Jennifer's 365 Project

This week is a set of longer runs which I can't squeeze into my lunch break, so I headed out early in the morning before work. It was pretty foggy, which looked pretty neat.

Today is the 8th anniversary of our first date. This have certainly changed since then!

The annual Detroit Maker Faire is this weekend at The Henry Ford! We didn't go last year, but I was excited to take Quinn this year.
He had a good time, although he started to lose interest after about three hours. Next year will be even more fun.
After we headed to grandma Karath's house, where she had a cool Cars 3 racing track waiting!

When I was little my dad used to cook hard boiled eggs in a little contraption. You pierced the egg shell, put in some water, and let the device do the rest.

I've been missing that machine ever since I moved out. A co-worker had sent me a link to this dash cooker as a joke and I decided to buy it.

So far the eggs are easier to peel than anytime I've boiled them in a pot, so I'm happy!

Last weekend I bought a cheap suitcase from the dollar store. Tonight I was able to put together a quick diorama with posterboard, road tape, and construction paper. Now to see how long it survives the toddler in the car.

I saw this while I was at the store. Interesting. I kind of want it just for me.

There's a hot dog contest at work so the team I sit by invited me to craft a petting zoo. It was an...interesting experience.

I left early in the morning to run at the nearby park. 60 degrees at 6:30am isn't too bad.

 We did some arts and crafts this afternoon. We colored some pictures...
...and sculpted the stone from Moana out of Sculpey, using this tutorial.

It's been awhile since we have been to Frederik Meijer Gardens, so we headed out this morning. It was humid, but not sunny or terribly hot, considering what the last several days have been like.
Quinn had a great time, although he certainly hit his limit at three hours (well, before then but...). He loved running everywhere, and the gardens are a great place for him to burn off a lot of energy.

It's a foggy morning on the way to work today.

Need to get a few more steps in yet today.

He loves to nap with us when the toddler is asleep.

I'm participating in a pedometer challenge for the next month at work. Everyone on team is working hard to get lots of steps this week.

The toddler was not impressed.

We went to see our first movie in the theater - Cars 3! He's a big fan of Lightning McQueen (or Lightning THE Queen as he calls the car) and has enjoyed all of the movies so far.

He did pretty good, although we had to help hold his seat down. Also, he was pretty insistent on standing for a big chunk of the movie, which worked well since the theater was mostly empty. The movie wasn't bad either and much better than Cars 2.

It's been a fun day. Quinn finished up his swim lessons, we made a peach cobbler (which the toddler snubbed), and we read books in bed. He was so excited that we even had to swap so he could read my book and I could read his Frozen book.

My old wireless headphones have had issues. I like the earbud form factor, but a lot of them are very expensive. Since I've been using just one ear bud for awhile, I decided to get a cheap bluetooth headset. It has a longer battery, fits in my ear better, and has better sound quality.

I would have preferred headphones, but for triple the price, I'll use one earpiece for now.

Cartoons are a good distraction when I need to clip his nails (which he hates for some reason).

He loves pulling this wagon around.

We spent all morning (from 2:30am to about 6am) at the local hospital. Chris was in a lot of pain from a kidney stone so we went in to make sure it wasn't stuck and to get some pain relief.

Quinn was pretty well behaved, all things considering. We even ended up having a pretty private waiting room area with a kids table and fish tank.

I forgot my gym bag at home so I took a quick stroll in the humidity and heat at the local park.

We decided to do an early trip to the zoo today. Our timing was fantastic. It wasn't too hot or cold and it was early enough that the zoo wasn't busy and the animals were fairly active.
 The otters were super playful and fun to watch.
As usual, the little one had a great time running around. The zoo is small enough that we don't typically bring a stroller any more. For those times when he does get too tired to walk Chris and I trade off carrying him. That's a lot less stressful than arguing with him while he tries to drive a stroller into every barricade or person he comes across.

Quinn had another swim lesson this morning, which he enjoyed. He's getting more comfortable with the water, so that is great progress.
In the afternoon our friends Adam, Comfort and Corinne came over to enjoy ice cream, take a stroll through the neighborhood...
...and play games! We played the kickstarter game that Corinne did the art for - Unreal Estate. Even Quinn tried to play, and Comfort was kind enough to keep him distracted while we played a round.

There were some pretty strong storms that rolled through at about 3am this morning. A lot of people are without power, but the most damage we suffered was a large branch speared into the ground. We really lucked out.

I hung out at the park and enjoyed the weather, under the protection of a shady tree. A pretty peaceful lunch break, if you ask me.

I met up with some co-workers at the local Grand Rapids Brewing Company brewery for a night of Geeks Who Drink trivia. We came in tied for 5th place, so not bad for the evening!

It's been a busy day! We went out to a parade, then came back and played at the house for a while. I made Quinn a light up bracelet for the fireworks in the evening.

Edit: This was made with conductive thread, an Adafruit Gemma and LED sequins. 
And he enjoyed the evening festivities, when it started to get a little darker. Amazingly, he managed to stay up till past 10pm, so we were able to walk around the neighborhood and see the everything launching into the sky.

It has been beautiful weather leading up to the 4th of July holiday.

We took a stroll around the neighborhood right before it was supposed to rain. We brought an umbrella, just in case. Quinn enjoyed riding with it in the wagon.

With an adjustable handle, this is his new favorite toy.