2 weeks in maryland

we got back a few days ago from spending two weeks in maryland.  charlie actually only stayed for one week but avery and i stayed for two.  i was lucky enough to be able to work remotely that second week while my mom watched avery, which was amazing.  i feel like we did a lot in 2 weeks but i'm cramming all of these pictures into one post because otherwise i'll never finish writing it.  

our families are about 3 hours apart so we always end up splitting the trip into two parts:  one on the eastern shore and one in the d.c. area.  this time we all met at the baltimore aquarium to take avery and her cousin there and then we headed back to the eastern shore for a few days.  i forgot our camera (of course) so all i have are iphone pictures and i don't have any of the aquarium.  avery really liked it although it was a little long for her attention span.  we're used to the denver aquarium, which is smaller. we even skipped a few exhibits at the end because everyone was hungry and the kids had just had enough.  

one of the things that i knew we had to do was to take avery to the beach.  she had been to see the ocean when we were back in october but i wanted to do a real beach day with her so that she could play in the sand and the ocean.  she loved the beach.  she could have stayed there forever.  we have another trip planned to california in september and it was nice to see she was so into it.  she was happy to dig and play in the sand all day, the ocean was freezing but she did really well with it.  we took her in a few times and even took her out to a sandbar for a bit and she had a blast.  

it was also really fun to watch her play with her cousin.  she adored him and was happy to watch him and follow him around the entire time that we were there.  it's always so cool to see them together and it always makes me wish we lived closer so these trips weren't so far apart.  we took them to ride some rides in ocean city and avery surprised me with how into the rides she was and how happy she was to do them alone.  the carousel was a favorite but impossible to get a picture of.





we came back to d.c. in time for a wonderful wedding.  charlie and i had our second and third 'date nights' at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, which was fun although i'm always happy to head home to avery.  the wedding was beautiful and they had the perfect weather for it.







the next day was father's day and also when charlie left for denver.  sort of a lame father's day for him although it was nice for me to see my dad and spend the day with him.  i watched him assemble a dresser for my sister so i don't think that anyone had a really relaxing father's day.  my mom made crab cakes and blueberry pie for dinner that night, which pretty much made the entire visit.  and avery gave everyone the gift of screaming through the whole meal.  we went to d.c. the next day to attempt the zoo or a few museums.  unfortunately it was really crowded so after the american history museum we ended up heading back.





i

 squeezed in some visits with friends after work the next few days.  always so cool and weird to be sitting with a friend from college and watching your kids play together.  we had plans to head to the university of maryland pool, which would have been so cool but since it rained all day we watched our kids splash around in puddles, gave them a joint bath, and then took them out for ice cream.











and it was also really nice just to hang out with family and have avery spend some decent time with them.  she really loved everyone, especially the animals.





it was also really nice to get back home and see charlie.  the last 10 minutes on the plane avery kept saying "daddy, daddy, daddy" so i think she was happy to see him and i know she was happy to see the animals.  avery and i came home to a clean house, clean dogs, and presents from charlie.  so i'm guessing he missed us, too.  and it was really, really nice to have a clean house to start the week with.