Friday Faves + Wild Friends giveaway

 Hi friends! Happy Friday! Hope you’ve had a wonderful week. I’m SO excited for this weekend. We have nothing officially planned, the Del Mar fair is in full swing (happening), and I feel like I can get caught up on life a little. As I mentioned, we had some rough sleep/nap days, so fingers crossed that we’re back in the game. Our house is a disaster, we’ve eaten a lot of takeout, and my inbox is giving me the sweats. But, FRIDAY! You’re here. It’s so nice to see you again.

It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party! It’s fun to share some of my favorite eats, wears, reads, and adventures from the week, and I always enjoy hearing what you’re loving, too. Please shout it out in the comments section if you’d like to join in the fun, and also enter this week’s Wild Friends giveaway.

Summer is officially here, since Livi goose is out of school for the summer. She’s going to be doing a couple of camps, we have some family vaations planned, and in the meantime, we’ll all be heading to the beach, Kid Ventures, the museum, zoo, cooking, and playing together here at home. I can’t wait. I can’t believe how much she’s grown this year. 

Ok time, you can slow down a little.

The Pilot and I enjoyed a date night at the new LOT in Liberty Station the other night. We had the opportunity to check out the La Jolla location when it first opened, and were so excited that they brought it to Liberty Station. It’s the perfect spot for date night as it’s a restaurant, bar, and swankypants movie theater in one spot.

They have an outdoor patio overlooking Liberty Station, with bonfires, tables and lounge chairs.

We shared a margherita flatbread and for my entree, I had an incredible salad with salmon, kale, quinoa, goat cheese, strawberries, and almonds.

I’ll definitely be recreating this combo at home.

We had originally planned to see a late showing of Neighbors 2 (has anyone seen it?) at 9:30, but when we went to buy our tickets, we found out that it was 9:30 AM. The only thing playing was Jungle Book, so instead, went to Target to pick up some essentials, including wine and tiny pajamas. #parentsgonewild

A fun highlight of the week was when Liv and I were invited to check out the ivivva store in UTC.

If you haven’t heard of it, ivivva is owned by lululemon and they make activewear for girls. I swooned over the catalogue when we received it in the mail over a year ago, and am so excited that Livi is old enough to wear it now. (The smallest they go is size 4, but many styles begin at size 6.) It’s everything you’d find in a lululemon, in brighter colors and smaller sizes. Each piece has a functional design for the girls’ sport of choice, whether it’s swim, gymnastics, dance, running, or tennis. A lot of the pieces were in UPF protective fabric, lightweight, wicking material, and all of the fun classic designs. It was SO CUTE to see Liv in the kids’ version of a Power Y and Run swiftly shorts.

Thank you again to ivivva for the fun visit and for Liv’s new gear; she loves it!

After our shopping trip, we grabbed lunch and rode the train. Not a bad afternoon girls’ date. 🙂

On a more personal note, a huge favorite for this week was finding a new pediatrician for P. I kind of mentioned this on the Family page, but we haven’t had a lot of luck with her peds. We saw a new pediatrician and he was kind, caring, knowledgeable, and genuinely wants to figure out what’s going on with her reflux and the choking incidents. He’s everything a doctor should be. We’re seeing an ENT, and are also getting some testing done. FINALLY. 

Always smiling:

Trader Joe’s, back at it again. I go crazy for the new crinkle cut butternut squash fries, and they came out with SWEET POTATO NOODLES. YASSSS. I lightly boiled them and then sautéed with olive oil, salt and pepper. Topped with turkey meatballs and marinara sauce, and they were fantastic. I’m excited to play with these a bit more!

Validation.

Anthony Bourdain, I like you a lot. 

I want to dance like this.

WILD FRIENDS nut butters! (I’ve partnered with them for the remainder of this post.) As we all know, I’m a huge fan of all things nut butter and have tried so many brands over the years. I was recently introduced to Wild Friends.

You guys. It is my new favorite, hands down. The texture is super smooth, and the flavors are delicious.

They also have Protein + nut butters, which are the Pilot’s favorite. They took their delicious flavors and added high-quality whey protein (non-GMO and hormone free). These nut butters have 50% more protein, which make it a great clean protein option with a dose of healthy fats.

The chocolate coconut peanut butter (it tastes like coconut Nutella) is my very fave, and Liv loves it too. It’s what she wanted for dessert last night! The jar is almost gone…. 

Oops. hahah. 

Some more info about Wild Friends:

Wild Friends was started by two peanut butter loving college roommates. They were looking for ways to spice up their favorite food, and Wild Friends was born. They are based out of Portland, Oregon.

All of the ingredients are things you can pronounce, without any additives or preservatives. They use organic and non-GMO options whenever possible, and are produced and packaged with the planet in mind.

You can check out their store locator here to find some near you! They’re located in many natural health food stores including Whole Foods and Sprout’s, TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Marshall’s, and now in select Target stores.

The Wild Friends nut butter fairly kindly offered to hook up two very lucky readers each with 2 jars and a pack of 10 single serve packets in the flavors of their choice. All you have to do is leave a comment below with something that’s making you happy this week. 🙂 I’ll announce the winner in Monday morning’s post!

Cheers to the weekend,

G