I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter weekend…however you may or may not be celebrating it! I am thrilled that it’s a beautiful spring weekend and I’m spending it in Georgia with my family. I am so grateful that I was able to get away for the weekend for some family time. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve seen my parents and grandmother.

Dinner after late arrival to my grandmother’s on Friday evening was a grilled chicken salad with romaine lettuce, chicken breast my dad grilled on the Big Green Egg, tomatoes, cheese, carrots, celery and dried cranberries with a homemade dressing my dad whipped up. Much better than picking up fast food on the road, huh? Worth the wait!

And of course there was dessert. I come by my sweet tooth honestly. We had apple pie with ice cream but my slice was not so photogenic so I just dove right in.

I prepped breakfast for the fam before bed last night. I brought some Great Harvest Cinnachip for Overnight French Toast. I sliced the bread and placed it in a pan sprayed with cooking spray. I whisked together 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, a healthy shake of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg and about 1 3/4 cup 2% milk. I spread a little butter over each slice and then poured the liquid mixture over it. Cover and let it sit overnight and then remove in the morning and let it come to temperature while the oven is preheating. Bake at 400 for about 20-25 minutes. Yum!

I was up at 7:30 to get a gym trip in before breakfast. I knocked out three miles on the treadmill and then the following…

– 20 barbell deadlifts (45 lbs)
– 30 barbell back squats (55 lbs)
– 20 barbell romanian deadlifts (55 lbs)
– 30 barbell front squats (55 lbs)
– 30 push press (45 lbs)

And then some cable work + abs…

– 30 cable chest flies
– 20 seated cable lat pulldowns
– 20 cable tricep pressdowns
– 20 cable single arm bicep curls
– 50 stability ball crunches
– 25 stability ball knee tucks

I was SO on it this morning and ready to work out. I arrived at the gym before it even opened and had to wait in the car. I gave myself extra motivation by creating a killer playlist. My body felt great and I was really in the mood to lift. I wish I would have had a little more time in the gym but I love the workout I got in. Love days like this!

And love that this was waiting when I got home. French toast with powdered sugar and syrup, fresh fruit and some strawberry banana Greek yogurt for a protein punch.

We took a little shopping expedition after breakfast to Sam’s Club. I stocked up on practical necessities…3 pounds of fair trade french roast coffee, enough Tide for 100-some loads of laundry and 100 tampons. My grandmother on the other hand was tempted by the Easter treats.

A huge container of “gourmet” jelly beans made it into the cart at the last minute and we all dug into them on the way home.

We stopped for lunch at Panera where I had the “You Pick Two” with the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad, Black Bean Soup and Whole Wheat Baguette. Let me give you a glimpse of how my brain works…when I get the You Pick Two I always choose soup and salad so that I can have the baguette on the side. When I do soup and sandwich I feel like I’m overdoing the carbs (although I love them so much) when I order the baguette too. Yep, crazy. 😉

I was falling asleep on the car ride home (well, until my grandmother broke out the jelly beans…I was wide awake after that!) so as soon as we got back I headed outside to enjoy the beautiful day.

I lounged in the sunshine with a book, beach towel and a pillow for about an hour. It was lovely. When I got too hot I moved to the comfort of my grandmother’s screened porch.

The pups were already hanging out on the porch. This is my parent’s golden, Sam. They adopted him from the Golden Retriever Rescue in Atlanta about a year ago.

You know this cute face! 😛

Happy Easter!!!