Too many vistors, too little time!

We had a huge weekend in MD... the main purpose of the trip was for Waylon and two of his friends to go to a Redskins game on Sunday but it just so happened that we had lots of other events to attend and people to see... brace yourselves, this is a huge blog! :-)

Of course, I had the camera most of the weekend, so I don't have many pictures of Waylon's adventures! :-)

This first picture is at home before we left... about a week ago, Noah became totally into all things with wheels, so Waylon decided to pull out the Hotwheels and Matchbox cars that he played with when he was little. Noah loves them...



Since I'm now off on Thursdays and Fridays, I decided to head on up to MD on Thursday morning and the guysrode up together on Friday after work. Here is just a cute shot I took right before we left. You will begin to notice this wheels theme in all of his toys!! :-)


This one is in the McDonald's playplace where we stopped for lunch on the way up.

My mom had already had plans to meet her friend Kira and her son Austin who is just a few months older than Noah on Thursday afternoon, so it worked out perfectly that we were there and could have a playdate! Here is the two of them playing piano.

And here is the best story of the weekend... we got to town while my dad was still at work. When we heard him come in the door, Noah was sitting on the couch. I turned to Noah and said, 'Who's here?!' and he looked excited and said, 'Dada!!' I told him it wasn't Dada, so he got off the couch and looked around the corner and when he saw my dad, he screamed 'Papa! Papa! Papa!' while running into his arms!! It definitely brought a tear to my eye and my dad wanted to walk back out and come in and do it all over again. This is a picture right after they finished hugging...

Thursday night, we had a nice dinner at home and my friend Julie came over to join us. Julie has always been like my sister and my parents' 3rd daughter but recently, things are so busy when I come home that I don't get to spend a whole lot of time with her. This weekend, we got to hang out a lot and that was really special for me.

On Friday morning, my mom and I went shopping and after Noah's nap, we were walking around the neighborhood with his new shopping cart that my parents got him when we saw one of my old high school friends, Anna, drive by on her way home from picking up the kids from daycare. She stopped and hopped out to say hello. They all came inside for a few minutes, so that was fun to catch up! Here is Noah with Anna's kids Sophie and Tysen.


Friday night, we went out to dinner and watched a movie (The Other Boelyn Girl - I highly recommend the book and not the movie) while waiting for the guys to show up. They got into town about 10:30 and we all visited for a little bit before hitting the sack.

My dad and Noah had a new game this weekend... playing tent in one of the most unlikely places.

Checking out something on the computer with Daddy.

On Saturday morning, my sister came over to hang out with us and she, my mom and I took Noah to a pumpkin patch while the guys went into Baltimore to hit a lunch place featured on the Food Network - pit beef was not for us girls. :-)

Walking with Aunt Ditter

Feeding the goats with Grammy

While we were at the pumpkin patch, we just happened to run into another one of my high school friends and his family. Brian has recently moved back to the area - he just got out of the marines after being on four tours to Iraq!! Here are his kids, Caleb and Addison with Noah in the petting farm area.

A picnic lunch before heading home for a nap!

After we got back from the pumpkin patch, it was off to the next event... a baby shower for yet another high school (and middle and elementary school) friend, Katie. Her baby is due in December and it was so great to be able to be at the shower.

Julie, Katie and me

Playing 'tent' yet again... this time Daddy was sucked in.

On Saturday night, my parents babysat while Waylon, Cory, CW and I went into Baltimore. I didn't get any pictures but we had a great time! My friend Ali and her boyfriend Andrew picked a great restaurant and a fun bar in Fell's Point. Our friend Jessica met us out too... so fun!

Today was another busy day. The guys were out at the game most of the day. The game didn't start until 4:15 but they went out early to tailgate. They grilled out sausages and peppers and had a great time. It was the perfect football weather and the outcome was great, too! Couldn't ask for more!

While the guys were doing the football thing, Julie came up with a fabulous idea for us girls (and Noah)! :-) She works at Imagination Stage and they have a show right now that is geared towards little kids. We went to the 12:30 show which I was a little concerned about since that's smack dab in the middle of nap time but it worked out really well. Noah loved it and sat enthralled for about 45 minutes. After that amount of time, he started to get a little antsy but still was great. I never had to take him into the 'crying room' which I thought was great! They have a soundproof box where you can take your kids if they get restless. They can run around in there while the parents can still watch the show.

Julie and Leah with Noah

Noah obviously fell asleep on the way home and ended up sleeping for 3 hours (he did the same yesterday! - I think we've worn him out with all this, what do you think?)

After we got home from the show, Julie and I went over to our friend Keri's parents house to celebrate her daughter Lydia's 2nd birthday. Keri is a friend from elementary/middle/high school as well but now lives in Raleigh so it was pretty ironic that we were both home this weekend. Oh, and yes, Keri is the one preggers with triplets and yes, she is 23 weeks in this picture.... crazy, huh?!

Miss Lydia enjoying all of her birthday presents!

When we got home, we had a nice relaxing dinner - homemade soup and grilled cheese with my parents, Julie and her mom who wanted to come see Noah.

Julie surprised us with a present that she bought at Imagination Stage today... she's sneaky, I didn't even see her buy it! It's a basketball goal for the tub... he already used it tonight and loves it!

When Bev (Julie's mom) came over, she was bearing gifts, too! Crazy girls. She got Noah a Curious George book and stuffed animal. Noah loves the stuffed George and even went to bed with snuggling with him tonight.
This is Noah just before bath time tonight - with Curious George. He's exhausted!
The guys got home around 8:30 or so and worked on that homemade soup. They all seemed pretty happy with their day, too! Tonight, we've been just relaxing (although I swear I've been working on this blog for a few hours!). It's time to go to bed now. We're heading home tomorrow morning and looking forward to a few weekends at home coming up!

Here's one last cute shot of Noah. Have a great week everyone!