First

12.17.2011 Mamys House 12

We spent the afternoon with friends – catching up, eating lots of tasty food, and celebrating Leo’s first birthday. It was an awesome way to spend an afternoon!

Play Time

Playing

We got together with friends for a potluck of Thanksgiving leftovers, and the kids had a blast playing with all the toys….and each other.

10 Year Reunion

9.4.2011 Mikerisica Pale Ale

Jamie planned a dinner and some camping to celebrate Ryan’s birthday, and it happened to coincide with a visit from our friend (and Pete and Jamie’s former roommate) Mike who is living in Portland (Oregon) now…and the 10 year anniversary of Mike, Jamie, and Pete all moving in together for the first time!

We met up with them to catch up and relax, which included getting to enjoy a personally delivered selection of beers that Mike brewed. I’m not a beer drinker so I can’t personally attest, but rumor has it that Mike brews some seriously awesome beer. I’m pretty sure Pete is trying to work out how he can get Mike to brew him private batches of beer and ship them from Seattle.

Swishy SB

8.26.2011 SB Shabu

I guess I talk about Shabu a lot, because when SB came out to visit and I asked her what she wanted to do while she was in Boston Shabu was one of the few things on her list. Obvs we had to make it happen.

Molly, Burgers, and Baseball

8.19.2011-Molly_web

How cute is Molly? She was pretty excited about this awesome “retro” “vintage” “other trendy word that means old” phone toy. Molly has never laid eyes on a phone shaped like this – either the base or the handset – but she immediately knew it was a phone and how to hold it to her ear. How do kids know stuff like that?! This boggled our minds.

Pete and I flew to DC to celebrate visit Becky, Pat, and Molly (and celebrate Pete and Pat’s birthday a few days early!) as well as to celebrate Adele’s first birthday with her, meet our newest niece Jackie, visit the rest of the fam, and have photos shot as a 40th anniversary gift for my parents. Definitely not too much to cram into one weekend!

But let’s start at the beginning, which is visiting Becky, Pat, and Molly. I have this super awesome special talent that not many people know about it. I can book a trip to DC, call Pat or Becky to tell them I’m coming and see if they are around, and without fail one or more of their relatives will also be visiting DC that weekend. Apparently I have a strong connection with their families and need to see them constantly, so the universe sends us to visit DC at the same time. Now I don’t even wait for them to tell me that some family member will be in town, I just ask who it is that I also get to catch up with. Unfortunately this time, our timing wasn’t quite as perfect as usual and I missed catching up with one of Pat’s sisters and her adorable family by hours.
8.19.2011 Teds Wall
I digress. We spent our Friday hanging out in PJs, chatting and playing with Molly, and then walking over to Barracks Row to get lunch at Ted’s Bulletin. I spied a family opening a pastry box on the sidewalk out  front and then pulling out giant, homemade pop tarts…not appealing to me, but pretty sure it’s a sign that the place is going to be fun! Next clue: awesomely attired bartender. Followed by some really good looking art deco hanging lamps and decor. I’m pretty sure that the further I walked into the restaurant, the more I fell in love. L O V E.
8.19.2011 Teds BartenderThe menu didn’t hurt, either. I’ve been hankering for a good cheeseburger with an egg on top ever since I passed up the opportunity a few weeks back at a friend’s birthday party, and guess what Ted’s had on the menu? Yeah, a burger with an egg on top. Yes, please! I don’t think I’ve made a menu-related decision that easily in months. The egg didn’t have as runny a yolk as I would have liked, but it was still a very tasty burger that I’m sure I’ll eat again. What can I say? When I find something I like, I stick with it. My next visit is going to include one of the adult milkshakes that I didn’t try this time, too.
After lunch it was nap time for Molly and me, and then we were off to see the Nationals/Phillies game…where they played two outs of baseball and then ended up in a two hour rain delay before we even made it to our seats. Seriously, why play those two outs? Couldn’t they have announced a delayed start before we got to the stadium so that we could have stayed home and not paid $8/beverage for two hours?? Oh well…we managed to stay almost entirely dry…and maybe we had a little fun, too.
8.19.2011 Nats Delay SP