Hi friends!
Feels like Monday, but it’s Tuesday! I hope those of you here in the U.S. had a nice long weekend as we honored those who have given their lives for our country.
The weather was quite nice here in the DC area so we made sure to get out and about a lot! One of the highlights was a family adventure at Huntley Meadows Park, which is one of our local faves.
It took us FOREVER to get out of the house for this adventure and by the time we finally left we were all feeling pretty irritated, but thankfully the woods were a nice reset and everyone had a great time once we were there.
I did manage to forget Wes’s sun hat and his shoes, though, womp womp. Thankfully a good portion of the walk is shaded so his head didn’t end up getting burned! There are just too many things to remember when leaving the house with multiple kids…
By the way – can you believe he will be 1 year old tomorrow?! How time flies.
Wes is still on the two nap situation so any family adventures usually happen right after lunch vs. in the morning.
The upside was that by the time we got there it wasn’t too crowded since a lot of people had probably already come and gone!
It was looking really beautiful and green out there, and we saw lots of cool stuff – snakes, turtles, frogs, and fish. Riese was super into it.
My mom got us a new travel stroller (per my request after doing a lot of research – also fyi that’s an amazon affiliate link) for Wes’s birthday, and we tested it out while we were out there. Highly recommend!
It handles like a dream, the wheels did great on the trails, and it folds down nice and small – much smaller than the old umbrella stroller we had when Riese was this age.
It will be awesome to have this to keep in the car for adventures, and also for any trips we take involving an airplane since it’s small enough to carry on!
Other highlights from the weekend included a trip to the farmer’s market on Saturday morning – I popped out for a yoga class while Wes was napping and went to the farmer’s market after since it’s right by the yoga studio.
Loved seeing all the colorful summer produce! I kept it simple and got some mini cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, and microgreens.
The microgreens are delicious on top of eggs, in sandwiches, added to salads, etc!
We had some on top of a homemade frittata (mushrooms, bacon, and peppers) with a side salad for an early lunch before our hike.
Saturday evening we didn’t feel like cooking so we walked the kids over to Evening Star Cafe.
Matt and I shared the heirloom tomato salad to start, which had capers and olives and was super delicious:
And then I had the burger and fries, plus some bites of salmon that we got for Wes.
Sunday’s big highlight was a run date with Kathleen and Sarah, my college friends.
I’m excited to say that running is starting to feel a lot more comfortable again, even despite hotter temps! I got in a run with a friend on Monday morning as well just around our neighborhood and I’m loving getting out there more often again.
On Sunday, the ladies and I ran on the Mt. Vernon Trail. Always a fave.
Love those views of the city across the river!
We made a bathroom and water pit stop at Columbia Island Marina. Beautiful there, too! There’s a bar and grill here that I want to try out sometime – seems fun and kid friendly!
4 miles – check!
On Monday, we hosted a Memorial Day BBQ – Matt invited some friends over last minute on a whim and to our surprise, everyone was available! It ended up being a lot of fun and it was great to see some friends we hadn’t seen in quite awhile.
Between all of us we had a 4.5 year old, a 2ish year old, two almost 1 year olds, and a 3.5 month old. The kids all did really well – especially Riese who was very sweet with all the little kids.
This time last year we were in a phase where it was hard for us to have other kids over because Riese would act out a lot, but we seem to hopefully be past that which is amazing. (knock on wood…)
Matt fired up the grill and made burgers, dogs, and some chicken and veggie kabobs, and our friends brought pasta salad, a quinoa salad, and some mozzarella and tomato with basil!
My plate! Everything was quite yummy.
One last highlight from the weekend is that I started a new book that I’m SUPER into. Isn’t that the best, when reading feels like a delightful escape?
After reading and loving The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I decided to try one of the other books from that author and started A Darker Shade of Magic, which is the first book in a trilogy of hers. I already know I’ll be reading the whole trilogy! (FYI, those are amazon affiliate links)
It’s a fantasy/magic type book and she has created a fascinating, intricate world. I already can’t wait to read more of it before bed tonight!
What did you do this weekend?
What’s the best book you read recently? I have more fiction recommendations in this post, if you’re interested!
