What Else We've Been Up To

We actually spend a lot of time shopping lately. It's super fun. It is making up for basically not buying any kind of house stuff for the last five years. But when we're not doing that, and we're not at the gym, we:

Play Wii Dance A LOT. Carly is getting really good at it.

 

And we go to parks...although I'm not going to do that stupid rating system any more because 1) nobody cares, 2) I remember anyway. THIS one, however, you should avoid. The address said Cherry Hill but that is a lie. Cooper River park is in Camden. There are projects across the street and a river right next to it...which make a pretty view, but hi, the fence is an old farm-style wooden post fence. Not exactly safe. The whole place looks like the beginning of a scary movie - we were there for a play group and stayed maybe 10 minutes. Don't go there. Plus it is way too hot outside. =)

 

The big girls started piano. I bribe them with M&Ms to practice and they get baked apple chips after we do flashcards. Maybe that is totally the wrong thing but it works, so we're going with it.

Did I mention how it's hot? We pulled out the slippy slide one day.

Then Paul and I went on a date! I read somewhere that you should trade off planning dates and then plan what you think the other person would want to do, but that has never resulted in me getting to do this even though I've left brochures, open web browsers, sent emails, and flat-out said "I want to go indoor rock climbing this weekend" so I just said this is what we're doing, and we did, and it was GREAT. I can't wait to go back!

Last week we went to the beach three times. Atlantic City twice and Cape May once. I never could figure out why it was such a big deal for people to go to the beach here, but then I realized it's because you have to pay for parking and then unless you're in AC, you have to pay for beach tags. And parking is super far from the beach, even though we do use the bathroom in the cool casinos, and there are fun places to visit along the boardwalk. Anyway, it's a big undertaking - not quite the same thing as throwing a few towels and Gatorades in a wagon and walking half a mile to the Carolina shore.

 

 

 

 

We went to Cape May with friends we met in Quantico. They have separated from the Marine Corps, too, and were near Cape May visiting family. There is one boy and the dad missing from this set of photos. We had a wonderful time with them - this little girl is one of my favorites of Carly's friends. SUCH a sweet kid.

Lovely - Saturday we went to a BBQ for some friends of ours who are just back from 5 years of embassy duty in South America...and this is the only photo I took of the party....the roast pig head sans eyeballs.

Electric run with my sister and her friend on Saturday night! SO FUN! They cut it short right as we were finishing because there was some lightning so every one of the 15k people who were signed up for that night get to go to another Electric Run FOR FREE! Wahoo!!!

 

The next morning, my sister was trying to entertain Katie with some sweet disco moves, but Katie was really confused. I missed most of the performance because I was packing a cooler full of frozen dinners and cookies for Katherine - sequestration really screwed her income situation and although I know she's FINE, I still worry, and when I worry I have to feed someone, preferably the person about whom I am concerned. 

 

About an hour after Katherine and Ashley left, our friends (BBQ people) came to visit. Unfortunately, Carly and Bree were having a monstrous day and I'm horribly embarrassed about how they acted. The one upside of that disastrous playdate was that Katie adorably discovered that she can find her hands behind her back, too, and spent a while walking around like this.

 

And finally, Paul with his technologies. That would be his work ipad, work laptop and Blackberry (replaced by work iphone) all at once, linking and syncing and whatevering. He's one connected dude. He's also in Wisconsin this week for some training and we are totally jealous because it's about twenty degrees cooler there than it has been here. Lucky!