Just a Week

Believe it or not, sometimes we just have a week. A normal week, where we go to work and fight traffic and squeeze in workouts and trips to the dry cleaner and rejoice when Mom stops by the office with a calzone on a long day (and then get home so late we find ourselves eating it straight off the pan with our hands while we mumble unintelligible stories about our days.) And don't travel anywhere.

I had dinner-and-a-pedicure night with Steph, and gorged myself on mac & cheese that definitely made the top ten list at Evening Star in Del Ray. I also discovered the silver lining in the ridiculous saga of the monthlong pool overhaul (caused by a tiny, alleged shard of glass that may have been in the distant vicinity of the water) at Belvoir: the interim invitation to swim at the super sweet Officers' Club pool-with-a-view. Which looks like this:

My office also did the Army Birthday Run at Fort Myer, an incredible annual event that marks the only time all year running is allowed on the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. This year saw 2000 Soldiers in the formation run, and will no doubt have been the highlight of my DC military experience.

Seth has been putting in a ton of range time in preparation for the President's 100, and he shot his first bullseye pistol match this weekend. (I do not have any pictures of this, of course, because Baby Nieman opted out of a trip to the range, and men apparently refuse to take selfies.) Friday night we celebrated surviving the work week over pizza and sangria, and in a rare treat were joined by the Ballesteroses and the soon-to-be-Syvertsons, who were both in town for the weekend. We had a great time getting caught up, and felt kind of like normal people out on the town for happy hour. (Even if I observed more than once that mineral water doesn't make one nearly as happy.)

The rest of our weekend consisted of a rainy Saturday (which prompted us to finally order furniture for the nursery and gave us a bye on long-overdue lawnmowing), a leisurely bike ride along the canal, and an awesome belated Father's Day barbecue at Mom & Dad's. (After years and years of living oceans away from any of my fabulous family, I still feel like pinching myself when I realize we can just invite ourselves over for dinner on Sunday!) I can't believe I didn't take a picture of Mom's blueberry pie. It was epic.

Instead, the photo of the week is Baby Nieman's already-overflowing hamper! I have a feeling that this is a warning of many, many loads of laundry in our future, and that our thinking it's cute is going to be short-lived.