Exploring D.C. on Date Night

DC Date Night started with District Taco for dinner and then adult milkshakes at Ted's Bulletin!  Already a great evening, right?

We headed over to The Capitol steps to enjoy The United States Army Blues and Jazz Ensemble play Swamp Romp!

The clouds rolling over the memorials and monuments were gorgeous!

The show was so much fun!  The night was beautiful, the music was spectacular, and we cannot wait to check out more of these concerts in the future!  There is a different armed forces band playing for free every night of the week during the summer!

Virginia Summer Begins

Well!  We arrived back to Virginia just in time to celebrate a very rainy 4th of July!  Fireworks were rained out, but we were really quite happy to just stay home and keep unwinding from our vacation!  LOL  

The brand-new mini-bats we got at the Slugger Museum made a great addition to our photo!

Red, white and blue dessert!

We had an awesome summer morning out in the yard with Eden over to play.  We hooked up the Slip 'n Slide for it's first go this summer, and they kids had such a fun time!

A little popsicle break!  Then we did held a toy/car wash.  While all of this fun playing was happening, I vacuumed all unwanted souvenirs from vacation out of the car, swept out, cleaned out and organized the garage and supervised the car washing.  I also convinced the kids it was a super fun idea to "paint" the porch with water, and they got it so much cleaner!  HA!

Well, summer is going to be a bit of a workout around here this summer... :/  The boys are living the saying of, "The days are long, but the years are short..."  They are up SO early, and the disagreements start just as early.  There will be a lot of breathing in and breathing out...  So, to celebrate surviving my first week of summer, we had a date night to go out kayaking!  It was lovely and the water felt so peaceful!

A morning visit to the Zoo, and we discovered a wonderful selection of temporary art pieces made completely out of trash taken out of bodies of water and beaches!

He's SO big...!!!

We always love a trip to the Zoo, but this one was a little bittersweet, because the Carrillos are our SECOND set of friends THIS SUMMER to leave us for Texas :(  It's a pretty great new adventure, though, and we are happy for them even though we'll miss having them close.

So well trained!!!

Cheesy photo op

The 4th of July is always a great start to summer tradition followed closely by FREE SLURPEE DAY on 7-11...

...and Cow Day at Chick fil a!!!

We had such a great time with our Super Cow costumes last year that we modified them just a smidge and used them again!

Those three faces are alarmingly cute... ;)

LOVE movie dates with this fella! 

Water beads keep us happy

Good friends take you to the beach and provide not only good conversation, but also friends to occupy your children and this view :)

My Birthday and Cinqo de Mayo

 Josh bought an inflatable kayak to try out while deciding how much kayaking he'd really do.  Luckily, he realized he would do a good amount of kayaking if he had his own before this one got a hole :(  It was not patchable, so...

 We bought a kayak while on my birthday date with Mom and Dad who arrived in town earlier in the day!!!

 Josh did a lot of research and found a great option to allow him to secure the kayak to the top of the Prius.  We love our ATP (All Terrain Prius)!

 After that adventurous outing, we had a delicious dinner at Coastal Flats followed by adult milkshakes at Ted's Bulletin.  Such a fun day with my favorite people :)

 Yesterday was a tad complicated...  I dropped Mimi off at Pattie to have lunch with Jackson, and right after picking her up from that, I headed over to preschool for Graham's Mother's Day Tea!

 The classes sang some adorable songs, and Graham just looked SO happy to be up there performing for me!

 Our Tea Time!

 There was a scramble at our table for the carrots, celery and dip!  LOL

 THEN, we picked up Mimi and went to Chick fil a for lunch :)

 To round out a really fun day, we decided to brave El Paso for dinner!  We knew it would be crazy, so we sent Mimi and Bampa ahead to put our name on the list and have a drink.  Surprisingly, the wait didn't end up being that long and Josh and I went over with the boys and we had a really fun and delicious dinner!

 Graham had just earned this new train, and it kept him busy during all of dinner!

 Cinqo de Mayo dinner!

Stories with Mimi :)