Baltimore, MD to see Aunt Lindsey

Our flight from Atlanta to Baltimore was quite the opposite from our flight to Atlanta. Instead of sitting in the airport for 8 hours, we arrived just as our flight was starting to board. Close one!!

One of our favorite things to do with Aunt Lindsey is eat at Chuck-A-Rama (all-you-can eat buffet restaurant). There aren't any Chuck-A-Rama restaurants by Lindsey, but there is a Golden Corral, which is very similar. We had a great time visiting and catching up over dinner. In fact, Lindsey and I were having such a good time talking that I wasn't consciously aware of the fact that my kids were arriving with dessert after dessert after dessert... That night they were both a little sugar crazy, but we made it through.

 We were able to meet one of Lindsey's best friends, Della, and visit with her a little that first night. Then we drove to another friend's house who had offered to let us all stay at her house while we were there (including Lindsey!). She was absolutely the kindest person I have ever met! She also eats the kind of diet I have been trying to adopt, so I really enjoyed talking to her about meal ideas.

The next day, our host loaded us up with fruit to take on our trip into Washington D.C. Morgan and Brynne absolutely loved riding on the metro. Unfortunately, I failed to pull out the camera when they were "surfing" and swinging on the center rails and such. I did get a good picture of both of them on the metro with Aunt Lindsey, though. :)

 After grabbing a bite to eat (where I found out McDonald's salads aren't that bad), we began our tour with a visit to the Air and Space Museum. Everywhere was really crowded, but the girls still enjoyed looking at the various exhibits. Here we are with Aunt Lindsey in front of some of the hanging planes. I'll admit we took this one for Lee. :)

 Brynne tires easily when we walk a lot, so we opted to see many of the sights from afar. Below are some pics of all of us in front of the Capital Building and the White House.

 

 

 

 As we walked back toward the museums, the girls enjoyed running and jumping on the cement wall. I was sad I wasn't able to get a picture of Brynne coming towards me (I did get one of her jumping away from me) until I discovered that you can see Brynne jumping in the background of this picture of Morgan. Talk about two for one! (And yes, all this running and jumping occurred after Brynne's feet were so tired that I had to give her a piggy back ride...)

 Waiting for a chance to cross the street...

 Our last stop was the Natural History Museum. Melissa had been a real trooper staying in her stroller the entire morning. We decided to let her out once we got to the museum. Does she look excited to be free or what?

I snapped this impromptu shot while Melissa and I were riding up an escalator at the museum.

 There was a short period of time where Melissa wanted to hold both Morgan's and Brynne's hands. I managed to get a picture of the three of them looking at one of the displays.

 This picture is really, really blury, but I wanted to throw it in here anyway to show that we were at the National Archive, where National Treasure was filmed. We passed by it on our way to the metro as the sun was setting.

 Another bonus of where we stayed was that our host has a daughter who my girls absolutely loved playing with! She too was so kind and sweet! She heard that my girls like pancakes, so she made pancakes for everyone for breakfast (to go along with the staple green smoothies). She also made some cooked muesli for me when she heard me saying I like it. Here's a picture of her daughter and Brynne cooking breakfast.

Before hopping on our late afternoon flight on Saturday, we planned to go to the aquarium in Baltimore. Just as we were finishing getting ready to go, we discovered that someone had bashed in Lindsey's window in the middle of the night. We're certain it was a random act, but it made it so we couldn't go to the aquarium. Thankfully it wasn't as devastating to the girls when they realized they could stay and play with our host's daughter a bit! Lindsey took this picture just before cleaning up the last pile of glass. The vandals completely shattered her driver's side window.

Our host was kind enough to let Lindsey drive her car so she could still get us to the airport. We hit up Golden Corral one more time for good measure (and to make sure everyone had full tummies until the next time we could get food), and then headed to the airport. We once again made it just as the flight was boarding. Thankfully, we got on the flight and managed to get home without any other difficulties. As luck would have it, Lee's flight landed just a few minutes before ours, so he got to our gate just as we were getting off the plane.

It is always so much fun to spend time with Aunt Lindsey! She was so nice to take a day of off work and show us around D.C. a little bit. If my kids had it their way we'd live with Lindsey's friend and her daughter, and be with Aunt Lindsey all the time. :) Definitely a fun Spring Break!

Clemson, SC to see Uncle Brandon's Family

After waking up at 4 am and then waiting in the airport for 8 hours to catch a flight, we finally made it to Atlanta (via Memphis). It was 9 pm and all we had to do was pick up our reserved rental car and drive the 2 hours to Clemson. Problem is, the rental company wanted to see our return itinerary, which we didn't have since we fly stand-by. Thankfully, Lee had just gotten off work in SLC and drove to his sister Ruth's house to get us listed for a returned flight. Since they had to actually see the listing, Lee took a picture of the confirmation on the computer screen with his phone and sent it to me. I showed the picture on my phone to the lady and thankfully she felt bad for us (it had been 1 1/2 hours of trying to figure something out by this point), so she let us have the car. We arrived at Brandon's house in Clemson, South Carolina at 2 am.

After letting us sleep in until 10 am, we woke up and began our two days at Uncle Brandon's house. One of the things we did was go to the Botanical Gardens on the Clemson campus. Things were just barely starting to bloom, but it was still beautiful and lots of fun. If you asked the kids, they'd probably say the funnest part of the gardens was the ride to/from in Brandon's cruiser. In the first picture below you can see Annie and Brynne riding in the back.

(Note: While in Clemson, Michelle (Brandon's wife) and I discussed how it's hard to know how many pictures to include in blog posts sometimes. I've erred on the side of caution and included plenty!) :)

 Morgan, Zane, and Brandon in the front of Brandon's cruiser.

Zane and Morgan walking along one of the paths.

 All the older kids watching the fish and turtles (see picture below) in the pond.

 Melissa and Soren were great sports and enjoyed their ride in the Bob.

This little turtle kept bugging the bigger turtle. Assuming they are a mom and a baby turtle, I figure their interaction was pretty indicative of human life. :)

Just before heading home, we let the kids play for a bit on a train car. As you can see in the following pictures, they had a lot of fun together.

 

 

 Brynne, Annie, and Zane swinging on a bench at the gardens.

Melissa LOVES being outside. She heard Uncle Brandon was going out to check the mail and decided she wanted to join him. I love this picture as she hurried to catch up with Brandon and Soren.

 Before bed, we had an impromptu story time in Brandon and Michelle's bedroom. Various kids and adults read various other kids stories, and then we had scripture thought time. Melissa and Brynne took advantage of the opportunity to snuggle with Aunt Michelle.

This picture got out of place, but don't you love it?! Melissa loved Soren and enjoyed any chance she had to be by him. :)

 Some pictures are basically too cute for words...

 

One afternoon, Michelle held down the fort while I went to check out Clemson University and the building where Brandon works. I even got to see him in action talking to his teaching assistant trying to iron out details on what happened with a research experiment. I was duly impressed and will admit it still blows my mind sometimes to think of my little brother as a college engineering professor. :)

 Brynne decided to catch up on sleep during the drive back to Atlanta from Clemson.

My favorite part of the visit was watching all our kids play. First Brynne and Zane played while Morgan and Annie played, then next thing we knew it was Morgan and Zane playing and Brynne and Annie playing. It was that way throughout our visit. Every now and then all four kids could even be found playing together. There was so little fighting and tons of fun. Even though everyone was excited to go see Aunt Lindsey, we were all a little sad to leave Uncle Brandon's house. Our time there was definitely worth the trouble getting there! Thanks, Brandon and Michelle!

Spring Break 2013

We decided to try something a bit risky and head back east for Spring Break this year. We went to visit both Brandon and Lindsey. The riskiness came from the fact that we were flying stand-by, meaning we only got on the plane if there were extra seats. Given that lots of people were flying out of SLC for Spring Break, we just had to hope for the best.

 How did we fare? Well, we sat in the airport for 8 hours (after waking up at 4 am) while we tried to get on five different flights. Finally, Lee worked some magic, did some researching, and found another way for us to get to Atlanta. We ended up going by way of Memphis, but we weren't picky! :)

Since I know you are all wondering how in the world we could survive together for 8 hours in the airport, I will tell you: I-Pad!!!

 The older girls watched movies on Netflix using Lee's I-Pad that he was kind enough to give us for the trip. What did Melissa do? She ran around climbing and pushing and having a great time until she finally fell asleep.

 The flights all went amazingly well, even though we all sat apart for most of the flights (except one where we sat all together). The girls had small bags packed with books and handheld games to keep them busy. Melissa and I mostly ate and slept. :) 

This picture was taken by Brynne on our way from Atlanta to Baltimore later in the week:

So this post was really meant to be a teaser. I don't have time to post all the pics and details right now, but rest assured there is lots of excitement and some major cute pictures coming soon! :)