The flight out to DC went quite uneventfully, which is always a good thing. When we were checking in our luggage, the lady asked us if we wanted to take our carseat on the flight with us because there were several open seats that we could seat Gracie in. Score!! I wish I'd realized I could do that long before now; it would have made my other flights soooooooo much easier. Oh well. Grace had her own seat all the way from Seattle to Chicago and then on to Baltimore/Washington International. It was so awesome not to have to hold her!!!
From all reports, my father's birthday party went swimmingly. Dad over-bought the food for the party, so Kurt and I basically noshed our way through the week. My pants are fitting a little snug; I think I need to get out and walk or something!!
We had a blast for the week we were in DC, so much so that I didn't really want to leave. The nice part was my stepmom was more than willing to watch Grace for us, especially after we already put her to bed. Two nights in a row, we put Gracie down and then headed out to the local billiards hall, where Kurt kicked my butt. As usual. But we had a great time between the beer and the snacks and the pool table!
We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the two-story Target at my dad's local mall. I love that place!! The only thing that gets me down a little bit is that particular Target can get somewhat messy from the many folks who shop there. Also it's no longer in a good part of town, which may have something to do with it. The Target here stays a lot cleaner; maybe they have more workers keeping everything neat and organized.
My grandparents had come down from Pennsylvania for my dad's party, so we had a photograph taken of all of us (parents, grandparents, siblings and husbands, and my daughter) at Penney's to commemorate the event. It's not every day you can get four generations into one photograph!
Partway through the week we had to take my brother Mark back to school and my grandparents back to their home in Pennsylvania. The way we took to Mark back to school involved going through Virginia, then West Virginia, and finally into Maryland. Mark gave us a tour of his school, which I thought was pretty darn cool, and then we left him there and continued onto Pennsylvania. So we were in four states in one day!
After spending the night at my grandparents' home, where we also got to see aunts and uncles and cousins, we headed back to DC. The drive is supposed to take us only three hours. We ran into traffic on I-70 in Maryland, something about the highway being closed, so Dad decided to take Rt. 40. That too backed up, so Dad made the decision to take the scenic back route. And boy, was it scenic! We basically skirted the Maryland/West Virginia border through Antietam and Sharpsburg until we passed into Virginia and headed east back to civilization. The drive was lovely -- two-lane winding roads through green, lush farms and countryside, under blue skies and sunny weather. It actually took us six hours to make it from Grandpa's house to Dad's, but the scenery was so beautiful we didn't really notice till we got home. Then our tushies informed us we'd been sitting on them for far too long!
I also managed to go on a shopping date with my stepmom! She took a half-day off from work on Friday, and we headed to the Pentagon City Mall. That mall is probably the only reason I would even consider moving back to that area; I miss having high-end stores nearby. It's not that I'm snobby and only shop at high-end stores, but there's only so many times you can window-shop at Penney's and Sears! Marty and I spent quite some time at Nordstrom's getting professionally fitted for bras, where I came away with yet another bra. When you're as large as I am, you can't just go to Target and find some $15 bra... although it wasn't too many years ago that I could do that. Ever since I got fitted professionally at Nordstrom's and got some quality bras, I've actually not had a backache. That's why I took my stepmom to get her fitted as well.
Once we got that out of the way, we browsed the entire mall. I didn't even think Marty liked to shop, but I think she out-shopped me that day!!! We had such a great time together, though, and I loved having her all to myself. It's a very rare thing to get her all to myself, and I treasure every moment.
Come to find out, I was actually in the process of coming down with a cold. I'm still trying to get rid of it, but I feel much better now than I did a few days ago. I'm just a bit tired still. Gracie too came down with a stomach bug on Sunday. I'm just so thankful she waited until Sunday to get sick. Can you imagine having a pukey baby on an airplane?!?! No, thank you!!! I was also thankful that Kurt was home. He's much better about dealing with puke than I am.
So now we're home, and even though I had a great time with my family I'm still glad we're home. It's true -- there really is no place like home!