Escaping the Bitter Cold

It has been bitterly cold (especially for Virginia) for the last couple of weeks. Starting today we are slowly moving back to normal temperatures for this time of year. Admittedly, my running has suffered because of the cold. I just cannot drag myself out to run in 15 degrees. It hurts my lungs, and I have absolutely no motivation. I ran this morning (my running partner is back in town - hallelujah!), and it was a toasty 32 degrees. It was great! Hopefully I will be able to get out the rest of the week. 32 degrees is much better than 15!

To escape the cold we mostly hung out inside and played. Jenna started coloring her new house. At first she didn't want anyone to help. After only a couple of minutes she realized that it was boring trying to do it alone, plus it would take forever without help. She has had several friends and her brothers helping her. I meant to take a picture of how it looks now, a lot more has been colored, but I forgot. I'll try to get one for next week.

Jenna coloring the house (or her hand, not really sure which) :)


Jared adding his artistic touches


The house at the end of the first coloring session. It is much more colorful now.


My awesome sister called and offered to trade babysitting for the weekend. She said they would come up here (they live about three hours away), and Derek and I could go out overnight for our anniversary (our anniversary date was snowed out in December), and then we could watch her kids on Saturday while they went rock climbing (indoor). That sounded like a great plan to us.

On Friday Derek and I headed to Richmond to the Olive Garden for dinner (we had a gift card). Afterwards we did a little shopping, and then stayed in a hotel we booked through Priceline. We got a good deal on it. You can bid on hotels there, which is great if you want to get away for a lot less money (it only works for 1-2 people/room though). The next morning we got to sleep late! Then we headed to Einstein Bros. Bagels for breakfast - yum! Then we headed home and watched Levi and Janie while David and Rachel went out. We had a great time. I think we may do more trading in the future, though probably not overnight. Even though we got a good deal, it is still too expensive for us to do that more than once a year. Thanks again David and Rachel!

We have dessert on Sundays and Mondays. We rotate who gets to pick the dessert for the weekend. This weekend it was my turn. For Christmas, my mother-in-law got me a great cookbook. Most of the recipes have pictures (I love that), and all of the recipes have 5 ingredients or less. I am a huge fan of caramel and toffee. I found a layered toffee cake recipe. The cake is angel food cake. It's frosted with real whipped cream, mixed with caramel, and then sprinkled heavily with cut up Skor or Heath Bar candy bars. The cake itself is cut into three sections, with that same topping in between each layer. Heaven! It was so good. The pictures don't do it justice.

Yummy Layered Toffee Cake


My favorite part about this picture is the Jenna and Kevin in the background anxiously waiting for the cake. They weren't very excited that I wanted to take pictures before we ate it. :)


I am happy to be thawing out around here. I know winter is far from over, but hopefully the temperatures will be a little more reasonable.