Beach Baby, Beach Baby, There on the Sand...

We had a super fun week last week starting with my birthday!  I love having a July birthday...summer is my favorite.  I take a lot of pride in the fact that I have never ever once had to work/go to school on my birthday...is that super cheesy or what?!  I didn't want any presents from Darrin and Lulu, my only request was that we go to the Atlantic coast for a weekend and do nothing.  Oh and a cake, of course I needed a cake and Darrin came through with top honors on that one!  Such a cute little cake perfect for our little family of 3 (although in my current state you might as well count me as 2 because I'm pretty sure I ate half the cake myself).

I managed to blow out every candle but one.  Lulu was a bit worried that we didn't have candles for the cake, but I found some buried deep in our spice cabinet.  The box was missing a few so the cake was actually 2 candles short...no problem I'm fine with pretending I'm 2 years younger.  Lulu is definitely her mother's daughter and goes for the frosting immediately....mmmm.

On Friday we hit the road for Chincoteague Island on the eastern coast of Virginia.  Lulu managed to fall asleep just after we picked Darrin up from work but was awake again before we even got out of D.C.  Traffic was notoriously bad and I believe we spent the better part of an hour getting out of the city.  And I thought we'd get a break leaving at two in the afternoon...no such luck.  I didn't pack much to keep Lulu entertained in the car, thinking she'd sleep a good bit.  Luckily, I had some stickers to keep her occupied for a while.  "Hey guys, I can't see you."  

After about 2 hours she started getting really restless so we found a K-mart just off an exit and bought a little magic coloring book with marker and some Dora stickers.  I really should have known something was up as quiet as she was being but I was suffering from pregnancy compounded motion sickness and didn't think much of the silence in the back seat.  She is quite the body artist...Darrin thought she looked like a little hippy princess...if only!

Finally we made it to the little island.  It only took us 5 hours to get there with all the stops we made and traffic.  Lulu had to make a beeline for the hotel pool where she promptly puked from being overly excited.  She bounced right back and we traveled over to Assateaque Island and enjoyed the beach until dark.  

Saturday morning we got around and planned to ride our bikes into the beach.  Of course it rained.  Of course it did!  What was I thinking with wanting to ride to the beach and stay for the day?!  We rode to the beach alright and then rode back to the hotel sopping wet.  As soon as we were back, it promptly quit raining.  Of course!  Jeesh can't a girl catch a break?!  We drove back out to the beach and enjoyed a long afternoon playing in the waves.  It was quite lovely since the sun wasn't beating down on us.  The air and water were both warm and that's all we cared.  I have been known to sit on the beach under a blanket.  It really doesn't get much better than that!

In the evening on Saturday we went for dinner and intended to just take a drive around the island hoping maybe, just maybe we might catch a glimpse of the wild ponies.  When we got to the beach, Lulu insisted that we get out for a walk...we really were not dressed for a night at the beach.  Darrin and I both had jeans on and Lulu was wearing a maxi dress.  But what the heck, you can't just sit in the car when there's a beach and ocean to be had.  We got a great family picture too!

Lulu runs straight to the water...she really wanted no part of the family snapshot.  I tried to tie her dress up so she wouldn't be soaked.  

Eventually I just gave up on trying to keep her dress tied up!  She's like the little Coppertone girl minus that cute little black dog.  This first picture is precious beyond words to me.  

 We left for home on Sunday.  We went back to the beach one last time for blue skies and tons of sun. It was hard to get Lulu and Darrin out of the waves to head home. I'm not sure why we didn't take any pictures then except that we were lost in the moment. 

  Lulu had to feed the horses at the hotel one last time before we could leave.  

Out with the OLD

In my last post, I sort of promised myself that I would try to keep up with this whole blog thing.  My intention was to do a little everyday so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed.  So much for that.  I'm not sure if you heard, but Armageddon hit D.C. over the weekend.  We went without power for 3 days and I was sure on the third day the zombie apocalypse was imminent.  It goes without saying that I was wrong again.  We got our power back on Monday around midnight.  I hear there are still people without power.  Boy do I feel bad for them b/c it was hot at the beginning of the week, but today was like Hades-land.  I'm not kidding you, it's a multiple shower sort of day.  It makes ABQ look cold.  So today for this little blog here I'm posting a bunch pictures of the past from March, April, and May.  And a couple pictures of Lulu's days in near-Armageddon. Then I'm done with the past and I'm on to only the present.  My slate is clean.

Lulu's first ever snowman...who knows when she'll get another chance.

Meeting a puppet at the Puppet Co. at Glen Echo Park.  

No better way to fall asleep than with a good book.

Tipping a street musician in Adams Morgan. 

This is from our road trip to MI.  Lulu is a mermaid...can't you tell?

Playing at Aunt Susie's with Mihren...supervised by GG.

My mom's side of the family.  

Is there anything cuter than babies taking a bath?

Lulu really loves Mihren...maybe a little too much.

Giddy up cowgirls.  

Feeding the birds with her Papa.

Little tiny girls at the Lincoln Memorial.  

Decorating eggs....let's just say our eggs won no prizes, but fun was had in the making.

Another great way to fall asleep.

The Kelly Crew comes for a visit.

Lulu, Rosie, and Penny at the White House.

Mount Vernon

Lulu and I hanging out on G. Washington's front porch.

The best part of Mt. Vernon?  Free range goats of course.

At the Air and Space Museum...best kids' room ever.

Lulu's first day of nursery school at FSI.  She only went for 8 weeks but it was a great experience.  I loved the center.  Lulu loved her teachers and classmates.

At Great Falls.

Lulu helps cut watermelon.  On average, I have been eating a watermelon every other day.  

This is how we spent our days without power.  Ghetto pool on the balcony.

A sprayground is another way to spend powerless days...Lulu rockin' her full on redneck look.

Holy Moly...I haven't blogged in 6 MONTHS!

When we moved to D.C. and I became a full-time stay at home mother, I really thought I'd do better at keeping up on our lives and documenting events.  As my mom always said, "Well, that's where thought got ya!"  So true...so true...sigh. Where do I even start?  I'm going to try really hard here to do a little everyday.  I will start with old events/pictures and end with newer stuff.

Most important life event: we are expecting a baby boy in November!!  How great is that?!  We are over the moon and Lulu is pretty excited about it too.  Just today she announced to our friends Shin and Solveig, "I'm a big sister!"  She melts my heart!

Other than that, life is pretty mundane these days, which is good.  I like mundane, I prefer mundane. We had a little hiccup with our leave date and will be staying here in D.C. suburbia until September instead of August as originally planned.  I've recently finished a two month Portuguese class in which I learned A LOT, and especially that I have A LOT more to learn.  I am hoping to be able to take an online course to fill the gap from now until we leave.

Checking out some art at the National Gallery.  This first set of pictures are from February.

Finally some art she can touch and we love the big K in the background.

At the cafe Jammin' Java in Vienna...Lulu loves her first 'rock' concert - Rocknoceros. 

We miss New Mexican food... the grub is good but the chile is not hot enough.  Boohoo.

Lulu loves New Mexican food as well...she likes the mild chile.

At 'The Building Museum.'

At the Lego exhibit at The Building Museum

Lego room.

Kids room at The Building Museum.

Now June pics.  Here is Lulu with her cousin Owen and of course Mr. Lincoln (oh and Duck too...lulu has gotten in the habit of taking something with her everywhere we go).

At Lincoln Memorial with some of Darrin's family.

D.C. at night is my favorite.  This is from the WWII monument...which is my favorite monument.

Lu at the WWII monument.

Lulu is 2 1/2 now and her character is enormous these days.

A balloon from the local Farmer's Market.

Hirshhorn Museum -blue room

Green Room

Red Room

Hirshhorn Museum is really great!

Where are you going Lulu?  Sao Paulo.  Duh...

Lulu wanted me to take her picture this morning.  When I showed her she told me  it wasn't her.  The girl in the picture has 'crazy hair'. 

We don't have much planned for the summer.  Hoping for a quick trip home to Michigan at the end of July and I'm going to plan at least a weekend trip to the Atlantic before the summer is over.  Other than that we will spend a lot of time at the pool - Lulu loves the water - and just hanging out being our summer-selves.