Well, we actually went to Washington, Maryland and Virginia! We headed to the Mid-Atlantic to visit Stephen’s family. I was also able to sneak in a quick visit with my dear friend, Hillary. Here is an overview of our week!
Wednesday, August 5th
We all headed to the airport bright and early. Well, we actually left the house around 9:15, but that is early for us! It takes forever to get everyone dressed and fed around here! Mimi had been here the weekend before so she took Bailey home to their house while we were gone. (We still have not picked Bailey up yet and I miss her like crazy!) We decided to just spend a fortune and park in the lot closest to the airport. With three large suitcases, two carseats, two strollers, two backpacks, a diaper bag, oh, and two kids, we decided to park as close as possible! We drove around the entire garage twice and still could not find a space. Abbie has parking space/parking garage anxiety after our unsuccessful search for a space! We ended up finding one in a garage nearby, that required us to lug all of the luggage above across an entire parking garage and down a flight of stairs. Not fun! We finally made it to the airport, checked-in, and took everything apart to go through security. I was so glad when we finally made it to our gate! Both the kids were very good on the three hour flight. Abbie ate her lunch and watched videos on my IPOD. Carter had a bottle, some baby food, and slept most of the trip. Thankfully, no one had any major meltdowns or poopy diapers! That is what I consider a successful flight! Nana, Pop Pop, Rachel and GG Nana (Steve’s grandmother) were there to greet us at BWI when we arrived! We then headed to Nana and Pop Pop’s house for dinner, baths and bed. Steve and I were exhausted!
Thursday, August 6th
We all had a lazy morning and enjoyed spending time with family. Later in the day, Abbie and Rachel played outside with three neighbor boys. (There is no way I could have three boys!) They all had fun with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, golf clubs, etc. Abbie absolutely loved playing with her “friends” as she referred to them the rest of the trip! Carter spent much of the day napping and trying to catch up on sleep from his big trip the day before! At one point during his afternoon nap he had his arm hanging over the bumper and through the rails on the crib! Nana fed him his baby food for lunch. Nana actually fed Carter most of his baby food during the trip! Both Steve and I were thankful for the help and happy to relinquish that job for a few days! We spent time playing with GG Nana later in the afternoon.
This was Abbie’s “look” for the afternoon! I have no idea what “look” she was going for with a water ring, lei and baton!
Friday, August 7th
On Friday morning, Steve, Rachel, Abbie and I went to the National Zoo for the day! Carter stayed home with Nana, Pop Pop and GG Nana. We were debating on whether to go to the National Zoo or the Baltimore Zoo. We finally decided on the National Zoo. We figured we might as well get some use out of our tax dollars! (The zoo if free, but parking is $20!) It was so strange to just enter the zoo directly from the parking lot. There are several locations to enter all around the zoo. Since you don’t have to pay, there are no gates to go through! Abbie was so excited! She loves the zoo, and always talks about going when we are at home. She had a great time exploring with Rachel! We saw gorillas, elephants, and pandas just to name a few. We stopped for a break at lunch and then continued exploring the zoo. The weather was perfect, sunny and low 80s! We had a great time and left around 2:00 to head home before DC traffic. While we were gone, GG Nana had left to go back to New Jersey, but Aunt Ellen had arrived from Philadelphia! Steve’s brother Ted, his fiancé, Bethany, and her two children came over, and we all had a wonderful dinner to celebrate Pop Pop’s birthday! It was the perfect end to a perfect day!
Rachel is a wonderful cousin! Abbie adores playing with her. 
Abbie loved looking at A LOT of turtles. 
I think the gorillas were her favorite animals of the day. That is surprising as she is usually afraid of them at the Dallas zoos because they come up close to windows. I guess she likes them better at a distance. 
Saturday, August 8th
Another lazy day! Nana, Stephen and Abbie went to the pool after lunch. Carter and I stayed home while he finished lunch. It took hours while on our trip to feed him. It took an hour to feed him his bottle each time. Even after trying for an hour, he sometimes only ate 3 ounces! Also, he would only let me feed him. That was fun. So, it took an hour for each bottle, then wait thirty minutes for that to digest, then feed him baby food. Talk about time consuming! I feel like all I do is feed Carter all day long! After naps, Abbie and Carter enjoyed playing in the backyard with Aunt Ellen and Nana. Abbie would live outside if she could! Maybe one day we will just set up a tent for her in the backyard…
Aunt Ellen played with Abbie and Carter the WHOLE time she was with us. Thank you so much, Ellen! 
Abbie loved running up and down a hill in Nana and Pop Pop’s backyard. She must have done it a million times! 
After these pictures, Carter rolled right off the blanket. I think he would have loved to roll around the entire backyard!
Aunt Ellen and Abbie played with bubbles. Abbie thought it was fun to get bubbles on her hands and then wipe them on Nana and me. 
This is her “I’m coming to get you!” look. 
Watch out Nana! 
Sunday, August 9th
Carter had a rough night (morning?). What do you call 4:50 in the morning!?! He had been sleeping very well during our trip. He was sleeping all night (still no more night feedings…hooray!) and taking great naps. For some reason, he was not a happy baby this morning. He just would not go back to sleep. I think is bottom two teeth are trying to come in and really bothering him. Eventually, after an early bottle, he went back to sleep until around 8:00. Abbie slept well the whole trip in her big girl bed at Nana’s! Thank you, my sweet girl, for being such a good sleeper! After the exhausting morning, I decided to stay home with Carter so he could take his morning nap while everyone else went to a brunch buffet. Steve was so excited to go (I am not a big fan of buffets). I heard Abbie ate about a million grapes at brunch. Carter and I had a nice restful morning. Later in the afternoon, Abbie helped Pop Pop wash his big, new truck. She loved spraying water with the hose. You had to watch out because if she turned in your direction you would get sprayed!
Monday, August 10th
Abbie and I got up early and headed down to Virginia to pick up Hillary. Hillary is one of my best friends. We met our freshman year at Baylor, and lived together our last two years of college. We then lived together three more years in Virginia. I miss her so much and wish we still lived close! We picked her up at her home in Alexandria and headed to DC to go to the Natural History and American History museums! Hillary was a great tour guide! She took us to the Natural History museum first. Abbie loved looking at the large dinosaur exhibit. Hillary explained various things to her which she loved! She was running around that museum and dragging poor Hillary with her! We then headed to the American History museum, which was fun for me, but not as much fun for Abbie. Our visit there was a short one. Thank goodness that the museums were free! We definitely would not have gotten our money’s worth with a two year old attention span! We drove back down to Virginia for lunch and ate at a restaurant right by our first apartment. It was so much fun catching up with Hillary and being back in Virginia. She is so good with Abbie, and I know Abbie had a great time visiting with her. We miss you, Hillary!
None of us were enjoying our outdoor sight seeing this day. It was the hottest day of the year at close to 100! After these pictures we walked back to the car as fast as we could. 
This is what we saw when we walked in to Carter’s room this morning! I have no idea how he managed to almost undress himself! Those jammies are tight! His room was colder than the others so I went to buy him some long-sleeved jammies with no feet. (He would not wear the footed ones passed down from Abbie that I had brought with us. He kept kicking his feet and making noises like he was so confined in them. What dramatics!) They were the really tight kind that I could barely pull his arm through when putting them on him. I have no idea how he managed this. But you can tell from his smile that he was pretty proud of himself! I wonder how long he spent in there wiggling his way out of them! Needless to say, that afternoon I found him one-piece jammies with no feet!
He also had kicked off his socks within about 5 minutes of being in his crib.
Tuesday, August 11th
This morning we went to the Port Discovery Museum, a children’s museum in Baltimore. It was a large museum at three stories tall! Abbie’s favorite activities were the grocery store and the diner. Of course she also loved the water exhibit. Sadly, I had to limit her time in there as I had brought no change of clothes, and she was getting soaked! I will know better for next time! Carter spent some quality time with Nana and explored all the benches the museum had to offer. After an unsuccessful attempt to feed him his bottle, we all headed home for lunch and naps. It was a great way for all of us to spend our last full day with Nana and Pop Pop!
Wednesday, August 12th
We woke up bright and early to get ready for our big trip back to Dallas. We had an uneventful trip, thank goodness! Abbie ate her lunch and watched videos again. She had a minor meltdown when it was time to turn off all electrical devices. Thankfully, M&Ms and snacks stopped it quickly. Carter ate and slept most of the flight. At one point during the flight he started to get fussy. He wanted nothing to do with the toys I had brought for him. He had his eye on Abbie’s straw cup! He was dying to get his little hands on the cup as I passed it to Abbie. I finally just let him chew on the soft plastic straw, as I thought it might help his teething. To my surprise and his, he actually managed to drink some of the water! Maybe we will just skip the bottles and go straight to straw cups! Carter waited until just after we walked off the plane and in to the airport to have a poopy diaper. Thank you Carter! As we waited for Stephen and Abbie to bring the car up to baggage claim, I fed Carter some baby food. Then we piled all of our stuff and ourselves back in to the car and headed home!
What a wonderful trip we had! It was so fun to see all of Stephen’s family and to be back in that part of the country. I love it there…I just wish it wasn’t so expensive to live there! Our trip back East has come to signify the end of summer for us. Now on to the fall…
1 comment:
Looks like you guys had a great time. I'm so jealous you got to see Ham. I'm sure she loved showing everything to Abbie!!
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