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We all went bowling on Saturday. JJ wanted a little help, and Molly was happy to oblige.

Hurray for bowling!

Molly’s working on good non-granny-style bowling form.

Emmie did great bowling, and had a commanding lead amongst the kids going into the final frame. In fact, I joked that the only way a kid could catch her was to get 3 strikes in the final frame (no other kid had gotten a single strike or spare at that point), though it really would only take a strike and a spare.

On Molly’s first ball of the last frame she threw a strike. Did not see that coming.

After her surprise strike, she managed to throw a spare with her remaining two balls. She was a bit excited when the pins all fell down.

Bowling is fun!

Aunt ‘Chelle, Uncle J, Emmie, and JJ came to visit us. Jen had heard that the Preakness Balloon Festival was awesome, so we decided to go for the fun. We got there a few minutes after things got started Friday, and headed straight to the tethered rides as we knew the line could get long. The line was already significant, but we knew it would get worse so we got in line anyway. Unfortunately, it was windy and they had to suspend tethered rides shortly after we got in line.

Jen and Michelle were kind enough to hold our spot in line, so Jeremy and I took the kids to explore all the vendors set up. The obvious destination was the climbing wall, which both Emmie and Molly wanted to try their hand at. Emmie was first.

And Molly went when she was done.

We then found the Hawaiian ice truck for a sweet treat. We took these back to Jen and Michelle to see how the line was doing. Sadly, it was still too windy to fly, so we all sat down in the grass in line to eat our treats.

And that’s where we stayed for much of the day. Some of us wandered off to throw a frisbee for a while, but mostly we just hung out. It was kind of a cross between a picnic and sitting in line. It was very nice outside - the breeze was lovely for people, if not for balloons.

We hung out in line from a little after 4 until 7, coming to grips with the fact that the balloons were not going to fly that day. Then, the wind calmed down and balloons started to get inflated. We grabbed some quick pictures with balloons in the background, assuming they would soon be taken down again.

To our surprise, some of the balloons that had been chartered started to take off and fly away.

And around 7:30, tethered rides resumed operation. Everyone in line promptly jumped up to reform into a proper line rather than a series of picnics in a row.

We still waited an hour and fifteen minutes in line before it was our turn. In that time, it got dark. But we made it. Molly, Leah, and Emmie wanted to ride, and Uncle J kindly agreed to be the adult to go up with them. They were all very excited.

There are lots of pictures on Flickr, but I’ll just post a few here.

The girls might have enjoyed it just a bit.

After a long day, we decided to leave before the grand finale to try to beat traffic (there was a lot of traffic). We managed to catch the Balloon Glow, though, as we were leaving. The balloons all lit their fires at about the same time. We have no regrets about leaving before it, though if we wanted to beat traffic completely we should have left just a little bit earlier than we did.

Despite parking, traffic, and wind troubles, we had a really fun time.

May is a month of celebrations around here. In addition to Mother’s Day, we also have birthdays for both Jen and myself. Birthday fun began with celebrating both of our birthdays (1 day early for me, 10 days early for Jen) with my family.

Jen requested a Smith Island Cake from SugarBakers (voted “Baltimore’s Best Cake”), with lots of layers of fudge icing and yellow cake, and some peanut butter cups as well. It was delicious.

Molly took the opportunity to hang out with Charlie.

The next day was my actual birthday. And what better way to celebrate than going to a Disney musical. For Christmas, Grammy gave us tickets to take the girls to the Hippodrome in Baltimore to see Beauty and the Beast. This was their first time going to a big fancy theater to see a play, and they loved it.

For dinner, I got to choose whatever restaurant I wanted for my birthday dinner. I decided to go fancy and head to BGR (wearing the new hat Leah gave me for my birthday).

And then nine days later, it was finally Jen’s birthday. Jen’s very excited about massive amounts of thread we gave her.

Happy birthday to us!

What was I up to while the girls were enjoying the snow? I had hoped to drive back on Sunday. I figured we’d leave Savannah Sunday morning, and the roads would be mostly clear by the time we got to the Washington area Sunday evening. Unfortunately, the storm was so bad it was clear that was not going to happen. So, we decided to wait another day for the roads to clear. Also, by waiting till Monday to come back, that meant Grams could ride back with us as well (taking Aunt Caroline’s seat).

That meant some more family time. I also took the opportunity to take some pictures around Grandaddy’s house. Sadly, I didn’t have my camera with me as I’d left it with Jen. I had brought my old camera and a couple lenses, but forgot the battery to it. So, all these pictures were taken with my phone.

I first headed toward the dock. This dock was a very prominent part of my childhood. Whenever we came to visit, I spent as much time as I could on the water. Water skiing was my favorite activity, but I also enjoyed swimming, crabbing, sailing, fishing, tubing, and more. And just sitting on the dock is one of the most relaxing things you can do (though swinging in the hammock that used to overlook the dock was even better).

Here’s a panoramic view from the dock.

And another panoramic view looking back at the house from the dock.

And a non-panoramic shot of the house from the dock.

When I walked out to the dock, there were 4 dolphins playing there (only two made it into the picture, though).

So many memories at this house.

Getting to the funeral

As I already wrote, my maternal grandfather passed away almost two weeks ago. His funeral was held last Thursday in Savannah, Georgia. Jen and I debated whether we’d all go down for it, or just me. The decision was a tough one, but we ultimately decided I would go alone. And, since I hate to fly if I can avoid it, I decided to drive down.

Aunt EA was very happy to hear this. Since Charlie was only 6 weeks old, she really didn’t want to put him on an airplane. So, we decided to drive down together. Then Aunt Caroline decided to fly from Chicago to Baltimore and ride down with us, though she’d fly back to Chicago directly from Savannah. Grams was already in Savannah (she’d flown down a week before Grandaddy died).

Our plan was to drive down Wednesday, go to the funeral Thursday, then drive back Friday hoping to get home before the forecasted snowstorm (more on that later). I was worried how well the drive down with an infant would go. I’ve driven with a screaming infant before, and it’s not fun. Also, it usually takes my family about 12 hours to drive, but I figured Charlie would slow us down a lot.

Boy was I wrong. Charlie slept almost the entire way, and when the baby is sleeping there is no stopping. We only stopped twice - once for lunch, and once for dinner. Charlie did stay up a bit at the end of the trip, and cried for the last few minutes, but that was nothing. We ended up making the trip in under 10 hours, which I’m not sure I’ve ever done.

The funeral

The funeral itself was very well done. I would have expected nothing less, given that the funeral home is the family business. It was held at the beautiful Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church in downtown Savannah (where my parents were married, and I was baptized). Afterward, there was a reception at the Oglethorpe Club (in lieu of a visitation the day before) for all the family and friends. And then the family went on to the graveside service. Grandaddy was buried next to Grandmother overlooking the water, just a few spots down from my dad. Many of us then headed back to Grandaddy’s house.

After the funeral

Our plan to drive back to Maryland Friday did not work out. The storm was worse, and came earlier, than I had hoped. So, we made the decision to stay in Savannah until after the storm. I felt bad leaving my family to weather a blizzard on their own, but it was not safe for us to try to return beforehand.

The positive side of staying in Savannah was getting to spend more time with family. Aunt Caroline’s flight back to Chicago was cancelled, so she stayed as well. Charlie was happy to hang out with his Aunt Caroline and his Great Uncle Carl.

Our adventure didn’t end there, but I think that’s enough of the story for today.

A little over a week late, we celebrated Aunt EA’s birthday with her. Happy birthday Aunt EA!

While there, we all got to spend some quality time with Charlie. Charlie was happy to take a nap on his Grams, and I don’t think she minded either.

We decided it would be fun to go down to the National Zoo to go to ZooLights. This would have been especially fun given all the warm weather we’ve been having. Sadly, the day we chose to go ended up being really cold. But we bundled up and had fun anyway.

Rather than wait in lines and pay a lot for food at the zoo, we brought our own sandwiches. We found these picnic tables to eat dinner at while listening to these fun carolers sing.

After dinner in the cold, we went into the reptile house to warm up and check out all the lizards, snakes, and frogs. Then we headed back out into the cold.

They set up 150 foot snow tubing tracks (which thankfully work just as well without snow) to slide down. You may not be able to see their faces, but that’s Leah on the left track and Molly starting down the right track. It had quite a line, but the girls said it was lots of fun.

The girls weren’t the only ones to slide down the hill. Jen went down right after them.

We then waited in a long line to go on the carousel. While I may have thought that the wait was not worth riding a carousel, the girls thought it was great.

The last thing the girls wanted to do at the zoo was ride the National Zoo Choo-Choo. Unfortunately, the train was charging when we went to ride it. We ended up waiting over an hour in the cold to go for a ride. It was so cold I decided to put on my Beard Head to keep my face warm.

It was very cold waiting in line, but I thankfully had a way to warm us up. I brought a 64 ounce insulated water bottle full of hot chocolate as well as a bunch of paper cups. Standing around in line was the perfect time to break it out (along with some snacks).

After waiting more than an hour, we boarded the tiny train. It rode around the Kids’ Farm exhibit (which is possibly the most boring part of the zoo to look at) and took a little over 3 minutes in total. Next time we’ll remember that the train is definitely something to skip.

We had a great trip and would definitely go back. Next time we might go earlier in the day to do some of the zoo stuff before the lights part starts.

On New Year’s morning, Molly taught G’Mom and Grampa how to play Q-bitz. It’s a fun new game she got for Christmas, and it’s been a hit in our house.

After morning fun, we headed toward Washington to Aunt EA’s house so G’Mom and Grampa could meet Charlie. The we headed from there to some more fun, but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to hear about that.

The train museum and old Ellicott City outing were not the only fun of New Year’s Eve. We also got to celebrate Grampa’s birthday with him on his actual birthday. That meant the fudge wasn’t the only sweet treat we ate that day.

Jen made this Frozen Peanut Butter Turtle Pie to celebrate. It was ridiculously delicious (though also ridiculously high in calories).

Happy birthday, Grampa!

We live quite close to old Ellicott City, which has a train museum. During they holidays, they set up model train displays, so we thought we’d go check them out. Here’s the first train we saw.

The most exciting display was the Lego trains. It was huge, with lots of buildings and trains. Lego aficionados bring their own Legos to construct all these things. In all, there are around half a million Lego bricks in the display.

Leah and Grampa peer in at the Lego trains.

Leah and Molly both rang the big bell. I don’t know that Leah is sure about this.

More trains, though Leah’s not sure about it this time.

They had one real train car (a caboose) to check out.

The girls take a seat in the caboose.

We then walked over to Johnny’s Bistro in old Ellicott City for some lunch. It was absolutely delicious. And, while we waited for a table, we dropped in to Southwest Connection & Silver Arrow Fudge to pick up some fudge for later (yum!).