The Deaners: July 2010

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Maryland, Day 2

First of all, how cute is this?!

This morning started with a 6 mile walk on the Rock Creek trail. Perfect temperature, amazing scenery, and great company. (Dex and Amanda)

Next was a trip to Tyson's Corner Mall, located in McLean, Virginia. I have never seen such a huge mall! One of Amanda's favorite stores is H&M. Amanda bought Dex this little hat, along with a couple of really cute outfits. I even found clothes I liked, and yes, I actually bought something there.

The mall has 2.1 million square feet (195,000 m²) of retail space on three levels, 16 movie screens, and nearly 300 stores.

We had a fun evening wandering around Bethesda, Maryland. We chose to eat at The Burger Joint. Good choice! The onion rings were awesome! Great hamburgers too.

Ej and Dex enjoying our evening in Bethesda.

Friday, July 30, 2010

These are a few of their favorite things...

I'm hoping that while I'm here in Maryland, I can get pictures of some of Mike and Amanda's favorite things while living in Virginia and Maryland. So today, we will start on the list.....

Of course, first on the list has to be me staying with them! jk. I promise I won't stay as long this time as I did last time!

Maybe first on the list is Dexter. This little kid is so happy! It's fun to watch him watching Amanda. He lights up when he spots her. So cute to watch.

I flew in last night, getting to Amanda's place around midnight. Mike got off work at 2 a.m., so of course we had to stay up talking until 3 a.m.! (Mike had to be back to work at ll:00 a.m) We did get our exercise in before we went out and about, to make room for all the calories we were about to consume...thank you P90X!

First stop, Potbelly Sandwich Works
Rockville, Maryland

Really, one of the best deli sandwiches I have ever tasted. It's going to be hard to ever go back to Subway. Which brings up another story...which I will spare you, but the gist of it is that I got to fly first class, and it's going to be hard to ever go back to flying coach!

Dex was so cute in the stroller, he was fascinated watching the tree tops go by.

Next stop, The Fractured Prune

Amazing donuts at this place! We got the O.C. Sands donut. It was awesome.

The Lebanese Taverna

Amanda loves this place. She needed to buy a thank you gift for a friend, so bought a gift card here, and told me this place was awesome. If we have enough time during the next week we may come back here, but if not, I at least know where it is.

Rockville Central Square
So many things going on here. There were kids playing in the fountain, some kind of martial arts class going on, lots of people out enjoying the beautiful weather. I loved the atmosphere here.

Last stop, The YogiBerry

So it has a corny name, but it had great yogurt to make up for it. You serve yourself, with about 8 different yogurts to choose from, and tons of toppings, and then at the cash register, they weigh it, and that determines the price. Maybe they should weigh each customer when they come in and on their way out, and determine the price by how much weight you gain while sitting there! Ok, maybe their way of doing it is a little better than my idea.

The Francis Family

Dex is especially happy in this picture because his Grandma Ellis gave him some of her Banana Split yogurt, yum!

This is the best!

We really wish Grandpa Deaner could be here! This kid is so cute!

So happy he likes his Grandma!

(The videos aren't my camera's best feature, but wanted to show how much Dex loves jumping up and down)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bike ride around Bear Lake

Monday, July 26, 2010
This week's torture was actually my idea: Ride our bikes around Bear Lake.

Sunday night we slept at Caitlyn's apartment in Logan, and then we got up early Monday morning to head over to the lake. We were so busy talking with Caitlyn the night before that I never got a picture of her. I remembered this at 6 a.m. and went into her room where she was sleeping and woke her up and took a picture. Because I love Caitlyn so much, I am not going to post the picture taken that morning. But, yes, she is beautiful when she first wakes up!

Dean and Ej at the beginning of our ride.
Notice the flag in the back ground? No wind at all! The temp was 62 degrees when we started. We started our ride at our friend Odette's cabin. Couldn't talk her into riding with us, instead she stayed at the cabin so she could come rescue us if we called for help.

This is at the power plant on the north shore. Amazing views up there. Dean, with Mud Lake in the background.

We stopped and ate our sandwiches at mile 25, our half way point. I hope you appreciate this picture...After riding my bike 25 miles, I set my camera on timer, and had to run back to the picnic bench and act like it was no big deal. There were people watching me do this, so I had to act tough and like my legs really did know how to run.

For those of you not familiar with Bear Lake, half of it is in Utah, and half in Idaho

The marina with all the sail boats is one of my favorite places on the lake.

We made it. It was an awesome ride. Only had a little head wind the last couple miles. Such a beautiful ride. All 50 miles of it! Thanks Odette for being there just in case!
In this picture, Odette, Maggie, and EJ.