Day trip to Baltimore

Adam and I were both off on the 5th, so despite the hot and humid day that it was, we headed to Baltimore, MD for a day trip!

All good car trips start out with a special breakfast treat of bagels!  

 They keep the kids occupied for the first 20 minutes of the ride.  This time they were using them as steering wheels.

 It was a bit of an exhausting ride.  Grayson said "Mommy" literally every 5 seconds.  My neck hurt from the constant turning around to respond.  But here are there faces when they finally saw the water....  

We didn't waste any time...once we got there, we headed for the aquarium. This picture was taken inside of the aquarium.

Grayson was actually way more into the aquarium than we thought he'd be.  Here is his first try "touching" the fish....

I think he was trying to jump in...

Avery enjoyed it as well, but when you ask her what her favorite part was, she would say "the escalators!"

These were my favorites...

And I just thought this was the oddest looking fish...

Here they are at the end - a little exhausted...we walked around the aquarium for over 2 hours!  And I do mean WALKED...the aquarium has a "no stroller" rule!

Afterwards, we headed to The Hard Rock Cafe and has some lunch outside on the water (luckily we were in the shade). 

After that we tried to stay mostly indoors because it was so hot.  Here are Avery and Daddy watching the entertaining fudge makers at the Fudgery....

while Grayson was able to fit in a short afternoon nap.

I forgot how much I love this city!

I think Avery enjoyed it too!

Since Gray was still sleeping, we got Avery a special treat that she was eyeing up on the way in from Charm City Cupcakes (I learned that after I bought it, they are in no way affiliated with the Chef Duff, from Charm City Cakes).

We left the Inner Harbor and headed to our friend Emily's house where we got to meet up with our old friends and their growing families.

Instantly, Avery started brainwashing Madelyn with her crazy imagination...

and then they were off! This continued back and forth for several hours.

Grayson very much enjoyed the cats...

and the babies....

This one is Zoe (Amanda and Kyle's new baby)....

And this one is Samantha (Sherry and Shaun's second daughter and Madeyln's little sister)...

She was a good sport about the ear pulling.

Here they are without Grayson bothering them...

Aren't they both just beautiful?

Where did the bigger girls go? 

There they are!

It's funny how with this group, Grayson is the only boy!  But with our other group of friends, Avery is the only girl.  

We were exhausted after a great, but long day.  We thought the kids would fall asleep the minute we hit the road.  That was not the case! Grayson would not stop talking! The only thing that kept him somewhat quiet was when we asked him to "keep his eyes peeled" for police cars.  This is him "keeping his eyes peeled!" 

By the way, we passed 18 police cars pulling people over just in Maryland!  

We had a great day having some family time and then meeting up with friends. 

Thank you for hosting us, Emily!