Life lately.

I look around my house, and I see scattered strawberries and watermelon bits on the table where a certain two-year old got sticky fingers...cookies that need to be baked...laundry to be done...toys scattered everywhere...sand bucket and shovel on the ground waiting to be taken to the sandbox...a new doughnut cookbook begging to be used...windows open letting the fresh warm air into this little flat.

It is summer. Everything in my life just lazes along right now, like summer does. I'll get to the messes later. I'll clean sticky fingers tonight. We'll take that bucket and shovel and strawberries straight to the park and enjoy these warm, sunny days that have finally graced us.

And I've got some serious doughnut-making to do. I'm trying to find my soul-doughnut. It's important to have that kind of stuff figured out.

Today I was laying down next to Henry before his nap and I said Henry is the best. He looked at me and said Mama is the best. And we laughed and my heart fluttered with happiness.

June, is that you?

Hello from Camp Will-it-ever-get-warm-here AKA Camp Whines-about-the-weather-too-much.

I knew what I was signing up for when we moved to London, I did. But my body won't get on board with it. I'm waiting for the clouds to part, the sun to shine, the heat to tell us "get thee to the pool", but instead it gently nudges. Hey, girl, slip on that cardigan and mosy on over to the wading pool where it will be icy cold, but hey - your toddler doesn't really care. So that's how we found ourselves in the Hampstead wading pool this morning, Henry stripped down to just a diaper, running gleefully around in 65 degree weather wading his little piggies in cold water.

Was he happy about it? Yes, he was. Since Henry is Mark's child, and I merely carried him for 9 months, birthed him, and raised him to the current stage of his toddlerhood, Henry prefers to be in cooler weather with clouds. I'm sure of it. Mostly because every time we step out into the sun, I get this grimacy face. (see it?)

So, we are just carrying on. Keeping the sweaters out, donning our trousers instead of shorts and summer dresses, and telling myself - hey, maybe I'll never sweat again. I'll live a life of comfortable weather with no need to go to the pool or eat a drippy popsicle or any of those dull summer tricks. I'll never feel that blast of cool AC walking into a building from the humid 100 degree DC streets.

In the meantime every day of sun we have, we spend it all outside. Last Saturday we went to the Princess Diana memorial playground - Henry asked to go again today ("playground with sand? big ship?"). It was a beautiful day and when we came home, I tried to wipe the specks dirt off Henry's nose, and realized it wasn't dirt, it was a few brand new freckles! I died!

Weekend

This weekend we finally met Henry's little cousin, Iris! She loved Henry and Henry was...interested, but he's mostly interested in trucks and balls these days. I was checking her little chubby arms and legs to look for similarities between her and baby Henry...but all it did was make me want to squeeze her little legs and have another baby immediately. Oh, the baby fever is a real thing.

Henry started swimming lessons (his second year) at Eastern Market. Which means we get to spend all our Saturdays at Eastern market for the next month...which really means...crepes. I love the crepe man. My special is egg, bacon, spinach, tomato, and chive cheddar. 

Sunday, we celebrated fathers day a week later (Mark was in Tokyo), by leaving church early, taking a family nap, and eating dinner at Wildfire - the restaurant where Mark and I had our wedding luncheon. That place holds some great memories!

And onto Monday - the June heatwave is upon us. I head to Hershey, PA this week for a short meeting, then our family is home for a few weeks. Time to enjoy this summer that is just passing us by.

Maybe summer isn't so bad after all...

I've always been a fall/winter girl. I'm guessing it's because I grew up in the DC area, where hot, dripping humid summers are the norm and I always feel like I can't breathe in that heat. But! I think Henry is changing me into a summer lover! He loves to be outside, and I love to go on neighborhood walks with him and play on the playground, watching his confidence grow on the slide and climbing everywhere. Henry is a very careful and cautious little baby, and to see him learn and grow brings me so much pride. I just love him so, and I can't believe he is running around and talking so much! We've already taken him on his first beach trip of the summer, signed him up for swimming lessons, gone to the pool, and he hangs out in this little backyard pool nearly every day thanks to his awesome nanny (and isn't his friend so cute?! They are super besties). Summer, you are becoming my season of adventures and carefree exploring!

summer depression.

A friend and I were talking about summer the other day. My friend absolutely adores summer, all hundred-and-eleventy-billion degrees of it. But last week, she admitted to me that this summer she has grown to hate it. She cannot wait for the Fall, her previously least favorite season. I'd like to think that I rubbed off on her a little since Fall is my favorite season and I've always tried to sing its praises to her. Or maybe, just maybe, this summer has made everyone HATE summer. How can a person like a season that forces them to the indoors and they don't even get to experience the long late hours of the day without swatting away mosquitos and seeing their baby grow ever more red-faced and their husband ever more sweat-faced? It's disgusting.

Anyway, I've decided that I have summer related depression. Since returning from Oregon, I'm just tired of staying inside in the stale AC air. I feel trapped and bored and I want to have an evening al fresco picnic without choking on the humidity for once in my summer-life. I'm feeling terribly in need of leaving this swamp of a DC. So. Working on that.

fleeting summer.

now that summer is almost over, i guess it's finally time to enjoy it right? this past weekend was one of the first we were both back in town, so we set out to soak up the last remaining hot sticky weekends.

sure, there was mostly cleaning and purging of unneeded furniture, and trips to fill up the house with baby stuff, but oh! those summer nights!

we had dinner al fresco with friends in arlington on friday and enjoyed the perfect summer night weather, complete with peaches and homemade ice cream. saturday we had friends over to make panini's and play music, not to mention talk all things baby. it's so nice having friends who can give some sound advice on being first time parents.

i still have so much on my list to do before summer is over. our last summer as just the two of us is filled with mixed emotion, but with all the little kicks and movements i feel from this little acrobat baby, i can't wait for it to be the three of us next summer.

summer + the pool.

i love the pool! especially when it has fun flags and a view of the washington monument. thanks to mayor fenty for sprucing up this pool and making it a fun (and free) community space.

summer + pregnant people.

i made this cherry pie for a dinner of pregnant people this weekend. i have 2 friends who are also semi-newlyweds and we're all pregnant, due within 3 weeks of each other. it is so funny and interesting to get together with these couples and hear about their pregnancies - the similarities and the stark differences (where are my cravings?), but mostly it's just really cool to be a in a room where all the woman have babies growing inside of them. because let's be honest, where does that ever happen??

this weekend was so fun. lots of friend/family summer time. even a trip to the pool, just like i had hoped. life is good and i love my husband quite so.

have a hot weekend.

it's hot.
it's really hot.
in between family gatherings tomorrow, i'd like to go to the pool.

TH's parents are coming for breakfast (crumpets, homemade strawberry jam, yogurt, strawberries and peaches), then we're meeting my mama for dinner to celebrate her 59th!

there's time for a pool visit in between the two, right?

repeat summer.

remember last summer how we were out of town the entire time? well guess who's doing it again?? gosh, the rest of this month is toast, and we are both out of town the last half of July, then a couple more trips for me in august. it makes me sad, it almost feels like summer is already over and it's just beginning. boo hoo.

here are a few things i want to do this summer anyway. you know, those 4 days i'm home:
1. make and eat a pavlova.
2. go on a hike.
3. swim.
4. eat slurpees.
5. kayak/canoe in the potomac.
6. ditch work to go museum-ing and movie-matinee'-ing.
7. go to the beach.

strawberries.

i've been eating strawberries all week like they're going out of style. i made 8 things of jam, 1 strawberry cake, 1 strawberry shortcake, and have eaten an undefined amount of strawberries off the stem. i'm a pretty happy girl.

we bought a FLAT of strawberries, which is like 16 pints, last weekend at the Delaplane strawberry festival. our house has had the fragrant smell of strawberries for the past week and it's been pure heaven. SIXTEEN PINTS of strawberries is a lot.

last night i made these biscuits, sliced some strawberries, and piled vanilla ice cream and whipped cream high on top. oh gosh, i don't think i've ever enjoyed food so much. (have i told you how thankful i am to be able to eat pretty much anything i want again? those 8 weeks of nausea were miserable.)

i love eating in the summer. next up: peach season!!

(image found here)

85 and sunny.

yesterday was like something out of a dream.

i had to leave work early to scope out a hotel for a meeting i am planning, and i hopped in my mini at 4pm. the sun was shining, it was 85 degrees, and i drove down the road with the windows down and the radio up.

and this song came on and it was like a trip down memory lane.


then i stopped by mcdonalds and got an ice cream cone and EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD WAS PERFECT.

panic.

the cooler weather this past weekend put a smile on my face. i was loving the cooler night air (we even slept with our windows open one night!), wearing a cardigan without "glistening", and no overbearing humidity to ruin being outside.

but then i hit the panic button. for a fleeting moment, i thought that summer might be over and all the heat was squeezed into june and july, most of which i was not even here to really complain about. i haven't enjoyed summer yet! i've been so busy avoiding the heat and humidity, i haven't had time to soak it in. so the lesson learned is that maybe i don't hate summer like i thought i did, and also that i should spend all free time riding my bike, laying around on the grass, and visiting the pool with friends. because, after all, isn't that was summers are for?

however, i am now in full boot-shopping mode. i will enjoy the summer, but i'm a fall girl at heart.

weekend of dreams, II.

wow, what a perfect weekend. they don't make them much better, i think.

friday: shopping in chinatown and caught the 10:30 Inception (we liked).
saturday: lazy morning, pancakes, walk to air and space museum to check out new exhibit, cokes at burrito brothers, first visit to our awesome community pool (views of the washington monument! classic!), then tried out some banh mi in falls church, and finally to darci's going away party. bye bye darci dear, i already miss your adorable face.
sunday: church, nap, planning meals for the week, dinner with TH's family, home to read and relax, early bedtime.

i feel unbelievably refreshed.

and in case you missed it, yes - we found a free pool just minutes from our house and its awesome! planes flying overhead, looking straight at the big pencil, and easy to get to on a bike. i know what i'm doing with the rest of my summer in dc. hip hip hooray.

san francisco, what a treat.

mushrooms at ferry building.biking to the golden gate bridge.before crossing the bridge. hello windy day.

sausalito. you gorgeous little town, you.a house in berkeley. those flowers nearly made me cry.

and can't forgot all the cool SF houses and details.

i thought san francisco was an interesting mix of new york, chicago, and the rocky mountains (those hilly streets! ack!) friday, i had breakfast at the ferry market building, then i rented a bike and biked the embarcadero to the golden gate bridge and down to sausalito. a great way to see so much of the city and enjoy the cool summer weather. i got a nice sunglasses burn, and i look awesome now. after the bike ride, i went straight to chinatown to check out the crazy shops and felt completely lost and overwhelmed! one hour is not long enough to even put a dent in chinatown! i went back to my hotel after that and rested for 20 minutes, then took off to walk around a ton - through the mission district over to haight-ashbury (through the duboce triangle - loved it!), and then took a cab to golden gate park to visit the de young museum (up the observation tower with amazing views of the city!). and ended the day with a movie - the kids are all right. and that was all in one day!!

back in town, and just loving dc. i don't even care how hot it is, it's just nice to be home, walking around my neighborhood again, dreaming up fun things to do to enjoy the rest of the summer. i really do love living in dc and so excited to hang out with friends. play time!

weekend of dreams.

hey good thing i had the best weekend of life because now i can stick it in my back pocket to remember how great things are while i'm away for the rest of the month.

friday: Breathless at AFI. even if i cannot be in paris, i can pretend via jean seberg and her amazing hair. i've wanted to see this movie for forever and was so excited to see it coming to AFI for a week! get there this week if you can. they're showing it in the big big theatre. yay.

saturday: brunch at jimmy t's. blueberry waffles for me and eggs, bacon, and grits for TH. then off to a family reunion in maryland - hung out with moms family and introduced mark and relaxed in the maryland countryside. so beautiful up there. we came home and just laid around the house some more, then walked to pick up a late night pizza at matchbox.

sunday: this is what made the weekend the best. church, and we taught the 4 and 5 year olds for naomi and man they are hilarious. some great lines direct from the kids:
q - do you know what this is a picture of?
a - yeah, that's jesus wearing flipflops.

q - who is the most obedient of all? (answer supposed to be jesus)
a - ME! (shouted by a really rambunctious 3 year old)

q - what do you see in this picture?
a - (8 year old kid) a hobo!
a - some other girl - awww, that's a bad word.
a - (8 yr old kid) - hobo's not a bad word. we got one on our block!

and that really is just scratching the surface. i applaud the primary teachers - those kids are quite a handful, but so full of love and earnestness, it's hard not to totally just love them right away.

after church, we walked to the national's game. i got free tickets from my boss in the VERY FRONT ROW behind the dugout. what?! it was really ridiculously hot and sunny, but so fun. you could see the players mouthing curse words and spitting out their chaw (gross). we had so much fun.
after the game, we decided to take out our bikes for a tour de dc. this is a lesson i continue to learn - bikes + summer = FUN! we rode everywhere, including down by the waterfront, across the mall to the hirschhorn, and to eastern market for milkshakes from Teds Bulletin.

basically, the most summery summer weekend of 2010.

hot hot heat.

no sneaky hotel pools this weekend, but i did visit my sisters community pool yesterday and it was a DELIGHT. i just wish i could stay in the pool today and tomorrow with temperatures forecasted in the triple digits today and tomorrow. blech.

this weekend went by quickly!

friday: visited TH's parents, had some dessert and picked up my new bike!

saturday: morning housework, temple, then a quick trip to the mall (awesome sale at jcrew right now - i found jeans originally priced at $158 for $17! what a bargain. for dinner we picked up some general tso's at sunflower in vienna, va, and watched Bird, a biopic about charlie parker. really good movie, we couldn't turn it off even though it was 1am and i was beat!

sunday: church, relax at home, TH put my bike together (its so pretty!), then we walked down to the folklife festival at the mall with our new neighbs, hannah and robbie. i didn't take any pictures at all because it was so hot all i wanted to do pretty much was cry. but then we found shade, bought some lemonade, and talked about museum, religion, and movies and other pop culture importance. then 4th of july on the mall - we sat right under the fireworks and they looked all 3d like they were popping out at us! i loved it. always good memories on the mall. dan kirk was there and we reminisced about the time we all went down to dc as teenagers and made each other pass out because that was the mormon way of getting high. haha. how ridiculous. after fireworks, we just walked the quick 20 minute walk home and collapsed.

monday: slept in, made egg sandwiches and strawberry smoothies, then i left TH to go to THE POOL! with my sisters and bro-in law and dad. oh yeah lizzie was there, of course, stealing the show as always. after THE POOL! we went back to jenny's house and ate pizza hut and chocolate covered peanuts and i thought to myself how much i love my family. we love to just sit around and eat bad foods on holiday weekends, and that is awesome.

today i want to cry it is so hot. but instead, i will work, then take my bike to get oiled up and ready to ride, make crumpets, then eat dinner with friends!

how was your weekend, friends?

a baseball game.

although strasburg hadn't started pitching yet, we still had a fun time at the nats game. who was playing? oh...um...hmm...well, i went for the food and friends to enjoy a hot summer night - the best part of baseball.

and now, the many faces of the nationals stadium. these pictures have made me laugh for weeks. i love these people.

miss annie graymr. husband

lil' kim

hot steph

and richie, the birthday boy.

we finished this night with subs at taylors deli - the perfect late night spot.

chop goes the scissors. gnomie goes pixie.

let's revisit the metamorphosis of gnomies hair in 2010.

january 2010.
march 2010.

april 2010.

may 2010.
june 2010.

i feel brave. i feel so nice. having short hair makes ponytails look funny on other people. "why don't they just cut it off?", i think to myself. i still have some learning to do on styling, but for now i'm just loving the feel of the breeze blowing on my bare neck and the small dime sized shampoo i use. hello new summer haircut.

i am a survivor.

22 miles, 5 mountain summits, 2 nights camping, and gallons of water later...i am alive!!

the 10K was cake compared to this. we hiked the devils path in the catskills, which many believe to be the toughest hike in the east coast. i believe them. the ascents were all extremely and relentlessly steep with parts that felt more like rock climbing. the descents were the same, prompting many to call one particular mountain "suicide mountain". we hiked down it in the dark with headlamps only! (we are all crazy.) 6 mountains in total, you summit 5 of them as part of the hike. my quads and knees feel like jello.

TH's friends, owen and anna invited us on this trip to prep us for our hike next weekend in Washington state. i'm so thankful they did because i feel like i could pretty much do anything now! my body once again totally surprised me as i was able to conquer all those mountains without breaking down to cry. it was really hard, don't get me wrong, but i was capable of hiking it. i just didn't think i could do it. yay me. it also helped to be with friends in the woods, starting a rousing fire, scaring ourselves with bear attacks, having so much fun with the doggy, Ciara (what a trooper she was!), and breathing the fresh mountain air. in the end - a great retreat to the mountains. it was so beautiful.

on the 7 hour drive home, we drove through princeton, nj to visit TH's old stomping grounds to eat pizza and ice cream (reward food, obvs) and we got absolutely poured on in a freak rain storm. my tired legs could barely muster up strength to run to the car. they felt like someone elses legs! even this morning, i'm just waiting for the dull soreness to leave my body please. you know, so in another 8 days i can murder my legs again.

TH and i turned in early, around 10pm. as soon as we pulled back the covers and slipped into the fluffy bed, we were OUT. arrgh so nice! and i felt happy to have used my body so bravely and boldly over the weekend. finally, a good reason to REALLY sleep, rather then "i had a tough day at work". haha. another reason i am in the wrong line of work.

how was your weekend? did you enjoy the welcome of almost summer?