Happy Birthday Susi! You are old!
Let's start with the best group shot of the day. Okay so Lynn's the only one looking at the camera. But at least you can kinda see most of the kid's faces.
Unfortunately, we Fixes couldn't stay all day, but during the few hours we had together, we enjoyed building mini log cabins...
Rolling around in giant pancakes...
Being fierce knights...
Grocery shopping...
Painting...
Driving...
Reliving my childhood with a giant Lite Brite...
and pacifiering.
And of course, Rock loved being with Adeline most of all. He's a fool for love.
So have you heard about EarthBoxes? They are a really cool planting system that enables you to grow a ton of veggies in a small space. And considering our backyard is all concrete, we needed an option that allows you to grow plants without planting in the ground.
Did you know you could make your own 'earthbox' and save money? They are ugly, but they are awesome.
Did you know that we also have a really ugly wall in our backyard? With ugly utility boxes and trashcans, this section of our backyard has always been an eyesore.
Enter my hunky gardener. Remember him? He decided to a) make our own earthboxes and b) make a beautiful wooden structure to disguise the ugly homemade earthboxes and the ugly part of our yard. Here they are half-way done.
Once they were done, he added clematis and another climbing flowering vine (name escapes me!) to grow around the lattice and hide the trashcans.
He's so modest, he wouldn't even let his full identity be known. I refuse to reveal his name, but I will let you know that I am SO grateful for all his hard work cultivating our own mini-garden in the backyard. We plan on enjoying lots of basil, peppers, tomatoes, squash, etc. all Summer long!
Oh and in case you think the other side of the yard was neglected, it wasn't. That's where the majority of our herbs grow. I'm so glad I have a hunky gardener as I also have a black thumb.
Sometimes eating is exhausting. When we stepped away from the table the other day, Louisa passed out right into her peanut butter and honey sandwich.
Poor tired girl (with beautiful long lashes!).
Fix and his family pride themselves on finding the best in the bunch. In case you didn't know, you should THUMP the watermelons at the store and whichever one has the deepest, hollowest sound is the best of the bunch. Apparently this was the best in the bunch, so I guess the bunch was bad.
I will not reveal the name of the person who selected this gross watermelon. But I will reveal that my children ate a lot of it. They get their watermelon love from my husband. Apparently we need to work on refining their tastebuds.
Remember this little guy?
Now he's gotta little sister (who is about the same age as he was when he first started sporting that towel).
She really looks up to him.
And they have a lot of fun together.
Especially in their hooded towels.**
We were so honored to be asked to attend the wedding of Joanna Stough to Lee Whitesell.
Sorry Patty and Gina, Fix could only focus on one of us with this lens.
The service was lovely, and my favorite touch was the...
BAGPIPES! Rob Schonthaler played Amazing Grace while we all exited. So cool.
The reception took place at The 1840s Plaza Ballroom which was as cool as, if not cooler, than the beautiful church!
The fabulous wedding coordinator, Lynn, and her fabulous husband Patrick.
A rare (these days) picture of just the two of us! I was 11.5 weeks pregnant in this picture which is funny because I wore this same dress to a wedding when I was 11.5 weeks pregnant with Rock. Both times I felt like I was going to bust the seams open by the end of the night.
Joanna was a lovely bride...
But Fix was there for the cake.
While Fix was out of town for General Assembly, we did some craft projects. First, we made octopuses out of toilet paper rolls. Don't they look happy?
Until you realize that mine is missing a few legs.
We had fun being creative together, but we were most excited about making this. A banner to welcome Fix back home. You might have been able to read that it says "Welcome Home Daddy" if the little boy in this house wasn't so into black paint. We missed you Daddy!
It was fun to get out there, eat some yummy fair food, meet people in our community and share why we love our church.
Of course I spent more time making sure Rock and Lou didn't fall into Allen Pond than I did talking to strangers, but such is life these days. And major props to Rock for spotting both the Texas Roadhouse Armadillo and the Chick Fil-A cow -- multiple free meals in our future!
We spent the last day of Staycation in DC. As we neared our lunch location (Cosi), we saw a Krispy Kreme store with their "HOT NOW" sign lit. So of course, we got Krispy Kremes for our appetizer.
Unfortunately, Fix and Louisa can't eat KK's, so Rock and I had to 
Yum. Yum. Extra Yum.
But don't feel bad for them, Fix and Louisa got to eat yummy Cosi bread. We all enjoyed their salads and sandwiches.
Then it was off to the zoo to see the bears...
And the tigers (not pictured).
Sometimes these two heads look SO similar to me!
Notice there aren't a lot of live animal shots. That's because there weren't a lot of live animals around. Perhaps they opted for a VAcation instead of a STAYcation like us. But the kiddies enjoyed this fake panda as much as the real deal.
When we wandered over to turtles...
Louisa fell asleep grinning.
Then Rock got sleepy too.
And they both slept in the car while we drove over to Jason and Heather's house (and the new farmer's market around the block) for dinner to finish our vacation right. Staycation 2011 = SUCCESS.
