Amanda goes to Washington

and Baltimore too as it turns out.

I actually frequent this part of the country with all the family in Maryland, but this trip was unrelated to visiting family. The lady that I babysit for regularly was participating in some conferences in Baltimore as well as DC and she had me come with her to help out with munchy-poo Robbie while she was unavailable.



So in an attempt to have as much fun as possible (which is always on my agenda) I met up with my oldest brother Rob, my sissy-in-law Dyan and two of my nephews, Robbie and Nick. We went to the national aquarium at the Inner Harbor on Saturday afternoon.



I was so amazed. Like seriously. I couldn't believe how cool this place was. Very much worth the ridiculous ticket prices. And since munchy-poo got along with Big Rob so well I really did enjoy it and wasn't making silly noises pointing to "fishy" the whole time... lol.





I was very very close to leaving my camera at the hotel because it's just a lot of extra weight to carry... esp since they didn't allow strollers in the aquarium... but I am so glad I took it along! I feel like I never take pictures anymore. and I always kick myself for it.













Being with the jellies I really felt like it was in a sci-fi movie. The blue picture of the jellies is sooc, nothing at all... crazy right?

Well, on Sunday we headed to DC and checked into our hotel mid morning. When Wendy's conference ended that afternoon we decided to trek it on over to the monuments and check out the Cherry Blossoms which I mentioned before I have not been able to make it to see during festival time.



Earlier on in the day they had some kite festival... and by the time we made it down there weren't many still flying... and because I didn't care to not blow out the sky, you can't actually see any of them flying. But they're there.





I think Robbie enjoyed the blossoms as much as we did ;) So nice to see a little one love nature.



And then there's me. Who loves nature, DC, turtles, lots of colors, my husby, venetian blinds and light bulbs in my laundry room.

Love,

4 birthdays in 2 days

Almost immediately after hitting "publish" on my last post I regretted it. I thought how I was going to be sad about something later or whatever and punched myself emotionally for being too "pollyanna-ish." But you know what? At that time, I was really that happy. It's nice to know sometimes when you're feeling down that there are still bright spots. Even in the middle of February.

But on to the main topic :)

January is a birthday laden month in our family. Normally, I post separate birthday posts for each kid and my mom... but this year I didn't remember... so then I just didn't. A bunch of us went to Maryland for these 4 birthdays all within about a week of eachother. What's funny is that there are 4 birthdays, but only 2 birthDATES. One of those dates happen to be shared because Robbie and Raelynn are twins, but the other date is shared by my mom and my youngest nephew Nick.

While down there I was able to visit with some friends who recently relocated from here to Alexandria. That was really great :) It kinda sucks when you realize just how much you missed someone after they're already gone... But at least I have lots of reasons to visit :)

Nick had a pool party for his birthday on Saturday... I was so sad to miss it and not have to put on my bathing suit at the end of January... thank you Amy and Brian for that lovely excuse! But I made it home just in time for cake ;)







And as if 1 cake in a day wasn't enough, later that evening we celebrated Mom's birthday with another one.



I was ready to take this picture of my mom with her cake... til they turned every light off in the room and it was already after dark... :( And then it was all right there and I scrambled to try and fix settings and I had no time to get a flash... so it is what it is!

I have a wonderful family and we all had a wonderful time together this weekend :)

strawberry acres

one would think strawberries would be found at strawberry acres, but not this time of year! At this time of year the whole northeast is picking apples and making scrumptious apple-y baked goodness.

We are no exception.

Steve and I are at his parents' house visiting for the weekend and one of the things we planned was to pick apples and bake a pie.



this is the chop-top school bus that carts people back and forth from the orchard to the main part of the farm. Pretty fantastic huh.











These are my new in-laws! They're really great, I couldn't have asked for better second parents :)





This apple picture is one of my very favorites. I need to print it... yep, definitely print worthy



and this is the yumtastic pie that we made with the apples we picked!

NYS Fair - oh the things you will see

Guess who had never been to the state fair before this year.

Oh, that would be me.

Why no, I haven't ever seen a butter sculpture before.



and as a matter of fact, I've never seen mutant hybrid chickens before either.



and I'm especially glad that they put a sign on the bunny cages alerting me not to stick my fingers in there to pet their soft fuzzy fur because let me tell you, I would have.



the things you find at the fair... well I made a list of things I thought I might see there beforehand, but I didn't expect to find this. no sir, that was not on my list. would you like to see the list?



doesn't really matter if you want to or not, because here it is. In fact, it's not just a list, it's state fair BINGO! I made one for everyone!



I got BINGO like 3rd which kinda womped, and this board isn't even accurate. If you'll notice I never crossed off "butter sculpture" which I clearly did see. But I was depressed that I had already lost so I just stopped after a while. Boo.

would you have also guessed that you could see a bass with lipstick on it?





If you go back up to the BINGO board you'll see one of the boxes says "animal other than dog on a leash" and you'll also notice that it is in fact crossed off. It was a baboon. Yep.



Why noone else was excited about salt water taffy at the fair, I have no clue. I love this stuff and even made it once when I was a kid. It's not worth it, just buy it.



If there wasn't a weight limit on this hamster ball thing, I totally would have done this.



All in all, the state fair was a blast. Steve and I met up with his sister Becca and her husband Steve. We ate Dinosaur bbq for lunch and then walked off the calories back and forth, around and around the fairgrounds.

I wonder if all state fairs are the same?

Bunny wants everyone to be happy

even when on a road trip he still shows up.



he came to both the motel room we stayed over in saturday night in Illinois as well as the car the next day. Anyone guess where these were?

Bunny wants everyone to be happy

home once again

4 whole days in the car with my love, 4 whole days of Christmas with Beka. Can it get any better? Ok, maybe my idea of hours and hours in the car being fun is messed up to some of you but how could i not enjoy it when I got to hold hands with my very studly man {most} of the time :)

We left Sunday {but had originally planned to leave Sat morning, however my bridal shower was that day!} drove 16.5 hours. Got some sleep then finished the trip Monday around 4pm.

The weather in Denver was beautiful the entire time we were there. Rain had been predicted for Friday, but we never saw it! With Tuesday being the warmest day topping out around 86 and breaking a Denver record we decided to head to the mountains... where it was considerably cooler ;)



The mountains were absolutely stunning. It is just amazing to be driving on the highway and in front of you is this massive expanse of mountain range.



I took fewer pictures than I expected of myself but in all honesty I think it's easier to take less pictures of things that don't move around as much {aka mountains} I'll be interested to see how many Steve took though, certainly more than I have!



But when it came to this little stinker, I took a whole lot. Kinda like photographing kids, you take a bajillion pictures and get like {one} good one :)



This is Misa, Beka and Jared's pup. She's only 3 1/2 months old and just the cutest thing ever. What wasn't so cute was the throwing up in the back of the car... yep, she gets car sick. LOL.



We went to Rocky Mountain National Park 2 days in a row because the pass was closed. So Tuesday we went to the closer entrance, then Wednesday we drove all the way around the mountains to the other side... about 2-3 hours. I really lost track how long cuz we had such a good time driving and making so many random stops along the way... like for example Starbucks ;)





while they were making my drink I was taking a few pictures... and received a few looks. Really? I can't help my love for color, I realize that starbucks in NY has the same coffee as starbucks in Denver, but why waste an opportunity to drink in such a cool combo of color? I know I'm a weirdo.



Once on the other side of the park we decided to have a picnic.



The original picnic plan involved a picnic table and/or grass to lay a blanket down, but snow hindered our plans. So we set down in the parking lot.

Thursday we went to red rocks, which I'll post a few pics later about and Friday was our chill day. I forgot most of the day that it was Good Friday and then was pretty bummed that we drove all day Easter Sunday, but we still made it a good Easter :) More about all that later!