School's Out!!!

Last week  furthered the streak of phenomenal weather we've had for most of the year. Mark finished his last final on Monday of last week, and it's been a lot of non-stop fun since then. (Writing note: sorry for all the "last"s. I couldn't come up with a good synonym!) Jackson couldn't be happier to have his favorite buddy with him, and I have to second that happiness.

We've been making plans like crazy and doing sporadic things around this amazing city the whole week. Most of this in attempt to enjoy 70-80 degree weather with fewer bugs and lower humidity than July will offer, plus my ankles aren't swelling yet. We should take advantage of that also!

The iphone is a nice way to capture these little extravaganzas, but boy it makes our noses look huge!

We took a pleasant walk over to the big house during a lunch time picnic near Mark's office. We bucket listed going inside for a must-do summer activity this year. (Anyone have connections??)

We arrived right as a school bus of 100 high school students happened upon the premises. Jackson was a bit overwhelmed by the commotion. I think he was more amused by the rocks he found along the way than the house or the tourists.

 
Saturday was Truck day at the library, which meant we would certainly be in attendance (with every other toddler, stroller and pregnant family in arlington).

Jackson is currently in a continuous state of rattling off every moving vehicle he knows of. "Twactah (tractor), amboonce, fiah twuck, semee twuck, gahbage twuck, mocycoh (motorcycle), bus, and cah!" encompass most of the common recitations.

 

Though the fire truck and ambulance were out and about helping people, he was not disappointed with the leftover county trucks. Since the lines were long we only managed to go inside the less popular ones, like this blue utility truck (Mark was pretty sure it was a giant crane--I had NO clue what it was).

 Jackson enjoyed himself all the same.

 We even managed a quick Sunday drive to the Carillon bells--for the best view of the city! (Check out the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, and the capitol all in a straight line in front of us). The bells [a thank you gift from the Netherlands] play at the top of the hour, so we went thinking we'd get to enjoy a fun little concert. Played turned out to be more like sounded at the top of the hour--saying what time it was. We'll have to go back for a real concert!

We're looking forward to plenty more sporadic and planned outings this summer. Two parents and one toddler who exclaims "WOAH!" every time he sees a rock means we must take advantage of our surroundings!