Happy Fourth of July (Sans Fireworks)!

Well, I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. I have been so caught up in getting things ready for school and the move that Independence Day just snuck up on me this year. Last year, Alex and I made a concerted effort to find a place that does a proper firework show and we didn't even end up going to the closest one we found because it was supposed to rain and we figured it would be really crowded. We decided a good solution was to go to a Tigers game and had fully intended to do so this year. But, with the aforementioned sneaking by the Fourth and our desire to have a BBQ outweighing our desire to see the fireworks, we opted for our little spot on Barton Pond instead. No fighting for a spot with a grill, just enjoying the gorgeous weather and an extra day off.

Before that, we went to Ikea, a place I already knew I loved, to pick out some essentials for our new home. We were so good about refraining from buying anything now (we're going to keep our moving truck for an extra day after arriving in DC so that we can get all the stuff we selected) and I'm really pleased with the things we found. So even though we won't have a fully furnished house at first (that's a lot of fs!), we will have a sofa bed and two chairs for the living room, a dining room table with four chairs, and a new bed and mattress, which is reason enough to celebrate considering what a P.O.S. our current bed is.

Alex had to work a little on both Saturday and Sunday (boo!), but we went to this park on Sunday evening. We did some swimming (Alex, Buttercup, me), reading (me), and fishing (Alex) and since our spot was far enough away from other people, Buttercup had her first real taste of off-leash freedom- she was a fan! Doesn't she look like she's on the hunt in this picture? I love it!I also think it's so adorable how much of an interest she has taken in fish- she's the perfect dog for Alex. Here she is admiring Alex's crappie.