An evenin' at the park

She will not smile for the camera, ever. Not even for Nana and Papa.
Being terrorized by her brother.

What a stud.

Pouting again because Mom has the camera out.

It has been so HOT and HUMID here that going out to play is already becoming unbearable. So when Joseph gets home from work we eat as fast as we can and bolt over the the "Dinosaur" Park. They love being outside. But they love being with their Daddy more.

Welcome to the "late" twentys.

Yesterday was my 28th birthday. WOW. As my Mother and Father so kindly reminded me, I am getting old. I'm cool with it. I think of the 20's as an extension of your teens. You still have no idea who you really are, what you like, what you wanna do with yourself, etc. It's been a fun and wild ride but I'm cool with moving into a phase where I have hopefully figured out exactly where this ol' life of mine is headed. So anywho, Happy Birthday to me.

My hunny is pretty much amazing. I had a wonderful weekend full of surprises.

We went out to Ruth's Chris for dinner. It was delish and I definitely needed the extra cardio after the steak and cake. Before dinner I noticed that Joseph had placed a Banana Republic bag on top of our shelf in the bathroom. If you know me, then you will know I hate surprises. He sees me eyeing the bag and promptly tells me there is NOTHING in that bag for me. I giggled. So he drags the bag with him into the restaurant. I'm all "can't you leave it in the car, I'm not going to open presents during dinner". And he's all "yea right, of course you are". So he asks me to open the bag and then he busts out laughing because the bag was filled with some ol' nasty shirt and some of my old earrings. HA! Then he pulls out a little blue box. It contained this....


The next morning (Sunday, my actual birthday) I received breakfast in bed and the matching bracelet.

We had dinner with friends and two cakes, hence the reason I needed to hit the gym so badly today. It was a great day.
I also received some fabulous table linens and menu planners from one of my most awesome sister in laws. Thanks Amelia XOXOX

So now that I'm moving into my late 20's I need to get busy figuring it all out. I'll let you know when I do.

The Reston Zoo

This past weekend we went to the Reston Zoo. It's way more awesome than the National Zoo because you can actually walk around it. This time of year this area is bombarded with people so going to any of the museums or the zoo is totally out of the question. Just too many people. The Reston Zoo rocks b/c you can pet the animals, take a hayride, feed the animals, etc. Serious fun.

We saw lots of animals and reptiles. We fed goats, llamas, ducks, swans, geese, African cows, Emu's, etc. Pretty cool. We saw camels, buffalo, African cows with 3ft long horns, spider monkeys and many more but I have Mom brain and I cannot remember the names of the other things and you don't really care. Abbey and Jack loved the hayride. This huge baby cow with horns about 1.5ft long walked up to the tractor and ate our food while Abbey rubbed his head and touched his horns. Pretty cool. Jack clapped his hands and picked on this prissy girl sitting beside me.

Hanging with some spider monkeys

Feeding some goats.

Most disgusting thing I've ever seen.

Tired and wearing a girls hat.

That's attitude right there folks.

The Fair

The carnival came to town 2 weeks ago and of course it was hot as... well you know. It was 90 degrees at 10am. Lovely. We bought as few tickets as we could get away with. We rode a few rides, walked around to check out the carni's and I stuffed my face with every fried concoction I could find. Then we went home and napped. Bliss.

Whose kid are you??!!

Such a sweet face, then you get the tongue. Honestly whose kid are you?

Riding a carnival ride all by herself. Yes I had a temporary moment of insanity.

Budding artist?

Abbey loves to draw. She will often sit at the table and draw for an hour or so. The other morning while I was putting the dishes away she said "I'm going to draw a bug", I thought "O.K.??!" She called me over and this is what I saw. I half naked child with a "bug" on her scribble pad. Impressive.

Look at that body!

Look at that body! Look at that hair!! Well I had every intention of letting his hair grow long and wild but I couldn't handle it anymore. On Saturday night Joseph was buzzing his own head and I asked if he thought Jack would look silly with a buzzed head. Of course he replied "No, lets do it". I was scared but did it anyway. Now his little baby curls are all gone and he looks like such a big boy now. So sad. I still might grow is hair out but atleast the bottom won't have a 3in. headstart.

The BIG 2-7!

Last Monday Joseph celebrated his 27th birthday. He spent the day working hard for the money.That evening we hosted a birthday bash complete with Joseph's favorite food, pizza. We invited lots of friends and had lots of pizza, icecream and cake. It was great. There were 14 kids, so there was lots of fun to be had. And there were 14 adults so we had lots of great conversation while the critters played. So fun!!! Happy Birthday!!

Farewell

2 weeks ago we had a little party (i love to host parties) to say goodbye to some of our favorite friends. John and Ang packed it all up and drove out West to head back to LA. John is in the U.S. Coast Guard so it was time for him to be back by the water and on the boats. Obviously there aren't any boats or beaches to patrol here in the Nations Capitol. We are so happy that John will be back by the beach (so he can do some real surfing, I'll save the VA beach surfing story for another time) and have normal hours instead of working all night and trying to sleep during the day. I'm sad to see Angela go. I just love her and her girls. But now I have an excuse to make a trip to CA. I taught Ellie, Ang's 5yr old in Primary. I already miss her so much. She tried to teach Abbey how to share, I hope her next pupil listens better than Abigail. And Paige is just the cutest. Abbey and Paige would hold hands every Sunday and walk to Nursery. sooo cute. Abbey is so confused about where "ElliePaigey" (that's what she calls them) are, but she knows they live near Mickey Mouse's other house. She seems to be OK with that.

This is Paige. She loves cake.

This is John. He loves rootbeer.

This is Ellie. She loves cake too. And all things girly.

This is John and Angela. Angela is preg. with #3, another girl. bliss.

We love you guys. and miss you like crazy.