Hot! Hot! Hot!
This past week Lillie has been slightly rough for Lillie. First, Mommy's foot had some trouble, then the weather showed us what summer was REALLY like!! For almost a whole week, the temperatures here have been around 95-98 degrees. With humidity, it felt like 101!!! That definitely made us stay inside with the air condition.

So, for most of the week, this is what Lillie looked like.
It's a good thing Nana and Papa gave Lillie this DVD player for Christmas!! Not to mention a whole set of new movies last week!!! Lillie decided to invite her two friends, Yumi and Ling, to watch some movies with her.

The weather let up just a tad today...it was only 90 degrees! Lillie and I decided to take a drive to see the temple. There's also a church bookstore near the temple, so we went to see if there was anything fun for Lillie. After the bookstore we headed to the Washington D.C. temple. After living in D.C. for almost 11 years, I still can't get over how absolutely beautiful the D.C. temple is.

Trying to get the temple AND Lillie in the same shot proved to be harder than I thought.

Okay, so the sun was really bright and I couldn't exactly see what kind of pictures I was taking. Or at least that's the excuse I'm using!!

So, I remember my mom and dad always calling the family and eventually, somewhere in the conversation, they would talk about what everyone was eating. Well, I always thought that was a little funny and a last resort for having nothing else to talk about. Well, I admit, I've resorted to blogging about our dinner!!! I guess I have a whole new outlook having to eat with a toddler. I'll warn you now, the first part really is about our dinner and it's just me, but wait for the ending!!

McLean Carnival Day!!
Today we went to McLean, Virginia to see what their Carnival Day was like. Although we passed them the first time, Lillie was excited to dress up like a princess and take pictures with Cinderella and her friend.

After walking around a bit, we found some GREAT kiddie rides and were excited for Lillie to experience all of them!!

Who knew Lillie would be opposed to MOST of them!

Mini ferris wheel...NO DEAL!

Mini carousel...NOPE!

Major swinging boat thing...DEFINITELY NOT!!!

Folks, we have a WINNER!! The ball room!

Lillie had to warm up to the idea. Can you tell?!?!

Trying to figure out how to relax

Crawling to the exit (against her will) without any casualties. Check out the boy next to her.

After a great time at the carnival, Keola decided to open his own Japanese restaurant! ha ha Actually, without the pictures to prove it, Keola made some YUMMY tempura - shrimp, eggplant, onion, and bell pepper. Did I say it was YUMMY!! Because of the tastiness, I was embarrassed to take a picture of the spread - so no one would know how much we ACTUALLY ate! ha ha Anyway, this is what was left after the FEAST!

Now, like I said, I don't have a picture of everything Keola made, but here is someone's plate after we finished. Any guesses as to who's plate it is?? Now take a good look - that's right, there are EIGHT shrimp tails!

Hee, HEE!! YUMMY!!

I know you all think we doctored the picture and there's no way Lillie ate all of this...but BELIEVE it!!

Last sip to drink it all down!!

Yesterday, Lillie and I visited the National Arboretum. I enjoyed seeing the beautiful flowers, trees, and landscape. Lillie loved the fish, flowers, and running. Here are some pictures from our field trip.

Sorry so bright...the backlight on the camera was on and I didn't notice until we left this area. Pretty flowers and cool sunglasses.

Next, was the Koi pond. Lillie loved looking at the fish, but she loved running around with the 3 kids that were there. Views of the fishes are in the video at the bottom.

"MOM! Can I just run?!?"We found a little circular section of the herb garden. Lillie favored the gravel filled path. Here are some pics as she made her way around the pathway.

As you can see, Lillie collected a few rocks on the way.

More pebbles for the collection

Ok, I have to admit...beautiful scenery, perfect day - how could I resist making Lillie pose for pictures. Professional photographer I am not (although secretly I wish I were!!), but the subject was patient and photogenic!

"I'm DONE!"

"The hills are alive..."

Sweet and carefree!

Right before we left, I noticed tucked away in the corner...Lily of the Valley

Again, how could I resist - Lillie in a grove of Lilies of the Valley.
Say cheese!

Over here, Lillie. Look at the camera.

Smile at the camera, Sweet Pea!

There's my big girl!

Flower Mart
Today we spent the morning at the National Cathedral. Every year the Cathedral holds a Flower Mart with lots of crafts, kiddie games and rides, and GREAT food booths!!

Here's the beautiful National Cathedral

Lillie, bustin' a move!

A pretty warm day = drink break

Can't get much cuter than this!

Kiddie games that included a cake walk, duck "hunting", and throwing a ping pong ball in a fishbowl - bad aim, no fish, so sad : (

They also had some rides - a carousel, a bouncy slide, a moon bounce. Lately, Lillie has had a thing about unsteady footing (you'll see in a later post of her on the playground bridge). So eventhough Lillie LOVES to jump, the minute Keola put her on the poofy moon bounce, she freaked!! I have to say, part of it was probably due to the fact that nap time was looming. She has gone in a moon bounce before, but the previous ones were quite a bit smaller.

Fun day, but we're ready to go home.

Warm Weather = Park!!
The weather has been a bit wishy washy. So, when we heard a warm day was coming, we headed to Garfield Park. Lillie is so smart, she can name at least 4 parks around our house. Anyway, Garfield Park is right across the street from Aunty Dale (Keola's aunty whom we lived with when we first got married) and is the "playground" for the Capitol Hill Day school also across the street. While we were there, the kids from the school had recess. Lillie soon found a few friends.
This little girl really took a liking to Lillie as she helped her up this bridge.

This is actually an area to play horseshoes, but Lillie decided it was better to run short relays.

Here's a quick smile for the camera as she took a breather.

Short video of Lillie with her new "friends".


This is just a random shot of Lillie helping in daddy in the backyard. If she looks little worried, it's because daddy just started up the weed whacker. SCARY!!!

Train ride anyone???

For Christmas, Keola gave me a book outlining all the fun things to do in the metro area. I decided to look up some things Lillie and I could visit. As Keola looked at some of the places I highlighted, he wanted to go too. So, off we went to a park that had a small train ride, a carousel, and, of course, a playground. The ride was a little less than I expected, but Lillie had fun nonethe less. Here's a little clip of our trip and train ride.

If you notice, Lillie is NOT on a horse. We tried everything to get her to ride on one of the horses, but she had a slight fit and only settled for the little bench.

We decided to cut Lillie's hair on Saturday and then we decided to curl it at the bottom. We think she looked really cute, what do you think?