Airplanes and Apartments

Happy 4th of July weekend, all! I hope yours is off to a fabulous start with some fun plans on the horizon. We're visiting some friends tomorrow and then attending a party, for which I am providing this fruit-kabob-and-honey-dip dish. Then on Sunday we're having guests for brunch/lunch and maybe attending a music in the park event. Sounds like a busy but awesome weekend to me!

Today might be tough to beat, though. Terry had the day off, so we planned a little outing with our tiny sidekick: a trip to Santa Monica Airport! If you're unfamiliar, it's a relatively small airport, but they have a park attached with a playground, soccer fields, a dog park, free parking(!), and an observation area where you can sit on bleachers and watch planes land and take off. We hit up the dog park to say hi to the dogs and then played on the swings a bit at the playground before grabbing a picnic table for Marshall to eat lunch.

And then we headed over to the observation deck! 

Someone was a little nervous about the sounds of the planes...

...but he calmed down and enjoyed watching the takeoffs and landings!

The whole experience was very low-key but SO fun. And free! (<--the best part? :-) We loved seeing all the different planes, it wasn't too loud (the first plane we saw was one that started up right in front of us, so that one made Marshall a little nervous, but otherwise the sound was actually way quieter that I expected!), and we got to listen to air traffic control over the loudspeaker. Terry (who works in aerospace engineering) translated for us, and I am sure Marshall will be super excited to have his daddy tell him all about air traffic control in a few years!

We've been trying to get outside more in general lately, to enjoy the weather before summer gets too hot. We almost always go out for a walk and/or to the park, but I'm looking for more creative ideas, too, so we (I) don't get bored. Today's adventure was definitely a must-do-again type of day, so I am especially glad we got to go with daddy first.

Here's a photo from yesterday, when Marshall and I took a slow walk around the block to look at cars, practice standing, talk about flowers, and wait for daddy to come home from work.

Also, I finally have some fun photos of our apartment to share! We moved about six weeks ago, but it always takes a while to settle in. Some things I love about this place (aside from location, which I can't rave about enough):

It's old and charming, complete with built-ins in the dining room, door hinges where a swinging door used to lead to the kitchen, and window ledges big enough for a tiny cat to perch upon.

 The kitchen is BIG! It's a square, too, so there's room for Terry and me to maneuver around. To the right of the stove was this big awkward space, so we bought (and Terry assembled) an island cart with wheels. It blocks the cupboards in the back, but the wheels work nicely to move it out whenever I need stuff in there.

I think the black and white floors are adorable, too! Terry really likes this little corner of the kitchen with my chalkboard and the island. It feels very cozy to me, too. I am so glad to be in a place where I love my kitchen, since I spend so much time there.

Marshall's room was the first we unpacked so he could feel comfortable as quickly as possible. We have some fun new decor here!

The "MH" above was a gift for Marshall's first birthday. Each letter has a collage of superhero/comic book characters. Such an adorable and thoughtful gift!

Here's the opposite wall:

The train canvas was a HomeGoods find that we used at his first birthday party, and the frames below it all seemed to make sense to me as a little gallery wall. I still need two more photos, but it turned out pretty cute!

The big frame above the glider is a print from a Tim Burton exhibit Terry and I went to right after we got married; we saved the print for our future child's room. And the "Pop Alphabet" print was a gift from my mom from an art and wine festival a few years ago.

We really love Marshall's room. It's pretty spacious and comfy and perfect for our little guy to play, read, and sleep (though the sleep is often up for debate).

The rest of the house is pretty typical stuff, so I just showed the highlights, but maybe someday I'll get around to taking photos of the rest. I'm pretty proud of a gallery wall I made for Terry's side of the bedroom, but I have yet to do the same for mine. Our living room doesn't have huge, blank walls like our last several places, so we aren't going to hang our big poster prints, but they were just random photos of Europe. We did, however, hang our big travel collage from a few years ago. It's pretty cozy up in here!

Speaking of cozy, look at these two:

And look at this deeeeeelicious meal:

(Caprese salad plus Kale-Pesto Cream Pasta, from the 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook)

And now I'm off to enjoy some more of this:

and to watch Wet Hot American Summer, which I've never seen. 

Fun questions (why not?):

Have you seen Wet Hot American Summer? Who's your favorite character?

What's been your best meal this week?

What are you doing to celebrate 4th of July?

On an airplane, do you prefer takeoff or landing? I prefer takeoff. Landing terrifies me, because I never think they're going to stop in time (well, I guess that's after the landing, but whatever).

Have a safe and happy Fourth!