Summer Solstice and Father's Day

I like to record Summer Solstice every year, it's the longest day of sunlight and it's summer, two things worth celebrating right? This year it was also Father's Day, so my first two pictures are of Tripp and Brad.  Tripp was photographed feeding Dubya at midnight and Brad was still asleep a few hours later.  For those that don't know who Tripp is I jokingly refer to him as 'the guy that lives in our basement', but in real life he's the manager of the Potomac Nationals, the single A affiliate of the Washington Nationals in Woodbridge.  He stays with us during the season and it allows his family to come and go and visit when they can.  It's fun for us and we enjoy going to P-Nats games and seeing the younger next generation of major league players.  Dubya loves it when Tripp is around since he feeds him goldfish.  Two fun dad's to start the summer solstice documentation for 2015. 





Of course once everyone is up it's all about the posing , unless your Dubya then he sneaks onto the bed for a few minutes of extra comfy shut eye.





McB was up early and having finished her breakfast decided she and Brad should try a new piece of fruit she'd found at the newly opened Wegmans.  This particular fruit was called a Kiwano Melon and with great trepidation they both tried it.  I just took pictures but was told it tasted a little like banana.  Here is a good description of what it was; Its fruit has horn-like spines, hence the name "horned melon". Ripe fruit has yellow-orange skin and lime green, jelly-like flesh with a tart taste, and texture similar to a cucumber. C. metuliferus is native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is now grown in California, Mississippi, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. 

 After the trying of something new, we moved onto the practicing of the piano.  We decided to keep playing through the summer and keep up with lessons.  At least that's what I thought 'we' wanted, but as you can see from her super happy look practicing piano wasn't exactly in her plans for this sunny laid back Sunday.  That said she powered through and allowed me to take one picture.  We found a used piano this year and it's been great except it needs tuning so finally this week I'm getting it tuned. 




I have to admit that one of my very favorite 'holidays' is my birthday, for those that know me know I celebrate it all month long.  You can just imagine my jealousy over my good friend Vanessa's June 21 birthday! All those extra daylight hours to celebrate! Luckily she gets it documented now almost every year.  Here we are at the pool where, as you can see below, so many of our friends were on the same day enjoying the sun, warmth and easy laid back feeling that always hits you when you walk into Springboard Pool. 

Here I  am going down the slide.  It's still just as fun in your forties as it is when you're ten!  To the right are our 'triathlete' friends, they tend to workout more than us all look really good in swim suits.  But then again, they workout A LOT to do those events!

 Then we have McB and Nicco enjoying one of the many drumsticks they will have this summer from the Cuda Shack.  Between these ice cream treats and ice pops these two help keep the Cuda Shack in business.  





Everyone enjoyed Father's Day at Springboard this year.   Brad was happy, he'd been in the pool with the other dad's and then he'd taken a little nap in the chair.  McB shared a bit of her ice cream with him, very generous of her.

Then low and behold the unimaginable happened! Marcia GOT IN THE POOL!! This was a rare site and it's worth noting that as soon as she was in, Brad was up with the camera to get a shot.   This only happened because a bee was flying around her and wouldn't go away but we all celebrated and joined in for the picture!





Here are a few more fun pictures from our afternoon at Springboard pool, Sarah, who is the assistant manager this year, as well as an intern coach and super fast swimmer.  She is awesome and always has a smile and a great attitude.  Sarah is part of what makes our pool so great. 

Here is my friend, Tiffany and our fantastically talented Barracuda swim coach Kellee, hanging out in the pool and getting a few minutes of adult time away from the kids.  Like all the mom's at the pool on Sunday we wanted our kids to enjoy their dad's and get some good quality father child time in. 

 


Another BFF and smart mom who brought kids and husband to the pool for Father's Day, Tama! She also found a few minutes of quiet time hanging out in the lounge chairs.   

McB found Cheech and Gong (her awesome local godparents, they are so cool that she gets to stay over at her 'apartment' in their house once in a while) so we got a picture with Auntie Cheech too.  How many times can I say it, a beautiful sunny warm long Sunday??


After all the fun at the pool during the afternoon it made total sense to go home and hop in Dubya's new pool and see if he would follow.  It came with mixed results but the following day he did go in and out on is own.  He'll get it, but it just shows that clearly he has next to no lab in him at all.

Dubya eventually got in the next day and loves splashing around.  He also loves running in through the dog door all nice and wet, spinning out around the corner onto the wood floors of the kitchen and seeing how far he can slide.   We can hashtag that 'things I failed to consider' when we bought the pool for him.  But in our house, everyone has to learn to swim right?  






Our Summer Solstice was fun, relaxing and quiet.   We were able to enjoy the day with friends and there wasn't one place we had to be at any given time.  We could swim, eat ice cream, jump off the diving boards or go down the slides at the pool, hop out, chat and get back in to do it again.   The best part was McB and I spending the day with Brad for Father's Day.  I hope you had a great summer solstice too.