Moo Thru

The Moo Thru is a cute little ice cream place that we pass when we come home from the lake but until last week had never stopped to try. After seeing that it was up against our favorite local place, The Dairy Godmother, in a Northern VA "frozen treats" competition we decided it was about time we try it. Let me start by saying the Moo Thru has their own cows. They sell their own milk. And of course, their ice cream is homemade from the milk of those dairy cows. We noticed that people were eating in their cars rather than on the benches and soon figured out that it is because you can SMELL those cows when the wind blows. Ah, well, small price to pay for what turned out to be AMAZING ice cream! It'll definitely be our new stop on the way home from the lake!

Own the Night like the Fourth of July

My parents and brother were never huge into fireworks and then I married a man who felt just as underwhelmed. But I'm still spoiled. When my dad lived in DC, we sat on his roof deck to watch the fireworks. When we moved to VA, we walked down to the Iwo Jima memorial and picnicked. Once, when my family didn't want to do our normal walk down there, I huffed and puffed about the fact the fact that they were going to sit and watch the fireworks on TV when we have some of the best fireworks in the country and could go out and see them in person. My dad kindly drove a little ways and stopped in the middle of the road to see them (all traffic that can actually see the show comes to a stand-still and people get out of their cars). Another time when I couldn't convince them to go with me, I walked about five minutes from the house until I got a good view and stood there with some neighbors who had the same idea.

This year was similar. I convinced Jason at the last second to drive until we could see them. Slowly more and more people showed up at our spot - they had the same idea. Just keep driving until you get a good view! It only took us five minutes to find this view. I'm thankful to be so close to the city so that I can convince my less-than-excited family to go with me at the very last second. We were at the lake last year so great to see them in DC this year too. These were COOL fireworks - it's always a great show on the mall, but I was pretty impressed this year!

Someday I WILL go down to the mall.
Neither of us are huge crowd people and most say once is enough, but...

it's ridiculous that both of us have grown up here and have never done it.

Maybe next year?

*Yes, I continued with the Katy Perry themed titling. I have no shame.

Baby, You're a Firework

Well, our adorable little niece is definitely the star of the show.

She's a little firework in our lives and we love having her and her mom & papa around.
There was a big crowd down at the lake this weekend and we all had so much fun
floating in the lake, playing games, eating lots of food, watching fireworks...

Happy 4th of July!

*Title courtesy of my new obsession with Katy Perry seeing her in concert. I swear I haven't been listening to her music non-stop since then or trying to convince Jason to get pit tickets to see her live again while we're on vacation so we can be THIS CLOSE to her... That certainly doesn't sound like something I'd do...  No way...
You just gotta igniiiite the liiiight and leeeet it shiiiine, just ooown the niiiight like the fourth of July!