Deep Creek Weekend!

Well I guess I might as well begin with last weekend. It was our trip to beautiful Deep Creek Lake to visit my grandmother for her 91st birthday. It was a fun weekend with very few hiccups. We left Eldersburg around 10:45 Saturday morning, enjoyed a gorgeous drive [albeit a little squished for those of us in the back seat] and arrived in Deep Creek around 2. It was great to see my grandmother and uncles. She and my dad had a somewhat emotional reunion since it had been before his stroke in November that he last visited her. We hung out and talked, mostly about the same few things since grandmom has really poor short-term memory, for about 2-3 hours.

"Subaru to Tower 1 - we are ready for take off"

After that we headed over to the Wisp to check into our hotel rooms. We were originally sharing a room with Ben & Jenna, but Amberly and Evan were up sick all night Friday night so that whole crew stayed home. It was too late to cancel the other room, so we each got our own! They were actually pretty nice rooms - particularly Amberly's which had a queen bed, full size sofa which pulled out into a bed, coffee table, a sink, counter, mini-fridge and a table for two. Josh and I got that room because Ben and Jenna claimed they wanted the even numbered room before we ever opened the doors. After check in and dropping off our stuff, we went back over to the lake to have dinner with our friends the Cookes who live in Frostburg. That (sorry grandmom) was probably the highlight of the trip. We sat there and talked and talked and talked some more. The boys sat at one end of the table and the girls sat at the other! We of course had "boy" and "girl" things to talk about. We also had so much fun playing with their two little girls Lucy and Molly. Lucy is all energy at just about 2 years old. Molly is a little quieter at less than 2 months, but so so cute! Lucy ran around and talked and played and laughed and squealed. She was too much fun. Molly tolerated us all passing her around the table without a single sound of protest. Lucky parents, those Cookes are :)

Lucy creating what seemed to be greeting cards with her crayons. She was very proud - can't you tell?

MOLLY!
(yes, she is always this surprised when you flash a camera in her face :)

Lucy worked very hard at creating some kind of concoction in Jenna's water glass... and clearly had a good time doing it!

Josh and Lucy bonded :) I particularly loved this.

And after hanging out with the Cookes [our old (and forever) poker-night buddies], we had to break out the chips back in our hotel room for the rest of the night!

Sunday morning was a little more visiting with grandmom and then my dad quickly decided he was ready to go. Not only that, but he decided my uncle would be taking him home. My dad is pretty hard to persuade or dissuade, so my uncle was kind enough to go with the flow and take him home. Ben, Jenna, Josh and I had a nice peaceful trip back home with a little more breathing room.

We couldn't have asked for better weather, or better company. The entire weekend was a success :) This weekend [or Saturday at least] Josh and I are taking our little buddy Ray - a 5-year old who has grown up sitting next to the O's dugout in his parents' front row season seats - to the city for BaltiMORE for LESS weekend. It's basically a big promotion the city of Baltimore is running where you can see and do all fun Baltimore things for cheaper than usual and in some cases for free. Our agenda looks lik this:

• Watch Ray's baseball game starting at 9am, then head downtown
• Meet one of Ray's fans [a woman from Japan who saw him on TV] at ESPNZone for lunch. Jeremy Guthrie and Koji Uehara of the O's will also be there [also friends/fans of Ray].
• Go to the top of the World Trade Center building for pictures of beautiful BMore
• Walk through the sports legends museum
• Attend the Ravens' Spring Football Festival in honor of draft day [meet players, play games on the field, tour the place, etc.]
• Head over to the O's stadium for their 7:05 game against the Texas Rangers!

All this fun, AND it's supposed to be a HEAVENLY 87-degrees!!! Hellllllloooooooo summer weather! I've missed you! I can not wait. No doubt a fabulous time will be had by all :)

Well, I for one am going to get ready for bed. It was a work day after all, and I've been particularly exhausted this week. It's going to be an early and loooong day tomorrow. Look for the pics!!