The July Life

Another exciting life in Mere land. 

I sometimes ride the bus home and this ride in particular had some excitement...

On a Sunday, Whit and I had lunch in Old Town and my favorite Thai place. Then we went on a quest to find bubble tea in Crystal City. It was a fun afternoon with my friend.

Pup Pup being so patient while I was eating...

A former coworker was in town so we all met up for drinks after work. All but 2 of the people in the photo use to work together and then we all left for other opportunities.

Left side of the photo: Martha, Tara, Me and Mike

Right side of the photo: Rupert, Lyndsey, Gina and Jenn

My precious baby.

At work I am work closely with the interns. One of the events we did had our mascot attending. I had to get the mascot attire the day before and the day of the event I kept feeling like something was staring at me..

Karla and Brent were in DC with family, but  I was able to meet up with them for a couple of the Smithsonian's and the White House. After walking about 7 miles we had dinner at Matchbox in Chinatown and went our separate ways. It was wonderful to spend a few hours with Idaho peeps!

The property management company likes to host different food trucks. Most of the time it's this grill cheese truck that I can easily say no to, but one day they had my favorite - brick oven pizza. It was okay, nothing I would have again - but it was nice to pick it up and go straight home to eat it.

Hailey turned 8 and Eli turned 3 in July - they are growing up so fast!

So much rain in July - so much so that we had a few emergency broadcast sent to our phones. 

 Bumblebee got his first bath in 3 years. Yeah, I have been a super bad car mommy. It rains a lot here, and until recently bumblebee has been outside to get his baths, but now that he spends most of his time in a garage I noticed how dirty he actually was - poor guys. Plus earlier in the week we had surgery and got new shoes and boots and bushings and control arms and fluids flushed and oils changed - so he deserved a little TLC. Plus I need my bumblebee for a few more years. And let's not talk about my unhealthy relationship with my car - everyone is connected to their car - right?!?!

 And that is pretty much what happened in July.
August will start chill but at the end of August I will be off to Ireland for a week - that will be a lot of fun. I also recently bought tickets to go home at the end of October. I think that fall will be busy.

Pool Party in the 'burbs

Remember 3 years ago when I moved to DC I said I wasn't going to make friends. Thanks to my first job in DC I have made some amazing friends. Since I have left my first job, I have stayed in contact with my friends and right now I have a pretty nice pool area. So, I decided it would be fun to host a party in the 'burbs! Plus I was able to back cupcakes with homemade vanilla frosting for my friend Martha's kid, Liam's 9th birthday.

My type of friend in DC - blond, skinny and their first name start with the letter "M" - Martha, Melissa and Monika.

Martha's sons Eamon and Liam having fun in the water.

It just so happened that the property management company had free snow cones for us! Snow cones are perfect for a pool party!

Oh my, we had so much food - from hamburgers, hot dogs and BBQ chicken to fruit and chips to chocolate covered strawberries, brownies and cupcakes to adult beverages including jello shots. It was all so good! So, thankful for Mike so was the grill master!

After we ate we went back to the pool! 

The adorable Ashton and Monika. Ashton also takes sunscreen super serious.

Melissa and the adorableness of Tristan and Ashton.

The Kim's - Jenn and I live only 2.3 miles apart and we just found that out!

My Idaho friends! Rich and Monika.

Rich and I were playing catch in the pool - while you can't see me - you can see that perfect throw - I'm amazing! :)

Kathy and has the most adorable kids!

So very thankful for my friends!

It was such a fun day and I am so glad I was happy to host my first party!

Fireworks!

As I mentioned in my previous post and several times over the last 2.5 years I have been disappointed in the fireworks in DC. This year it was going to rain, so I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going to the National Mall. However, as the 4th progressed I noticed that the chance of rain was getting slimmer and slimmer. So around 5, I texted Tuf and said, you want to go to the mall to see the fireworks? She said yes! So, I left Martha's, drove home to grab Tuf. We parked at her work in Friendship Heights and metroed down to the mall. We arrived abut 30 minutes before the fireworks were set to go off and we found the perfect spot - looking right at Lincoln. This was going to be amazing!

There was a countdown and BAM the fireworks started! I may have squealed like a little girl. I really love fireworks.

It was AMAZING! I am so glad that we decided last minute to go. Perfect. I will remember this DC experience for ever. DC can do amazing fireworks - you just have to be in the right spot and have no rain.