marvelous maryland!

Since it's, oh, almost a month later, I figured I'd finally blog about our MOST AWESOME trip to Maryland to see my family (note, all references to 'MOST AWESOME' will be capitalized to show exuberance). It was a super quick trip, but very quality and such fun.

Thanks to my MOST AWESOME friend Stephanie, we got standby tickets on Alaska Airlines on two flights that were basically empty, which meant me and Shaner and Wes-man (who was free anyway!) had an entire row to ourselves. We could bring his car seat on and strap him in during takeoff and landing. Plus, we had a nice spot to put him when he fell asleep. It was delightful.

We just had plenty of toys, pacifiers, and food, and he did so well. On the flight back, however, he had a RECORD FOUR poopy diapers. That's right. FOUR in the span of a couple hours. Geez. One we changed at our seats right before takeoff, and three were in the tiny little bathroom. Luckily, we were the very last row of the plane -- on both flights to and from Reagan in DC -- so we had easy access. Wow. Four.

And for a baby who only eats mom's homemade baby food, the jarred stuff on the trip (used for convenience only) produced some very interesting diapers. 'Nuff said.

Shane got checked randomly in security both times, which was too bad. None of our checked bags got lost, which was good. My biggest disappointment is that in-flight movies no longer exist; now they try to get you to rent a personal DVD player so you can watch whatever you want for the whole flight. Sadness.

When we got to DC it was 4 or so in the afternoon, and my folks picked us up from the airport. All of us and baby and our luggage fit in dad's "grandpa mobile," i.e., his Toyota Avalon. I was impressed!

We took a trip to see Grandma Caudell, mom's mom, and got the standard 4-generation photo. If only I had a baby girl it would have been even COOLER (four generations of girls. But it's cool, I like Wesley enough).

Visiting with Grandma was great. First, her house exists EXACTLY how I remember it, so that was nice. I have a hard time when things change... like my childhood movie theater was recently torn town and gigantor movie theater was built in its place. That kind of stuff hurts. I like it when things are the same. Grandma had the same furniture, wall hangings, junk, etc. Yes, junk; she's a pack-rat, it runs in the family so I've got to be mindful of that!

Grandma told us stories of how she ended up in Washington DC after growing up in Kansas, and how she met Grandpa (who died in the '90s), and how she worked for Boeing! Which is really wild since Shane works for Boeing. We had a nice time.

The rest of the trip was basically chill. We let mom play with Wesley and check out all his antics (like crawling, putting stuff in his mouth, spitting all over the floor), and we had lots of time to catch up.

Wesley did terrible with the time change. We basically left him on Seattle time. So, since he usually winds down for bed at 6:30-7 pm here, he'd wind down at 9:30-10 pm there, and that was fine. I think it was Sunday night that me and mom and dad stayed up until, what was is, 2 am, just talking? I love my folks. So I had plenty of free time after Wesley went down for the night. Haha. And, since Wesley gets up at 8 am here, he'd wake up at 11 am there! No kidding! We slept in every day. MOST AWESOME.

Mom and dad set up their extra room like a fabulous hotel for us! There was a port-a-crib, from when *I* was a kid if I heard that right, which was MOST AWESOME! And the futon had like 700 pillows on it, and the nightlight was this really cute shell from the beach. Thanks guys! Mom even provided diapers and baby food.

We ended up going home on Tuesday, and not Wednesday, since the Wednesday flights were getting very full. By leaving Tuesday night, tada, we had lots of room to breathe! Standby was fun, but you have to be flexible.

We convinced dad to take the day off work, and my folks took us up to DC early and we did some sightseeing. Although it was TOTALLY SNOWING and cold, we decided to wander around the nation's capital! We went here:

I hadn't been up the Washington Monument since I was a kid, and they even closed it for awhile after 9/11 so I think just recently people can go up it again. It was MOST AWESOME.

Here is the view of the White House... haha... which pretty white on this particular day!:

Then we wandered over to the American History Smithsonian, which was fun. We ate at their cafeteria and saw a couple exhibits. We saw the American Flag that flew over Ft. McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner. It was all chewed up. My mom told me she always thought it was all chewed up because of bombs and stuff during the war, but it actually turns out that whoever owned the flag after the war would cut off pieces of it and give them to dignitaries as gifts. So one of the stars on the flag is missing, but it was cut out on purpose for some big-wig. Which is sad.

We got Wesley a cute book from the gift shop, "The Story of America's Birthday." If I had a million dollars, I could have also bought "The Story of George Washington," "The Story of Thomas Jefferson," "The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr.," etc. Plenty of stories to tell.

So, we enjoyed the snowy day with my family then headed back to the car to go to the airport.

We have a baby carrier which I use all the time, but Shane is like, paranoid to use or something. Here is Wesley, literally, zipped into Shane's coat. They're cute though, huh? I love those boys of mine!

And lastly, my artsy-fartsy photo of the trip:

It was the most perfect trip.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I love my parents, and I remember my mom telling me that when I, the oldest, went off to kindergarten, she had the hardest time with it. Up until then, she knew what I was doing at any moment in any day, and then, overnight, I was somewhere else. With other people, doing my own thing, learning something new without her. I'll always remember that, because it is hard for a parent. Me and Shane, we are Wesley's entire life right now! And one day, we'll have to "let him go" off on his own to learn new things. Now that I live half a world away, my parents hardly ever know what I'm doing. It's hard. It was so wonderful to be with them again. I lived in their house for 18 years of my life! It's hard to be somewhere else.

Well, I'm always thinking of you guys. I love you lots. Thanks for the great trip.

Going home is MOST AWESOME.