The Duffel Bag

Natalie had a sleepover at a friends house (and we had a date-night - Yay!!!). Now, Natalie packs like a real girl - meaning that for a one night sleepover we had to make sure we dug out one of our bigger duffel bags... I wonder where she gets that from...

Anyway, the bag was pretty big, so we were joking that it was big enough that she could fit inside it. Of course, that had to be tested:

Yep, she fits!

And she's much prettier than all the stuff that was supposed to go in there!

Fireworks

Well, I guess I'm a little late with my Independence Day post... Oh, well, at least it is still July!

We had such a great day. We spent the day at some of our friends, and Natalie had a blast running around in the yard playing with new and interesting toys.

After we put Natalie to bed, we sat on our deck and watched the firework show that our almost-neighbor (across the field) put on: Oooh...

Ahhhh...


Wow!

Happy Independence day!

SSR

Last week, I was the very fortunate winner of the use of this car for a week: At my work, we can nominate our colleagues for this honor - people that go above and beyond, people that are seen as "leaders". Well, apparently someone nominated me, and I won! This is only given out once a year at my location, so it's a pretty big deal.

And it is a convertible!

This picture is from the award ceremony at work.

We were very lucky in that I won it on a week where Karsten and I were on vacation. So while Natalie was in daycare, we cruised the countryside! It was such a great time, and it was a wonderful way to get to spend some time together.

Natalie also got a chance to sit in the car with me, and she got to push the button that made "the roof go away", which she really liked:

And then she told us: "I want to drive the car. I need the keys!"

What did you do on your day off?

Karsten and I had taken Thursday and Friday off. We had our own little "Mini-vacation". So what did we do on our day off? Well, we went to Fleetfarm, and then we took a long nap... Doesn't that sound romantic? Well, the truth is, it actually was really romantic. Natalie has been having some tough nights (she's doing better now, knock on wood), so we were pretty tired. And a day of doing nothing was just what we needed.

Of course, we did other things too. After we dropped Natalie off at daycare, we went out for breakfast. And Natalie was still on our mind while we were at Fleetfarm, which was probably why we bought her these cute little rainboots.

The forecast says it might rain tomorrow, so we'll probably go looking for puddles...

Anyway, we did go home and got some sleep. Then we picked Natalie up early, so that we could spend some time together before we went out that evening. We left her with a sitter, so we could go out for dinner and go to a show with the Blue Man Group - which was totally awesome, by the way.

So yes, we did spend our time off napping, and yes, we had a great time!