Father's Day

Our little family spent Sunday afternoon visiting a few of Washington D.C.'s monument. It was a spontaneous trip, but turned out to be a great afternoon (that required a lot walking). I am grateful to honor all the fathers who have sacrificed for our country...and Maren and I are especially blessed to have our dad.

Washington Monument

Lincoln MemorialKorean War Veterans Memorial
National World War II Memorial

June Gardening

I am excited to report on our not-so-little-anymore garden. Besides the two cucumber plants the birds ate and the peppers I killed with my "natural" aphid repellant (the aphids never came back...so it kind of worked) everything is healthy. My third tomato is turning red as I write this, and I made a salad the other day with produce only from the garden! My husband, the inventor, came up with a watering system so I don't have to make 20 trips to the kitchen sink each day. Chris and I are both a little surprised at how much we enjoy this new hobby.

National Zoo

Tuesday, we spent a (very long and exhausting) day at the National Zoo. I wanted to take the Metro to see if I could figure it out on my own and I discovered something...it is so much less trouble to just drive, especially when you have a two-year-old. I took the Metro once with Chris last year and somehow I forgot. It took twice as long to get downtown. The zoo is a lot of walking around in hot, humid weather and at the end of the day I just wanted to sit down and cry at the thought of having to walk to the metro station and ride the train (which includes a transfer) and then drive home. But enough complaining...

On the bright side, we got to see some great animals. Three elephants, a panda, ten lions, a tiger, and as Maren will tell you, "A monkey eating lettuce" (an orangutan). I even caved and bought her an $8 stuffed penguin (mostly out of guilt for dragging her around all day.) She named it Pingu.


Look closely and you'll see a turtle.

Hurray for misters!


Following the elephant footprints...

VA Beach

We spent a beautiful weekend at Virginia Beach with Chris's sister's family (who are great beach buddies). We had a hotel room overlooking the ocean and perfect weather. Maren has been anticipating this trip for weeks now and it was fun to see her reaction to the ocean. The first thing she did was run into the water and fall on her face. Wishing the beach was a little closer...can't wait to visit again.

Easter

Our Easter celebration started off with an Egg Hunt at Maren's cousin's. The cold weather didn't keep us from having a great time. The Easter Bunny also stopped by our house to deliver some sweets. I wanted to get a really cute picture of Maren in her new dress, but Happy Maren doesn't come out until Sunday afternoon. (I still think she looks pretty cute.)

Port Discovery

This week we adventured to Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore with cousins. It would have been the perfect little museum for Maren, but (as I discovered partway through the morning) Maren was feeling a little under the weather. She spent half the time crying or lying her head on my shoulder. We still managed to have a few fun moments.
Serving up delicious meals at Tiny's Diner.
Experimenting with music and big bubbles at Wonder of Water.
Sandbox in Tot Trails, which Maren tried to climb into several times. She wanted to "sit on my bum."

Great Falls

Maren and I were invited to visit Great Falls Park with my sister-in-law and her family yesterday. Great Falls is a waterfall on the Potomac river adjacent to the C&O Canal. You can visit from Maryland or Virigina. There are hiking trails and camp sites but the waters are high - record levels right now - so many of the trails and overlooks were closed. This is us visiting the Maryland side in Potomac.

Hoping to get a better view, we drove to the Virginia side.