Getting Caught Up

I'm sneaking in a few minutes here before I tackle the disaster my kids made of our living room this morning while I was making apple cobbler in the kitchen. To help you visualize the mess, you should know that all the cushions are off the couches and all the toy bins are upside down/empty. There are trucks, trains, stuffed animals and puppets strewn everywhere, too. Lucky for me, Michael will be here in about 45 minutes to give me a hand.

We have company coming over for dinner tonight. Yep, that's twice in one week. Sometimes I'm an overachiever.

Since there's so much to be done, I'll try to be brief here. Last summer I won a 'personal retreat' from Sandy Cove at a conference Michael and I attended. It was basically a two night stay, breakfast included, at their retreat center hotel in Northeast, Maryland. We arrived on Wednesday night and our car was one of five in the parking lot. Other than a group of seniors from a prep school, we were the only guests that night. Perfect for a personal retreat. Our room was on the third floor, overlooking the bay.

We spent Thursday morning walking by the water, playing basketball, (Supposedly, he wasn't taking pictures of me shooting baskets...)
attempting Frisbee golf, and checking out the playground. (Isn't that a great shot? Take pictures of me shooting baskets and I will post your worst picture on my weblog...he he he!)

Just after Michael went down the slide, I saw the following sign. He's a little over the age limit.


In the afternoon we explored the shops in town and had lunch at a nice little diner. As Thursday was our actual anniversary, we had planned to go out somewhere nice for dinner, but neither of us were hungry. Instead, we went to Walmart and got soup we could microwave and some cookies. How's that for celebrating 9 years?

We did see this, though.
Friday morning we drove to Philadelphia. We toured Independence Hall, got an absolutely delicious Philly cheesesteak at Campo's, and spent the afternoon at the Constitution Center. I did not lug my camera around, and there was only one time when I wished I had it. At the Liberty Bell. (which by the way is much smaller than I imagined it.) When we got to the Bell, there was a large group of Japanese businessmen standing in front of it. One by one they would walk up to the bell and get their picture taken. No smiles. Just a serious picture with the Liberty Bell. Then they'd walk the 8 steps back to their group, chatter a few seconds, and the next guy would go. It was really funny to watch. There were literally 4 or 5 groups of Americans standing around behind them just watching and grinning.

I really enjoyed the Constitution Center. We spent about three hours walking through it and I could've easily spent another hour there. It was informative, fun, interactive, and challenging.

We had a terrible time finding our way to our hotel that night. We got turned around several times and kept crossing over the same roads. We definitely regretted turning down Dad's offer to bring Molly. (his GPS) Including a stop at Panera for dinner, the 17 mile trip took us nearly two hours! Frustrating!

It was good to come home on Saturday. We both missed the kids and were really looking forward to seeing them. And being home.

We are very grateful for Pemmy (Michael's step-mom) and Rebecca (my sister) for watching the kids while we were gone. They both seemed to enjoy getting to spend some quality time with our rascals....and yes the word rascal is appropriate. Brenna got up at 5AM on Thursday morning and went to see if Grandma Pemmy was up yet. And Daniel did not hold back on his temper tantrums for Aunt "Beccabah". Overall, though, it was a good weekend for everyone.