USMC Evening Parade

So, last night we went up to the Marine Barracks at 8th & I in Washington DC to see the Evening Parade. We actually chose to drive up and take the free shuttle over from the parking area, rather than take the metro. Why not, its free other than gas. We got there relatively easily, the directions they provided were great. We had to be in our seats fairly early, so we sat there for a little while, and then the sky decided to open up and it poured. We finally decided to run for cover when we started to hear thunder. They have covered areas that people could wait in, so we took cover there and waited for a while.

Isabella had fun enjoying a banana with Aunt Linda while we waited for the rain to stop. I'm not sure if you can tell how wet Ken is or not, but he was the most soaked of all of us.


The rain eventually stopped and we returned to our seats. And this was a great sunset we got while we waited for the parade to start.



Isabella watching the band. She's wearing a t-shirt of Linda's that was dry. It was basically a dress on her, but it was dry. (Sorry about the finger on the lens)


This is about the only good shot I got of the parade. As you can see, it was dark and the lighting wasn't the greatest for pictures. This is the USMC Band.

A few improvements....

So we're slowly changing some things around the house. We debated on replacing our couches, but chose to just get couch covers for right now. They don't look half bad either, even though they still need a little smoothing.



One of the reasons that we chose not to replace the couches right now is because we're afraid our laptop is going to die any minute. So we chose to replace that instead. Its very nice and so much faster than our old one. It came today so I'm quite excited about it. And it has a built in card reader so I don't have to dig out the cables for the digital camera all the time. It also has a built in web-cam so no more finding the camera and hooking that up when I need either. So nice to have everything built in.

Gardening

So Ken decided that he needed to do something with our flower beds since we ripped out the bushes that were in them. Through the spring, we had just had some hanging pots on a few shepherd's hooks. Well, Isabella decided to "help." Here's some pictures for you.











And here's the finished result until the plants really take root and spread a little. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I have to say, I'm pretty keen on the black mulch.



On a side note, Isabella has started to get into trouble a little playing with things on top of the piano. One of the things that she likes to play with is this "castle." Its really a small Nativity sculpture.


But then again, she thinks this is a castle too.


And don't ask me why, but she decided this evening while Ken went out with the missionaries that it would be a good idea to eat a red crayon. Crazy child!

Mike's Graduation

So this past Saturday was Ken's nephews graduation. Most of the high schools around here hold their graduation at George Mason University's Patriot Center (Basketball arena/events center). Isabella had fun. She liked that the main hallway was a big place to run. Then she was a little miss gigglebox with her cousin, Katlyn. But at least she was well behaved, for the most part. She wasn't fussing or crying, so that was good. Of course, Mike's last name starts with "W" so we had to wait until the very end to see Mike cross the podium. Here's a few pictures from afterwards (thanks Teresa).

Ken kept trying to see if Isabella would cooperate for a picture with Mike. As you can see, she wasn't too happy about that.


But she eventually decided to get a closer look at the new graduate.


And here's a pretty good picture of Ken and Isabella, despite the fact Ken looks confused. I'm not sure who he was talking to.


Congratulations Mike! Good luck at college in the fall.

Swimming

So we finally got Isabella's pool set up on our deck. Yes I said our deck. We rearranged our deck furniture so that there's more room for her to play out there anyways. But now a good chunk of that space is taken up with her inflatable pool. We set it up Monday night. She thought it was pretty cool, even before we put the water in.

Here she is standing in the pool while we were filling it up. Yes, her hair is wet, however, she'd just had a bath so it wasn't wet from the pool. She did end up with no shirt on because she was sitting on the seat in the pool and lost her balance. She didn't seem to mind that the water was freezing that evening. Luckily, our deck gets a lot of sun most of the day so it warmed up quickly the next day.



Here she is running out to the pool in her snazzy new swimsuit. Notice the swim shirt. We're all so stinkin' pale, its that much less skin we have to cover with sunscreen.



Hanging out in the pool with Daddy.

Isabella "singing"

So we finally got some video of Isabella "singing." Well, really she just does the motions while we sing. Its pretty funny. She kept wanting to watch herself on the video camera, so we had to hook it up to the TV so she could watch herself while we were taping. She thought that was pretty funny. I just sat next to the video camera and the TV so I didn't have to be in the shot. But here's some funny videos.

"Book of Mormon Stories"



"Itsy Bitsy Spider"



"Wheels on the Bus"



"If You're Happy and You Know It"

Strawberry jam

The jam is all done. So after everything, I have 7 quarts of whole strawberries in the freezer, 8-8oz jars of cooked jelly, and 6-16oz and 1-8oz jars of freezer jam. Not too shabby considering a number of strawberries did not make it. They were so ripe that by the time I could do anything with them, they were too soft and mushy.

I have to say, I'm sure my mother laughs every time she hears about us canning/preserving anything. She did a lot of it when we were kids and I think we all helped at times. I'm not saying we always helped willingly, which is why she's probably laughing at us now. I love you Mom for teaching us how to do all this "old fashioned" home making stuff.

Strawberry picking continued

Here's the rest of the pictures from Berry Picking. Enjoy!

Strawberries!

So we went strawberry picking today. It was quite fun. We were very lucky with the weather. It was about 80 degrees, gorgeous, and we even had a nice breeze. It was fun. Isabella had a ball. We think she probably ate a pound and a half of strawberries while we were picking. She had fun watching the tractors too. Linda picked just over 11 pounds of strawberries. Ken and I (and maybe a bit from Isabella) picked almost 22 pounds worth. I'll be spending the next few days hulling & freezing whole strawberries and making some jam too. Here's a few pictures from our day.


Sitting on Aunt Linda's lap on the hayride to the strawberry fields.


Taking a break with preggo mommy. Can you tell what I've been doing by the stains on my shirt?


Sitting all by myself on the hayride back to the parking area.