. He patched it. At the STOMP grounds, we bought a new tube from Century Cycles in case we needed it. When Stephen returned to the car to get us ready to ride, it was flat again. So, the trailer was fixed twice before we started the ride.

Around 11AM, we were on our way. At our only street crossing, we stopped for the train.

Most of the family ride is on the towpath. After about 5 miles, we stopped at our Fun Stop. Our stop was located at Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park.

Everyone enjoyed a cold beverage and snack. Then, we headed back down the trail. We made a pit stop at Hunt Farm.

Despite the rough start to the day, we had a great ride. We got back to the main area at 1PM, which is when the live music began. Nathan Hedges was the artist this year.

Lunch included grilled hot dogs, brats, sandwiches, grapes, carrots, baked beans, chips, cookies, drinks and left overs from the morning. No one leaves STOMP hungry.

Cascade Subaru, Century Cycles, Friends of Metro Parks and many, many other sponsors and volunteers make this event possible. Back in 2003, I chaired this event for 2 or 3 years. It was amazing to see it in action today. If you are ever looking for a fun, organized ride, please check out STOMP.

Fishing at the Geauga County Fair

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Sep 022011

Yesterday, I took the kids and met friends at the Geauga County Fair. The fair is in Burton Ohio. It took us about 40 minutes to get there. The fair runs from September 1st through the 5th this year. It’s always held over Labor Day weekend. I had to pay $7 admission and the kids were free. They also had free parking and a shuttle running to the gate.

Here’s the sign at the main admission gate along with a view of the grandstand area. There were lots of school buses since many of the 6th graders in the area attend the fair one day.

Our main (only) reason for going to the fair was because Nick wanted to fish and we knew that they had fishing for the kids at the fair. We arrived to the parking lot around 9:30AM. The gates opened at 9AM and the exhibits opened at 10AM. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the fishing pond and saw this sign.

ARGH! Are you kidding me? I had emailed the fair to ask about fishing because I wasn’t sure if we had to bring bait, rods etc. I received a prompt response to my email.

“Thank you for your interest in the fair, yes there is youth fishing at the Natural Resource area of the fair. The program has all poles and equipment needed for the kids to fish and they are almost assured they will catch one. They will also clean and hold it for you to take home later.

Thanks again we look forward to seeing you at the fair.”

I never thought to ask him about hours. I assuming (wrongly) that the fishing would open when the fair opened. Now, we had 2 adults and 5 kids and 3 hours until fishing. Now to mention that we had 2.5 hours until my kids napped and our friends had other obligations at 1PM.

So, we walked around the fair for a bit and then left to drive to Middlefield. I had ordered Roma tomatoes and thought I would pick them up on my way home, but decided to go there to kill time. I picked up the tomatoes and headed back to the fair. Our friends picked up tomatoes and headed home. They ended up returning in the evening.

I got the kids a hot dog for lunch and we headed back to the pond. We arrived there just after 1PM to find this.

The Department of Natural Resource guys were baited the rods and getting ready. We had a short wait and then the kids were fishing.

The staff was great and worked with Nick for a couple of minutes. At some point Nick and Sally got their lines tangled, so we spent quite a bit of time getting them untangled. After 15 minutes, a horn goes off and you are done. If you didn’t catch anything, you can go back and get in line. We got back in line a second time and Nick was bored about 1/2 way through that turn. Neither he nor Sally caught anything. But, if you ask Nick if he caught any fish, he says, “I didn’t catch any fish, only worms.”. He didn’t realize that the worms were the bait and thought that he had caught the worm.

By now its 1:30PM and way past nap time. We still couldn’t resist this corn box for some play time on our way to the car.

After playing for a few minutes, we headed to the car. Nick cried all the way to the car because I wouldn’t let him ride. I thought he meant the shuttle, but he meant the midway rides. I’m not a fan of mobile rides and would take him to a stationary amusement park for rides.

Sally was asleep before we got out of the parking lot and Nick cried most of the way home.

It was an exhausting day, but I can cross take Nick fishing off our list!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 14

CSA No Responses »

Sep 012011

We picked up our Fresh Fork CSA today.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week:

Small CSA:

6 ears super sweet Miria 301 corn
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1 lb. grass fed ground beef
2 ct. green bell peppers
1 lb. green beans
Approx. 1.5 lbs. Flaming Fury Lucky 13 and John Boy peaches (freestone peaches)
2 ct. cucumbers
2 ct. yellow summer squash (probably last of the summer already)
8 oz. bag or bunch of kale
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes

Here’s a group shot:

Our beef was partially thawed by the time we got home, so I am going to cook it tomorrow. We’ll probably make potato salad for the holiday weekend with the potatoes.

We have these 6 ears of corn, plus a few left from our Tuesday pick up, so we will be having corn tomorrow. I have a local steak to cook also. The peaches are still firm, but will be quite nice in my oats.

The tomatoes will disappear into Stephen’s lunch. I’m in the process of cutting and freezing lots of peppers since we went picking yesterday. I’ll add these to the bag.

Looks like we received zucchini instead of yellow squash. It’s very similar and doesn’t make a difference in my uses. I think we’ll make squash fritters. I haven’t had them in a couple of weeks. We’ll use the cucumbers in salads.

I may try the kale in vegetable lasagna this weekend. I’ve enjoyed making a lasagna and having it for a few meals during the week to help with planning and cooking. We’ll enjoy the green beans when we grill out on Sunday.

The yogurt ($5) was an add on for us this week. We like this yogurt and are trying to stay away from the high sugar varieties. For this yogurt, we’ve been adding homemade jam sweetened with honey to taste.

I think we’ll do ok this week. I need to prep some items in our fridge and keep close tabs on our produce use since we have a few meals planned away with the holiday this weekend.

U-Pick Tour–Walnut Drive Gardens, Mogadore Ohio–peppers and red raspberries

U-Pick 1 Response »

Aug 312011

Today we traveled to Walnut Drive Gardens in Mogadore, Ohio. Mogadore is southeast of Akron and it is about 55 minutes from our house in Mayfield Heights. Usually, we keep our picking to 45 minutes or closer, but we were meeting friends to pick and I like to go to Duma Meats a couple of times a year. They are only a couple of minutes further than the farm.

We arrived at the farm at exactly 9AM. I thought we were going to be late between an empty fuel tank and a need for the ATM on our way to the highway, but the traffic was reasonable. The kids loved the market building since there was a sand box at the entrance. It kept them quite busy.

With Nick still in potty training mode, a restroom with running water is also a plus. Soon, we were at the raspberry bushes. The picking was plentiful and so were the mosquitos. I was glad that I had the bug repellent with us, but the kids still had a few bites near their feet and necks.

We also wanted to pick peppers. The pepper picking was at field two. We paid for our raspberries and headed over the other field. It was about 5 minutes down the road. The fields were marked with the type of pepper. I was interested in yellow sweet and some green peppers.

They give you a 5 gallon bucket to use to pick and then you transfer the peppers when you are done. It was really quick picking! Our friends Debbie and Sarah are pictured with their buckets.

I ended up picking 2 buckets’ worth. They were $9 a bucket. I think that is a great price, especially for gorgeous peppers. The raspberries were $3.25 a pound and we paid $8.29. So, we picked about two and a half pounds of berries.

All in all, it was quite a successful outing. We had a great time.

Geauga Family Farms–week 12

CSA 3 Responses »

Aug 302011

Pick up #12 for the Geauga Family Farms CSA was today. We pick up at our local Whole Foods. Nick calls it the little Whole Foods because it’s so much smaller than the Cedar Location and doesn’t have a waterfall.

Today’s box was overflowing!

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Green beans, watermelon (hmmm.. these photos are not to scale)

Lettuce, eggplant

Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

Peaches, bell peppers

Cantaloupe, dozen sweet corn

Hot peppers, patty pan squash

We got 3 fruits again this week. In our house that is a good thing. I actually used frozen peaches in today’s oatmeal, so I am excited for the peaches. We have lots of melon since we got extras in our other CSA on Thursday, but we are eating it at a good clip so I don’t think we’ll have a problem. Our biggest challenge is having to take the seeds out of the watermelon for our 22 month old daughter.

We ate 1/2 the corn for dinner tonight and we are getting another 1/2 dozen on Thursday. I’ll probably cook and take the rest of this batch off of the cobs for a wheat berry, corn, bean salad of sorts. We need to pack dinner for our Wednesday outing at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

I’m going to chop and freeze the peppers. I’m assuming the non-bell peppers are hot. They seem to always be hot and I’m not taking chances with them. The bell peppers will go into tomato sauce. I’ll save the hot ones for chili and salsa.

I just read a blog post about mini lasagnas that were made in muffin tins. I may use the eggplant and squash for my own version of that.

The remaining few items will easily be eaten as part of our meals. We need to stay on top of our game this week since we have several meals planned out over the holiday weekend. Friday, I need to blanch/chop/freeze anything that we haven’t used so we don’t have waste.

Lake Farmpark–Frozen Factory of Fun

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Aug 292011

After visiting the Lake Farmpark with our out of town relatives early last week, the kids and I decided to return on Thursday to spend more time at the Frozen Factory of Fun. We called it the ice cream exhibit. When we get close to the park, Nick always recognizes the silo.

Nick and Sally wanted their photo taken by this ice cream truck. Sally enjoyed the dairy farm model.

There was a wall to measure your height in ice cream flavors. Maybe we should call Sally “Cheesecake”.

She’s too young to drive, but she had fun pretending. She must have taken the corner too fast as all of the ice cream scattered in the truck.

They enjoyed seeing the other stations of the factory.

I liked the sample freezer jacket. Although my goal was just to see the ice cream exhibit, Nick talked me into a wagon ride to the tomato building (and back). Conveniently, we got back just in time to make real ice cream before heading home.

Nick and Sally both too good naps that day, so I know they had a good time.

Baptism and Blossom

Adventures with Nick and Sally, Uncategorized No Responses »

Aug 282011

Today was a nice day. We started out at a baptism. My cousin’s baby was baptized today. It was very special since the delivery was premature and had lots of complications for mom and baby. She spent time in ICU and he spent time in the NICU. It was so nice to meet the baby in person and see both of them doing well.

After lunch and naps, we headed to Blossom for the last time of the summer. We met up with friends, enjoyed a picnic dinner and a nice concert.

The weekend went by quickly and it’s hard to believe that tomorrow is Monday already.

Willoughby Hills “Touch a Truck”

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Aug 272011

A week or so ago, we noticed a sign about the Willoughby Hills “Touch a Truck”. The sign stated “this Saturday” and since we saw the sign on Sat or Sun, we weren’t sure if it was over or coming up. A few days ago, I figured out that it was in fact August 27th, so we made plans. Stephen, Sally, Nick and I rode our bikes from our house in Mayfield Heights up to Willoughby Hills. We ended up riding through part of the North Chagrin Reservation. The rode was a little bumpy for our tastes, but the shade was nice. Upon arrival at the event just after 10AM, we found bike parking.

On our way over the trucks, Nick said, “I Love It Mommy”. It made me melt. We were not sure what to expect and had only told him that we were going to ride our bikes to see a fire truck. There was so many different trucks and vehicles that we didn’t even have time to see them all.

Here’s a view from the community center across the street. At one point, we took a restroom break there. One of the highlights of the day was watching a life flight helicopter land. It was really close!

Let’s hope Nick and Sally don’t make a habit of sitting in the back of police cars.

I was particularly impressed with the Bomb Unit. They even had the robot out on display.

Here’s the back of the bomb unit. Check out that container for transporting the bombs. It’s kind of scary to think about it. Nick found a fire safety dog and wanted a photo. He’s standing in front of the airport fire truck.

Nick and Sally both had a great time looking at all of the trucks. We were so impressed with all of the vehicles. Although we didn’t partake, there was also some food and drink for sale.

We ended up staying much later than we thought and ended up stopping at Heinen’s for lunch. Sally fell asleep in the trailer and Nick was very tired. I had a rough ride back home since he didn’t peddle much. All in all we had a great day and feel like we are prepared for the 10 mile family ride at STOMP next week since we did 12 miles today.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Aug 262011

Tuesday was our last full day with Stephen’s brother and his family. We started the day early by making some farmer’s cheese and peanut butter. There was also more reading time.

Then, we headed to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Nick and my niece enjoyed the new Balto exhibit. We paused for some photos at the bear outside. Sally had it to herself for starters.

Then, we finally got a great shot of the 3 cousins. Here’s a family photo of Jen, Nate and our niece.

The Cool Globes exhibit and the otters were the favorites of this trip.

Later in the day, we ended our time with a trip to California Pizza Kitchen at Legacy Village. Here’s Stephen with his brother, Nate. There was also a few last rounds of “London Bridge is falling down” on the green.

We said out goodbyes at the parking lot. NIck and Sally loved spending time with their cousin and everyone had a great trip! It was the closest thing we ever had to a staycation.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 13

CSA 1 Response »

Aug 252011

We picked up our Fresh Fork CSA today. In addition to our regular “small”, we also picked up the items from our vacation credit. We were off week 10.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week:

Small CSA:

1 yellow doll watermelon
2 ct. eggplant, some mixed colors may be included
1 quart hot Hungarian peppers
1 lb. clover honey
1 medium cantaloupe
Approx. 1 lb. heirloom tomatoes (about 1 large or 2 small)
2 summer squash
1 pint mixed baby sweet peppers
Quarter Peck Golden Supreme apples (about 5 to 6 apples, very crisp, yellow apple)
Approx. 1 lb. slicing tomatoes

Here’s a group shot:

I’m going to make my favorite cole slaw recipe and it uses a couple of apples. The rest will probably go into my oatmeal and/or be made into a quick applesauce for the kids. We also got eggplant on Tuesday, so I think I’ll be making a veggie lasagna tomorrow.

I’m not sure about the squash. If it doesn’t end up in the lasagna, we’ll probably grill it. All of the tomatoes are going into sauce since I have a stock of them from Tuesday’s CSA as well.

The sweet peppers will get added to my sauce. I’m never sure what to do with the hot ones. I don’t like to make things that aren’t kid friendly (and Lyn friendly).

I don’t cook with refined sugar, so we use lots of honey. I’m excited to try the clover honey that we received.

Yum! We are certainly enjoying our local melon this year. I’m curious to try the watermelon since it’s “yellow” and I’m not sure what to expect.

In addition to our share above, we had $25 to spend on items from the on-line store since we were on a planned vacation a couple of weeks back. I decided on lettuce ($2.75), 2 cantaloupes ($3.60 ea.), 2 packages of Chorizo sausage ($12.40) and 2 quarts of yogurt ($9.90). The total was $28.65, so I paid Robert $3.65 at the truck.

It was fun to stock up on Chorizo and yogurt since we were out of both. Neither of my CSAs received lettuce this week, so I was glad to have it as well. I love the vacation flexibility with Fresh Fork!

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