Pools out for the summer!

Happy Summer! The pool at our apartment complex opened yesterday, so we made a family event out of it and graced it with our presence. The great thing about our pool is it has a baby pool and a regular sized pool, there were only 2 other families there and they have a life guard on duty. I didn't know small pools likes this did that, but it seems to be the standard around here. We don't plan on having to utilize the skills of the life guard, but it is a nice thing to have around, no?
We plan on spending a lot of time at the pool. So instead of buying disposable swim diapers, I bought some reusable swim diapers. Here he is modeling one of them. I think they are so dang cute. So far I'm very pleased with them.

It is kind of nice to have an excuse to go swimming again. We all had a great time. Thankfully, we won't have to drag the camera along next time. No need to document the second time swimming.

Now for a PSA:
Do you guys remember these things - the swim tube trainer? Please don't buy them! When I was a life guard, I saw kids wearing these things and they would inevitably tip over when their parents weren't looking and get stuck with their legs above water and head below. Don't do it, they should be banned from the market. Worst idea ever.

The flavors of summer

Since we are city slickers, having a garden really isn't possible. I shed a few tears over this every year. But alas, we have a balcony so I decided to plant a few things. 1. Basil. I love basil and it is outrageously priced at the grocery store. 2. Tomatoes. What, tomatoes on a balcony, never! Yes it's true. My friend Cami told me she bought some balcony tomatoes at the store just the other day. They only grow to about 2-3 feet high, and the fruit is only a few inches. So, we are giving them a try. I was worried, because last weekend was the end of the world and I would be very upset if I didn't get to taste the fruits of my labors. Aren't we lucky that the world didn't end? Tomatoes will be here in July. Asher is a good little helper. Bad picture, but what kind of a face do you expect when you taste dirt? It did look like chocolate cake crumbs, easy to confuse.
Bring on the flavors of summer: blt's, panzanella, pizza, and caprese salad.

Too Quiet

You know there is trouble when it is quiet. Here are a few examples.
Cass sleeping in my bed. I'm surprised I didn't find him with his head on my pillow and the blankets pulled up, but it was a hot day so sprawling out in the open is much cooler. Naughty cat.
We tracked down the Lobster Roll truck after reading about it in Bon Appetit. It was delicious and over priced...and had a horrendous line. But we were too busy stuffing our faces with fresh Maine lobster to care. It was naughty...good naughty.

Does this need an explanation? I think not. Naughty boy.

Kung Fu Panda hat, the hat owned by all loyal fans of Pablo Sandoval. It has many uses, obviously more than just for baseball it can be used to scare people. Naughty Bill.We bought a season pass to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. Okay, so no one is particularly quiet or naughty. But you have to be quiet on the tour, or else you can get kicked out. And that is naughty.

But you can be loud when viewing the animals. The sheep sure were noisy. Naughty sheep. That's probably why they live outside.

Giants vs. Nationals. Giants lost, we were quiet. They didn't play quite as well as they did during the world series. But they are smoking hot now. Naughty Giants.

Happy Easter

Happy belated Easter. I'm not even going to apologize for posting this a week late. Sometimes, that is just the way it is. Easter was kind of a bust for Asher this year. I thought we would have a fun little egg hunt...it was a failure. See picture below. I put Asher in the grass with eggs right by him, visible even. He started to get up then he realized how much he hates grass.

See, he hates grass. He is trying to hold his legs up so that he doesn't touch anything. So we had a modified hunt. I held eggs up to him, and he found them.

Then we took a break in the swing and happiness ensued.

Asher enjoyed the bounty of the egg hunt from the safety of a park bench.And then got to ride on my shoulders back to the apartment. Maybe the traditional Easter egg hunt will go better next year. Hope you all had an awesome Easter, egg hunt aside, we did.

Washington Visit

While we were in Washington, we didn't do the usual touristy stuff. We stayed away from Powell's bookstore, we didn't go shopping, and we didn't go to the zoo. We had our own fun just hanging around the house as a family and enjoyed all the animals in the area. And there was a lot more animal interaction there than at any zoo I've been to.

Asher working hard on the farm.

We visited some neighbors who have 2 mini horses, cows, a deer, and breed Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

Cow

You can see 4 puppies in the fence, I think they had 7 there at the time. Click on the picture for a better look.

Jumping mini horses, this little horse was a fireball and showed us how it is done. I think my parents have a picture of me that is very similar to this horse - jumping with my long mane of hair flying behind me.

Bill's parents have bird feeders w/ seed and humming bird feeders in their backyard and the birds were plentiful.

Bill with his dog sister, Emma. They love each other. Emma loves to sit in the recliner on your lap, all 60 lbs of her.

One of the new cats at the Weaver farm. Chester was so patients with Asher and he loved to sleep on whoever was around.

Asher loved all the animals (and he clearly loves his dad- he is giving a big squeeze). Not pictured were the regular sized horses next door or the bunnies scampering around the yard, and though Emma made the blog, the other golden retriever, Cashew, didn't. Please forgive my negligence in picture taking during this trip.

Happy Birthday, Asher

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy, Asher. Can you believe he is one? I know I can't. We got to celebrate his birthday twice. Once with Bill's parents in Washington, and we had a little party here on his actual birthday with my sister and her family. And with two parties came two different desserts: a cupcake and a giant whoopie pie. Both were delicious and loved by Asher.

Here is the giant whoopie pie. It wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped it would be. It spread a lot while it was cooking, thus it is kind of blob like.

Check out these cowboy boots. Don't be jealous, they only make them in baby sizes.
All in all, he had a great birthday. He has made us one very happy little family.

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

This past weekend, I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler with my friend from our ward. It went better than I ever expected. I was a little concerned that my goal time was a little lofty for the type of training I had been doing for this race. We don't have access to a gym right now, and so quite a few runs were canceled due to the weather, or because I was sick (4 times within 6 months). Despite any of the setbacks, I was very pleased with the outcome of the run. It was a fun course which started at the Washington Monument, ran over the Memorial bridge to Arlington Cemetery, ran by the Watergate Hotel, back through the Tidal Basin and back to the Washington Monument. I even managed to run it 30 seconds faster than my goal time.
My running partner. We've signed up for the Baltimore marathon and half marathon. I'm the half, I'm over running marathons right now. Imagine that?
Asher did not have as much fun as I did. In fact, he was pretty miserable the whole time. Many cheerios were eaten to hold of the crying. It was a little chilly to be standing around.
I'm in the blue. Bill says I'm really good at running behind people just when he is trying to take a picture. Whatever. I wore my new Nike LunaRacers for this race, and despite have a great training run in them, I had monstrous blisters on my toes afterwords. Disappointing, but they look pretty sharp and fast.After the race, Bill and I saw this lady walking up the hill carrying her dog like a baby. It was pretty funny, no? The dog seemed to be enjoying the ride.A post race family shot. Washington Monument in the back ground and Asher crying, he had had enough.