Lunch Date

With school out, we thought it would be neat to drive up to meet John by his work and have lunch with him. So we packed five lunches and drove to Arlington.

On a Friday.

And warm too.

I know...I'm craaaaaaazy!

Northern Virginia isn't a fun area to drive through. Especially on a Friday!!!!!!

After an hour on the freeway, we got there just in time to go to a nearby park and eat lunch with what seemed like everyone else on the city block. Cute park though! I was sort of hoping to take Andrew's photos here too. But luck would have it that it was way too crowded and Andrew wouldn't hold still for anything. I did try and I did get a bit frustrated and discouraged in the end. It just wasn't the best timing. We bagged the whole picture thing for the day and just enjoyed our time together.

{"Here's a rock, mama!"}

{This one is one of my favorites with all of them on the art sculpture.}

Cold Stone was a hop and a skip across from the park. So after we ate our lunches, John treated us to some ice cream before he had to head back to work. Mmmm.

We kissed him good-bye and started to leave when my phone rang. It was John. "Give me 10-15 minutes and I will be right out." It was a little after one and his boss was giving him the rest of the day off. Yay! :) He saw no sense in his family being up there and leaving and him having to stay - and then ride the 1 1/2 hour slow train ride home. It was nice spending more time with him. Even if it DID take us 3 hours in Northern Virginia traffic to get back home! :(

Friday's may just be out of the question for our lunch dates from here on out. It was worth it though this time - seeing my kids have fun eating lunch with their daddy. Something during the week they never get to do!

Family Night At The Park

...and a continuation of celebrating Father's Day. The backyard project has taken a lot of weekend work away from the family and Father's Day was no exception. Especially since we have one more week to get the gravel and sand piles out of the parking lot before a potential violation from the HOA. Not really potential...it WILL happen if we don't move fast and get it done! So needless to say, John didn't get to spend much time with the kids on Father's Day. :(

So a thought came to me that we should surprise him tonight and go to the park with a picnic dinner for Family Night. I had John meet us after he got off the train and we drove to Alum Spring. Come to find out, this park has a lot of interesting facts - one of which is that George Washington surveyed the land here for his brother-in-law, Fielding Lewis of Kenmore. In the past few months, I've heard of this local park unbeknownst to us so I thought it would be fun to check it out. Besides the pesky mosquitos and all of us melting in humidity, we had an awesome evening! The humidity is unfortunately something we're starting to get used to. Otherwise, we'd never be happy outside of our home. Luckily though, summer time seems to be the only season we have to majorly adjust to. The park had a lot of picnic area, shade, a bridge over the springs and a huge playground. It ended up getting late and approaching the park's closing time when the kids were done eating and playing, so we skipped the hiking trail but hope to go back there soon to check it out. Such a fun evening and a great way to spend the first day of SUMMER as a family!

Mini-Photo Shoot

So Andrew is turning 18 months on the 19th of this month. I had hopes that I could get his photos taken but luck would have it that our backyard projects took all of the reserved funds to do so - which left me with the attempt to take them myself. And one of my dear friends may help me as well!

To gear up for the event, I took the kids to the community playground by our house and had a little fun with the camera so I could practice for the big day. For the most part, it went pretty well. Besides the sun setting and shining in our faces (I now have a UV lens which should help with that) and the big swarm of wasps I found near the slide. Hence why a lot of them are taken near the swing set! :) Please don't be shy to tell me what you think! I need all the pointers and suggestions I can get! Here are some of my practice takes (including my dear daughters - I just couldn't leave them out!):