Picnic Quest: Devil's Hopyard State Park

Last weekend we decided to go on a picnic since the weather was getting nice and J was getting ready to leave. I decided to hit another picnic quest spot! This time we went to Devil's Hopyard and we loved it!

When you drive in you can pick from tons of different places to stop. You can sit on the grass or they have a ton of picnic table you can choose from, they even have grills if you want to grill some food right there! We drove down to a spot we'd been before and sat at one of the tables right next to the river. It was so nice!

The view of the bridge from our table.
The boys getting ready to eat. I made different food this time and J was mad....I'm supposed to make the same thing EVERYTIME! lol.

After we ate we hiked for a little bit. I wanted to see the Falls and it wasn't far to walk, so off we went. We went to the little ones first and went to the bigger one on the way back. I want to go back once the weather gets nicer....what an amazing place to walk around!

The streams and everything were just beautiful.

He cracks me up. Always making a show. I don't know why he can't just stand still and let me take pictures.

My boys.

Landon. We tried to get the dog up there with him but he wasn't having any of it, I couldn't get any good pictures of the dog that day.

"Look mom, it looks like I'm running, but I'm not!"

The grounds were just so beautiful, I wanted to take pictures of everything (and I did, but I will spare you 20 photos)

Lol. He's doing the MJ walk.

J wanted to take a few pictures of Landon and I. Not bad. This was after we were walking for a little over an hour and it was a bit chilly!

Going back to the car. Landon got up there and started yelling "Fi FI FO FUM, I'm a troll!" He's so funny!

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I love this park and plan on going back quite a bit while we live here!

Food Quest: Milagro (mexican)

I love me some good Mexican. Mandy and I went here a few weeks back(yay for girls night out!) and it was soooo good! It's a little restaurant so if you decide to go, don't go at peak times or you will be waiting since it fills up quick! It's child friendly though they do not have a children's menu, they will help you find something for your child. Also large groups could be hard due to the number of tables (only about 10 tables max in there).

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Milagro

What we ordered:

Shared- Salsa y Chips trio of salsa & corn chips (most amazing thing ever! 4 different kinds of sauce for dipping your chips in. Mild salsa, hot salsa, sour cream and a green salsa(which was the best))

M- Tacos al Pastor two mini tacos of citrus marinated pork with grilled pineapple on soft corn tortillas (I tried this, didn't think I was going to like it but I LOVED it!). She also got the special which was beer battered fish tacos.....most amazing thing I've ever eaten!

K- Sopa Azteca crisp tortilla strips & roasted chicken in rich guajillo pepper broth garnished with diced avocado, cheese, pasilla pepper flakes & sour cream (amazing soup, a must have). Enchiladas Rojas rotisserie chicken wrapped in a corn tortilla, baked in an ancho chili sauce, garnished with cilantro, onion, cheese & sour cream (it was good. I'll switch it up next time. The sauce was good but the extra cheese was a little overpowering)

Took home for J- Mole Poblano braised half chicken with a traditional Mexican chocolate & chili sauce (He loved it. He was so excited when I called and told him that they had Mole)

I have a feeling that we will be going back here often. I will add picture within the next month or two and update this post.

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Pros:

Great food

Great service

Fun atmosphere

Authentic Mexican food

Decent prices

Great amount of food for the money

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Cons:

Not a lot of tables (could have a wait)

Not 100% child friendly (but they do try to make it work)

The other woman.....

Her name is Alex, and shes a bossy little (big) thing. He's with her more then he's with me. She's one of those needy types that can't seem to keep things together and keeps him late because she's "broken" . lol. She even makes him go on long "vacations" with him and I don't hear from him for weeks! hahaha.

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As you can tell J is gone out to sea again. This time we went and watched him leave (Lan didn't have school so the times didn't clash!) and Mandy went with us and took some amazing pictures! I know there is a lot of them but they were too neat not to share.

The tug. Getting ready to start pulling it out.

I LOVE this picture of Landon. He's so cute!

J was on top of the boat again. It was so neat getting to see him up there!

Close up. He's the one standing on the far right...glaring at us for dancing around. lol.

Coming down the river. I love being able to go and watch them. It's neat when you see it from far away and they slowly get closer.
I love this spot that we stop at, we always get really great pictures.

Close up. From hundreds of feet away J could see us and was smiling. I think he liked us being there as much as we liked watching him. It was the first time we were able to watch the boat leave with him top-side.

It's so pretty. It was such a nice day out, a little cold but nice and sunny.

Landon & I watching the boat leave.

I love how you can see the boat behind us as they drift off to sea.

I love this one. Mandy gets the most amazing shots of us.

Gone. This is where we start to lose sight of them.

Fill in the Blank Friday!

I've seen a ton of people doing this and thought I would join in!

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Go here to see who else is playing along this week!

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1. The best piece of advice I was ever given was...... Don't eat yellow snow (seriously).
2. If I had a million dollars to give to one charity I would give it to..... Make a Wish, they do the most amazing things.
3. If I got to choose my "last meal" it would be..... Ummmm a really great pizza.
4. My hair is.....a strange shade of red. I don't mind it but I do always get asked if it's my real hair color.
5. If at first you don't succeed....Fake it till you make it. Lol. I don't know. I'm really stubborn so I won't give up on something till I do it right....or I throw it.
6. I have always been very.....opinionated and outgoing....I've been told it's the hair...it's a curse.
7. Oh....and by the way....My husband freaking rocks my socks! All of his hard work and late nights paid off yesterday when he got an EP!!!! (for non-military folk....it's the best you can get on your evaluation and he gets to test a year sooner for a promotion!)

Next week

The book club starts next week. I hope everyone had enough time to get their books!

See you on the 1st!

Will it last?

I have a few pet-peeves. The biggest one is when people keep saying that if you get married young it won't last. How do they know? Because they know someone who got married and got divorced? That doesn't doom everyone to fail. I think people who rush into marriage have a harder time not necessarily the young ones. I feel like its a slap in the face when people say it. So I have started responding with "My husband and I started dating at 14, got married at 18. Are we more likely to divorce then....say, a 27 year old who met their S/O and got married a month later?" I always get something like....."Well no. But people shouldn't rush things. Everyone should give it time and make sure they are mature and able to have a strong marriage" Who makes all the rules? Did I forget my handbook when I got my marriage license? Who do I need to kill to get me one of them books?

While maturity can make a difference, I don't think age does. If you get married young and you know the odds are against you and you are willing to make it work, then why not? Who's to say that in 20 years I won't be married? I think people just need to let others be. Who cares if I got married at 18 and not 25? I didn't miss out on anything. I knew who I wanted to marry and not to toot my own horn, but I have a really great marriage. A lot of things go into making a marriage last.

Every one's story is different. Mine is unique just like the next persons. No one knows who will last and who won't. But I think people need to keep their comments to themselves and let other people be. I'm happy.....why does it matter what age I was when I said "I do"?

Food Quest: Bobby Flay's Burger Palace

Mandy and I are doing a food quest. We've already gone to a few places but I didn't take any pictures. I'm going to be putting those places up and I will go back and add pictures once we revisit the restaurant. We've gone to some REALLY amazing places so far, all here in Connecticut! The rules are: No big chains (no one cares if we go to Applebees), reviews must be 100% honest!, pros and cons must be for the resturant only and the more hole in the wall the better!!
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So first up is......

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Bobby Flay's Burger Palace!

What we ordered:

M- L.A Burger(with chicken breast instead of beef) it had cheddar cheese, tomato, guacamole and watercress. With a side of sweet potato fries with the most amazing honey mustard horseradish dipping sauce.

K- Palace Classic Burger (well done!) it had American cheese, lettuce, tomato and red onion. I got a side of onion rings and french fries with the BBP fry sauce (I'm not one for fry sauce so I didn't care for it)

L- Kids BBP Burger Deal. Classic cheese burger with nothing on it, side of fries and a kids drink.

It was a really neat setup. You order, take your number and go sit down, when your food is ready they bring it to you. This is Lan waiting for our food.
Mandy's food. The sauce was soooo good!

Landon's food.
My food. I heart lemonade!

Huge onion rings.

Best fries I've ever had!!! Seriously.
All of the sauces you could use on the table.

Yellow mustard, Ketchup, Jalapeno hot sauce (which we all LOVED!), burger sauce(the next favorite) and Chipotle ketchup.

We tested them all out. The green in the middle was gone first. lol.

Getting our left overs to go.
Leftovers again.

Mandy & Landon. He could be her kid, I swear he looks more like her then he does me!

Landon and I getting ready to head back to the car. After stopping off to get dessert that is!

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Pros:

Great food!

Fun atmosphere

Amazing prices

Great amount of food for your money

No wait/good amount of seating

Very child friendly

Did I say great food?

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Cons

You have to walk through a casino to get to it (some smokey areas)

Massive picture post!

They have some of the most amazing parks here in Connecticut. So this past weekend we went out to take family pictures before Justin leaves. It was such a nice day out and we never know how the weather is going to be here, so we got them done early just to make sure they got done. These are my favorites out of the 300+ that were taken! I know it's still a lot on here, but I had to share.

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They are in reverse order...sorry. I don't want to take the time to switch them all and my photo uploader hates me again today.

Landon in the tree. He was so funny. He hated being in the tree earlier that day, but loved it at the end.
This is one of my favorites. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you would have seen a picture close to this of just Landon and I last deployment.
I love my boys. Landon is looking more and more like Justin everyday and it makes me smile. They are so much alike.

Kisses for the little boy....

....kisses for the big boy.

I kinda like this one to. The haze makes it neat.

This is right about when it started getting a little chilly.

This is my favorite of the two of them that was taken. They had so much fun playing.

Poor Justin hated that I made them match. lol, I thought it was cute!

Favorite family picture. I love the water in the background. Justin wanted to do the "soccer" pose......hence the next picture.

Lol. I was laughing so hard.......my husband is a dork. But we are a soccer family so I guess it fits.

I love that J is looking down at us.

I ended up cropping Landon out of this one......lol. He's so funny.

Justin taught Landon the "thinking" pose. Justin does this ALL the time for pictures. It drives me nuts! and now Landon does it!

Boys in the tree! This is where Landon was a little scared. We got some really cute pictures from it though.

Mommy & Landon.

Daddy & Landon.

I love this one!

Ok, I love this one to.....too many to pick from!!!!

I don't really like this one.....but it was a decent one of this pose.

I love him.

This was one of the first ones she took. I messed with the color a little bit.

If you live in CT and you want Mandy to do your pictures let me know and I will get you her contact info. She does the most amazing work (Shes done a few for us. She did pictures for me a few different times during last deployment and Landon's Birthday this year)