Maryland Trip 2012

The car was packed to the brim, we were all realllly sick, and we were about to spend the next 12 hours in the car....What was I thinking?!?!?! Lol...crazy, I know. But, we did it, and it was a lot of fun! Besides the fact that I had a burning fever for about 8 of the 12 hours (I was wiping myself off with baby wipes to cool down) the drive went really well. Max watched a few movies and they both slept quite a bit. I also made up an hourly Train Ticket reward system for Max. Each hour I would say, "Ticket Please,"  and he would pull a ticket from his seat, then hand me his ticket. I had a bag of prizes for him to choose from. It gave him something to look forward to, and another little thing to take his mind off the drive. We had to make plenty of bathroom stops-some of them on the side of the PA Turnpike. The rest stops were the most time consuming by myself. Packing them both up to go to the bathroom, then changing Leo's diaper, and helping Max in the potty definitely took awhile. It was all worth it though when we got to Sareeb's house around 11:00 that night!! 

We were all so happy to be there. Sarah and Chris welcomed us in and had a cozy spot for us to sleep. This was the first time we were meeting Taylor, and it was also their first time meeting Leo. I loved spending time with Sarah, Brody, and Taylor at their house. Just hanging out, talking, and watching the kids play was really nice. Taylor was so cute!!! We tried to venture out a few times, to some stores, the pool, and Annapolis Harbor; however, four kids, two adults, plus the dreaded summer sickness, we pretty much wanted the safety of Sarah's home for the most part. 

The first afternoon we were there we decided to meet Aunt Cheryl, Adrienne, Chris, Lora, Ruby, and Aiden. Their pool is awesome. Great area for kids- Max loved it! He got to swim in a 'big pool' for the first time, and also played in the sand at the volleyball courts. We all had a great day.

After swimming, we all went back to Aunt Cheryl's house for a cookout. Delicious!! Adrienne made tons of amazing dishes. I really hope she has her own restaurant some day. Unfortunately, Max started to not feel well again (horrible bug) so we had to leave a little bit early. It was still really nice being able to spend time with everybody.

Here are a few photos of Leo I got while we were there. This was shortly after his 1st birthday- about a week and a half later.

The next day, Sarah and I took the kids to Annapolis for the afternoon. We wanted to walk by the water and then get some ice cream. While we were there, we saw a humongous ship. It looked like a pirate ship and was used in a famous movie.

I got a few more of the boys while we were down there. They were not enjoying all of the picture opps though...

While we were there, we definitely had to stop at the ice cream shop! I've gone their several times on trips to MD, but this was the boys' first time. They loved it, of course.

I heart this photo. Notice Brody's leg? Art project at AC's...lol

Here are a few more photos I took of Leo in Sarah and Chris' backyard. He looked so cute walking and crawling around out there! Also, he took his first 7 steps while we were there! I got a video, but I have no idea how to put it on here, lol. 

I loved spending time with my cousin and her family. They were all such wonderful hosts! They even let us have their room for the week. Also, I didn't realize until I made this post that I didn't get any pictures of the boys and I :( Kind of sad about that! Maybe Sarah has one. I will find out and update if possible. I'm not sure if I will do this alone until Leo is a couple of year older. Not because of the drive, but because neither of them do as well sleeping in new places, so it gets pretty tiring after a few nights. Overall it was a great trip!