Weekend in Maryland

We ended our roving where we began it: at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Maryland. Arriving on a Thursday and leaving on a Tuesday gave us ample time for varied visits.

One morning, I let Jon sleep in (he deserved it!) and took the kids to downtown Annapolis to blow off steam, and to see some water, ducks, and BOATS! They were thrilled.

Miles insisted I take their picture in front of his favorite sailboat.

Learning from Alex Haley

I have really, really missed large bodies of water since we've moved to Blacksburg.

Miles practiced his photography.

...And Adele took her first picture.

It was a charming morning.

Below: we got this vid from KinderFarm park in Millersville, which is always worth a visit. Not only are the animals entertaining, but the playground is like a small city!

Anyway, the point is, Miles is now able to slide down a fireman's pole. And climb a climbing wall, and *almost* do the monkey bars, and pump himself into motion on a swing... He's solidly in KID territory, and we are all coping as best we can. :-)

On Sunday we visited the Maryland Zoo, in Baltimore. It's a bit smaller than the National in DC, but we kind of like it better because it's less crowded and you can get much closer to the animals. It also has the advantage of being just a 30 minute drive away, in contrast to the more than 2 hours we usually spend in car and on trains to get to the Smithsonian. It was a relief to visit this zoo. 

I especially love the penguin exhibit!

You can get very close to the elephants, too!

Miles slid the heck out of this slide; he loved it. He was closely followed by Adele, who started down the slide in correct form, and then descended into a roll, then a cartwheel, and then sideways chaos. She gave us a good scare! And effectively warned off the lady behind us with a 20 month old; they took the stairs down.

(She was fine, btw)

Course we had to stop at the petting zoo! 

Here, Miles uses the brushes they provide. Goat gets groomed, child gets to pet, everyone wins.

Of course, the main attraction in Maryland is people. Specifically, Grandma and Grandpa! Who came with us to the zoo.

Hands down the best part was watching the crocodile savage an innocent turtle. Well, as I pointed out, we didn't hear what the turtle was saying. He might have had it coming. Anyway, it was amazing and happened RIGHT in front of us. As Steve Irwin would say, Crikey! This one's aggressive!

Here's the assembled family that came along with us! Tim and Corey, (my brother in law and new sister in law, if you don't know), who live in Baltimore, hopped over. Tim even works for the Baltimore Zoo! Disappointingly, he was not able to get us all in free :-)

Sunday night contained a bit of drama, unfortunately. Miles came fumbling down the stairs to find his parents in the middle of the night (he'd been sleeping in an upstairs bedroom to try to keep him in the habit of having his own room) and fell down the basement stairs. Because we didn't see him fall, and because he was so disoriented and apparently unable to answer simple questions such as, what's your name? Whose house are we in? well, we didn't know if he'd done anything serious to himself, so we packed him into the car and went to the ER at 2am. It's the hospital he was born in, and he last visited it as a dehydrated, jaundiced 3 day old.

Well, 4 year old Miles snapped out of it pretty quickly. They checked him out thoroughly, and after learning that he was unconcussed and did not even need stitches, we took the proffered popsicle and went home get a little sleep.

Guess what? he's fine too. 

Monday gave us a chance to go to Ikea and get some needed items for the kids' new rooms, and also to bask in the glory that is Ikea. Afterwards, we fit a visit in with our old friends Mike and Steph, who just welcomed their second child, Michaela, a couple of months ago. All the kids napped, and the adults all played some very enjoyable Rock Band in the basement. Just like old times.

On Tuesday morning, we were off yet again for the final installment of the driving.

Adele really, really enjoyed this McDonald's playplace.

Tuesday night we stumbled into an apartment we barely knew, still stuffed with boxes. It was the work of about a week but we are just about totally box free today. 

I have some more material for you. I'll show a few photos from the new place, as well as a couple of memories from Steppin' Out 2013 (Blacksburg's street festival) which marks the 3rd anniversary of our life in this town. 

But it will have to wait. I go back to work tomorrow for the first time since June 7, you see. And I'm tired, and I'm not excited about getting up at 6:30. But... I'm ready.