The end of June and the 1st of July, proved to be AMAZING weather for some outside fun. Lillie and I headed to Lincoln Park, two days in a row, to run around.

Well, not all running. Lillie doesn't look happy, but trust me - she found dropping sticks in the little holes, fascinating!!

Poses for Mommy!!


Lillie in action!

"Hi Mommy"

First there was some slEEp sliding, then some dropping of rocks and sticks in the holes of the playground equipment, back to slEEp sliding, then, of course, running. Notice the girl in the green shirt with the pigtails. That's Emma - Lillie's newest friend. She loved running with this girl and Emma was such a cute little thing. She put up with Lillie ALWAYS being the "leader". Then, while they ran, you'll see a girl in a white shirt. This is Piper - Lillie's second newest friend. The fun part is the fact that Lillie got to see Piper BOTH days we went to the park.

We also introduced Lillie to FIREFLIES!
She LOVES watching out for them. Now, every night before we go up to take a bath, Lillie says, "Mommy, wait, I have something to show you". Then, it's out to the kitchen to look through the windows for some light action. The video below, says it all. The quick blips of light are the little fireflies.
Enjoy!

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.