Three Birthdays in One!

Well, I guess my birthday celebrations are officially over :( We had a joint birthday at the farm for all of us girls this past Saturday!

It's kind of hard to believe but as far as I can remember, this was only our 2nd farm trip of the year! (!!!!) I guess because it's just been so dang hot this summer! Luckily the weather cooperated this weekend and cooled down quite nicely for us. And by cooled down I mean it was still like 90°, but that's way better than 110° and it felt awesome!

We grilled out, played fetch (into the lake!) with the dogs, the kids got super dirty, and a good time was had by all!












Then it was time for cake! Josh and I were in charge of bringing the cake... and since I'm not supposed to have cake (30 day paleo challenge in full swing!), the final decision was left up to Josh!

This is what he chose:
   
A much healthier option than the chocolate cake smothered in icing that was sitting next to it ;)

When the paleo challenge started, I was allowing myself 1 cheat day for this birthday party!!! But I had forgotten to factor in my Chicago trip (this weekend!)... so now I will have 2 cheat days, but I am trying to make them cheat "meals" instead of whole entire days!!! So, I didn't even eat any of this cake. Instead, I bought myself an angel food cake, some cool whip, and strawberries.. and that was my cake (similar to the one above, but probably a little healthier ;))... and so far, that's been my only cheat! Still a cheat, yes, but not a bad one if you ask me! :-D

In Chicago this weekend, I'm going to do my best to still eat as paleo as possible... but I'm giving myself one little cheat meal to eat some Chicago style pizza! And hopefully that's IT!

Anyway, Josh is NOT eating like a caveman, apparently he's eating like a dog and licking the bowl clean! ;)


And since a few of you have asked... I am still working on my 26 before 27 list. I think I currently have about 12 things on it! ;) If you have any ideas for me, please share!!! :)

Wednesday Randoms

• the curse of the iPhone


The iPhone is good for lots of things... I personally like to use it for: texting, weather, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, reading e-mail & blogs, sometimes even Amazon or eBay, and occasionally even *gasp!* phone calls! 

This weekend we met up with my newly-married brother and his WIFE Jenn for lunch! (we have the same last name now so our names rhyme! ;)) and apparently Josh and Adam also really enjoy their iPhones as well. Jenn snapped the above photo of us... clearly spending quality time together ;)... all 3 on our iPhones. The sad thing is, this wasn't posed, we were literally all sitting there on our phones. And poor Jenn felt excluded because she doesn't have an iPhone!!

Don't worry though, we weren't on our phones for long (just "checking in" and posting the following pictures on Facebook, because you know that has to be done immediately!!!)



Adam and Jenn will be moving an hour further north in a few weeks, so they wanted to hang out with everyone as much as possible before the move! I'm so glad they invited us to lunch! You know how I feel about random meet-ups with family that aren't on holidays.... it's LIKE Christmas!!! Can't wait to see their new place soon!!!

• how Lola sleeps

Apparently this is the new comfortable.

• Josh wears a penguin towel ;)

The other night Josh got home from running and, as usual, looked like he had ran through a torrential downpour. It was just sweat, of course. But I was outside talking to the neighbors, and he came out of the house wrapped in my penguin beach towel. I snapped this [very high quality] photo to post on Facebook as revenge since he's always posting very lovely pictures of me on Facebook! (if we're not FB friends you probably have no clue what I'm talking about, but just to name a couple, he's posted pictures of me sleeping in the car, bending over to pick strawberries....etc)

• iPhoto dump
Last but not least, I figured it was high time for an Instagram photo dump!

I'm thelynnied on instagram if you want to follow along! :)

Happy Wednesday!!!

Take me to Hawaii!

Wedding festivities are in full swing around here it seems!!! This past Saturday was Amylyn's (Josh's sister) bridal shower! Josh was out of town being a driver for the 160 mile RAIN bike ride some of our friends were doing, so us girls took over our house and made it a Hawaiian Luau party!!!






Between the sandwiches, Mexican casserole, and cake, there wasn't much paleo-friendly food available. My lunch consisted of fruit and veggies... but it was all good! I'm feeling really good about the paleo challenge thus far, so I wasn't even that tempted to cheat. That cake sure looked (& smelled!) delicious though!!

Overall, the party went great!!!


We played games... Amy gets lei'd.


She opened presents (always fun!!)


And posed as Charlie's Angels...for some reason!? :)

Hope you had fun, Amy!!! The countdown is on.... only 7 more weeks 'til WEDDING DAY! :D

CrossFit 1 month review

Some of y'all have asked about CrossFit. What is it? How do I like it? How is it different than the regular gym? etc. So here are my thoughts/answers to your questions. If you don't care about CrossFit you may want to skip this post :)


 *I've only been going for 4 weeks now, so take this for what it's worth :)*


After only 4 weeks though, I can say for sure that I love it and I don't know if I can ever go back to the "regular" gym! Before, I was going to the gym for spin or group power (weight lifting) classes, or occasionally running, and that was it. As you all (should) know, I've had a running injury for well over a year now that I can't seem to completely shake. So after I had to give up my goal of running a marathon, my workouts felt a little un-purposeful. I was just going to go, I wasn't working towards anything. I was doing the same thing day in and day out, and don't get me wrong - I LOVE my gym family (after all, that's where I met Josh ;)) and I'd push myself, but it was still the same thing over and over.

What I love about CrossFit is that it's never the same workout! Four weeks in and I haven't done the same thing twice! I also love that it's always a full body workout. Spinning and running only work your legs, and even though group power was full body, the workout was still the same each time and the amount of weight we used was significantly less and the exercises much less intense. (For example, in GP I only dead-lifted 25lbs and in CrossFit I dead-lift 95lbs!!! 95!!!! I didn't even know I was capable of that!)


Plus I never did this in my old gym:


This was a pretty cool moment for me. I didn't even think I could get up there (after all I haven't done anything like this since I was 4 years old and took gymnastics..) but once I finally did, I even held it like that for a whole minute!!! Renee said that's awesome for my first time! :)

I constantly surprise myself in CrossFit. I am always pushing myself and seeing what I'm capable of.... and it's usually a lot more than I ever thought :)

Plus, a lot of the WOD's do incorporate running so I don't feel like I'm giving up running completely.

Another thing I love is how efficient the workouts are. At my old gym, 20 minutes was like a warm-up... at CrossFit if you see the WOD is going to be 20 minutes -- THAT'S A REALLY LONG TIME. 

A few questions I've been asked...

A lot of people do CrossFit on their own at their regular gym...why didn't you do that? The answer is, I tried! It didn't work. The guy at my old gym even said I could do all the CrossFit stuff there when I told them why I was cancelling my membership, but it's just not the same. The CrossFit gym is a lot more expensive than my old gym membership... but I think it's completely worth it! For many reasons... 1) the workouts are so intense that if I was doing them alone I'd probably quit less than half way through! 2) there are so many specific movements that I'd never heard of before and if I didn't have a coach to explain the correct way to do them, I'd totally do them wrong and hurt myself 3) the CF gym is just totally different.. the atmosphere, the people, the workouts. It's just different and I need it! That being said, yes you could do many CF workouts on your own if joining a CF gym isn't possible.

Is it intimidating? UHHH.... YES. I get nervous every time I go in there! Because you never know what the WOD is going to be until you get there... and even if you did, I don't know that it would help. BUT at the same time... EVERY single exercise can be scaled to your level. I don't think I've actually done any of the workouts the 100% "right" way... but I'll get there eventually!! If you're considering CrossFit, DON'T BE SCARED!

Are you seeing results? YES! It's a little hard to gauge because like I said we don't do the same thing over and over... so I may do 95lbs on dead-lifts one day, and not do dead-lifts again for a month... so has my dead-lift weight improved? I don't know! But Renee wanted us to do Fran about a month later to see how much we've improved on our graduation WOD! I did it last night and I went up 10lbs on my thruster weight, and instead of doing box pull-ups, I did real pull-ups with band assistance (in other words, both exercises were much harder than the first time I did them).

I've already been using less help on pull-ups than when I started, using more weight on common exercises (like squats), etc. I'm also starting to see a difference in the way my muscles look...specifically my abs! :-D 

So, hope that helps answer some questions! :)

Paleo: week 1

Week 1 of paleo eating is officially DONE! So far I haven't even cheated :)

 
And I was especially proud of myself for that fact because this weekend this beautiful cake sat in my house and stared at me... creamy icing... sprinkled in graham crackers!!! SERIOUSLY?! Sweets are my weakness!! But I did not eat even a bite of it!! (cake was for Josh's sister Amy's bridal shower... more on that later!) Amy also brought wedding cake samples for us to try, but I stood strong! ;)

It's been a little easier this time around with the support and accountability at the gym, and also because I have tried a lot more recipes than I did last time. Good food helps!!!

Here are two recipes I made this week that I LOVED and will definitely be making again!

Paleo Jambalaya

(picture borrowed from paleomg.com... my picture of it wasn't as pretty ;))

Ingredients:

• 2 andouille sausage, sliced 
• 2 chicken breasts, cubed 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced 
• 1 yellow onion, diced 
• 1 green bell pepper, diced 
• 1 head cauliflower, riced
• 1 (6oz) can tomato paste 
• 1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained 
• 1 cup chicken broth 
• 2 tablespoon olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika 
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley 
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• salt and pepper, to taste 

What held me up on this recipe forever was trying to figure out how to "rice" cauliflower. I don't have a food processor, but I have a blender that has a "shredding" option. I read somewhere that you use the "shredding attachment" of a food processor to make cauliflower rice so I figured I'd try that option on my blender before I went out and bought a food processor. IT WORKED! So try that if you don't have a food processor.

Anyway, the instructions:

1. First get everything ready... dice all veggies and make the cauliflower rice.

2. Now heat a large pot over medium-high heat with your olive oil. Add the garlic until it becomes fragrant then add your onion and green bell pepper to begin to cook down.
3. Once the onion in translucent, add cauliflower, broth, chicken, and sausage. Mix together. Cover and let cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and spices. Stir.
5. Cover and let it cook for 5-8 minutes until cauliflower is tender and meats are cooked through OR at this point I just threw it all in the crock-pot on LOW so it could slowly cook all day and be ready for dinner that evening :)
6. ENJOY!


This was probably my favorite dinner recipe so far... it's a little spicy but not too much. I don't like spicy foods, but this has very good flavor!!


The 2nd recipe I made last night... breakfast for the whole week is DONE!


Paleo Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound breakfast sausage 
• Lots of bacon (I used 5 slices I think?)
• 2 cups diced sweet potatoes 
• 3 cups baby spinach, chopped 
• 8 whole eggs or approx. 3 cups egg beaters, whisked
• salt and pepper to taste  
• 1 onion 
• 1 pepper

I've seen similar recipes that also include olives, jalapenos, etc... you can add pretty much anything you want!!

Instructions:

1. Cook sausage and bacon.

2. While those are cooking, prepare sweet potato. Microwave for about 4 minutes.

3. Add onion, peppers, and seasoning to skillet with bacon and sausage.

4. Combine all of it into a casserole dish and cover with eggs.

5. Bake on 350 for 30-45 minutes (until top is golden brown)

6. ENJOY!

I highly recommend these two recipes! The breakfast casserole is very filling and I think I can eat it for breakfast all week without getting bored of it!!! 

Next I am trying a recipe I found for paleo ice cream!!! YES it's true! Let's see how this goes... 

A Wedding at the Vineyard

A couple weeks ago, I had the honor of photographing my cousin Brittany's wedding.


She was a beautiful bride! And even though it makes me feel old because I remember when she was born, I could not be happier for her! Her husband Tyler is being stationed across the world and they are moving to JAPAN in August!!!! (family vacation, anyone?!)


They had a small ceremony at a little vineyard in the middle of nowhere. It was thundering and lightning the whole afternoon, but luckily the rain held off until after the ceremony!





Everything seemed to turn out perfectly, despite the 100° heat, humidity, and looming thunderstorms! We had a great time catching up with family we don't get to see that often and I'm so happy she let me capture her special day!


Congratulations, Brittany! I wish you and Tyler many years of happiness and fun adventures in Japan!!! Can't wait to come visit! ;)

...xoxo...

Lola Lately

Just another day in the life of Lola.

Sunday

My days this weekend were total opposites.

Saturday I was totally lazy -- I slept in, got up and ran 2 errands, then came home and proceeded to take a 4 hour nap. I did not one productive thing. Oh wait, I did do one load of laundry. And that's it.

It was glorious.

Sunday was different though... it seemed like we had a million places to be all at the same time! And luckily they were fun places!!

We started off at the CrossFit cookout. They had a paleo pitch-in and watched the CrossFit Games. WOD's were done on an as-requested basis. I decided I wanted to do a WOD before I ate (because let's be honest, it wouldn't happen after...), so some of us girls got together and asked Renee to come up with a "quick" WOD for us to do.

Survivors of Renee's killer WOD... post-WOD (and yes... I blinked!! ha)


While Renee was coming up with the WOD, we recruited two boys to join us in the fun!!!!

THIS is the "quick WOD" Renee came up with:


TEN rounds of 100m sprint, 10 sit-ups, 100m sprint, 10 burpees, 30 sec. rest.

We tried to shorten it from Bradley to Brad and make it 5 rounds instead of 10 but Renee  said NO.

Are you kidding me?! This was the longest, most intense WOD I think I've ever done!!! 33 minutes and 17 seconds?! Definitely nothing "quick" about it!
 
The sprints in the 100° heat & sun in black cotton was probably not the smartest idea (but at least I wasn't the only one!! Apparently all the other girls except Sheri had the same idea!) I thought I was going to suffocate in that outfit! Seriously people -- wicking clothes work wonders!!

FINALLY it was over ;)

And then I proceeded to sweat for about 2 more hours. Profusely. Not even kidding.

Just hanging around at the CrossFit cookout. 


After we ate some good paleo food we headed over to our friends' baby Lilah's 1st birthday party!!! She had the coolest water slide ever!!! I decided I want one for my birthday party!! Seriously - I think the adults had more fun than the kids!
  SO FUN!

It was a lot bigger than I think it looks in these pictures... and apparently they make one twice this size! That's the one I want for my birthday!!

The water slide was nice and refreshing after that killer WOD.

The birthday girl was asleep when we got there, but luckily she woke up right before we had to leave!


Happy 1st Birthday, Lilah!!!


Now, how do I convince Josh that since he won't let us get a pool he should let us get a big inflatable water slide?!

Stay cool!

..xoxo..