Memorable Memorial Day

I think I used that same title for our last Memorial Day post, but whatever. I'm lazy and unoriginal.

We headed over to the National Arboretum for our Memorial Day. The weather was disgustingly humid but bearable heat-wise. Within five minutes of being there, I knew it was going to be a great trip because: 1) The sippy cup I grabbed for Ian somehow didn't get washed. His water had thick chunks of old milk floating around in it (which explains why he refused to drink it in the car), and 2) A crazy man in a wheelchair chatted us up while Jesse was getting a map of the park. He said he "got upset" with Bush because he "didn't give a damn about the children" and he was planning on moving to a country that did. He was thinking El Salvador or China, which probably wouldn't be my first picks if I wanted a country that gave a damn about the children, or anything else for that matter. I didn't want to burst his bubble, though, or turn our short conversation into a debate, so I didn't try to dissuade him.

First up was the koi pond:



The pond surrounded the visitor's center, which explained the smell inside. At this one corner of the pond they had a fish food vending machine, and all the lazy tourists would throw the food in that corner. The koi would all cluster there when people would toss food in. It got so intense that fish would get pushed to the surface and just flop around on top of all the other fish, suffocating, until they got worked over to the edge of the cluster and could flop back into the water. Crazy. Also I knew a kid in college who worked in a fish food factory. Crazy.

Then we went and saw something else, I can't remember what the point of it was. Basically all I remember was that they had the old capitol pillars set up, and they had a fountain that a bunch of kids were playing in. Ian loved the water and kept trying to jump into the cistern.


Let me tell you about our jogging stroller, pictured below.


Someone returned it to REI because they had blown out the shocks. It sat at our store through a few attic sales, and Jesse asked our manager how much they would give it to us for. Bear in mind it's a $570 dollar stroller. Eric said we could have it for $40, and then they marked it down two more times. We paid $17.83 for the stroller, and bought new shocks for $36.50. It pushes like a dream. Now on those days when I think drivers out here are alert enough to not run me down, and that the sex offenders in the area are all busy and won't harass me, I can go running! Yay!

Okay, back to the arboretum.

Ian just...
...wouldn't...


...sit...


...still...


...for...


...a...


picture.
Kellan would, though.


Note the diapers ingeniously wedged next to his head to hold it straight(er).

Then we looked at the bonsai trees, some of which were very old. Like, some were three hundred years old.


Here's Ian pretending to take a picture:


Here's Ian contemplating jumping into a pool of water. Note his wedgie.


And walked around the herb garden, where we got our family picture taken by someone who didn't tell us when he was going to take it:



He also didn't tell me I had a hair horn sticking up. Let's pretend it was windy, shall we?

Almost right after we got in the car to go home it started storming, and it let up for a few seconds right when we got back to our apartment complex. Perfect timing!