Everyday Adventures ( Summer, Vacation, Beach Food, and More)

I hope you are having a great summer!

I have not done an Everyday Adventures post since the end of May. I can’t believe that it has been that long. Summer is going by so quickly.

I almost didn’t do this post, but I know that many of my readers like an occasional old school blogging type of post. These kind of posts are more of a keeping it real, everyday life update. And I feel like this week I have quite a bit to update on. Including a not so fun health update. But let’s start with the fun stuff!

Last week we got back from a quick trip to see my family in Oregon. I grew up in Oregon. My whole family lives there. My sisters, parents, and most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins still call the Pacific NW home. I am pretty much the only “odd” one that moved away.

We try to make a trip to Oregon once a year to see everyone. This year it was a bit of a different trip. My son and I went out for a few days, then my husband and two girls came. We were all there for a few days, and then one of my daughters, my husband, and I flew back home, while my oldest daughter and son stayed an extra week with my parents.

Having teens and college ages kids is great, except when it comes to planning vacations. Between work, summer college classes, and getting ready for college to start in August, planning a vacation this year was a bit of a challenge. But I was thankful we all managed to be together for a few days.

We had a great time seeing everyone. I grew up about an hour from the Pacific Ocean, so we got to spend our 24th anniversary at the beach with our kids. Please note that we were wearing sweatshirts and jackets in July. Oh how I miss Oregon in the summer. We don’t wear sweatshirts in July in Oklahoma…

It was just a quick day trip to the beach, but I got to see the ocean so I was happy. We didn’t get a picture with everyone, but we did manage to get a semi decent picture of my husband and I which was good since it was our anniversary.

A trip to the beach means seafood! I love seafood, especially shrimp, but I am not a seafood in middle American type of person. I don’t really eat much seafood unless I am at the beach. Seafood is beach food and it is a must when I visit the beach.

However when you take a sixteen year old boy to the beach he might order this…

Yes, he ordered a hamburger…please tell me my kids are not the only ones that do this! He did have a small cup of clam chowder too, so at least there is that. He had at least something with seafood in it.

We also managed to visit a few bookstores on vacation. That is a vacation must for us.

We enjoyed a lot of great food in Oregon and we came home to a garden full of blueberries. I love summer foods!

I could just leave it there sharing only the wonderful vacation that we had, but real life has had some challenges the last six weeks, especially for me since I blog about food. So here is a keeping it real update. 🙂

I write about food. I take pictures of food. The last six weeks though have been tough food wise for me. I had some posts done ahead, but some of what I have been sharing here and on social media has been made by my kids. I haven’t been eating much normal food.

I have been struggling with diverticulitis the last six or so weeks. If you know what it is, it is not much fun. The end of May I got really sick was on antibiotics for it. Thankful I avoided the hospital, but it was not a fun few days. We thought it was cleared up and just as I was starting to feel normal again we made a trip to Texas for a long weekend and then had our vacation in Oregon. I was still watching what I ate when we went on vacation, but was starting to eat more normal again. The day after I got back from vacation I started to feel sick again.

We are not sure if the infection never went fully away or I am just struggling with it again, but I am currently on another round of antibiotics, very strong probitotics, and have tests scheduled for next week to see what is going on. I don’t have the main risk factors for diverticulitis, so hopefully we can figure out what is going on and it is just a one time thing. Overall I am feeling so much better, but I am really having to watch what I eat. Which is hard when you talk about food all the time.

So, if you notice a lack of posts, especially a lack of desserts and baked goods type of posts, that is why. The recipes and posts the next few weeks might be a little different than normal. I will share some things that my kids make and I am also working on updating some posts in the archives, so I will probably share some of those as well. I will be around, it might just look a little different here for a few weeks.

Between not feeling well and vacation I have been reading a lot. Which means my daughter and I have been sharing a lot of great stuff over on our book site. We have shared a few of our favorite book and bookish things.

I love to read nonfiction, but recently felt like I needed a challenge to force my reading out of my normal comfort zone. I gave myself a new reading challenge and I am loving it. I am reading a nonfiction book for every state. It is so much fun.

I have also been talking about The Great American Read. Have you heard about it? If you love books be sure to sign up for our book newsletter. We love helping you find great books.

That was definitely a long old school style blogging post. If you read all of that THANK YOU!! I appreciate you reading and following along on my adventures.

I hope you are having a great week!