Food for Thought #4: January.

First, a side note: apparently publicizing healthy eating habits and how you love to eat vegetables for snacks produces a curse where you only want to eat things like Oatmeal Creme Pies and store brand chocolate chip cookies (I mean, they were there) and make detours to the new donut store that is dangerously close to your house. Oops. #realfoodhypocrite #tryingagainaftertheSuperBowl

And now, to carry on the theme of self-indulgence, I’m making you look at my vacation photos. Mua-ha-ha!

This August, Jay and I will hit a big milestone – our 10th anniversary! We had been hoping to go on a trip this summer when work slows down for him, but there’s a slight “glitch” in that plan – we’re having a baby. Yep, we’re pretty darn thrilled to be welcoming another sweet GIRL to our family, due in June! Since our summer is going to be a leeeetle bit crazy now, we jumped on the chance to celebrate our anniversary a little early and get away in January. Many, many thanks to our amazing families for taking care of our girls and making it possible!

Y’all – we had THE BEST time! After what was probably an excessive amount of research (but research is liiife, to some of us, who feels me?), we decided to go to Panama. We wanted to strike a balance between adventure and luxuriating on a beach somewhere, and I think we hit it pretty much on the nose. We stayed at a resort in a tiny coastal town, and there was surfing for Jay and yoga for me, biking to little local restaurants, a tour that took us splashing through rivers (literally) in a Land Cruiser to a waterfall in the middle of nowhere, and plenty of reading by the pool, chatting with the other guests, and taking naps because vacation. And since it was a smaller resort, we had a blast getting to know their amazing staff and ended the week feeling like part of a family. Summer camp for grown-ups, anyone??

You know I have to talk about the food! One of our favorite Wilmington restaurants is called Ceviche’s, and it serves Panamanian food – and definitely the most delicious fish we’ve had so far here. It’s a great date night spot if you’re local! So it was super fun to have Panamanian food in Panama. We had too many delicious meals to count, but I snapped a few pics that you’ll see below. Hilariously, one of the local spots in the teeny, tiny town we stayed in (really, I can’t emphasize it’s teeny tiny-ness enough) is an Italian restaurant, run by (who else?) a guy from Italy, who may or may not both cook and serve you your meal in his board shorts. Best bruschetta ever, too!

Clockwise from top left: A lovely little salad (bonus points for Panama – you can drink the water and eat all its delicious fresh produce); a pizza from the Italian restaurant – yeah, he makes the mozzarella and ricotta himself, no biggie; a tasty spa-like breakfast from the resort; chicken, rice, lentils, and a great little slaw salad at the local-est of local spots, where Miss Nuvia cooks the most delicious, simple, satisfying food, for the neighbors and the random tourists stumbling through their Spanish. :o)

Now we’re back in the real world (oh, hi, responsibility). I’m so happy to have my girls back in my arms, though, and there’s the fun of all your comments on this week’s giveaway (there’s still time to enter)! I mean, what’s more fun than oatmeal?! ;o)