Last week was prom week! We had the privilege of shooting two adorable couples before their senior proms. Both couples looked great and could not have been more excited for their big day!

While shopping at Trader Joe's yesterday I spent some time looking around for things that I don't normally buy. There are SO many fun things in that store that I overlook when in a rush. Jeff and I get into a routine of eating the same meals every few weeks so I thought I would attempt to change it up. I found an herb pizza dough and knew I could do something fun with it! After picking up a chicken breast, some pesto and fresh mozzarella we had an amazing pizza for dinner that was ready in less than 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

I'll post some pictures from our weekend photography shoots tomorrow, so stay tuned for some beautiful prom couples and adorable, happy kids.

I'm back! I took the week off since Jeff and I were so busy and blogging felt more like a chore instead of a hobby. When this happens, I'd rather not even blog since I always want to enjoy it. So, I'll fill you in on what we have been doing, in a list form. Things we LOVED about this weekend:

1. We sold our Canon t2i camera and bought TWO new Canon 60d cameras!

2. I spent the entire weekend with my college roommates.

3. We ate great food at one of our favorite places, Shady Maple in Lancaster, PA.

4. Jeff's brother Brian is visiting from Portland, Oregon.

5. We spent yesterday celebrating our adorable niece and nephew's birthdays with family!

Our weekend started out at my friend Rach's house where we enjoyed some shisk kabobs with her family.

We woke up bright and early to head to Shady Maple Smorgasbord, a favorite of anyone that lives within an hour of my hometown. Has anyone ever been there? It's amazing and I have so many high school memories from there!

I definitely didn't eat the healthiest breakfast or portion sizes, but figured this was a once a year treat...so one day of "pigging out" wouldn't hurt ;) And it didn't. It was amazing! After breakfast we headed down to the Chesapeake Bay where my family keeps our boat.

Here is my beautiful mom.

And my dad in his happy place...

Doesn't the water make it look like we are almost in a tropical place? Obviously I'm kididng. The water was super warm and tons of fun, but not the prettiest color.

It was a short trip to PA since we headed home early Sunday morning to make it back to Long Island for a birthday party for our niece and nephew. Here's a few pictures from the party yesterday, more to come tomorrow:

We were also busy with lots of shoots for Jensen Photography! I'll be back tomorrow to share some of those pictures and a new recipe :) Hope you enjoyed your week and weekend as much as we did.

If you google "banana bread recipe" you will probably find hundreds to thousands of different recipes out there. And although I've tried several different recipes, Jeff and I will always love one recipe the most: his mom's. Jeff's mom makes an amazingly moist banana bread! It always turns out perfectly, and we look forward to receiving a loaf every few weeks when she comes to visit. I e-mailed her a few weeks ago for the recipe and after realizing how simple it was, gave it a try myself. My bananas weren't super ripe so the taste isn't exactly the same as hers, but I hope one day I can perfect it!

Ingredients:

-Mix the flour and baking soda together then add to the wet ingredients.

-Grease a loaf pan or muffin pan (as I did) and bake for about 45 minutes for a loaf of bread of 15-18 minutes for muffins at 350 degrees.

I told you it was simple and easy! We don't have a lot of cabinet space in our 550 sq. foot apartment, so I love when I don't have to search around for tons of ingredients in our crammed baking cabinet. This banana bread/muffin recipe only has 6 ingredients!

Jeff has class until 8:30 tonight, so I'm hoping to surprise him with these (if he doesn't read this before then). I know the muffins won't taste the same as his mom's famous banana bread, but hopefully he will approve :) I'm off to watch our puppy, Ollie, for the rest of the night. He was neutered on Friday and is really struggling with following the rules-NO running or jumping for 10 days! How do you tell a 6 month old Westie that he can't run for 1 day let alone 10? We have a long week ahead of us...

Good thing he is cute. Do you like his onesie? We got it so he wouldn't have to wear the cone on his head all week. Jeff picked out the one with a dog on it especially for him. Yes, we are crazy dog people ;)

It's time for a marathon training update. Jeff and I started seriously training 3 weeks ago, once his finals were over and we could really focus on our runs. We are up to 6 miles this week, which we completed earlier today. We always try to wake up early on Saturday or Sunday to get the run out of the way and to beat the heat, but some days it is too hard to pull ourselves out of bed. We didn't get out to our run until around 10:00 which we learned was way too hot! We were pretty miserable after 6 miles...

So, I have an embarrassing confession to make. A few weeks ago I fell (hard, on my face) while running one day. Jeff started laughing since it was pretty funny I'm sure, until he realized that I was crying! I was crying more out of embarrassment and frustration, not because I was hurt. Although I did get scraped up a bit. I didn't think I would fall again, except today I DID! Ugh. So frustrating. We were about 1.5 miles into our run when I wiped out. Jeff explained to me that I don't pick up my feet high enough to clear cracks in the road. So now I'm very careful when running, because it would be pretty humiliating to fall during the actual marathon with thousands of spectators! Jeff really didn't want his picture taken after out hot run. Looks like I got my way this time though...

We stopped at CVS around mile 3 for some water-it helped but I was still dragging today. Some days I am excited and ready to run and others I feel like I have to force myself. Today was one of those days. Next weekend we are up to 7 miles. Whenever I think "I can never run a full marathon," I remember the time I thought I could never run a half marathon and DID! Thankfully I always have Jeff by my side encouraging me. And I always have this little man to want to run home to :)

Today was a perfect summer day! I really don't think it could have gotten any better. We headed over to Lauren & Fritz's apartment (which is conveniently only 2.2 miles from us) for a BBQ/Pool party with our small group from church. Unfortunately, only us and another couple showed up, but we still had a great time!

While the girls lounged and did our blogging picture taking...


The boys took care of making the food! Hot dogs, hamburgers, salad and pasta salad.


Once our bellies were full, the fun began! The guys had so much fun literally playing like little boys. They were in and out of the pool all day.


I convinced Jeff to do a belly flop.


Lauren and I were much more comfortable out of the water, sun bathing on the grass :) I am so so thankful that we have Lauren and Fritz right down the road. She is literally my only friend out here and I wouldn't survive without her!


Jeff is equally thankful to have Fritz to play pool games and badminton with.


I foresee a lot of days just like this one occuring this summer! I sure hope so, at least.


Thank you Zietsmans for a fun day.